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Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

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  • londontsi
    replied
    Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

    .


    Egypt expels Turkish ambassador

    Egypt tells the Turkish ambassador to leave the country, after Turkey's prime minister calls for the release of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.


    Egypt has told the Turkish ambassador to leave the country and downgraded relations between the two countries.

    It follows remarks by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Cairo deemed "provocative".

    Egypt's foreign ministry said relations with Ankara would be lowered to charge d'affaires, blaming Turkey's continued "interference" in its internal affairs.

    Turkey has been a vocal critic of the military overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July.

    Mr Morsi, who is in prison awaiting trial, has denounced as illegitimate the court that is trying him on charges of inciting murder and violence.

    He is one of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members that have been detained in a crackdown the interim authorities have portrayed as a struggle against "terrorism".

    Hundreds of people have also been killed in clashes with security forces.
    Bitter row

    Cairo's decision to expel Ambassador Huseyin Avni Botsali comes a day after Mr Erdogan called for the release of Mr Morsi.

    The Turkish premier again condemned the violent dispersal of pro-Morsi protesters in August by Egyptian security forces.
    Egyptian activists and pro-government protesters demonstrate outside the Turkish embassy in Cairo (August 2013) Egyptians have held protests outside the Turkish embassy in Cairo

    A bitter row at the time led both countries to recall their ambassadors. Turkey's ambassador to Cairo returned in September, but the Egyptian ambassador to Turkey was never reinstalled.

    Speaking on Saturday, Egypt's Foreign Ministry spokesman said Mr Erdogan's remarks were "provocative and interfering in Egypt's internal affairs".

    Turkey is "attempting to influence public opinion against Egyptian interests, supported meetings of organisations that seek to create instability in the country", Badr Abdelatty said.

    Mr Erdogan, like Mr Morsi, has his roots in political Islam. Ankara and Istanbul have hosted a series of meetings of the international Muslim Brotherhood.

    Leave a comment:


  • Haykakan
    replied
    Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

    PARIS MURDER OF KURDISH ACTIVISTS TRACED TO TURKEY


    Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013

    Kurdish community members march, holding a banner showing the three
    Kurdish activists, (left-right) Fidan Dogan, Leyla Soeylemez and
    Sakine Cansiz (Photo: Reuters)

    PARIS (Reuters)--French investigators trying to solve the murder of
    three Kurdish women in Paris have collected evidence about the chief
    suspect's connections to Turkey, four sources with knowledge of the
    investigation told Reuters.

    Police sources told Reuters the magistrate in charge of the case was
    about to lodge a formal appeal for information to Turkey about Omer
    Guney, a Turkish immigrant placed under formal investigation for the
    triple murder eight months ago.

    The move could mark a turning point in the case. It comes after
    disclosures that Guney took at least three trips to Turkey and made
    dozens of phone calls to contacts there in the months before the
    killings, lawyers with access to investigation files told Reuters.

    The Turkish justice ministry did not immediately respond to requests
    for comment on cooperation with France in the case.

    The murders of Sakine Cansız, 55, a founding member of the outlawed
    Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK); Fidan Dogan, 32, a spokeswoman for the
    organization in France and Europe; and a trainee named Leyla Saylemez,
    25, sent a shockwave through Europe's Kurdish community. The women
    were shot as ceasefire talks to end 29 years of war between the PKK
    and Turkey were starting.

    The key question asked by lawyers and victims' family members is who
    ordered the killing. Kurds who gather each week by the crime scene say
    it was a political assassination. French police quickly arrested Guney,
    30. Surveillance footage placed him at the scene, and partial DNA from
    one of the victims was found on a parka belonging to him, lawyers said.

    Guney, who says he is innocent, has been awaiting trial for eight
    months in detention near Paris. His lawyer, Anne-Sophie Laguens,
    said she planned to apply to have him freed under court supervision
    because he was not receiving proper treatment for a brain tumor that
    induced seizures.

    Laguens said she was also waiting for answers from Turkey regarding
    her client's trips. Guney told investigators he had travelled to
    Turkey to find a wife and had bought tickets with disability payments
    he received from the French state.

    Political fallout

    Lawyers both for Guney and the victims' families in France and
    in Turkey say the investigation has dragged due to concern about
    political fallout from a case involving two NATO allies linked by a
    2011 bilateral security accord.

    "It's my impression that we [the French investigation] have received
    more information in this case through Turkish media than through
    international cooperation," said Antoine Comte, a lawyer for the
    victims in France.

    Thousands of people attended the funeral ceremony of the Kurdish
    activists in Dikranagerd (Diyarbakir) (Photo: Reuters)

    Police sources said Turkish authorities had earlier provided some
    biographical information about Guney, but the French magistrate was
    expected to seek responses to recent disclosures.

