Turkish Forum

Author: Aylin D. Miller

  • Turkey joins the race for Africa’s resources

    Turkey joins the race for Africa’s resources

    Written by Allan Odhiambo

    July 28, 2008: Turkey has become the latest emerging economy to join the scramble for Africa’s fortunes with a continent-wide investment conference to be held in Istanbul.

    Turkey joins the race for Africa’s resources

    The move, mainly seen as driven by the increasing pressure to find resources the country needs to power its fast growing economy, also promises additional investment and trade inflows for Africa.   

    The summit, to be held between August 18 and 21, is being organised with the help of the African Union and will be the first of its kind for both parties.

     “We will look at the future of our relationship with a view to strengthening and diversifying it,” Turkish Foreign Affairs minister Ali Babacan said when he met an AU delegation last week.

    Closer ties with Africa is particularly critical to Turkey — the Euro-Asian state with few natural resources — whose economy is undergoing a transformation from heavy reliance on agriculture and manufacturing to a globally inclined one driven by the services sector.

    In the more recent past, as the Kenyan economy recovered from a deep slump at the turn of the millennium, Turkey has become one of the key source markets for consumer goods such as textiles, carpets, furniture and electronics for the newly rich.

    A steadily growing economy is also seen to be critical to the realisation of Turkey’s ambition to become a member of the European Union — a goal it has been pursuing for nearly a decade.

    This need to sustain growth and manage an economy in transition has seen Turkey’s trade ties with Africa more than double in the past five years from $5 billion in 2003 to $12 billion last year.

    Istanbul says the goal is to increase this volume of trade to $30 billion by 2010. Data from the department of external trade indicates that Turkey’s direct investments in Africa hit the $500 million mark last year and is expected to grow.

    For Kenya, Turkey’s ambitions for closer ties with Africa has yielded a steady growth in the value of the bilateral trade that stood at $90 million last year. Under the existing bilateral trade agreement, Turkey exports a wide range of consumer goods to Kenya including hazelnut, minerals, chemical fertilisers, resins, polymer bags and textile.

    Emerging Asian giants

    Kenya mainly exports tea, hemp and arts and crafts to Turkey, and also benefits from a wide range of technical cooperation projects under the Turkish International Co-operation Agency (TICA).

    If successful, a trade and investment deal with Africa will see Turkey join the ongoing battle between India and China for big investments mainly in Africa’s natural resources extraction.

    The two emerging Asian giants have also made multi-million shilling acquisition deals or green field investments in telecommunication, tourism, energy, technology, commodities and construction.

    Turkey recently stepped up its expansion in Africa with the May 2007 admission as a non-regional member of the African Development Bank.

    China’s President Hu Jintao (centre) Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi (left) and President of the Republic of Congo Denis Sassou-Nguesso at the China-Africa Summit in Beijing in November 2006.

    The bank, which is one of the top financiers of development and infrastructure projects in Africa, gives Turkey a good platform from where to open new areas of co-operation. Turkey has made inroads into Africa’s transport sector with scheduled flights of its national flag carrier Turkish Airlines to regional hubs of Addis Ababa, Khartoum, Lagos and Johannesburg.

    Istanbul also plans to venture into Africa’s maritime sector with investment in key facilities such as the Port of Mombasa to spur trade in the hinterland.
    Besides, Turkey is already involved in multi-million dollar humanitarian and development assistance to a number of African countries through TICA.

    Major beneficiaries of this assistance include Sudan, Ethiopia and Senegal. TICA says plans are underway to move into new areas of development cooperation such as health, water sanitation, education, technical training, environmental protection and transportation.

    Funds for Africa

    Turkish humanitarian and development assistance to Africa has been growing steadily with the Official Development Assistance (ODA) totalling $700 million in the last three years.

    “To this end, we have set up several dedicated funds for Africa. The latest initiative is the allocation of $50 million to finance development in Africa over the next five years,” Mr Babacan said.

