Category: Main Issues

Armenian supporters skeptical of ties between Turkey, Indian tribes

Armenian supporters skeptical of ties between Turkey, Indian tribes

By MICHAEL DOYLE

McClatchy Newspapers

The perennial political fighting between Armenian-Americans and Turkey has migrated to Indian country.

In a diplomatically creative but controversial move, Turkey wants preferential access to start commercial ventures on selected U.S. tribal lands. In theory, tribes would get business and Turkey would gain friends.

“We’re trying to build bridges with other communities,” G. Lincoln McCurdy, the president of the Turkish Coalition of America, said in an interview. “If this works, it would be good for everybody.”

But not everybody thinks so. Lawmakers in states with large Armenian-American populations, such as California and New Jersey, think a legislative proposal that’s now before the House of Representatives extends an undeserved favor to a country still associated with a long-ago slaughter.

“We could not let that pass … without some acknowledgment of the Armenian genocide,” Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., said.

The bill in question would allow six Indian tribes to lease land to Turkish companies without securing the usual, often time-consuming Bureau of Indian Affairs approvals. The tribes would be selected competitively by the Interior Department, and would develop their own guidelines for leasing land him.

In this Capitol Hill fight, regional loyalties and ethnic politics could matter more than party lines.

When the House Natural Resources Committee approved the legislation Nov. 17 on a 27-15 vote, Costa and Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., united in opposition. The Democrat and the Republican represent portions of California’s Central Valley, which is heavily populated by Armenian-Americans.

On the other side, bill supporter Republican Rep. Don Young is a longtime champion of his home state’s Alaska Natives. The bill’s author, conservative Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., is a member of the Chickasaw. Another supporter, liberal Democratic Rep. Jay Inslee of Washington state, is running for governor in that state, which is home to 103,000 American Indians.

Like much that happens on Capitol Hill, the bill dubbed the Indian Tribal Trade and Investment Demonstration Project Act of 2011 rides atop multiple motives. It now goes to the full House for a vote.

“It definitely broadens (Turkey’s) political base,” McCurdy said, “and it increases the opportunity for Turkish companies to establish operations in this country.”

A broader political base, in turn, could aid Turkey in recurring Capitol Hill conflicts with Armenian-Americans. In raw population, Armenian-Americans widely outnumber Turkish-Americans. Turkey, though, enjoys considerable high-level clout as an important NATO country.

Nearly every year, these competing forces are on display as lawmakers press for an Armenian genocide resolution that takes note of the massacres that took place during the Ottoman Empire’s dying days. The resolution routinely fails but keeps coming back; this year’s version has 84 House co-sponsors.

It’s in this context that the Native American investment bill reflects Turkey’s cultivation of tribes.

Over the past two years, Turkey has sponsored a number of visits by Indian leaders. In November 2010, for instance, it hosted some 20 Native Americans for a week, including representatives of Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene Tribe and Washington state’s Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.

“This is the first foreign country that has shown interest in investing with – cooperation with – a tribe to improve their economic lot,” Young said at the House committee hearing Nov. 17.

In a similar vein, Turkish universities sponsor scholarships for Native American students, and Turkish officials have met with Indian leaders in Los Angeles and Seattle. Last March, a top Turkish Trade Ministry official became the first foreign representative to speak at an annual Las Vegas conference on Native American economic development.

“I have no idea why they’re being so nice to Native Americans,” Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said during the House hearing. “I’m sure there’s some bad underlying reason or something that they’re trying to gain.”

via Armenian supporters skeptical of ties between Turkey, Indian tribes – KansasCity.com.

December 13, 2011
Nicosia hails conclusions of Council about Turkey

Nicosia hails conclusions of Council about Turkey

Article | December 11, 2011 – 2:00pm

Cyprus’ government is satisfied with the content of the conclusions of the General Affairs Council that concern Turkey, said Government Spokesman Stefanos Stefanou, while commenting on the text of the Conclusions of the General Affairs Council of the European Union, at the Presidential Palace on 7 December.

