Category: Turkey

A Turkish View on What is Really Behind Persistent Anti-Americanism in Turkey

Ergün Kirlikovali September 7th 2009

Irvine CA

Responding to “What’s Behind Behind Persistent Anti-Americanism in Turkey?” by Soner Cagaptay and Yurter Ozcan in your August 31st 2009 edition (see August 31, 2009 Society), at least some of the reasons behind seemingly persistent Anti-Americanism in Turkey are:

1) Continuing reliance of the Congress and even the Presidency on anti-Turkish lobbies to define United States-Turkey relations;

2) Ceaseless defamation of Turks, Turkey, Turkish culture, heritage, and history in the media due to input received from anti-Turkish biased sources, as in the bogus Armenian genocide case;

3) Insistence on a ridiculous war in Iraq despite strenuous objections from and damage to Turkey;

4) Behind the scenes wheeling and dealing with Kurdish terrorists, PKK (though officially always denied);

5) Taking Greek and Greek Cypriots representations and claims at face value when developing approaches in southeastern Europe;

6) Trade quotas (even yesterday’s communist China enjoys more freedom in trade in USA than long time ally, reliable friend and staunch supporter Turkey;

7) Remarkable ignorance and/or even insults when faced with matters Turkish always ending up in awkward apologies.

September 12, 2009
Is AIPAC Still the Chosen One?

By Robert Dreyfuss | Wed September 9, 2009 2:13 PM PST Editors’ Note: Next Sunday’s New York Times Magazine has a feature on “The New Israel Lobby,” the liberal pro-Israel group J Street. Bob Dreyfuss’ story in the Mother Jones issue that hit the streets a few weeks ago also focuses on the shifting terrain for the Israel lobby.
AS TWO MEN AT THE PODIUM called out names in rapid succession, senators and members of Congress rose from their candlelit tables to acknowledge the cheers of 7,000 pro-Israel activists gathered to fete them. The scene was the vast Washington Convention Center; the occasion, the gala banquet capping the annual three-day conference of Washington’s most powerful lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. With more than half of Congress attending, and America’s top politicians fumbling to score crowd points with awkwardly delivered Hebrew phrases and fulminations concerning Iran, the reading of the names has become a yearly demonstration of AIPAC’s clout. Banquet speakers included Joe Biden, Newt Gingrich, and John Kerry, looming on gigantic screens that lined the hall. Representing Israel were President Shimon Peres (whose address was interrupted by a half-dozen Code Pink activists) and, via satellite link, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It was a dog and pony show no other group-not the American Medical Association, not the National Rifle Association, not AARP-could hope to match.
For decades, AIPAC-together with Washington’s broader Israel lobby, which distributed more than $22 million in campaign contributions during the last election cycle-has had a well-earned reputation for getting what it wants. And many expected the same when, during the May conference, thousands of AIPAC foot soldiers fanned across Capitol Hill to talk up the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act, a bill designed to throttle Iran’s economy by restricting its ability to import gasoline (which it doesn’t have much capacity to produce domestically). The legislation is a top priority for AIPAC, which views Iran’s nuclear enrichment push as an existential threat to the Jewish state.
But this time, AIPAC was in for a surprise. Rep. Howard Berman, a dependable Israel backer who authored the legislation this past spring, put it on ice just weeks after it was introduced. “I have no intention of moving this bill through the legislative process in the near future,” declared the California Democrat, who chairs the powerful House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
“Berman shocked everybody by not moving this bill forward,” an official from the Israel lobby told me. “He’s essentially put the kibosh on the bill. On his own bill! This is a major, major, major problem.”

So what happened? The first explanation is obvious: Like many Democrats, Berman is reluctant to stand in the way of President Obama’s foreign policy objectives, including his overture to Iran and his push for US leadership toward an Israeli-Palestinian accord. But Berman’s action also signaled a deterioration of AIPAC’s power. It’s begun to appear that “AIPAC is not the 800-pound gorilla everyone says they are,” says Dan Fleshler, author of Transforming America’s Israel Lobby. “They may be just a 400-pound gorilla.”

On Capitol Hill, a coalition of groups to the left of AIPAC has been mobilizing Democrats to support Obama’s agenda in the Middle East, even if it conflicts with the goals of AIPAC and Netanyahu. (See our graphic representation of the Israel lobby spectrum, and our who’s who of the major personalities). “Members of Congress are looking to support the president, and AIPAC hasn’t moderated itself as much as it should have,” says Patrick Disney, acting legislative director at the National Iranian American Council, which is part of the new coalition.

AIPAC is facing something of a perfect storm.

Advocating for stronger ties between the Obama administration and the current right-wing Israeli government would be a difficult chore under any circumstances; on top of that,

the megalobby has been weakened by a series of setbacks, including a long-running espionage drama involving two former officials accused of conspiring to pass along classified Pentagon Iran reports to Israel. Charges against the pair were dropped in May, but ripples from the scandal still tainted Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), one of AIPAC’s top allies on Capitol Hill, who was caught on a wiretap by the National Security Agency promising a suspected Israeli spy that she would try to get the charges reduced.

Most of all, AIPAC and its allies face a president who is determined to press both Israel and the Palestinians for a deal. He’s demanded that Israel halt its expansion of settlements in the West Bank, and in June, alarm bells went off in Israel when Obama, in his long-awaited Cairo speech on US-Muslim relations, expressed sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians in terms rarely used by an American president: “Let there be no doubt: The situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable.”

On the Iran issue, “there is a chance for the most serious dispute between the US and Israel in the entire 61 years of relations between the two,” Robert Satloff, executive director of the Israel lobby’s chief think tank, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told AIPAC in May. If Satloff is right, and Obama puts forward a Middle East peace plan that conflicts with the Israeli government’s desires, it will prove the severest test yet for AIPAC: Can a popular American president, determined to transform American policy toward West Bank settlements for the first time since 1967, roll over Washington’s most powerful lobby?