     Istanbul has also recently set up a $20 million development financing pool for the Least Developed Countries (LDC), Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Land Locked Developing Countries (LLDC).

    In return, Turkey is looking for political support from Africa to realise her dreams of winning a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

    “We see our prospective membership in the security council as an opportunity that will allow us to contribute even further to the achievement of our common objectives under the UN,” the minister said.

    Turkey’s candidature for the UN seat is for the 2009 to 2010 term. Turkey served for a one-year term in the Security Council in 1961. India too pegged its economic support for Africa to backing for a permanent seat in the expanded UN Security Council, signalling Africa’s growing influence in global agenda.

    Intense lobbying for UN reforms that would open the door for greater representation of the developing world in key global institutions has been ongoing since the mid 1990s.

    Those in the race for a permanent seat at the Security Council include Germany, Japan, Egypt, Brazil, and South Africa. Successful countries will join US, China, Britain, France and Russia in the exclusive club of members who wield veto power at the UN.

    Joint trade pacts

    India has already announced plans to offer preferential market access to 50 developing countries, 34 in Africa. The arrangement covers 94 per cent of India’s total tariff lines and provides preferential market access on tariff lines that comprise 92.5 per cent of global exports of all least developed countries.
     
    The scheme covers several products of interest to Africa including cotton, cocoa, aluminium, copper, cashew nuts, sugar, ready-made garments, fish fillets and non-industrial diamonds.

    India further pledged to offer additional lines of credit amounting to $5.4 billion both bilaterally and to the regional economic communities of Africa.

    Trade experts would be looking up to what Turkey would offer African nations to win their confidence in pursuing further joint trade and co-operation pacts.

    In the last five years, Kenya’s imports from India have risen from Sh14 billion in 2002 to Sh38 billion in 2006 while China’s have increased from Sh6 billion to Sh27 billion making them increasingly important trading partners. Kenya’s exports to these countries remains under Sh4 billion.

  • The Anti-Coup

    The Anti-Coup

    The Anti-Coup

    As coups are one of the primary ways through which dictatorships are installed, this piece details measures that civilians, civil society, and governments can take to prevent and block coups d’état and executive usurpations. It also contains specific legislative steps and other measures that governments and non-governmental institutions can follow to prepare for anti-coup resistance.

    The Anti-Coup
    By Gene Sharp & Bruce Jenkins
    The Albert Einstein Institution

  • Bombs Kill 16 in a Crowded Istanbul Neighborhood

    Bombs Kill 16 in a Crowded Istanbul Neighborhood

     

    A Turkish police officer on Sunday guarded the site of two explosions in Istanbul as residents hung flags on windows in reaction to rumors that Kurdish separatists were behind the attack.

    By SEBNEM ARSU
    Published: July 28, 2008

    ISTANBUL — Two bombs exploded within minutes of each other late Sunday in a crowded pedestrian area of Istanbul, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 150 in what the city’s governor called a terrorist attack.

    The double bombing appeared to be the worst case of terrorist violence in Turkey in nearly five years and seemed to take the Turkish authorities by surprise. There were no immediate claims of responsibility, although Kurdish separatist militants were initially suspected.

    Residents in buildings near the explosion sites hung Turkish flags from their windows and balconies in reaction to rumors that the separatists were responsible.

    There was no obvious reason the Istanbul neighborhood that was bombed, which is almost completely residential, had been the object of a terrorism plot.

    The first blast, which the police and witnesses said was relatively minor, attracted scores of onlookers curious about the commotion, with at least some of them thinking it was caused by a gas leak explosion. Many of the onlookers were then hit by flying shrapnel and debris in the second, more powerful blast about 10 minutes after the first and about 20 yards away, the governor of Istanbul, Muammer Guler, said in a news briefing broadcast by Turkish television.