    A spokesman for France's foreign ministry said the French state exerts
    no influence over judicial investigations. Paris' anti-terrorism
    court denied that political tension was slowing down the case.

    New evidence could upset a cease-fire brokered between the outlawed
    PKK and Turkey: Kurdish militants are disappointed with Turkish efforts
    to address their grievances and have said they are considering whether
    to maintain the deal.

    Lawyers also questioned the efficiency of judicial cooperation after
    the Turkish pro-government newspaper Bugun wrote that the prosecutor
    in Ankara had accused French authorities in August of failing to
    respond to his requests for details in the case.

    Turkish media wrote earlier this year that the Ankara prosecutor
    is conducting a separate probe under an article of penal law which
    says a person who commits a crime abroad while in the service of the
    Turkish state can be tried in Turkey, even if he is already found
    guilty abroad and/or has served time.

    Turkish media said the Ankara prosecutor is seeking to establish
    whether Guney was in the service of the Turkish state. The prosecutor's
    office did not respond to requests for comment.

    "We feel that since the crime was committed in France, the real
    interlocutors are the French authorities. They must respond to the
    Turkish requests for information," said Meral DanıÅ~_ BeÅ~_taÅ~_,
    a lawyer in Turkey for the victims' families.

    Two pieces of evidence in investigation files highlight Guney's alleged
    ties to people in Turkey: three trips in August, October and December
    of 2012, and phone records from one of five cell phones that police
    say belonged to Guney. The latter show "dozens" of calls to Turkish
    numbers in the same period.

    Phone records

    Comte said records of Guney's phone activity with Turkey were placed
    in the investigations file in July, five months after his arrest.

    These contacts could be crucial to finding out whether Guney was
    involved in the killings and, if so, with or without foreign backing.

    However, the details cannot be checked without help from Turkey,
    Comte said.

    "You need an order from a Turkish judge to identify the interlocutors,"
    said another lawyer for the victims' families, Jean-Louis Malterre.

    Members of France's Kurdish community seen gathered on Jan. 10 while
    two men, pictured left, carry the body of one of the three women
    slain in Paris (Photo: AFP)

    In France lawyers for victims can join criminal proceedings. They
    have access to investigation files and participate in trials. The
    Turkish system has similar provisions.

    While the French magistrate prepares to seek information from Turkey,
    one of the lawyers with access to the investigation file pointed also
    to hold-ups on the French side.

    A month after Guney's arrest, investigators from the French
    anti-terrorist unit, Sdat, checked the contents of a borrowed Peugeot
    car he used on the day of the killing; it was their second try.

    Dismantling the car, they found a passport behind the radio with
    stamps for three trips to Turkey, and a dry-cleaning bill dated a
    few days after the killings, Comte said.

    "When Guney was brought in, they missed half the things in his car,"
    the lawyer said. "The dry-cleaning bill didn't enter the investigation
    file until a month later. If you look at the transcripts of the first
    hours of questioning, all they are doing is trying to update their
    archives about PKK activities."

    Police sources had no comment on allegations that evidence was missed
    in the first search of Guney's car. They said questioning had focused
    on his links to the PKK because he claimed to be a member. PKK has
    denied Guney was a member of the outlawed group.

    The appeal to Turkey for judicial help, to be lodged by investigating
    magistrate Jeanne Duye, comes after similar requests were sent to
    Holland and Germany - where Guney lived for nine years - and received
    replies.

    Other factors are also complicating the investigation. On Sept. 25
    Duye's computer containing judicial files was stolen from her home.

    Duye's office did not respond to a request for comment. Duye has not
    spoken publicly about the murder case.

    Leave a comment:


  • Haykakan
    replied
    Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

    GROWING UNEASE OVER TURKISH JIHADISTS IN SYRIA

    ByStaff
    - Posted on October 9, 2013Posted in: Armenia, News

    Rebels from al-Qaida affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra are pictured waving
    their brigade flag. As many as 500 Turks have been recruited since
    al-Nusra was formed in January 2012. (AP Photo/Edlib News Network)

    By Jamie Dettmer VOAnews.com ISTANBUL - Growing numbers of young
    Turks are crossing into Syria to join jihadist groups fighting the
    Assad regime raising fears in Turkey of a future national security
    risk for Ankara.

    Last month the U.S. and Turkey agreed to create a $200 million
    dollar fund to help local organizations develop programs to counter
    violent extremism among young people in places like Somalia, Yemen
    and Pakistan. Now some are warning the threat might be closer to
    home because of a surge in recruitment of young Turks by al-Qaida
    affiliates.

