Category: News

  • The danger of ‘losing Turkey’

    The danger of ‘losing Turkey’

    WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (UPI) — Is it possible to lose something you haven’t yet found?

    That is a question being asked by two scholars from the Brookings Institution in Washington, and what would happen in the event that Turkey got tired of waiting to be accepted as a full partner by the West.

    Philip H. Gordon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former director for European affairs on the National Security Council, and Omer Taspinar, a professor of national security studies at the U.S. National War College, as well as a director of the Turkey Project and a non-resident fellow at Brookings, just released their thoughts on the matter in a publication put out by Brookings, titled “Winning Turkey.”

    They start off by asking, “Who lost Turkey?” and play off the following scenario: The year is 2012, and a televised presidential debate is under way in the United States. Following a coup by Turkey’s military, the elected Islamist-leaning government is overthrown after being accused of “promoting a hidden Islamic fundamentalist agenda and selling out Turkey’s national interests.”

    As might be expected, Europe and the United States impose strict economic sanctions on Turkey. The new government in Ankara responds by declaring it would pursue a more independent foreign policy.

    Turkey’s military government withdraws Ankara’s more than 10-year-old application to join the European Union, suspends its membership in NATO, bars the United States from the use of military bases on its territory and announces that henceforth Turkey would pursue a more independent foreign policy in which it would seek to develop closer diplomatic, economic and energy relations with Russia, China and Iran. Furthermore, Turkey orders its military forces into northern Iraq to act against the Kurds.

    The questions in this hypothetical presidential debate being asked by the moderator are the following: How could the United States let this happen to a relationship with such an important American ally? As president, the candidates in the debate are asked what they would have done to prevent this foreign policy disaster. Who lost Turkey? And how can we win it back?

    Indeed, there is a growing feeling among many Turks of being fed up with the way they are currently treated by the West, and particularly by the Europeans. In addition to the current problems facing Turkey in foreign policy, the Islamist-leaning government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is accused of pursuing a hidden Islamist agenda. However, as the authors point out, Turkish secularists believe Western observers tend to underestimate what is really transpiring in Turkey and to see the country more as a “moderate Islamic country.”

    A monumental mistake being made by the West is falsely believing that Turkey has no other option but to align itself with the West. Turkey’s love affair with Europe and the United States is a result of a policy set out by Mustafa Kemal, the founder of modern-day Turkey. Kemal, also known as Ataturk, saw the future of his country after the demise of the Ottoman Empire, when Turkey retrenched itself within its borders after having lost all its territories in World War I with Europe.

    While the vast majority of Turkish politicians since Ataturk have followed his ideas and remained faithful to the Kemalist principle, there are no ironclad guarantees that this will remain the same in the years to come. It is not impossible to expect future Turkish governments — either through elections or, as the two Brookings scholars point out, through a military coup, something modern-day Turkey has already experienced several times — to alter the course of Kemalism. Yes, this is unthinkable today, but who could have predicted the sudden turn of events in Iran, for example, when the shah, a staunch U.S. ally, was overthrown by an Islamic revolution?

    Turkey represents an important ally in the Levant for a number of reasons. The country counts more than 70 million Muslims, and despite its paradoxes it remains the most advanced democracy in the Islamic world. It straddles far more than just Europe and Asia; but with borders with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Iran, Iraq and Syria, it also straddles the Caucasus and Europe, as well as the Middle East and Europe, the Arab world and Iran.

    It should not be ruled out that Turkey one day might decide enough is enough and turn away from Europe and Kemalist ideas, and seek alliances with the Central Asian republics, with some of whom it even shares a similar language, not to mention religion.

    In conclusion, the authors point out that at this time Turkey is not “lost.” Of course, it could become so, unless current trends are quickly reversed and Turkey is given a reason to believe its future is well assured as part of the Western world.

    With almost certain guarantees that the situation in Afghanistan will get much worse before it gets any better, and with tensions between India and Pakistan rising to dangerous new levels, “losing” Turkey would be more than a monumental mistake. It would border on outright stupidity.

    (Claude Salhani is editor of the Middle East Times.)

  • Turkish FM, In Baku, Defends Armenia Ties

    Turkish FM, In Baku, Defends Armenia Ties

    AFP

     Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan on Monday defended Ankara’s efforts to improve ties with Armenia during a visit to Azerbaijan, where Turkish overtures to its arch-foe have raised concerns.

    Following talks with Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov, Babacan said better ties between Turkey and Armenia would help to resolve the longstanding conflict over Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

    “The normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations would have a positive impact on the Azerbaijan-Armenia talks over Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said at a press conference.