    Witnesses described a scene of panic with victims lying on the street in pools of blood. The bombings seemed timed to exploit the summer pastime of many residents of the pedestrian area of Gungoren, in central Istanbul, to stroll in the cool late evening before going to bed.

    “It’s surely a terror attack, there’s no doubt,” Governor Guler said. “Because people were gathered after the first explosion, and because the second explosion happened right after, people sitting right across got severely injured.”

    Senol Simsek, a witness who provided first aid to the wounded, told the NTV television network that he had seen at least five people lying and writhing near a telephone booth that was destroyed. The police quickly sealed off the entire area and closed it to all traffic.

    Hayati Yazici, deputy prime minister who happened to be visiting Istanbul on Sunday, visited the bombing site and told the Anatolian News Agency: “It is obvious that this is the work of a villain organization, a person or people, however it is not certain as to who this is. Our friends are investigating, it will be discovered for sure.”

    The double bombing appeared to be the most serious terrorist attack here since twin truck bombings at two Istanbul synagogues killed 23 people and wounded more than 300 on Nov. 15, 2003. An obscure group linked to Al Qaeda took responsibility for the synagogue blasts, which were the worst in a series of explosions blamed on Islamic extremist groups that year that killed more than 60 people.

    President Abdullah Gul, in a written statement, denounced the attack here Sunday and said Turkey remained committed in what he called the struggle against terrorism. “Nothing can be achieved by terror, violently claiming lives of the innocent,” Mr. Gul said. “These attacks show the inhumanity and misery of the assailants.”

    Officials were continuing investigations and analysis at both explosion sites to determine the precise cause and motives behind the attack, Turkish news organizations reported.

    There was initial speculation that the bombings might have been the work of the P.K.K., or Kurdistan Workers’ Party, an insurgent group that has been fighting the Turkish Army for autonomy in the southeast area of the country adjoining Iraq.

    Earlier Sunday, the Turkish military announced that its fighter jets had attacked 12 Kurdish separatist targets in Iraq’s Qandil region and that it had inflicted an unspecified number of “terrorist casualties.”

    Lynsey Addario contributed reporting.

  • ‘Ottoman Turco-Armenian War Tragedy’ presented at Edinburgh City Council

    ‘Ottoman Turco-Armenian War Tragedy’ presented at Edinburgh City Council

    The Federation of British Turkish Associations and the British Turkish Committee for Dialogue

    A symposium, jointly organised by the Federation of British Turkish Associations and British Turkish Committee for Dialogue, entitled ‘Ottoman Turco-Armenian War Tragedy’ has been presented at Edinburgh City Council on the 24th October 2005. . . .

    In the symposium, the two-sided nature of the Ottoman Turco-Armenian War Tragedy has been presented to the participants, amongst whom were Edinburgh City Council leader Donald Anderson and Edinburgh Councillors.

    Prof. Norman Stone (Professor of History) and Retired Ambassador Gunduz Aktan presented the incidents’ historical, political and legal aspects to the audience.

    In the symposium, it was explained that the clashes between the Turkish/Muslim community and the armed Armenian groups and resulting migrations in the declining stages of the Ottoman Empire, cost many lives to both sides. The speakers suggested that this should be called a tragedy in which both sides suffered.

    Enforcing Turkey to define this tragedy as a genocide that only affected the Armenian population has been the main leverage to block Turkey’s EU membership path by anti-Turkish factions in the past.

    The speakers answered questions from the audience, including those from the City Council leader Donald Anderson.

    As British Turkish Committee for Dialogue and the Federation of British Turkish Associations we declare that it was upsetting that the CDs and DVDs necessary to present the two-sided nature of the tragedy has been obstructed and delayed at customs, preventing that part of the symposium from taking place.

    As BTCD and FBTA, we suggest that the vote on the declared motion by Edinburgh council aiming at defining this tragedy as ‘genocide’ should be cancelled, for the sake of preserving impartiality of Edinburgh Council as a third party. Both organisations have agreed that Edinburgh council has done enough to enlighten the true nature of this tragedy, allowing both parties to present their cases.