IN A SENSE, AIPAC and its allies are finding themselves hoist on their own petard. For years, the group has succeeded by gleefully aligning itself with the power of right-wing Republicans and pro-Israel evangelicals, the so-called Christian Zionists, who believe in the end-time and see a role for Israel within their own apocalyptic vision. These alliances proved a winning formula when the Newt Gingrich-led Republicans took over Congress in 1994 and, later, when President George W. Bush unquestioningly backed a series of conservative Israeli governments. But the strategy doesn’t look so good anymore. “You do pay a price for having cozied up so intimately and with such apparent relish to the right wing of the Republican Party, to the neocons, and to the Christian right,” says Daniel Levy, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation who served as a top negotiator for Israel in 1995 and 2001.

To be sure, it would be a mistake to count AIPAC out. It still has 100,000 members, a $60 million budget, and a $140 million endowment. Some 300 staffers, including an army of lobbyists, work out of 18 AIPAC offices spread across the country; they are tight with State Department and Pentagon bureaucrats, and can call on a vast network of political action committees, campaign contributors, and influentials. At its May conference-event slogan: “Relationships Matter”-AIPAC chose Lee Rosenberg, an Illinois businessman with close ties to Obama, as its next president.

Its name notwithstanding, AIPAC is not a political action committee and does not contribute money directly to political campaigns. The Center for Responsive Politics, however, identifies 31 separate PACs as “pro-Israel” donors. And while independent of AIPAC, many of these organizations look to the mother ship for guidance on which candidates to support. During the 2008 election cycle, according to an analysis conducted for Mother Jones by the center, these 31 PACs and their individual donors funneled an eye-popping $22.5 million to various candidates. As detailed in The Israel Lobby, a 2007 book by Stephen M. Walt and John J. Mearsheimer that drew withering criticism from Israel hardliners, AIPAC’s implicit-if unofficial-endorsement can open the floodgates for these contributions, especially for key candidates in tight races. Last year, Rep. Mark Kirk, a conservative Illinois Republican and AIPAC ally facing a stiff reelection challenge, raked in $407,431 from these sources.

Little surprise, then, that AIPAC is still an agenda setter on Capitol Hill. “If you’re looking for a measure of their efficacy,” notes a source close to the group, “just take a look at how many members of Congress voted in support of Israel’s right to defend themselves from Hamas this January [amid Israel’s assault on Gaza]: unanimous in the Senate, and 390-to-5 in the House.” In sync with this year’s AIPAC conference, 328 House members and three-quarters of the Senate signed the lobby group’s letters to Obama, which urged the president to take an Israel-centric approach to Middle East peace and emphasized that “the parties themselves must negotiate the details of any agreement.” The letters went on to note that “the proven best way forward is to work closely and privately together” with Israel.

Malcolm Hoenlein-who, as executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, could be described as the unofficial chairman of the Israel lobby-admits that while Obama got three-quarters of the Jewish vote, many influential Jewish activists are upset with the administration’s direction. “There are people who are very worried,” he says. “I could show you how many emails I get every day, all day long, about all this stuff.”
Hoenlein doesn’t believe the growing friction between Obama and Netanyahu will lead to a head-to-head test of wills. “It’s early,” he says of Obama. “The numbers will change. His popularity will go down.” That may be true, but AIPAC and its allies face an even broader challenge: The fight over America’s Middle East policy is ratcheting up within the Israel lobby itself.

IN THE TINY, cluttered office warren occupied by the Israel Policy Forum (IPF) in downtown Washington, the group’s director of policy analysis, M.J. Rosenberg, waves at a visitor as he wraps up a phone call. Then, slouched on a sofa in shirtsleeves and stocking feet, surrounded by piles of paper, Rosenberg proceeds to blast one of AIPAC’s congressional allies, the House minority whip, for the graphic Holocaust imagery he invoked during his speech at the AIPAC convention. “I mean, Eric Cantor gets up there and talks about cattle cars and gas chambers!” Rosenberg tells me. “He’s from Virginia! Virginia! What the hell is he talking about?”

Rosenberg’s organization is one of the pillars of a growing collection of liberal, anti-war Israel policy groups that have emerged to challenge the traditional center-right Israel lobby. Among them are Americans for Peace Now, Brit Tzedek v’Shalom, and a new entry called J Street, founded last year, whose PAC has raised about $600,000 for congressional candidates who are willing to contest the Israeli government’s hardline positions.

Of course, compared to the millions of dollars AIPAC can mobilize, the new coalition is far outgunned. But Rosenberg, who worked for AIPAC during the 1980s, argues that it is a paper tiger that capitalizes on perception as much as on reality. “The lobby is kind of like the Wizard of Oz,” he explains. “Behind that curtain, there’s not very much. It’s an illusion.” On Capitol Hill, says Rosenberg, support for the group is wide, but not very deep. “They have a couple of people, Jewish members of Congress, who are AIPAC’s people on the Hill. Key, respected members-in the current Congress, for instance, Steny Hoyer and Eric Cantor. The broad majority of members look to those members for guidance: ‘Well, this guy is for the resolution; it must be okay with AIPAC, so I’m for it.’” Members reflexively follow AIPAC, says Rosenberg, because they don’t want to be hassled by the Israel lobby, and nobody else in the debate carries near the same clout.

The game changer, he says, is Obama. “I don’t believe that many members would follow AIPAC rather than the president of the United States if the president of the United States calls,” Rosenberg explains. And thanks to decades of gerrymandering, he says, many lawmakers are so secure in their districts that there’s not that much AIPAC could do to unseat them, even with its vast contributor network.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, the slight and soft-spoken executive director of J Street, says the change on Capitol Hill is palpable. More and more members of Congress see AIPAC as an obstacle to America’s crucial national interest-a durable Middle East peace deal. “Our role is to demonstrate that there is significant and meaningful political support for leadership to achieve peace,” Ben-Ami says.

In January, when Obama named former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell as his special Middle East envoy, J Street got 104 legislators to sign a statement supporting Mitchell. (The traditional Israel lobby views Mitchell, in the words of the Anti-Defamation League’s Abraham Foxman, as a little too “even-handed.”) In May, when AIPAC’s warning letter to Obama began amassing signatures in the House-it ultimately got 328-J Street and its allies put out a competing House letter calling for strong American leadership that accumulated 86 names. “There are a number of members of Congress who are seeking out new voices on the issue,” says Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.), one of those 86, who visited Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza in May. “There is still a resistance to having open, honest dialogue out of fear about being on the wrong side of AIPAC, but I’m not going to be driven by what one lobby says. What I learned on my trip is that I don’t think AIPAC represents even the majority view in Israel.”