    Al-Qaida affiliates in Syria such as the Islamic State of Iraq and
    Sham (ISIS) and Jabhat al-Nusra are making headway in persuading
    Turkish Sunnis to cross the border into Syria for jihad, Turkish
    officials acknowledge.

    Turkish officials said that jihadists have recruited several hundred
    young Turks from the southeast of the country to fight in the civil
    war raging next door. And independent analysts estimate that as many
    as 500 Turks have been recruited since al-Nusra was formed in January
    2012. The larger Iraqi affiliate ISIS, which became active in Syria
    earlier this year, is also actively seeking Turkish recruits.

    Syrian Kurds say Turkey is responsible

    Syrian Kurdish leader Salih Muslim said the Turkish Prime Minister
    Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist AKP government are partly
    responsible for the jihadist success, arguing that Ankara has not
    done enough to combat jihadists using Turkey as a logistical base and
    has in effect colluded with them by allowing al-Nusra fighters safe
    passage. Jihadists and Syrian Kurds have been engaged in heavy fighting
    in recent weeks in competition for control of Syrian territory.

    Muslim is a co-chairman of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD),
    an offshoot of the PKK, a separatist Kurdish group in Turkey. He
    alleged that Turkish authorities are willing to turn a blind-eye
    to the jihadists in Syria while they fight Kurds, arguing that
    Ankara hasn't done enough to block Gulf-supplied weapons earmarked
    for the Western-backed Free Syrian Army from falling into jihadist
    hands. He also said International aid agencies are being prevented
    from sending relief supplies across the border to Kurdish villages
    in northern Syria.

    "Not a single assistance convoy crossed to our side in one month. Our
    people are living under difficult war conditions. We have acute
    shortages of electricity, water, fuel and medicines. There is an
    embargo against us," he told Turkey's Taraf newspaper.

    In recent weeks, as fighting has intensified between jihadists and
    Kurds in northern Syria, observers said wounded al-Nusra fighters
    have been transported by Turkish ambulances to hospitals in Urfa.

    But Turkey's Interior Minister Muammer Guler denied there has been
    any assistance offered to jihadists along the border. According to
    Guler in an October 4 press release, 129 suspected terrorists have
    been arrested in the past year. But the interior minister did not
    offer a breakdown of the allegiances of those detained.

    In September, Turkish prosecutors indicted six jihadists - five
    of them Turks - for trying to acquire chemicals with the intent to
    produce the nerve agent Sarin. The suspects - all al-Nusra members -
    tried to secure two government-regulated military-grade chemical
    substances, according to the allegations contained in a 132-page
    federal indictment.

    Southeast Turkey emerges as a recruitment magnet

    Turkey's Radikal newspaper said a lengthy investigation it carried
    out suggests 200 young Turks have been recruited alone from Adiyaman,
    a town in the southeast of the country. A father of twin sons who had
    been recruited by al-Nusra told the newspaper that the radicalization
    process had taken about a year and that his sons disappeared on
    September 2.

    After their disappearance, he tracked his sons down to the Syrian
    city of Aleppo. "I went to Aleppo with a guide and toured six camps
    in four days. There were young men from Adiyaman, Bitlis and Bingol
    in the camps. I found both my sons in a camp in Aleppo. When I told
    the gang leader that I had come to take them back, he replied: the
    boys are fighting for jihad here. Are you an infidel, since you are
    trying to stop them from jihad?"

    The recruitment process back in Turkey sidetracks local mosques,
    presumably as a precaution against possible Turkish police
    surveillance. Likely recruits are encouraged to join small prayer
    groups where videos are shown of the fighting in Syria. Adiyaman isn't
    the only town that is seeing high levels of recruitment. A Turkish
    police source -who asked not to be identified - said there is jihadist
    recruitment activity in Urfa and Diyarbakir. Once persuaded to join
    up Turkish recruits undergo 45 days of basic military training before
    joining a fighting unit, he said.

    Prior to the Syrian civil war, global jihadist groups had only limited
    success in recruiting in Turkey. In 2007, the al-Qaida-linked Islamic
    Jihad Union launched a Turkish-language website. Several Turks have
    been arrested in the past in foiled bomb plots in Europe. And there
    have been a handful of Turkish suicide bombers, the most notable
    Cuneyt Ciftci, who attacked a NATO base in Afghanistan in March 2008,
    killing several Western soldiers.

    But now after nearly three years of civil war in Syria and growing
    numbers of young radicalized Turks joining the fight fears are
    growing that radicalization will spread, and that one day young
    Turkish jihadists may bring the war home with devastating consequences.