    Sincerely,
    The executive committees of BTCD and ITDF

    Background:
    The clashes between the Turkish/Muslim community and the armed Armenian groups and the resulting migrations in the declining stages of the Ottoman Empire cost many lives to both sides. (At least 523,000 Turkish lives – documented so far -, and hundreds of thousands of Armenian lives from among the 1,050,000 Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire at the time)

    The Armenian Diaspora describes this two-sided Tragedy as genocide committed against them. However, many scholars, including Prof. Dr Bernard Lewis, Prof. Dr. Stanford Shaw, Prof.Dr.Heath Lowry support the view that in these clashes both sides suffered and it is scientifically wrong to call the tragedy as ‘genocide’. There is no decision given by an International Court to this effect.

    The Turkish Diaspora in-large maintains the opinion that giving precedence to any side of the victims is unhelpful and they propose to commemorate the victims of both sides. The Turkish government has recently proposed to set up a joint committee between Armenia and Turkey to investigate the events in more detail, based on historical archives.

    The scholars that support the view that the incidents can be best described as a two-sided tragedy, in which both sides suffered, have been the target of extremist Armenian organisations in the past, which deny the two-sided nature of the war tragedy so far.

    July 16, 2008

    Source: Armeniatruth

  • PKK-Armenian Relations

    PKK-Armenian Relations

    Changing their tactics after the ’80s as they encountered adverse reactions from the world. Now, it was time for PKK to carry on the mission. Their first terrorist act started at Eruh and Semdimli in 1984 while the ASALA-Armenian terror receded to the background. Some of the tangible proofs of the ties between Armenians and PKK are the following: . . .

    The terrorist organisation PKK announced the period from 21 to 28 April 1980 as the “Red Week” and started to organise meetings on April 24 as the anniversary of the alleged genocide against Armenians.

    The PKK and ASALA terror organisations held a joint press conference on 8 April 1980 at the City of Sidon in Lebanon where they issued a declaration. Since this drew a considerable reaction, they decided that their relations should be maintained on a clandestine basis. The responsibility of the attacks launched against the Turkish Consulate General in Strasbourg on 9 November 1980 and the Turkish Airline office in Rome on 19 November 1980 were undertaken jointly by the ASALA and PKK.

    Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the separatist terror organisation, was elected to the honorary membership of the Armenian Authors’ Association for “his contributions to the idea of Greater Armenia”.

    A Kurdistan Committee was formed within the Armenian Popular Movement like in many European countries.

    On 4 June 1993, a meeting was held at the headquarters of PKK terrorist organisation at West Beyrouth with the participation of representatives from the Armenian Hinchak Party, ASALA and PKK.

    Another striking example of the Armenian-PKK ties are the following resolutions adopted in meetings held at two separate churches from 6 to 9 September 1993 with the participation of Lebanese Armenian Orthodox Archbishop, officials of the Armenian Party and about 150 youth leaders:

    A somewhat sedate attitude should be reserved toward Turkey for the time being.

    The Armenian community is on the way to growth and better economic strength.

    The propaganda activities have started to make the genocide claims better understood in the rest of the world.

    The newly founded Armenian State with a constantly growing territory will definitely avenge the ancestors of its citizens.

    The Western powers and particularly the United States side with and favour the Armenians in the combat for Nagorno Karabakh. This opportunity should be well exploited as more and more Armenian young men join the ranks in this fight.

    The perpetual terrorist attacks in Turkey (meaning the PKK’s actions) will continue and eventually collapse the country’s economy, leading to an uprising by the entire population.

    Turkey will be abolish and a Kurdish State will be formed.

    Armenians will hold good relations with the Kurds and support their fight.

    Territories presently held by the Turks will the Armenian’s tomorrow.