Netanyahu, who made a pilgrimage to Capitol Hill last spring after meeting with Obama, discovered the emerging new reality firsthand. The Forward, a Jewish newspaper based in Manhattan, quoted the prime minister’s aides as saying their boss was “stunned” by “what seemed like a well-coordinated attack against his stand on settlements,” even from traditional Israel supporters like John Kerry (D-Mass.), who chairs the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee-as well as representatives Berman and Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). While all have impeccable credentials with the Israel lobby, it’s clear that they’re increasingly unhappy with Jerusalem’s hard-right tilt. And when legislators can point to different views within the Israel policy community, it’s harder for groups like AIPAC to accuse them of being anti-Israel.

All the while, Obama has been cementing his Jewish support-as a senior public relations specialist with close ties to the Israeli Embassy groused to me. “I mean, look at the agenda!” the official said. “He went to the Holocaust Museum on Holocaust Memorial Day, and then he declared Jewish Cultural Awareness Month, which is, you know, Bagels Month, and then he had Passover at the White House, which makes all the cultural Jews, the reform Jews, go, ‘Oh my God, he’s our guy! Seder in the White House, Bagel Month, Passover at the White House!’”
Says Levy, the former Israel negotiator, “I think they’re nervous that if there’s a showdown, where do the Jews go? And I think it’s clear where the majority of the Jews would go. They’d go with Obama.”

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT with America’s Middle East policy will depend on whether Obama can advance an Israel-Palestine compromise as a critical US interest. This would be a sharp break from the past, when US negotiators often ended up in the role of “Israel’s lawyer,” in the words of Aaron David Miller, who helped oversee the peace process under President Clinton.

This is a key moment in the debate, says Walt, coauthor of The Israel Lobby. “It will be important whether he gets enough cover from J Street and the Israel Policy Forum so Obama can say, ‘AIPAC is not representative of the American Jewish community.’ But I must say, I’m not wildly optimistic about this. I don’t know if Obama is really ready to buck them.”

The power struggle comes down to “who will do a better job of interfering in the other’s politics,” says David Mack, a deputy assistant secretary of state under George H.W. Bush who spent decades as a diplomat in the region. “Bibi [Netanyahu] is very good at this. He really knows how to play the American game. He knows how to line up various groups, right-wing hawks, right-wing evangelicals, the military industrial complex, and the right wing of the American Jewish community.”

But Mack suggests that Obama might have a few tricks up his own sleeve-including an array of allies with solid Israel contacts who can be deployed to muster support in Israeli politics and media. Among them, Mack says, are former ambassadors to Israel Samuel Lewis, Daniel Kurtzer, and Martin Indyk, as well as Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff, who volunteered on an Israeli supply base during the Gulf War, and Dennis Ross, a White House adviser who spent years at the hawkish Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

In the six decades of Israel’s existence, there have been few full-fledged confrontations between an American president and the Israel lobby. In the early 1980s, after Ronald Reagan decided to sell an advanced airborne radar system to Saudi Arabia, he won a showdown with AIPAC. A decade later, George H.W. Bush and James Baker, his secretary of state, threatened to withhold loan guarantees for Israel to pressure the Jewish state over the peace process; they stared down AIPAC, contributing to the collapse of a right-wing government in Israel.
But those were only skirmishes. What’s at stake today is what many observers believe is the last best hope for a peace accord, one that will require Israel to remove hundreds of thousands of settlers, withdraw from the West Bank, and accept at least some Palestinian authority in now occupied East Jerusalem. The nation’s most formidable lobby can huff and it can puff, but if it resists, it may be its own house that gets blown down.
Correction: Robert Satloff’s comment on US-Israel relations was made to AIPAC, not Haaretz, as previously reported. He was referring specifically to a rift over Iran policy. The story has been updated to reflect this.

September 12, 2009

MEMORY OF PROF. MAHMUT ESAT OZAN

GRASSROOTS INFORMATION SERVICE

Rest In Peace, The Master Wordsmith!

We are deeply saddened by the untimely passing of an undaunted defender of our Turkish heritage in the face of hatred and defamation, a celebrated ATAA Turkish Times writer, meticulous researcher, an avid student of history and foreign affairs, multi-lingual intellectual, world traveler, loving husband and father, and a loyal friend.

Prof. Ozan will always live in our hearts and minds, and he will always be remembered fondly by the formidable array of educational, inspirational, and motivational essays he has left with us and for our mission to build a strong Turkish American community.

We wish his family, friends, loved ones, and the entire Turkish American community nationwide, our heartfelt condolences.

Günay Evinch
President
Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA)

Rahat uyu kalemlerin efendisi!

Türk davalarının yılmaz savunucusu, tanınmıŞ Turkish Times yazarı, dikkatli araŞtırmacı, birçok dil bilen aydın, dünya gezgini, büyük Türk ve muhteŞem insan’ın ölüm haberini dayanılmaz bir üzüntü ile almıŞ bulunmaktayız. Prof. Mahmut Esat Ozan geride bıraktığı eğitici, öğretici, düŞündürücü, ilham verici, hırslandırıcı yazılarıyla bizi hiçbir zaman terketmeyecektir. Yeri her zaman kalplerimizde ve kafalarımızda olacaktır. EŞine, çocuklarına, ailesine, tüm sevenlerine ve Amerika’daki Türk toplumuna baŞsağlığı, sabır ve kuvvet diliyoruz. En derin sevgi ve saygılarımızla, Günay Evinch
BaŞkan
Türk Amerikan Dernekleri Birliği
In Honor of the Memory of Professor Mahmut Esat Ozan
Prof. Ozan passed from this world today, Wednesday, September 9, 2009. Prof. Ozan was a great Turk, a great American and the finest example of a world citizen. The world will never again know such a man as him. He was scholarly in nearly every language man has invented. He was honored in life by Turks, French, Germans, Japanese and Americans of his chosen home. As and educator, he dissolved all prejudice and replaced it with knowledge and enlightenment. He served as translator during World War II when lives depended upon accurate communications among allies of different languages. He spent his life in the ensuing peace educating about the great culture and global impact of Turkey. America has few allies as strong and enlightened as the Republic of Turkey. America has had few men of his culture, spirit and knowledge. He is survived by His wife of 60 years, Ruhan; his children Deniz, Julide and Kyrinn. Also survived by his nephew, Erol, grand nephew, Kurt and his grandchildren, Gwendylan Ayse, Elizabeth, and Daniel. May he sit beside Ataturk in the afterlife. Thank you Baba for making my life more wonderful than I could have imagined. Your son-in-law, Jim