    Leave a comment:


  • bell-the-cat
    replied
    Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

    Originally posted by Haykakan View Post
    Erdogan taking Turkey back 1,000 years with `reforms'

    By Amir Taheri

    October 4, 2013 | 10:08pm
    Armenians, too, get nothing - not even a promise of an impartial
    inquest into allegations of genocide against them in 1915.
    So has the NY Post renaged on its promise not to use the word "alleged", or was it the NY Times that had made that guarantee?
    NY Post seems to be absolute trash, imho. In most of their articles they can't write a single sentence without filling it with exaggerations or tabloid jargon.

    The Ottoman system divided the sultan's subjects according to
    religious faith into dozens of `mullahs,' each allowed to enforce its
    own laws in personal and private domains while paying a poll tax.
    In his ignorance, I think the author means Reaya not "mullahs".
    Last edited by bell-the-cat; 10-07-2013, 01:27 PM.

    Leave a comment:


  • Haykakan
    replied
    Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

    Erdogan taking Turkey back 1,000 years with `reforms'

    By Amir Taheri

    October 4, 2013 | 10:08pm

    Modal Trigger

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses the media in
    Ankara on Sept., 30, 2013

    Photo: Getty Images

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan this week unveiled his
    long-promised `reform package' to `chart the path of the nation' for
    the next 10 years - that is, through 2023, 100 years after the
    founding of Turkey as a republic.

    Which is ironic, since Erdogan seems bent on abolishing that republic
    in all but name.

    His plan to amend the Constitution to replace the long-tested
    parliamentary system with a presidential one (with himself as
    president and commander-in-chief) is only part of it. He'd also undo
    the key achievement of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.

    In the 1920s, Ataturk created the Turkish nation from the debris of
    the Ottoman Empire. Ataturk and the military and intellectual elite
    around him replaced Islam as the chief bond between the land's many
    ethnic communities with Turkish nationhood.

    Over the past 90 years, this project has not had 100 percent success.
    Nevertheless, it managed to create a strong sense of bonding among a
    majority of the citizens.

    Now Erdogan is out to undermine that in two ways.

    First, his package encourages many Turks to redefine their identities
    as minorities. For example, he has discovered the Lezgin minority and
    promises to allow its members to school their children in `their own
    language.'

    Almost 20 percent of Turkey's population may be of Lezgin and other
    Caucasian origin (among them the Charkess, Karachai, Udmurt and
    Dagestanis). Yet almost all of those have long forgotten their origins
    and melted in the larger pot of Turkish identity. What is the point of
    encouraging the re-emergence of minority identities?

    Meanwhile, Erdogan is offering little to minorities that have managed
    to retain their identity over the past nine decades. Chief among these
    are the Kurds, 15 percent of the population.

    Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, the AKP, partly owes its
    successive election victories to the Kurds. Without the Kurdish vote,
    AKP could not have collected more than 40 percent of the votes. Yet
    his package offers Kurds very little.

    They would be allowed to use their language, but not to write it in
    their own alphabet. Nor could they use `w' and other letters that
    don't exist in the Turkish-Latin alphabet but are frequent in Kurdish.

    Kurdish leaders tell me that the package grants no more than 5 percent
    of what they had demanded in long negotiations with Erdogan.

    Another real minority that gets little are the Alevites, who practice
    a moderate version of Islam and have acted as a chief support for
    secularism in Turkey. While Erdogan uses the resources of the state to
    support Sunni Islam, Alevites can't even get building permits to
    construct their own places of prayer.

    Armenians, too, get nothing - not even a promise of an impartial
    inquest into allegations of genocide against them in 1915.

    The second leg of Erdogan's strategy is to re-energize his Islamist
    base. Hundreds of associations controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood
    are to take over state-owned mosques, religious sites and endowment
    properties - thus offering AKP a vast power base across Turkey.

    Indirectly, Erdogan is telling Turks to stop seeing themselves as
    citizens of a secular state and, instead, as minorities living in a
    state dominated by the Sunni Muslim majority. Call it neo-Ottomanism.

    Erdogan is using `Manzikert' as a slogan to sell his package. Yet this
    refers to a battle between the Seljuk Sultan Alp Arsalan and the
    Byzantine Emperor Romanos in 1071, the first great victory of Muslim
    armies against Christians in Asia Minor. It happened centuries before
    the Ottoman Turks arrived in the region.

    Invoking the battle as a victory of Islam against `the Infidel,'
    Erdogan supposedly has an eye on the battle's thousandth anniversary.
    Does he mean to take Turkey back 1,000 years?

    The Ottoman system divided the sultan's subjects according to
    religious faith into dozens of `mullahs,' each allowed to enforce its
    own laws in personal and private domains while paying a poll tax.