In the conclusions, Turkey is urged to avoid any kind of threat or action directed against a member state and is called upon to commit itself to good neighbourly relations. It is evident that the EU indicates to Turkey to terminate the threats it launches against Cyprus in connection with the explorations that our country is conducting for hydrocarbons in the Cyprus EEZ. In the conclusions there is an extensive reference to Turkey’s Cyprus-related obligations as these are outlined in the Conclusions of December 2006 and in the Declaration of September 2005, which unfortunately Turkey has not fulfilled, so far, thus causing the EU’s deep dissatisfaction.

The Council underlines the need for full and non-discriminatory implementation of the Additional Protocol towards all member states. In the conclusions, an important reference is made on the fact that the non-discriminatory implementation would provide a significant boost to Turkey’s negotiation process.

In the absence of progress, the Council has decided to maintain its measures from 2006 which, as it is known, led to the freezing of eight accession chapters for Turkey. According to the conclusions, the Council expects Turkey to actively support the ongoing negotiations aimed at a fair, comprehensive and viable settlement of the Cyprus problem within the UN framework, in accordance with the relevant resolutions, and in line with the principles on which the Union is founded.

via Nicosia hails conclusions of Council about Turkey | New Europe.

December 12, 2011
Sarkisian Urges Turkey To ‘Repent’

President Serzh Sarkisian has urged Turkey to “repent” for the World War One-era massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and expressed confidence that Ankara will eventually recognize them as genocide.

France – President Serzh Sarkisian speaks at an official reception in Marseille, 7Dec2011.

“We believe that Turkey must repent,” he said during a visit to France’s second largest city of Marseille late on Wednesday. “That is neither a precondition nor a desire to exact revenge. Turkey must come face to face with its history.”

“One day Turkey’s leadership will find the strength to reassess its approaches to the Armenian Genocide,” Sarkisian said, speaking at an official reception organized in his honor by Marseille’s Mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin and attended by prominent members of the local Armenian community.

“Sooner or later Turkey, which considers itself a European country, will have a truly European leadership that will bow its head at the Tsitsernakabert [genocide memorial in Yerevan,]” claimed the Armenian leader. “The sooner the better, but that is up to the Turkish people.”

There was no immediate reaction to the remarks from Ankara which vehemently denies that some 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman Turks in 1915-1918.

France – President Serzh Sarkisian speaks at an official reception in Marseille, 7Dec2011.

Successive Turkish governments have said that Armenians died in much smaller numbers and as a result of civil strife, rather than a premeditated government effort to exterminate a key Christian minority in the crumbling Ottoman Empire.

Turkish leaders reacted angrily after French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged them to stop denying the genocide during an October visit to Armenia. “Collective denial is even worse than individual denial,” Sarkozy said after laying flowers at the Tsitsernakabert memorial. He also implicitly threatened to enact a law that would make Armenian genocide denial a crime in France.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip accused Sarkozy of playing the anti-Turkish card to secure reelection next year and warned of serious damage to relations between France and Turkey.

By contrast, Sarkisian was full of praise for the French leader. “We must simply be grateful to the wise president of this beautiful country,” he told the mostly French-Armenian audience.

In his speech, Sarkisian did not mention the future of the Turkish-Armenian normalization agreements signed two years ago. Earlier this year, he threatened to withdraw Yerevan’s signature from the agreements if Ankara continues to make their parliamentary ratification contingent on the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

via Sarkisian Urges Turkey To ‘Repent’.

December 11, 2011
Turkey condemned French Senate

According to Turkish media Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a message and expressed his dissatisfaction over French Senate legal issues committee decision on criminalizing Armenian Genocide denial. The resolution was accepted by the French committee accepted the resolution on December 7.

Turkish MFA hoped that these steps won’t continue and added that these steps damaged Turkish-French relations. Turkey also noted that France would have a constructive investment in solving Armenian-Turkish historical conflict by dialogue.

Remind that the draft will be discussed at French Senate soon.

via Turkey condemned French Senate.