About Prof. Mahmut Esat Ozan
Articles of Prof. Mahmut Esat Ozan

September 12, 2009

Turkish FM Discusses Armenia Deal In Parliament

Azerbaijan — Ahmet Davutoglu, foreign minister of Turkey, in Baku, 26May2009

11.09.2009

Emil Danielyan, Tatevik Lazarian

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu opened on Friday consultations with his country’s top political leaders on the draft agreements envisaging the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations.

Ankara and Yerevan publicized the two agreements on August 31 and pledged to sign them after six of “internal political consultations.” The two protocols have to be ratified by the parliaments of the two nations before they can come into effect.

“We aim to brief all political parties, institutions and civic bodies on the protocols that will be signed,” AFP news agency quoted Davutoglu as telling reporters after meeting Turkish parliament speaker Mehmet Ali Sahin.

Davutoglu added that he also asked for meetings with the leaders of Turkey’s two largest opposition parties represented in parliament. “We want to hold the briefings before parliament returns from summer recess in October,” he said.

Both opposition parties have said that they will continue to oppose the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey and reopening of their border before a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that would satisfy Azerbaijan. One of them, the Nationalist Movement Party, has slammed the Western-backed agreements as a Turkish “surrender” to Armenia.

Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), which controls the majority of parliament seats, has yet to formulate its position on the protocol ratification. Its leader, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has repeatedly stated in recent months that Ankara will not normalize ties with Yerevan as long as the Karabakh conflict remains unresolved.

Many politicians and pundits in Yerevan predict that Erdogan’s’ government will block or delay the parliamentary endorsement of the protocols if the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan fail to achieve a breakthrough in their peace talks in the coming months. Some Turkish commentators have likewise suggested that their ratification is contingent on a Karabakh deal.

Both the United States and the European Union have welcomed the Turkish-Armenian agreements and stressed the need for their speedy implementation. “We urge Armenia and Turkey to proceed expeditiously, according to the agreed framework as described in today’s statement,” a U.S. State Department spokesman said last week.

The protocols’ ratification by the Armenian parliament is widely seen as a forgone conclusion. Both the Republican Party of President Serzh Sarkisian and its two junior coalition partners, which enjoy a comfortable parliament majority, have voiced their unequivocal support for the deal.

Even so, the deal’s most vocal Armenian opponent, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), said on Friday it is lobbying members of the parliament majority to break ranks and vote against the ratification. Aghvan Vartanian, one of the nationalist party’s leaders, also told reporters that Dashnaktsutyun will soon draft and circulate specific amendments which it believes must be made in the documents. “I think it will be clear to every educated and thinking person whether they accept this variant,” he said.

Dashnaktsutyun is especially opposed to the planned formation of a Turkish-Armenian panel of historians tasked with looking into the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. It says that the very existence of such a body would seriously hamper greater international recognition of the massacres as genocide.

https://www.azatutyun.am/a/1820599.html

September 11, 2009
Mahmut Esat Ozan’dan bir gezi yazisi

Turks & Caicos Islands

Evveli gun 88 yasinda Miami de hayata gozlerini yuman sevgili agabeyimiz Prof. Mahmut Esat Ozan’in kusursuz Ingilizcesi ile kaleme alinmis sayisiz yazilarindan biri olan ve Piri Reis’in izini ve adalarin ismindeki tarihi gerçegi arastirmak uzere Turks & Caicos adalarina yaptigi yolculuga ait gezi yazisini ilginizi cekebilecegi dusuncesiyle asagida ekliyor, ve bu vesile ile kendisini bir kez daha saygi, sevgi ve rahmetle aniyorum. Nur icinde yatsin, mekani cennet olsun. Mahmut beyi daha iyi tanimak icin bakiniz: Yazdigi sayisiz siirlerden biri icin: MeltemB

Turks & Caicos Adalarına Gezi – Mahmut Esat Ozan

Every Turk, who comes to reside in America, learns sooner or later about the
existence of a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, known as ‘Turks and
Caicos.’

I was no exception to this rule. Some years ago, not so long after my
arrival to the United States, while looking at an atlas in my graduate
school library, in the Indiana University, in Bloomington, my eyes wandered
to the Southeast section of the Florida peninsula and beyond. There they
were in bold letters: TURKS AND CAICOS.

It’s hard to describe my initial feeling. I was pleasantly
surprised, perhaps, like many others before me, by this unusual geographical
find. Why did these islands carry the word Turks as part of their names?
What did the word Caicos mean, anyway?

After a while, other important things superseded my interest and
unconsciously I placed the matter on the back burner of my mind , so to
speak, thinking about it on the occasions of hurricane warnings or other
situations when the islands names were mentioned.

Yet, my sense of curiosity was increasing during every passing year, and I
knew that I was never going to be satisfied with the answers I was receiving
for my questions from the ‘so-called’ experts. Neither did I wish to pay
attention to some of my Turkish friends, who claimed that not only were the
islands ‘discovered’ by Turks, who gave their name to them, but also the
word Caicos was a derivative of the Turkish word Kayik !

Since the same people were also claiming that the famous falls
at Niagara, described the Turkish exclamation, “Ne yaygara,!” and the South
American river, the Amazon, meant “Amma Uzun,!” I did not take their claims
too seriously.