    It's doubtful most Turks share Erdogan's dream of recreating a
    mythical Islamic state with himself as caliph, albeit under the title
    of president. His effort to redefine Turkey's republican and secular
    identity may wind up revitalizing it.

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan this week unveiled his long-promised “reform package” to “chart the path of the nation” for the next 10 years — that is, through 2023, 100 years after th…

    Leave a comment:


  • Haykakan
    replied
    Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

    ANALYSIS: 'UNPRECEDENTED' EVENTS IN AND AROUND TURKEY LIKELY TO INCREASE REGIONAL TURBULENCE


    ANALYSIS | 18.09.13 | 11:33

    Photo: www.wikipedia.org

    By NAIRA HAYRUMYAN
    ArmeniaNow correspondent

    Some unprecedented events are taking place in Turkey that potentially
    can have significant consequences for the entire region in general
    and neighboring Armenia, in particular.

    The global analytical community has long called Turkey one of the
    main actors of the international operation in Syria. Moreover, in
    the light of this conflict, leading experts say that a struggle has
    begun in Turkey between the Alawites and the Islamists - parallel
    to the movement of the Kurds who recently suspended the process of
    withdrawal of militants abroad.

    In addition, the Kurds held a strike yesterday in the province of Van,
    demanding to be allowed to teach their children at schools in Kurdish.

    All Kurdish children yesterday boycotted school classes.

    The Armenian issue has become topical as well. Diyarbakir (Tigranakert)
    recently saw the inauguration of a monument to the victims of the
    Genocide of Armenians and Assyrians. The unprecedented monument was
    opened by the Mayor of Diyarbakir, Abdullah Demirtas.

    "We, the Kurds, apologize to the Armenians and Assyrians for the
    actions by our ancestors in 1915. We will continue to fight for
    compensation to the murdered," said Demirtas.

    The Turkish media have been publishing more and more materials that
    acknowledge that today's Turkey is not only a country of Turks,
    but also other native peoples, like Armenians and Greeks.

    Suddenly, a retrial resumed in the case of Hrant Dink, a prominent
    Turkish Armenian journalist and human rights advocate, who was
    assassinated in 2007. An Istanbul court issued a warrant for the
    arrest of Erhan Tuncel, a former police informer and a key suspect
    in the Dink murder case who may link some government agencies to the
    murder plot, according to Hurriyet Daily News.

    Another event of no less significance has taken place in Egypt,
    which, after the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi last summer,
    may become the first Muslim country in the world to recognize the
    genocide of Armenians in Turkey. According to European newspapers,
    this event may occur after the unprecedented step of Egyptian lawyer,
    director of the Institute of the People's Front in Egypt Muhammad
    Saad Khairallah, who presented a legal claim regarding this matter.

    The hearing in this case will begin in the Cairo Court on November 5.

    The announcement was made during a televised debate that was followed
    by millions of Egyptian viewers.

    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is more and more often
    called a loser in the world press. It is noted that Erdogan's policies
    have led to the isolation of Turkey and an increased likelihood of
    its fragmentation or federalization. Turkey is still actively involved
    in all relevant processes taking place in the world, but experts say
    that civil disturbances that do not subside in this country may one
    day turn Turkey into the next flashpoint.

    This seems especially true against the backdrop of relations between
    the West and Iran that have become noticeably warmer of late: European
    countries have lifted the earlier imposed sanctioned against a number
    of Iranian banks, there are reports that a historic meeting between
    the presidents of the United States and Iran may take place at the
    forthcoming session of the United Nations in New York. Earlier,
    the presidents of the two estranged nations exchanged messages.

    Against this background, the isolation of Turkey and its regional ally
    Azerbaijan is becoming more evident. Both countries have already taken
    a defensive position, trying to keep at least what they already have.

    This increases the degree of aggressiveness of these two countries.

    Azerbaijan, for example, stated yesterday that it will not withdraw
    snipers from the line of contact near Nagorno-Karabakh until the
    end of the war. But such withdrawal is a demand of the international
    community.

    Leave a comment:


  • Haykakan
    replied
    Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

    Turkish Prime Minister's Triumphant Visit to Washington
    From: Mihran Keheyian <[email protected]>
    Date: Wed, 15 May 2013 22:31:39 PDT

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Turkish Prime Minister's Triumphant Visit to Washington

    ADL, Editorial, Turkey | May 14, 2013 5:01 pm

    By Edmond Y. Azadian


    It is well said by English historian and writer Lord Acton that power
    tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. There can be
    no better example to demonstrated the veracity of the above adage then
    citing the names of a political duo at the top of the power pyramid in
    Washington DC: President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry.