    PUBLICATION ORGANS OF TERRORIST ORGANISATION PKK IN ARMENIA

    The newspapers Reya Taze and Bota Redaksiyon are published in Armenia in Cyrillic alphabet under the control of terrorist organisation PKK with the help of PKK members coming from Turkey and Europe and carries out propaganda for the PKK.

    PKK-ASALA RELATIONS

    The Armenian terrorism at international first started basis in 1973 and began to gain impetus after the 1974 Cyprus Peace Operation with attacks or terrorist nature against Turks and Turkish representations abroad with sabotages and outright assaults.

    Upon resurrection of the Kurdish terrorist movement that began to show itself in a variety of legal political entities from ’70s onward, the Armenian terror organisation ASALA ceded its place in 1984 to the PKK that killed without distinction of Turk or Kurd in a bloodthirsty manner under the guidance of Abdullah Öcalan.

    Yet in prior to that date, of the co-operation between terrorist organisations ASALA and PKK was known manifesting in the training of ASALA militants at PKK’s trannie camps, the joint operations and declamations by them both and training support provided at the PKK camps by Armenian experts, not to mention the organic ties between the terrorist organisation PKK and Armenian Tashnak Sutyun Party.

    The common goal of the co-operation between the terrorist organisations PKK and ASALA is to establish States in Turkey’s Southeastern and Eastern under the Marxist-Leninist ideology. Since, however, an overview of the areas on which both organisations had schemes, it may be deduced that one of these organisations acts as the other’s mercenaries.

    An examination of the discovered documents revealed that the militants of ASALA and PKK terrorist organisations underwent training at the Bekaa and Zeli camps.

    1987 AGREEMENT BETWEEN PKK AND ARMENIANS

    An agreement was concluded between the separatist terror organisation PKK and Armenians in 1987. Following are the highlights of this agreement:

    1. Armenians will be involved in training activities within the PKK terror organisation.

    2. Five thousand American Dollars per annum will be paid to the PKK terror organisation per capita by the Armenian side.

    3. The Armenians will participate in the small-scale operations.

    As the Armenian component began to acquire a significantly elevated position within the organisation as a result of this agreement, the following resolutions were adopted in a meeting held on 18 April 1990 with a person named Hermes Samurai, reported to be the official responsible for the PKK-ASALA relations:

    1. The PKK and ASALA terrorist organisations will be under a joint command from that date on.

    2. The Armenians will undertake intelligence work on the Turkish security forces.

    3. Territories gained through the expected revolution will be equally shared between the parties.

    4. Seventy-five percent of training camp expenses will be borne by the Armenians.

    5. Operations will be conducted at the metropolitan cities in Turkey.

    The terrorist organisation PKK that moved its bases into Northern Iraq after because of very heavy blows dealt in the transborder operations and lost all possibilities of sheltering there is known to have entered into arrangements for shifting some of its cadres to Iran and Armenia where it started an active subversive operation toward Turkey.

    It has also been learned that a group of European representatives of the terrorist organisation PKK paid a visit to Armenia where they concluded an agreement with the Armenian leaders for the unhindered ingress to and egress from Kars region by their militants, that Armenia offered sheltering, monetary and equipment support to the Kurdish settlements in that country following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the formal proclamation of the Armenian Republic. Similarly, a group of militants of the terrorist organisation PKK left Urmiah for Armenia on three vehicles on 19 and 20 May 1992 for fighting against Azerite Turks together with the Armenians.

    ARMENIAN ALLEGATIONS: Myth and Reality

    karabakh.gen.az

    Source: Armeniatruth

  • Isolated Armenia leans on Iran

    Isolated Armenia leans on Iran

    By Robin Forestier, BBC News, Yerevan

    Deep in the cellar of the Noy Brandy factory in Yerevan, Armenia, there is a pungent, but not unpleasant

    Noy Brandy's wine-tasting sessions are popular with Iranian tourists

    smell of ageing, fortified wine.