Years went by. And then a friend sent me a German poster, which
showed an interesting map, with pictorial drawings of ships and strange
horned animals, monkeys, parrots, alligators, and colorful, painted
‘natives’ The legend stated:

Piri Reis,(1465-1555) the famous Turkish Seafarer, drew the
first map of the Atlantic Ocean and the Americas in 1513 on gazelle leather.
The original map can be found in the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul.

This poster, together with the two books on Piri Reis’ exploits,
purchased earlier from ATAA, peaked my interest to the point where I had to
investigate this topic for myself. Was this map a clue? Could it be that
the islands were named for Piri Reis? I could find no information in books
or libraries. So, one fine week-end when I had not much to do, I booked
passage on an airline and made reservations at a local motel on the island
of Grand Turk.

With my notebook, cameras and video equipment in tow, I began on
my fascinating voyage from Miami’s International Airport. My first
destination, was Providenciales, a small town situated on the main island.
Tropical breezes of the Caribbean Sea, and the calypso music were the first
indications, telling me that I was away from and was beyond the Cuban
culture of Miami.

This place had the atmosphere of a different era and time. I was here to
seek answers to questions about a mysterious traveler from the Orient,
visiting these shores many centuries ago. I found myself carefully looking
around as if I were in the presence of an ancient mariner from Turkey, whose
face might momentarily show itself, if not in real time, then in a lengthy
passage from a lingering past.

Before I undertook this trip, I had read stories about the great Turkish
admiral and cartographer, Piri Reis, who, in the early 1500s set out to
discover the lands west of the existing known world of his day. His trip
was made for the deliberate purpose of especially mapping the shores of the
New World, which had been discovered by Christopher Columbus only a few
years before his famous voyage.

What separated his mission from the one of the Italian explorer
from Genoa, was that he knew where he was going, but Columbus did not.

Piri Reis, meticulously charted maps of the Mediterranean Sea, the Iberian
peninsula, the West African coast, the China Sea, South America and the
Caribbean basin which are considered among the very first ones of these
regions.

All this knowledge in my head and the totally new surroundings may have
played a role in my thinking. But not to know what would be awaiting me on
the outer island of Grand Turk was still very beguiling.

I felt that the first thing I had to do, was to get a taxi and go to the
office or to the residence of the Governor General of the islands and ask
for a short interview., I thought that the Hon. Michael Bradley,the
Governor would surely have access to historical records which would explain
the mysterious names of these islands . But I was told at the airport that
he was in England with his family on a vacation.

At the airport the waiting room walls were plastered with the enlarged
photographs of the Lieutenant Governor and other dignitaries, but I found
out that to be able to talk to any of them, I had to submit a written
request 3 weeks ahead of time. It was a pity that I missed the Governor
General. He is said to hold open court daily from 10:00 am till 2:00pm in
the afternoon when he was present.

As I was deciding to see what other options I had, the loudspeaker announced
that my plane was ready for the short 45 minutes flight to the island of
Grand Turk, where I had reserved my stay. Though the single engine 6
passenger airship did not seem to be very reassuring, there was really no
turning back from this.

The plane was ready. We took off. After a few moments of anxious
hesitations, I became as calm as the pilot in the open cockpit, who took off
his listening gear, stretched his arms a bit and uncapped a bottle of water
to quench his thirst. We , the passengers, had none of that luxury, but it
was just a short hop, after all.

Contrary to my suspicions, everything went well. We were now on
the ground. I signaled a taxi to take me to my motel. Even though the name
of the island is Grand Turk, it is, nevertheless, the smallest of the
islands, I was told this by my friendly and also very informative driver.

The main source of income for the islands came from seasonal tourism,
coinciding with the winter months of the Western hemisphere and from
attractive, colorful postage stamps they issue frequently. They also
exported sea products, crayfish and conch. I was there on off-season, when
not very many tourists were visiting the islands. To me this was a blessing
since I was from Miami, Florida, where we have none other than wall-to-wall
tourists all year long. This was going to be a quiet week-end when I could
do my investigation comfortably.

I was set off at the motel ‘Coral Reef,’ a compound of tropical
bungalow-style buildings, housing individual rooms, or suites for larger
groups. Mine was small, very cozy, with all the amenities of a nice
southern U.S. motel.

After a refreshing shower and a light snack brought to my room,
I watched a bit of world news on CNN and went to bed. The next morning I
was up and around early to begin to solve the ever-persistent mystery of
TURKS and CAICOS, after a hardy breakfast, consisting of the same items to
be found in the American breakfast; orange juice, eggs, sausages, hash-brown
potatoes, toast and tea. This island has been, after all, a British Crown
Colony since 1962. Luckily, I happen to prefer tea for my breakfast,
especially when it is brewed in the British way.

My breakfast partner, sharing the same table with me, was a German tourist,
who claimed that this breakfast could even revive the dead.’ It was hard not
to agree with him. Our conversation was interrupted by the prompt arrival
of John, my chauffeur from the previous day, who had promised to show me
‘everything worth seeing.’

On the way to the island’s seaport, I was given a concert y
John, first humming , then singing some of the island’s folk songs. The
radio was broken, he explained. After he had completed his repertoire, I
attempted to get some information on the history of the island, but the only
thing he could offer was that his grandfather had told of some pirates from
the East, who had invaded the islands and ruled them for a long time before
selling them to the British.

This sounded as flimsy as the stories I had
heard from the other side. However, not wishing to antagonize my driver, I
changed the subject to the possibility of the existence of a museum. To my
surprise, he said there was one.

At the town’s seaport, not more than 10 meters from the shore,
we came to an old, stately building. While the waves broke gently on the
sandy beach in front of us with a soothing swish all of their own, we
entered the building, paid the entrance fee, and obtained the special permit
to photograph with flash attachment, and to make video sequences. This
special permit was obtained for an additional few American dollars, which
are also the legal tender on the islands.

The walls of the museum were covered with oil paintings
depicting the passage of Christopher Columbus at the islands known today as
the Turks and Caicos. I was eagerly going through dozens of maps,
reproductions of old etchings and carvings. At one point, I was able to
stop at the cubicle, where an elderly lady was busy arranging brochures, and
stamping posters.

