Turkish Forum

Author: Aylin D. Miller

  • American Armenians troubled by Ambassador Designate Yovanovitch’s answers

    American Armenians troubled by Ambassador Designate Yovanovitch’s answers

    American Armenians troubled by Ambassador Designate Yovanovitch’s answers
    11.07.2008 14:36 GMT+04:00      

    /PanARMENIAN.Net/ Senator Barack Obama has received written responses to the four written questions he submitted to U.S. Ambassador Designate Marie Yovanovitch as part of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s ongoing review of her nomination to serve as the next U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) told PanARMENIAN.Net

    “We remain troubled by Ambassador Yovanovitch’s evasive answers, her outright non-responses, and her refusal, in her replies to Senator Obama and other Senators, to offer anything approaching a reasonable or factually supportable explanation of the reasons behind Administration’s misguided policy on the Armenian Genocide,” said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA.

    “This being said, it appears as though Ambassador Yovanovitch and her colleagues have learned from the disastrous Hoagland experience and are coming to understand that the U.S. Senate will not accept – and the Armenian American community will never allow – an Ambassador to
    Armenia who denies the Armenian Genocide.”

    Ambassador Yovanovitch appeared as a witness before the Committee on June 19th. During this appearance, she faced a series of pointed questions from Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) regarding the Bush Administration’s policy to mischaracterize the Armenian Genocide. Afterwards, as many as eight Senators, including Senator Menendez, submitted a series of written inquiries to the nominee.

    “We compromise our standing as a nation when we require that our Foreign Service officers either lie or conceal the truth in the conduct of our foreign affairs. This exercise of euphemisms and evasion in relation to the Armenian Genocide, which everyone knows is the result of Turkish government pressure, undermines our credibility,” added Hamparian. “Our diplomats should be sent abroad with a clear message: speak the truth and America will stand with you.”

    President Bush nominated Amb. Marie L. Yovanovitch in March of this year to serve as America’s next Ambassador to Armenia. The ANCA has spoken to Committee members about the value of carefully questioning Amb. Yovanovitch on the many issues she will face as the U.S. envoy in Yerevan, among them the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, Turkey and Azerbaijan’s ongoing blockades of Armenia, and the need for a balanced U.S. role in helping forge a democratic and peaceful resolution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

    “The U.S. government – and certainly I – acknowledges and mourns the mass killings, ethnic cleansing, and forced deportations that devastated over one and a half million Armenians at the end of the Ottoman Empire. The United States recognizes these events as one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century, the “Medz Yeghern” or Great Calamity, as many Armenians refer to it. That is why every April the President honors the victims and expresses American solidarity with the Armenian people on Remembrance Day.

    The Administration understands that many Americans and many Armenians believe that the events of the past that I have referred to should be called “genocide.” It has been President Bush’s policy, as well as that of previous presidents of both parties, not to use that term. The President’s focus is on encouraging Turkish citizens to reconcile with their past and with the Armenians. He seeks to support the painstaking progress achieved to date. President Bush believes that the best way to honor the victims is to remember the past, so it is never repeated, and to look to the future to promote understanding and reconciliation between the peoples and governments of Armenia and Turkey. A key part of that effort is to end Armenia’s isolation in the region by encouraging normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey and the opening of their land border. The Armenian government has requested that we facilitate this process. It will not be easy nor will it likely be quick, but there are some hopeful signs,” Ambassador-Designate Yovanovitch said in her testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 19.

    President Bush’s previous nominee as U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, Richard Hoagland, was subject to two legislative holds by Sen. Menendez and was ultimately withdrawn by the Administration, following the nominee’s statements denying the Armenian Genocide.

    The ANCA led the Armenian American community campaign opposing Hoagland’s nomination, stating that a genocide denier could not serve as a credible and effective U.S. spokesperson in Armenia.