    On the eve of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to
    Washington, they have already sacrificed the most dispensable issues
    in honor of the visiting dignitary: Armenians and the Armenian
    Genocide. Obama and Kerry seemed to be espousing the most humanistic
    and moral causes while serving in the senate. Mr. Kerry is extremely
    knowledgeable on the Armenian Genocide and at times he has made the
    most stirring remarks in favor of its official recognition. Yet during
    his recent shuttle diplomacy between Washington and Ankara, he praises
    Turkey's position as a positive one in resolving the Karabagh
    conflict. And he makes the statement with a straight face, showing
    little concern with this political about face. He has no comments on
    the continuing illegal blockade of Armenia.

    As to Mr. Obama, he has already repeated his `Medz Yeghern' charade on
    April 24 and continues to keep Guantanamo Bay gulag, which had given a
    black eye to the US human rights position during the Bush-Cheney era
    and continues the stigma on the Obama administration's rhetoric on
    democracy and human rights.

    Mr. Obama has given more to Turkey than the latter even expected,
    because on the political market, Armenian rights and issues have
    proven to be the most disposable ones.

    He had already reduced US aid to Armenia dramatically and now presents
    a legal gift to Mr. Erdogan on a silver platter. Indeed the Obama
    administration has urged the Supreme Court not to hear the appeal of
    the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' 2012 striking down of a California
    law extending the statute of limitations on the Armenian Genocide-era
    life insurance claims. This is a third-world practice of exerting
    political pressure on the judiciary to abort justice. Had this been
    undertaken by a private citizen, it would be labeled as obstruction of
    justice. Rather than leaving the Supreme Court to determine the merits
    of the case, the administration has already intervened to block the
    adjudication of the case.

    It is reported that Prime Minister Erdogan will receive the highest
    state welcome during his visit to the US on May 16-17. He will receive
    two full military honors, one at the airport and the other at the
    White House, as the formal guest of US President Barack Obama.

    The agenda of their discussion will comprise a full plate, Syria being
    the most dominant issue. The other items on that agenda will certainly
    include Ankara's initiative to open a dialog with the Kurdish
    minority, relations between Israel and Turkey, which have always
    constituted the centerpiece of US Middle East policy under any
    administration, because, Israel, using the US muscle can continue its
    hegemony in the entire region, with the tacit collusion of medieval
    potentates (`moderate Arab nations' in Washington's lexicon.)

    Iran and Iraq have been viewed by divergent views at their respective
    capitals. Despite US sanctions against Iran, Turkey is continuing its
    policy of business as usual, and in the case of Iraq, Turkey was
    scared of that country's position of Kurdistan emerging as an
    independent state. But ironically at this time, Ankara has embraced
    Iraqi Kurdistan, at the expense of destabilizing Iraqi Premier
    Maliki's central government, because Erdogan's administration believes
    they have contained Kurdish aspirations in their own country,
    eliminating any spillover of Kurdish irredentism from Iraqi Kurdistan.

    As the political agenda is reviewed, we certainly doubt that Mr. Obama
    will ask Mr. Erdogan whether he has given any thought to his
    suggestions at the Turkish Parliament during his first term; meaning
    modern Turkey would make peace with its ugly Ottoman history.

    Mr. Erdogan is being accorded all these accolades because he is coming
    with bloody hands as the front man in destabilizing a sovereign
    country - Syria - which has refused thus far to bow down on
    Palestinian rights and continues to make claims on its confiscated
    territories by Turkey in 1939, the Sanjak of Alexandretta and Golan
    Heights in 1967 by Israel.

    The recent bombs that killed 46 people and injured more than 100 in
    Reyhanli, which is located in the Hatay region mostly populated by
    Arabs and Alevis, may have been a warning by the restless Arab
    populace, agitating against Erdogan's shipment of mercenaries and
    armaments in Syria. But for Mr. Davutoglu and for the West, it is most
    convenient to point the finger at the Assad regime in Syria. That
    accusation, compounded by the orchestration of `the use of chemical
    weapons' constitutes a concoction for casus belli.

    By serving as a proxy for the West in the Middle East, Turkey has
    acquired the status of a regional power, and an independent one at
    that. That status renders Armenia's maneuvering room very limited.
    That is why during Erdogan's visit to Washington no one will give him
    a slap on the wrist to lift the blockade of Armenia.

    The Turks have also planned their version of a Genocide centennial in
    2015, as quoted in an article by Robert Fisk in London's Independent
    (May 12, 2013). The announcement by Turkey's foreign Minister
    Davutoglu is most revealing: `We are going to make the year of 1915
    known to the world over, not as the anniversary of a genocide, as some
    people claimed and slandered [sic] but we shall make it known as a
    glorious resistance of a nation in our defense of Gallipoli.'