I approached this curator, who surely must know a lot about the island,
introduced myself and asked her about the name of the islands. After some
conversation, in which I told her about Piri Reis, she replied,

“even though I heard of the Piri Reis legend from a TV program I watched not so long ago,
and I know that he was a mariner, I do not know the connection of him being
a Turk and the name of our islands.”

Then she paused for a moment and said,

“However, I remember my grandfather telling me what he had heard from his
elders, that at one time, before the British came to the islands, some
turbaned people with black beards and mustaches, roamed among the different
islands.”

She also mentioned a plant, a cactus, growing wild around the
hills and dales of Grand Turk. “This cactus”, she said, “is the same size as
a human head, with a bump of some sort on top. Every spring the upper part
of this cactus blooms to a bright red in color.”

From afar, these plants have surely the appearance of a Turk’s
head with a turban and a red fez, I imagined. It is not surprising that the
natives call this plant, you guessed it ‘the Turk’s Head.’

The curator became my personal guide, leading me to a display of
very old ship parts, of which she said,

“They have been here for a long time. I am not sure from whose ship they come.”

Looking at these
fragments, pieces of wood, a few links of a chain, an anchor, hooks, metal
bands, spikes, some sort of food utensil, I was waiting, hoping for some
recognizable item, some sign that this is the link, the proof that Piri Reis
was indeed here on this island. But, I saw no crescent and star, no gray
wolf, no blue beads. I had no way of determining such a fact in a
scientific manner, either.

Reluctantly, I moved onto the few other, more modern exhibits.

When I was ready to leave, my guide had a favor to ask of me. She wanted me
to sign the Honor Guest Book. I obliged her with great pleasure. After
filling in the regular name and home town address stuff, I couldn’t refrain
from scribbling the following lines:

“As another Turk visiting your
beautiful islands so many centuries after the first one, I’m signing your
Guest Book in honor of the great Turkish Admiral Piri Reis. May He Rest In
Peace!”

The last place my driver wanted to take me was a resort hotel
run by a Frenchman. He said the name of the hotel was the Turk’s head. I
was properly introduced to the owner of the establishment. Over a couple of
Pernods, our conversation found its subject. I asked my gracious host what
he knew about the name of the islands. The same mysterious silence dwelled
over our talk as had happened in the museum. However, after some moments,
he said that there is a legend still circulating among the better educated,
that around 1560 it is believed that several galleons of pirates had invaded
the islands. Either the captain, or one of the galleon’s name was the Grand
Turk in translation.

Though this semi-legendary and somewhat fanciful information was
not what I had hoped to hear. I had come to the end of my information
sources, and I was ready to return to my home in Miami.

As the Jumbo jet was humming, while flying over the snow-white clouds, of
the blue Caribbean, I was about to doze off after two rather busy and tiring
days. I felt almost transported to a hypnotic level in a shadowy, soft,
dreamy world. I found myself asking the question,

“Has this been the Blue Atlantis of Piri Reis? Were the legendary turbaned
characters of the native lore, the descendants of the crew, who brought the
great admiral to these shores? Was it because of this legendary figure that
the islands are known as the Turks and Caicos? Was my trip to these tropical
lands really productive?”

The answers to all those questions were about to be given by a
white-turbaned, long-bearded gentleman, dressed in his full-length silk
kaftan. He put down his sextant, with which he was measuring the distant
horizons, and was about to speak when a gentle hand shook my shoulder.

I woke up to learn from the hostess that we were about to land at the
International airport in my home town in Florida.

Mahmut Esat Ozan __._,_.___

September 11, 2009
Prof. Mahmut Esat Ozan passed from this world

Turkish Forum
09.09.2009 In Honor of the Memory of Professor Mahmut Esat Ozan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In Honor of the Memory of Professor Mahmut Esat Ozan.

Prof. Ozan passed from this world today, Wednesday, September 9, 2009. Prof. Ozan was a great Turk, a great American and the finest example of a world citizen. The world will never again know such a man as him. He was scholarly in nearly every language man has invented. He was honored in life by Turks, French, Germans, Japanese and Americans of his chosen home. As and educator, he dissolved all prejudice and replaced it with knowledge and enlightenment. He served as translator during World War II when lives depended upon accurate communications among allies of different languages. He spent his life in the ensuing peace educating about the great culture and global impact of Turkey. America has few allies as strong and enlightened as the Republic of Turkey. America has had few men of his culture, spirit and knowledge. He is survived by His wife of 60 years, Ruhan; his children Deniz, Julide and Kyrinn. Also survived by his nephew, Erol, grand nephew, Kurt and his grandchildren, Gwendylan Ayse, Elizabeth, and Daniel. May he sit beside Ataturk in the afterlife. Thank you Baba for making my life more wonderful than I could have imagined.

Your son-in-law, Jim

About Prof. Mahmut Esat Ozan

Articles of Prof. Mahmut Esat Ozan – Archieve

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Turkish Forum Danışma Kurulu Üyesi ve Editorial Board Başkanı Prof. Mahmut Esat Ozan 9 Eylül Günü vefat etmiştir

Rahat uyu kalemlerin efendisi !

Turk davalarinin yilmaz savunucusu, taninmis Turkish Forum yazari, titiz arastirmaci, kalbi sevgi dolu egitmen, dunya gezgini, buyuk Turk, guzel dost, ve muhtesem insan Prof. Mahmut Esat Ozan ‘in olum haberini dayanilmaz bir uzuntu ile almis bulunmaktayim.
Prof. Mahmut Esat Ozan bedenen aramizdan ayrilmis olabilir, ama yazilari, fikirleri ve dusunceleri ile daima aramizda olacaktir. Yeri kalplerimizde, kafalarimizdadir.
Esine, cocuklarina, ailesine, tum sevenlerine ve Turkish Forum’daki dava arkadaslarina bassagligi, sabir ve gucluluk diliyorum.
En derin sevgi ve saygilarimla,

Ergün KIRLIKOVALI

Saygılarımızla

www.turkishnews.com

——————————————–

Cok degerli dostum ve ve Agabeyim, Turkish Forum Editorial Board Chairman’i , Turkun ve Turkiyenin tanidigim en kuvvetli savunucusu Sayin prof. Dr. Mahmut Esat Ozan aramizdan bedenen ayrilmisdir.