  • Credit crunch: Turkey overtakes Spain as most popular holiday destination

    Credit crunch: Turkey overtakes Spain as most popular holiday destination

    Phil Davies
    Last Updated: 2:55PM BST 11/07/2008
    Getty
    Turkey is our most popular holiday destination

    The worsening economic climate is prompting British holidaymakers to look beyond the traditional package holiday favourite, Spain, to the cheaper option of Turkey, new research showed this week.

    The Co-operative Travel Company reported that there had been a “seismic shift” in the way Britons were booking holidays this summer. Among its clients, Turkey had overtaken Spain, the favourite package holiday destination since the Sixties.

    A large part of the reason for the shift is the poor exchange rate of the pound against the euro. Analysis by Co-operative Travel showed that the average cost of a holiday to Spain, which uses the euro, was £465 – over £100 more than the average cost of a holiday to Turkey (£357), which does not.

    The independent travel group’s findings were based on research into more than 200,000 holidays to its 30 most popular foreign holiday destinations.

    The group found that, while bookings to Majorca were down by 13 per cent compared with the same time last year, some 30 per cent more people were booking trips to Turkey. Egypt is also benefiting from the switch away from Spain, with bookings to Sharm el Sheikh up 38 per cent over last year.

    The fall in bookings to western Mediterranean destinations such as mainland Spain and the Balearics is also due to a reduction in the number of holidays on offer in the marketplace following the mergers last year between the major tour operators Thomas Cook and MyTravel, and Thomson and First Choice.

    At the start of the summer 2008 booking season, Thomson’s parent company, TUI Travel UK, announced cuts of 12 per cent while Thomas Cook trimmed the former MyTravel holiday programme by as much as 23 per cent.

    Co-operative Travel’s retail distribution director, Trevor Davis, said: “Bookings from people looking for cheap summer sun have traditionally ensured that Spain was the leading holiday destination. However, this year they are finding the high euro and a shortage of availability means the normal late deals are not available.

    “Turkey has benefited most from this trend and we’re seeing 30 per cent growth in bookings for holidays across all parts of the country.”

    Thomson and First Choice believe that economic uncertainties, coupled with the strength of the euro, will prompt more holidaymakers to take advantage of “all-inclusive” or “full-board” breaks where the total price is known in advance.

    Further afield, fuel surcharges are affecting long-haul destinations, with fares to Australia for departures in October – the start of the southern hemisphere summer – up by more than 12 per cent this year, from £997 to £1,124 for an economy return from Heathrow.

    Many families wanting to keep costs down are holidaying in Britain. Steve Short, managing director of the domestic tour operator Compass Holidays, said: “Rising oil prices mean families have to pay a fortune to go abroad this year. People don’t realise what beautiful and relaxing destinations we have right here in Britain. Many are easily reachable by train, so there’s no need even to spend money on petrol.”

    Tom Wright, the chief executive of VisitBritain, said: “In the current economic climate, we are finding that Britons are taking another look at holidaying at home and are surprised by the range of experiences on offer.”

    Top 10 Foreign Holiday Destinations

    1. Turkey – Dalaman
    2. Majorca
    3. Crete
    4. Turkey – Bodrum
    5. Algarve
    6. Cyprus
    7. Tenerife
    8. Costa Blanca
    9. Sharm el Sheikh
    10. Rhodes

    (Source: The Co-operative Travel Company)

    Source: www.telegraph.co.uk, [London], 11/07/2008

  • Bilkent University mosque to feature church, synagogue

    Bilkent University mosque to feature church, synagogue

    Ankara will soon have another version of the Garden of Religions, inaugurated in December 2004 by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the Belek district of Antalya.

    A mosque complex is being constructed on the Bilkent University campus, and it will also feature a church and a synagogue. Expected to be Turkey’s new protocol mosque for official visits, the complex will see completion in September.

    To be named the Doğramacızade Mosque after the founder and honorary rector of the university, Professor İhsan Doğramacı, the complex will be a little different from its peer in Antalya, as the church and synagogue will be inside the mosque, forming two separate sections. The one in Belek has a garden with three separate places of worship.