    There is no conciliation or repentance in Davutoglu's tone. Turkey
    intends to drown calls for Armenian Genocide recognition in the
    drumbeat of a dubious victory in Gallipoli that was one of history's
    mysteries as to how a crumbling Ottoman army defeated French and
    British forces under Winston Churchill's command, while troops from
    Australia and New Zealand were slaughtered by Mustafa Kemal. The jury
    is out on the issue because suspicion lingers that Britain betrayed
    its own army to deny access to its World War I ally, Russia, access to
    the warm waters of the Mediterranean and the strategic Strait of
    Bosporus.

    Armenians could counter Mr. Erdogan's triumphant march on the red
    carpet in Washington by a massive rally (not just 50-100 youth, which
    can prove to be counterproductive), with slogans such as `Recognize
    the Genocide,' `Lift the Blockade' and `Bloody hands off Syria.' But
    we have opted for the more comfortable position of armchair diplomats,
    additionally sacrificing the completion of the Genocide Museum in
    Washington.

    Mr. Erdogan will think `If this is the political clout of one million
    plus American Armenians, then I can walk triumphantly - not only on
    the red carpet but also over the bones of 1.5 million Armenian
    martyrs.'

    By Edmond Y. Azadian It is well said by English historian and writer Lord Acton that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. There can be no better […]

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  • londontsi
    replied
    Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

    .



    Israel fails in new effort to mend ties with Turkey
    February 23, 2013, 9:45 pm

    Netanyahu’s security adviser held talks with Ankara’s Foreign Ministry director in Rome three weeks ago, to no avail

    An Israeli-initiated effort to heal ties with Turkey, which saw Israeli officials meet their Turkish counterparts in Rome three weeks ago, ended in failure.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser, Yaakov Amidror, accompanied by former Foreign Ministry director general Joseph Ciechanover, held talks in the Italian capital with Turkish Foreign Ministry Director Feridun Sinirlioğlu, to try to formulate terms for easing the rift between the two countries that has strained relations over the past three years.

    But the contacts did not produce a breakthrough, Channel 2 reported Saturday night, and the Israelis came home empty handed.

    Hatnua leader Tzipi Livni made her own effort to ease the strains by seeking a meeting in New York late last year with Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, but he refused to see her, the news report said.

    It added that Israel is feeling the pressure to mend the rift ahead of US President Barack Obama’s visit here next month, and that Livni’s decision to join Netanyahu’s nascent coalition might make the task easier. Obama is said to have urged both sides privately to heal their ties.

    Similar talks took place in Geneva in November.


    Israel has reportedly been prepared to apologize to Turkey for “operational errors” during its fatal raid on a May 2010 Turkish aid flotilla to Gaza.

    As a condition to normalizing diplomatic ties with Israel, Turkey has demanded that Israel apologize for the death of nine activists who were killed when Israeli commandos raided the Mavi Marmara ship during a takeover operation in the Mediterranean.

    The aid ship, chartered by the Islamist IHH organization, was headed to the Gaza Strip in defiance of Israel’s naval siege on the Hamas-run area.

    Turkey has also demanded Israel lift the siege, but is prepared to drop that demand, a report in Turkey’s Radikal said last week. Israel is prepared to offer compensation to the families of those killed, according to the report.

    Such a deal was reportedly under consideration in the summer of 2011, but was scuttled in part because of objections by then-Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman. Now facing trial on corruption charges, Liberman is no longer in government.

    JTA contributed to this report.

    Leave a comment:


  • Haykakan
    replied
    Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

    ISRAEL SUPPLYING ADVANCED WEAPONRY TO TURKEY

    Military deal, the fulfillment of an order that was halted after
    the Mavi Marmara incident, is first of its kind since 2010 By MICHAL
    SHMULOVICH February 18, 2013, 5:56 pm 5

    A Turkish F-16. (photo credit: CC BY Ronnie Macdonald, Flickr)

    ISRAEL-TURKEY RELATIONSWEAPONSMAVI MARMARA

    Israel is providing advanced electronic warfare systems for aircraft
    to Turkey, a fulfillment of an earlier order that was put on hold in
    the wake of the infamous Mavi Marmara incident in 2010. It is the
    first instance of a military equipment exchange between Jerusalem
    and Ankara since then.

    Turkey's Today's Zaman reported the sale, which will significantly beef
    up Anakara's intelligence capabilities, on Sunday, and the aircraft
    upgrade was confirmed by senior Israeli sources Monday. A source
    said the deal was approved due to US pressure and Israel's desire
    to restore its damaged relationship with Turkey, amid escalating
    tension between Ankara and Tehran Iran over the Syrian conflict,
    according to the Hebrew daily Haaretz.