Bu carsamba sabahi saat 9:00’da 9uncu ayin 9 uncu gunu 2009 senesinde 88 yasinda aramizdan ayrilan sayin hocamizin .. Anisinda Florida Turk Amerikan Dernegi tarafindan Fort laudurdale’deki Turk Evinde bayramin birinci gunu (20-Eylul) Toren yapacakdir.. toren saati Dernegin web sitesinde ( www.ftaa.org ) ilan edilecekdir.

Esi ve kizina taziyet bildirmek isteyenler icin tel no: (305) 821-9718, (305) 556-3423

Dernegin Adresi:

Florida Turkish American Association

3020 NE 32nd Avenue, Suite 123 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33308

Tel: (561) 572-7788 Efax: (561)209-5954

Son arzusu uzerine: Sayin Prof. Dr. Mahmut Esat Ozan’in Kulleri Evansville Indiana’ da olan Aile mezarligina goturulecekdir.

Esi Ruhan hanimin , Cocuklarinin Dostlarinin ve Tum Turkish Forum Uyelerinin Basi sag olsun

Dr. Kayaalp Buyukataman

Baskan, Turkish Forum

Note: Prof Ozan Hakkinda Webde Arsivlenenler

http://www.google.com/search?q=Mahmut+Esat+Ozan&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Mahmut Beyin Ev Adresi

———————————————

Mrs. Ruth Ozan

6946 Holly Road.

Miami Lakes Florida, 33014 USA

——————————-

Ev Telefonu: 1 305 821 9718

————————————

Hanimin E-maili: Ruhanozan@aol.com

—————————————-

Sayin M.E. Ozan Genclik Yillarinda Bob Hope ile birlikde Dokumanter yaparken

——————————————————————————————————————-

Sayin Mahmut Esat Ozan Son Gunlerinde Saygi Deger Esi Ruht (Ruhan) Hanim Ile Birlikde.

——————————————————————————————————————

Mahmut Esat Ozan ve Kaya Buyukataman ve Esleri Floridada Dernek Uyeleri ile Sohbet Toplantisinda 23 Temmuz 2006

————————————————————————————————–

Nihat Canikli

to ruhanozan, meozan, turkish-forum-.

Izmir-Karsiyakali degerli insan, Turk davalarinin savunucusu Turkish Forum basyazari Mahmut Esat Ozan’in kaybindan dolayi uzgunum. Izmir’in Yunan isgalinden kurtarildigi 9 Eylul 1922’nin yildonumunde vefat etmesi de ilahi bir tesaduf olsa gerek. Bu vesileyle Turkish Forum’da Ataturk’un Izmir ve Karsiyaka’ya girisine dair nesrettigi yaziya asagida yer veriyorum.

Allah rahmet eylesin. Ailesi ve sevenlerine bassagligi diliyorum.

Nihat Canikli

Ankara

***************************************

ATATÜRK’S ENTRANCE INTO IZMIR AND KARSIYAKA

(HEPIMIZIN 9 EYLUL BAYRAMIMIZ KUTLU OLSUN !)Compiled by

Mahmut Esat Ozan

The Turkish Forum

After a long and most brutal military occupation by the Imperialist Forces of the Kingdom of Greece, Izmir was finally liberated from the invaders on this day SEPTEMBER 9 , 1922
Izmir having been liberated from the military occupiers, it was now embracing its savior, the great Veteran (Gazi) Mustafa Kemal Pasha with great joy inspite of a savage and vengeful fire which had started in the Armenian quarter of the city of Izmir.

The next day, on Sunday, 10 September 1922, during noon, the great Veteran, having started from the small town of Kemalpasa, arrived at the Government Offices with magnificent majesty at 14:00 hours. Until the evening Atatürk quickly took care of problems of a city just saved from the enemy, and declared its freedom to the outside world by receiving foreign consulate missioners. Then he started for Karsiyaka in the car presented to him by the people of Izmir, with a squadron of cavalry lancers in the front and back, he had with him Rusen Esref Ünaydin, and his aides-de-camp Muzaffer Kilic and Salih Bozok.

Let’s listen to how Atatürk went from Izmir to the opposite side of the Bay to the section
called Karsiyaka, from Rusen Esref Ünaydin who was right next to him at the time (Missing Atatürk: pp. 160-168):
“A torrent of applause broke out around the car. We were entering Karsiyaka. What a greeting it was! Streets full of people did not care if they died under the feet of the cavalry lancers’ horses in the front and back of the car. Their cries frightened the horses and caused them to rear up. People happily laughing… But also women sobbing with happiness to the point where they would faint with excitement…Some women leaning out
from windows with shrieks crying out prayers for us. Women hanging out of their
windows and waving about their bodies like fluttering flags. Inspite of not having grasped
exactly what excitement of a victorious procession. Children who run towards the car
holding small Turkish flags and roses, not worrying about being crushed under the feet of the horses…”

This is how the Karsiyaka procession was. Turkey’s new destiny, its new logic, along with its victorious hero Gazi Mustafa Kemal, who kept his word and realized his country’s aim was becoming crystal clear in the eyes of its people with such a magnificent sight.”

* * *
The above passage is from Yasar Aksoy’s book “KARSIYAKA.” The English rendition
is by Ms. Ilknur Dograr. The book was obtained through the courtesy of another “Izmirli”, and a good friend, Ismail Ayduk of Greenacres, Florida
meozan@aol.com

=======================================================

————-About Prof. Ozan———————————

https://www.turkishnews.com/en/content/2008/10/28/about-prof-ozan/

Mahmut Esat Ozan
Turkish Forum Advisory Board member
Chairmen Editorial Board Turkish Forum

Country: United States of America

Anyone, who attended Galatasaray during the years of 1933 to l943 would remember Mahmut Abi as a little boy who loved movies, especially American movies, and who would very often sneak out of his dormitory at night and go to the 3rd floor balcony of the school conference room where the older boys would be watching films, hoping they would let him in to watch, too, and they usually did.