    However, the project has one challenge to face: Before it is completed it needs to be endorsed by the Directorate of Religious Affairs, which must make an interpretation in line with Islamic jurisprudence about the permissibility of followers of three different religions worshipping in the same place.

    A number of officials from the directorate told Today’s Zaman that they knew about the construction of the complex but had no idea about the two separate rooms to be used inside the mosque as a church and a synagogue.

    In their appeal for the directorate’s approval, officials from the Professor İhsan Doğramacı Foundation requested that they themselves be permitted to appoint an imam to the mosque, but they also said that they were not averse to the idea of the directorate appointing a qualified and accomplished imam to such an important mosque.

    The mosque’s plan was drawn up upon the instructions of Doğramacı, the son of a Turkoman family from Kirkuk. Its architecture is described as “very authentic and republican style” by Doğramacı. Having bought the building plot shortly before construction began, Doğramacı is covering all the building expenses himself. Paying close attention to every detail of construction, he is reported to have spent about $1 million so far.

    What makes the project distinctive is that it has been planned as the official protocol mosque of Ankara. The two rooms inside the mosque will be set aside for Christian and Jewish students and lecturers from the Bilkent, Hacettepe and Middle East Technical universities.

    The building plot is 12,000 square meters. The mosque will sit on a 4,500-square-meter portion, and the rest of the plot will be set aside for green areas. The mosque building will also have conference and exhibition halls for conferences and panel discussions on religious and ethical issues.

    In addition to the women’s section, the mosque will have two benches at the back for those with health problems that prevent them from kneeling and prostrating in prayer. There will be a moving walkway for the elderly and a separate entrance and exit for official guests to enter and leave with ease. There will also be a large parking lot.

    Project based on Islamic tolerance

    Houses of worship of the three Abrahamic religions sharing a common space is not actually a first in the history of Muslim Turks. The first example to be cited would be İstanbul’s Dar’ul-ajaza charity home, which for centuries had separate places for the followers of all three religions to worship. With the idea of allowing all people, regardless of faith, to benefit from these charitable institutions in mind, the Ottoman state had a worship room built for all three of the religions in this charitable place, along with innumerous others.

    Similar places that combined places of worship of all three religions existed throughout the Ottoman lands, particularly in İstanbul’s Ortaköy district and Hatay, or Antioch.

    When the first Garden of Religions was opened in Antalya in 2004 by Prime Minister Erdoğan, the inaugural ceremony was attended by Ali Bardakoğlu, the head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, Alphonse Sammut, a representative of the Turkish Catholic churches, Dasiteos Aragnostopoulos, a representative of the Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, İshak Haleva, chief rabbi of the Turkish Jewish congregation and the Armenian patriarch, Mesrob II Mutafyan. The Kuşadası Businessmen’s Association (KUSİAD) also launched a similar project after witnessing foreign visitors’ positive reactions to the two previous projects. The Kutadası Garden of Religions is being built on an 8,500-square-meter plot. The site will have conference and exhibition halls, too.

    ERCAN YAVUZ ANKARA

    Source: Todays Zaman, 12 July 2008

  • The Turkish Dictionary

    The Turkish Dictionary

    Ghassan Charbel, Al-Hayat – 11/07/08

    The world lives in rhythm with Iranian blasts. When President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad does not issue his threats, Revolutionary Guard generals take over. The menu of threats is all too known: closing the Strait of Hormuz; targeting American ships; setting the Great Satan’s interests on fire; unavoidably abolishing Israel; eradicating the cancerous tumor and burning down Tel Aviv. With threats, come maneuvers, and when necessary, Iran announces testing a new generation of missiles. The message is clear: Iran has the means to translate its threats to actions and set fire to the region.

    The world was preoccupied with the Iranian missile serial, while Baghdad received Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on a visit both sides agreed on dubbing “historical”. Erdogan brought a message of hope to the Iraqis. He addressed them saying: “Be optimistic to cross this difficult phase and you will always find me by your side, God willing. The Turkish government and people will be standing by you.”