    The Syrian civil war has posed additional security challenges for
    Turkey. In October 2012, five Turkish civilians were killed by Syrian
    fire, sparking fears that Ankara would be dragged into the regional
    conflict. Turkey vowed to respond harshly, and it deployed extra jets
    to its border with Syria in the weeks after the incident.

    Turkish soldiers patrol a military station at the border crossing
    with Syria in Akcakale, across from the Syrian rebel-controlled town
    of Tel Abyad in October. (photo credit: AP)

    The electronic systems are to be integrated into the Turkish Air
    Force's Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) military aircraft
    that were purchased from the US in the early 2000s. The system enables
    the planes to protect themselves from electronic attacks that target
    its controls during flight, Today's Zaman reported.

    In 2002, Boeing won a $200 million contract to supply Turkey with
    the four AWACS aircraft - and a $25 million contract to integrate
    electronic warning systems into the four planes was then won by ELTA,
    a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries. Boeing supplied the planes
    to Turkey three years ago. Israel's fulfillment of the order, however,
    was halted after it delivered two of the electronic systems in 2011,
    in the wake of the Mavi Marmara raid.

    News about the weapons deal comes less than three months after media
    reports surfaced that Ankara and Jerusalem were engaging in secret
    back-channel reconciliation talks despite heightened tensions over
    Operation Pillar of Defense. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
    confirmed that the two countries were trying to find ways to end
    their diplomatic impasse.

    Relations between former close allies Turkey and Israel soured after
    nine pro-Palestinian activists - eight Turks and a Turkish-American
    - were killed aboard the Mavi Marmara vessel, which was part of an
    international flotilla trying to break the Gaza blockade, on May 31,
    2010. Israeli naval commandos commandeered the vessel and were attacked
    by activists.

    Turkey has demanded a formal apology, compensation for victims and
    the families of the dead, and for the Gaza blockade to be lifted.

    Israel has resisted Turkish demands to apologize for the raid on the
    ship and to compensate those killed as a precondition for normalizing
    relations. Israel - stressing that its solders were attacked with clubs
    and poles by violent thugs aboard the vessel, and insisting that its
    blockade against Gaza, which is run by the terror group Hamas, is legal
    - has said it "regrets" the loss of life, rather than issuing a full
    apology, and has offered to pay into what it called a "humanitarian
    fund" through which casualties and relatives could be compensated.

    Turkey disputes Israeli assertions that its soldiers acted in
    self-defense. The commando operation sparked worldwide condemnation
    and led to an easing of Israel's blockade on the the Gaza Strip.

    A UN report on the Mavi Marmara incident released in 2011 concluded
    that Israel had used unreasonable force in stopping the ship, but
    that the blockade on Gaza was legal.

    Leave a comment:


  • Haykakan
    replied
    Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

    RUSSIA TO BUILD NUCLEAR PLANT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF ARARAT
    Naira Hayrumyan

    Story from Lragir.am News:

    14:49 04/12/2012

    Russia agreed with Turkey on the provision of USD 20 billion for
    the construction of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant. Vladimir Putin
    announced about this in Turkey after his meeting with Erdogan.

    "I would like to stress that the investment is very big - USD 20
    billion - it is totally assumed by the Russian party, we will fund the
    project fully", said Putin. He noted that more than hundred Turkish
    students are trained in relevant specialties in this field in Russia.

    It is noteworthy that Russia actually blocked the construction of
    the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant apparently upon the request of Turkey.

    Officially, Russia, of course, agreed to fund the 25% /USD 5 billion/
    of the total sum required for the construction of the Armenian NPP,
    but Moscow insists that the reactor of the Plant is Russian, while
    the Western investors affirm the reactor can't be Russia and the rest,
    say, French. At the same time, Russia does not reject participation,
    actually, blocking the construction.

    Now, it will build the Nuclear Plant in Turkey, after the Bushehr
    Nuclear Power Plant in Iran. Experts discussed more than once why
    Turkey or many other developed countries don't have the NPP, why the
    West does not finance nuclear energy and creates obstacles for Russia
    to build the NPP in Iran. Apparently, there is an unvoiced agreement
    not to build NPPs in countries considered unreliable, where there is
    the threat of Islamic radicalism. Turkey is among these countries.

    Now sure, the nuclear weapon of NATO is in Turkey, but Turks don't
    have access to it, just like to the NATO intelligence. The NPP will
    allow Turkey make part of the nuclear super powers. If they manage
    to torpedo the Armenian NPP, Russia can be proud of having made a
    fraternal service to Turkey.

    Leave a comment:

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