December 11, 2011
Turkey to freeze relations with EU from January – Cyprus – ANSAMed.it

(ANSAmed) – ANKARA, DECEMBER 8 – The announced ”freeze” on Turkey’s relations with the EU will start already at the beginning of the coming year, and not only in the second half of it, due to the fact that Cyprus will soon be taking on the EU’s rotating presidency. This was underscored in a Turkish daily after the position was announced yesterday by a high-level deputy in Ankara. The newspaper, Turkiya, also underscored that the boycott of the EU Council would last 18 months, since it was linked to the presence of Cyprus in the ”troikas”, meetings chaired by the State currently holding the EU presidency but flanked by the countries holding the presidency in the previous and successive 6-month periods.

Cyprus – which represents only the Greek-Cypriot half, with the country divided in two since the 1974 invasion by the Turkish due to Greek Colonels regime’s aim to annex the island after they had taken power through a coup – will be taking on the EU presidency in the second half of 2012 and will therefore be present in the ”troikas” from January 2012 until June 2013.

Turkey does not want to sit at the same table as Greek-Cypriot representatives, reports the newspaper in referring to the fact that Ankara does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus (which represents only Greek Cypriots) as a state.

”We will be freezing our relations with the Council” presided over by Cyprus, co-chairman of the Turkey-EU joint parliamentary committee Afif Demirkiran told journalists yesterday. The statement confirmed previous early announcements made by Ankara last summer when, even at the level of the prime minister, it had threatened to freeze relations with the EU if the rotating presidency were to be entrusted to Cyprus in July without a previous conclusion of the talks on the status of the divided island underway with UN mediation. Cyprus’s veto is one of the obstacles to Turkey’s bid for EU membership. (ANSAmed).

via Turkey to freeze relations with EU from January – Cyprus – ANSAMed.it.

December 9, 2011
U.S. Again Tells Turkey To Honor Armenia Accords

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden pressed Turkey to unconditionally ratify its Western-backed normalization agreements with Armenia “in the months ahead” during a visit to Ankara and Istanbul that ended at the weekend.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul (left) receives U.S. Vice President Joe Biden at the Presidential Palace in Ankara on December 2.

A senior official from the administration of President Barack Obama said the fate of the two Turkish-Armenian protocols signed in 2009 was on the agenda of Biden’s talks with Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and parliament speaker Cemil Cicek.

The official said that during a breakfast meeting with Cicek on December 2, Biden “applauded the fact that the protocols for normalization with Armenia were back on the agenda of the [Turkish] parliament.”

“And he expressed his hope that the parliament will be able to act on those protocols in the months ahead,” the official told U.S. journalists traveling with Biden.

The U.S. vice president met Gul later on December 2 before traveling to Istanbul for separate talks with Erdogan held on December 4.

“On Armenia, he said to the prime minister what he had raised with President Gul, as well — the hope that now that the protocols for normalization were back on the agenda of the parliament, that Turkey would be able to move on those protocols in the months ahead,” the Obama administration official said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton conveyed a similar message to the Turkish government when she visited Istanbul in July.

However, the Turkish leaders and Erdogan in particular have repeatedly made clear that the protocols will not be ratified by Turkey’s parliament before a breakthrough in international efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Armenia rejects this precondition. President Serzh Sarkisian threatened earlier this year to withdraw Yerevan’s signature from the accord if the Turks stick to the Karabakh linkage.

According to the Istanbul-based “Hurriyet Daily News,” Biden told Gul that Ankara should “speed up the normalization process with Armenia” if it wants the Obama administration to block further resolutions in the U.S. Congress recognizing the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

This warning attributed to Biden could be seized upon by Armenian critics of the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement, who say it has helped Ankara to thwart a broader international recognition of the Armenian genocide.

They were already incensed when Biden claimed last year that Sarkisian himself had asked the White House not to use the word genocide with regard to the killing of some 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians while Turkish-Armenian negotiations are in progress. Both official Yerevan and the U.S. Embassy in Armenia denied that claim, which was videotaped by an Armenian-American activist and available on YouTube.com.

Biden strongly supported Armenian genocide resolutions debated by Congress when he was a member of the U.S. Senate.

compiled from agency reports

via U.S. Again Tells Turkey To Honor Armenia Accords.

December 6, 2011