    Babacan’s visit came amid a push by Turkey for more influence in the volatile Caucasus region, where Russia and Georgia fought a brief war in August. After the conflict, Ankara proposed creating a new forum for cooperation in the region, which Babacan called for regional governments to support.

    “All the countries of the region must sit at the bargaining table,” he said.

    In September, Turkish President Abdullah Gul became the first Turkish head of state to visit Armenia, boosting a tentative dialogue process between the two countries to overcome their history of enmity.

    Both Turkey and Azerbaijan have severed ties with Armenia, closing borders and imposing an economic blockade on Yerevan as a result of the Karabakh dispute. But Azerbaijani media and some officials have raised concerns that Ankara’s recent overtures to Yerevan could see it re-open the border and lift its embargo, easing international pressure on Armenia to give up control of Karabakh and other territories seized from Azerbaijan.

  • Iran Hangs Convicted Spy for Israel

    Iran Hangs Convicted Spy for Israel

    Security Official in Tehran Sees ‘Intensifying Intelligence War’

    By Thomas Erdbrink

    Washington Post Foreign Service

    TEHRAN, Nov. 22 — Iran has executed a man convicted of spying for Israel in an “intensifying intelligence war” between the two countries, a high-level Iranian security official announced Saturday at a rare news conference.

    Ali Ashtary, a businessman who sold communication and security equipment to Iranian security organizations, was arrested in 2007 and found guilty in June of spying for the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, the semiofficial Mehr News Agency quoted the official as saying.

    The official, who heads the counterespionage unit of the Intelligence Ministry but was not identified by name, said Ashtary was put to death Monday morning. The Associated Press reported that he was hanged.

    The case “shows a new dimension and intensifying of the widespread intelligence fight between us and the Israeli intelligence service,” the official reportedly told a select group of local reporters.

    Israel has repeatedly said it is prepared to attack Iran over its nuclear program. Israel and the United States say Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran, which does not recognize Israel, maintains that its nuclear program is meant only for energy purposes.

    The counterespionage official said the Mossad is using satellite television advertisements and Internet chat rooms to recruit Iranians in order to obtain information about Iran.

    Pars TV, one of the dozens of Farsi-language opposition satellite television channels that broadcast from California, is running advertisements offering $10 million for information about a missing Israeli airman, Ron Arad, whose plane was shot down in 1986 over Lebanon. The ads urge Iranians to call or fax if they have information about his case.

    “Some people inside our country who were trying to make some money got in touch with that organization. But they fell into the intelligence operation created by the Zionist regime,” the official said. “Those people were changed into pawns in the hands of the Mossad, but they didn’t have any news on the Israeli pilot. Neither do we. They were used by Mossad to gather information.”

    Offering insight into Iran’s international intelligence operations, the official said that four people had been “identified and arrested” in the neighboring Kurdish region of Iraq, where anti-Iranian militant groups are active.

    “This team had gadgets and weapons made by Israel and intended to assassinate people who were not officials of the country. But now they are important for us,” he said, adding that the targets were not politicians or other members of Iran’s leadership. “Because we control the borders and have operations there, this group was arrested before they could carry out any action.” His comments were carried in the semiofficial Fars News Agency.

    Iranian officials accuse Israel and the United States of supporting several militant separatist groups inside and outside their country. One of the groups is a splinter of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which regularly attacks Turkish troops. Both militant organizations operate from the mountainous areas along the Iraqi-Turkish border. Since 2003, dozens of Iranian troops and insurgents have died in raids in the area.

    On Tuesday, at the start of a trial in Tehran, three men confessed to involvement in the bombing of a place of worship in the central city of Shiraz in April. Iranian officials have said the United States and Israel were involved in the blast, which killed 14 people.

    Ali Akbar Heidarifar, representing Tehran’s prosecutor general, called for death sentences in the attack, which also wounded 200, the official IRNA news agency reported.

    “I was brainwashed by the Iranian monarchy association to act against Islam and the system and told I had to save the people,” Mohsen Islamian, one of the defendants, reportedly said, referring to an unknown opposition group.

    Source: www.washingtonpost.com

  • Rector kicks out Israel ambassador

    Rector kicks out Israel ambassador

    ANKARA – Istanbul University’s rector, Mesut Parlak, drove away two Israeli officials from his office due to the presence of their armed bodyguards, daily Haaretz reported yesterday.

    The Israeli ambassador to Turkey, Gabby Levy, and Consul General Mordechai Amichai visited Parlak in his office Friday and he became annoyed by the bodyguards who entered his office without permission. “This is a university and we cannot hold a meeting under these circumstances. There is no such protocol here. I am responsible for your security and these bodyguards cannot stay,” Parlak told the officials who insisted on keeping the bodyguards with them. Parlak then canceled the meeting and saw them to the door.