    It was remarkable to see, at the end of the talks,that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced the formation of the Higher council for Strategic Cooperation, aimed at organizing cooperation on all economic levels, combating terrorism, and handling water issues. Erdogan also added that both nations are working to let commercial exchange figures reach $25 billion. It was all talk of cooperation, investment and numbers. The Turkish prime minister also declared that he has received support from al-Maliki’s government and the Kurdistan Regional Government against the fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has resumed its violent activities inside Turkey.

    There is no doubt that the future of the Iraqi situation is a matter of concern for Turkey, with regards to its security and stability. It is likely that Turkey will be the biggest loser, in case Iraq slips into chaos. The reason is that a united Iraq guarantees confining the Kurdish dream within the Iraqi Kurdistan borders, whereas an Iraqi outburst would inevitably lead to the independence of this region and to turning it into a center that attracts Turkish Kurds. In this sense, it is worth noting that Ankara has a lot to gain from a united Iraq, whereas the Iranian role can only grow in a troubled Iraq, since the balances within a united Iraq prevent Tehran from pulling Iraqi strings at will.

    Turkey has no interest in a troubled Iraq, in which al-Qaeda settles to breed new generations of suicide bombers in certain parts of the country. It also has no interest in an Iraq, whose government does not exercise full control over its territories, which forces Turkey to occasionally organize disciplinary campaigns inside the Iraqi borders. Similarly, Turkey has no interest in an Iraq dominated by Iran, because that would disturb regional balances right at its borders. In this context, the visit can be viewed as an expansion of the scope of regional recognition that al-Maliki’s government enjoys, and also as an encouragement for it to adopt a national reconciliation policy that will enlarge, most of all, its scope of recognition among Arabs.

    In one of its facets, Erdogan’s visit to Iraq represents another step in Turkey’s efforts to contain the rising Iranian power in the region, efforts that are both calm and wise as they are carried out away from noise and emotional outbursts. This is evident from the fact that Turkey has not panicked or lost its nerve in front of its Iranian neighbor’s exercise of muscles, including its battle with the west over uranium enrichment.

    Turkey also assumes a more important role on another front. Erdogan’s government is playing a prominent role in hosting and mediating indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel on its territories. One can say that the successful transformation of these negotiations into direct talks sponsored by the US will represent a very serious attempt to establish peace in the Middle East and to contain the Iranian influence, which is reinforced by the atmospheres of confrontation. Of course, it is too premature to speak of an overt and explicit split between Syrian and Iranian calculations. However, the role Turkey is playing in the progress of the Syrian position is extremely important, given Turkey’s nature and its international alliances.

    From military participation in Afghanistan, to participating in the international forces in South Lebanon, to encouraging Syria to negotiate with Israel and support al-Maliki’s government, the gap between the Turkish and Iranian dictionaries seems vast. Resting on its Islamic roots and wearing Ataturk’s hat, Erdogan’s Turkey speaks the language of interests, figures, international law and realism, whereas Ahmedinejad scoops up firebrands from both the revolution and the dictionary of confrontation, while addressing the world with missiles.

    Source: Al-Hayat, 11/07/08

  • Germany wants quick solution to hostage drama

    Germany wants quick solution to hostage drama

    The German government wants to find a fast solution for a hostage drama in eastern Turkey. On Tuesday, three German mountain climbers were kidnapped in eastern Turkey by Kurdish separatist PKK fighters.

    Although it is not clear whether contact has been made, Berlin says it will not give in to blackmail by Kurdish rebels.

    The hostages were part of a German mountaineering expedition. The other mountaineers are expected to return to Germany today.

    Source : radionetherlands.nl

  • My Trip to Karabakh

    My Trip to Karabakh

    Published by Nick Nwolisa on 11 Jul 2008 at en.iepf-ngo.org. In order to see pictures just visit the web site.

    It was the fist time I traveled to one of the beautiful corners of Karabakh – Fuzuli. This beautiful place 15 years ago was occupied and destroyed but later liberated by Azerbaijan Army. Spring has just come and gone; the place was beautiful, everywhere covered with green looking very attractive to behold. (more…)