    On an upturned wooden cask sit a dozen glasses, and a bottle of 1944 sherry. The company’s wine-tasting sessions are popular with tourists and most of them, according to tour guide Anna, come from Iran.

    “Ten metres underground, they think Allah is out of range,” she smiles. “They don’t want to taste the wine, they want to drink it.”

    Across town, Omid Mojahed is one such Iranian looking for more than just a taste of Armenia. He is a 28-year-old student and an entrepreneur at heart.

    He spends most of his time away from his books, working on his businesses, which include a travel agency working exclusively in the Iranian market.

    “In summer I think that 90% of tourists are Iranian. Armenia is so close by and has attractive things – cafes and nightclubs, and beautiful Lake Sevan.”

    Omid has also just opened a Persian restaurant, catering for locals as well as Iranian expats, keen for some home cuisine.

    Gathered at the bar around a smoking pipe, a group of Iranian students are relaxing after their exams.

    Twenty-year-old Mehdez explains that Armenia is popular with thousands of young people who cannot get a place in Iran’s over-subscribed higher education system.

    “I chose to study in Yerevan because it’s an easier situation. Here we have more freedom,” she says.

    “But of course anything that we do here, we can do in Iran – just not in public.”

    Geographic isolation

    Part of that freedom includes an increasingly liberalised economy, and that makes Armenia attractive to foreign investment.

    The Armenian capital is hardly an international economic powerhouse, but there are signs that Iranian investors sense an opportunity.

    On one street, many of the stores are Iranian-run. One of them is owned by Muhammad Rahimi.

    Muhammad Rahimi benefits from Armenia's dependence on Iran

    He started trading household goods 10 years ago. Business, he says, gets better and better. Practically every item he sells – from pots and pans to air-fresheners – has been imported from Iran.

    Like many of his compatriots, Muhammad benefits from Armenia’s geographical isolation.

    War with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh in the 1990s led to the closure of its borders with Azerbaijan and an unsympathetic Turkey.

    That leaves landlocked Armenia looking towards Georgia to the north, and Iran to the south.

    “Georgia, economically, is worse than Armenia,” says Alexander Iskandarian, director of the Caucasus Media Institute.

    “But Iran has a population of 70 million and it has oil and gas. It’s rich by regional standards, so you should have normal relations with them. It’s dangerous not to do so.”

    Yet trade turnover between the two countries remains modest, at just $200m (£100m) a year, according to the economic department at the Iranian embassy.

    US disapproval

    That has not stopped the United States from expressing concern about Armenia’s ties with its neighbour. Those ties include the new Iran-Armenia gas pipeline, frequent bilateral talks and state visits, not to mention a sizeable Armenian minority in northern Iran.

    In this year’s Country Reports on Terrorism, the US state department said warming relations between the two countries made Armenia “reluctant to criticise publicly objectionable Iranian conduct”.

    The little country courts the Americans, Europeans and Russians. It is a difficult balancing act to follow.

    But Armenia’s unique relationship with the regional power – Iran – is one it cannot afford to abandon.

    Iranian students say they enjoy more freedom in Armenia

    Moreover, the two countries are united by a shared sense of isolation from the rest of the world.

    “Let’s not forget that Armenia is in a virtual blockade. We attach great importance to our relations with Iran. One can choose one’s friends but not one’s neighbours,” says Armen Movsisyan, Armenia’s minister of energy.

    For those Iranians who have chosen to make a home in Armenia, geopolitics may not be foremost in their minds, but they are equally as pragmatic as the politicians.

    “I’m no expert in international relations. All I know is we always had good relations with Armenia and that’s why I like working here,” says the trader Muhammad Rahimi.

    Back in his restaurant, Omid Mojahed has no plans to leave while the going is good.

    “Everything will be okay for me here, that’s why I prefer to stay,” he says.

    “I like Armenian people, and it’s difficult for me to want to leave my friends. When you come to Yerevan for a month, you will stay in Yerevan forever!”

    Source: BBC, 24 July 2008