    Israeli sources confirmed the incident saying they did not want to leave the ambassador alone at the meeting after protests by Palestinian students at Bahçeşehir University earlier in the week.

    Israeli diplomats in Turkey are provided with “Shin Bet protection,” but it is customary to keep the presence of police and security personnel to a minimum on university campuses. The altercation erupted when the two diplomats failed to adhere to this unwritten rule.

    Source: www.hurriyet.com.tr, 23 Nov 2008

  • Ankara warns Israel over museum atop Muslim cemetery

    Ankara warns Israel over museum atop Muslim cemetery

    27 November 2008

    Turkey has warned Israel over plans for the construction of a museum in Jerusalem on a site that is now a Muslim cemetery in which companions of the Prophet Muhammad are buried.

    A top Israeli court’s recent ruling giving the go-ahead for the construction of the “Museum of Tolerance” has led to tension in the region and is likely to spark reaction from Muslims around the world. Israeli Ambassador to Turkey Gabby Levy was recently summoned to the Foreign Ministry, where Turkish diplomats explained Ankara’s stance on the issue, while Turkish Ambassador to Israel Namık Tan conveyed Ankara’s uneasiness over the plan during a meeting with Israeli Foreign Ministry officials. “Everyone should avoid actions that may lead to new tensions in the region,” Levy was told at the meeting on Nov. 14, as the Turkish side underlined the delicacy of the Middle East peace process. Ankara has been careful in its warning’s wording due to its mediation efforts between Israel and Syria, sources said. “We have been following the issue very closely,” Foreign Minister Ali Babacan told reporters late on Tuesday.

    Earlier this month the Palestinian ambassador to Turkey asked for the Turkish government’s help after the court decision was issued, rejecting an appeal against the construction plans.

    Palestinian Ambassador to Turkey Nabil Maarouf described the museum plan as “a typical Israeli attack.” Citing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s harsh reaction against Israeli archaeological work near the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Haram al-Sharif complex — the third most important site in Islam — Maarouf urged Ankara to assist in stopping the project. Israeli Embassy officials in Ankara, however, said no political interference into a judicial ruling was possible.

    Israel’s Supreme Court ruled late last month that it would not block the construction since no objections had been lodged in 1960, when the city put a parking lot over a small section of the graveyard. The museum is sponsored by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angeles-based Jewish organization, and is intended to bring the city’s divided residents together. The court sought to address religious demands for respecting the dead by giving the project 60 days to reach an agreement with the state-run Antiquities Authority over plans for either removing the human remains for reburial or installing a barrier between the museum’s foundation and the ground below to avoid disturbing the graves.

    Source: www.todayszaman.com, 27 November 2008

  • Report: Mossad behind Ergenekon plot

    Report: Mossad behind Ergenekon plot

    Published: 11/30/2008
    Mossad Conduit Tuncay Guney

    A report alleges that Israel’s national intelligence agency, Mossad has been behind the Ergenekon plot to topple the Turkish government.

    A secret investigation of detained Ergenekon group members and other studies outside Turkey indicate that Mossad orchestrated coups against the Turkish government, the Turkish daily Milliyet reported Sunday.

    The Ergenekon group is a Turkish neo-nationalist organization with alleged links to the military, members of which have been arrested on charges of plotting to foment unrest in the country.

    Investigators uncovered evidence that show a Jewish rabbi named Tuncay Guney, who worked for Mossad and fled to Canada in 2004, was a key figure behind attempts to overthrow the Turkish government, the paper said, Fars news reported.

    A document uncovered this week by the Sabah daily shows how Guney deliberately infiltrated Ergenekon and another organization known as JITEM, an illegal intelligence unit linked with the police and suspected of hundreds of murders and kidnappings.

    Meanwhile, a separate report by Turkish daily Yeni Safak has claimed that Turkish security forces have discovered documents in Guney’s Istanbul house that disclose information concerning suspicious investment and economic activities by certain Jewish businessmen in Turkey.

    The businessmen allegedly have significant relations with individuals, political groups and cultural organizations affiliated with the Ergenekon group.

    Turkish security forces have detained many members of the Ergenekon group, including retired army generals, politicians, popular lawyers and famous journalists. The individuals currently face trail on charges of plotting to overthrow Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    AO/CW/MMN

    Source: www.turkishpress.com, 30/11/2008

    Google News search lists the story as follows:

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    PRESS TV

    Report: Mossad behind Ergenekon plot
    PRESS TV, Iran – 9 hours ago
    A secret investigation into detained Ergenekon group members and other studies outside Turkey indicate that Mossad orchestrated coups against the Turkish

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    However Press TV link is already removed.