As time went on, he acquired as much information about America as he could. When he was in the 6th grade he prepared an American-style weekly magazine by hand, with even a cartoon and a crossword puzzle, and loaned it to be read among his classmates. He became an expert on American popular culture, especially on movies and songs. He became fluent in French and excelled in English. Owing to his association with the Jewish students in school he started to learn also another language,(Ladino) Spanish, and later on Portuguese. With a good mustache and correct hair cut, he earned the nickname of Donamec for the Hollywood actor Don Ameche, whom, everyone said, he resembled a lot at that time.

After graduation, he spent three years as Muallim Muavini, a sort of a Teacher’s Aide at the school, then started writing articles for “PERDE ve SAHNE” published by Bedia Muvahhit, the favorite actress of the Turkish theatre in those days. He also worked 5 days a week for the Motion Picture Censor Board as a simultaneous translator/interpreter for English and French movies. Turkey was neutral during those Second World War days, but there had to be censorship, not to offend any of the countries involved. And while it was wartime, there was also martial law. After completing his military school training in Ankara, Mahmut Abi was assigned to work at the office of the General in charge of the State government under martial law, as an interpreter/translator. He continued his services at the Censor Board, but wearing his 2n Lieutenant’s uniform to work. His abilities in the area of foreign languages would be a great help for him throughout his life. While attending the University of Istanbul in preparation for the banking career his mother wished for him, his heart and head were much more interested in Cinema magazines than banking. He began writing regular articles for several dailies and movie magazines. Yildiz was one of them. Several years later while in Hollywood he conducted and sent close to 50 interviews with big time stars and celebrities. But long before that, in 1943 he even published his own publication called SINEMAGAZIN, an enterprise which gave him, if not monetary success, a great deal of experience in journalism. He had one burning desire, and that was to get to the United States to study. He researched every bit of information available on American colleges and universities entrance requirements, tuitions, and cost of living, and wrote his book, AMERIKAYA DOGRU, a guide for students wishing to study in America.

Finally, in 1946, he received acceptance to the School of Journalism of the University of Indiana in Bloomington. This should have afforded him a happy student life, but, unfortunately, the money he had entrusted with a businessman relative placed his money in a stocks venture and lost it. Mahmut Abi in Indiana was being forced to return home. What saved him was the fact that he was the only Turkish student his professors and the members of women’s clubs had ever met, and by appearing before these groups, lecturing his audiences with color slide shows and explaining to them life in Turkey, he won several friends and a full scholarship to finish his degree in Journalism.

For a brief moment, during the summer before his senior year, the Hollywood bug bit him again, and he drove to California, landed a job as assistant manager of the Grauman’s Chinese theater, where he helped with the movie premieres and stars with their shoes and hands imprints cast in wet cement. He applied to Ben Bard’s school of acting not to become a movie actor, but to learn the art of making movies. His biggest fantasy was to make an epic saga on the Conquest of “Constantinople” and the Turkish Sultan Mehmet II. This moment in paradise, however, came to an end when the Immigration Dept. caught up with him. He was told he was illegally working on a student visa, and had to return to his university in Indiana to finish his studies. It was Kismet that by going back to Indiana that Fall he was going to meet and marry his Ruhan. That was 48 years ago this past February.

Mahmut Abi and Ruhan returned to Turkey in 1953. Being the very first Turk having received a degree in Journalism, he was offered the position to help establish the university’s Institute of Journalism. He was to set up operation, prepare curricula for the school and teach a couple of classes too, all for a grand total of T.L. 150 a month. The highest salary for a governmental minister in the capital was T.L.450, and the President of the University of Istanbul was paid T.L. 350 at the time. However, at the end he was told he could not get the job because the position he was offered was a government job and his wife was not a Turkish citizen. Knowing that today even the military officers have non-Turkish spouses, Mahmut Abi just smiles and does not even complain. any more. The next stop was Ankara. That job refusal previously in Istanbul landed him a much better and lucrative position at the U.S. Mutual Security Administration in the capital city of Turkey. He was hired on the spot as a Special Administrative Coordinator and Senior Interpreter. The MSA organization then was the precursor of the present A.I.D. He, as a specialist, was entrusted in preparing a wide variety of instructional pamphlets, the dubbing instructional films and guiding the American dignitaries on inspection tours of agricultural and energy producing projects of the programs. It was during one of those sessions when a Labor Law expert from the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, DC sought his help in trying to find a name for the Turkish labor unions. The meeting was in its 6th hour. Nobody knew what to name a hitherto non-existent labor organization. Howard Schindler, the American labor relations expert, was getting a bit edgy. His Turkish counterparts wanted to use the term Lonca ,which he scorned upon, because its translation meant Guild and/or Corporation but not Labor. Finally, Mahmut Abi suggested the French name for it “Syndicat.” Within a few minutes the word Sendika was accepted and everyone went home satisfied with a new name in the Turkish alphabet.

After the birth of their first child, Mahmut Abi changed course. Once more in the USA, and in Indiana, he returned to the University and completed his course work to teach Foreign Languages and Journalism, and began his career, teaching French, Spanish, Portuguese, Journalism, film making. He also trained scores of future Foreign Language teachers. He also initiated the very first Study Tours abroad in Florida Universities in the early 60’s. He Was among the few Floridians who founded FTAA, Florida Turkish-American Association for Cultural Exchange. He served as its second President for 5 years. Mahmut Abi is the author of a several pages long epic poem in French entitled: “Une page d’Histoire a Galatasaray” which will be published soon in France. His second epic poem called; “Si Pierre Loti Retournait Chez Sa Bien-Aimee,La Turquie was already put in a book form two years ago, in Nancy, France by the OLUSUM/GENESE literary magazine. The book also contains other interesting reading materials. Mahmut Esat Ozan retired as Professor Emeritus after 38 years of teaching. Although his dreams of producing a film on Ataturk, and the Conquest of Constantinople did not materialize, he made a good number of documentaries on a more personal scale. As for his journalistic drive, he found another theme that needed his attention and devotion. That theme is teaching the truth about his “Turkiye,” past and present to as many readers of the Turkish Times, English language newspaper, where he has been a columnist in the last 10 years, also local newspapers, and the Internet he can reach.

You can contact him at the following e-mail address:
mozan@webtv.net

Sema Karaoglu, Founder
Sons_of_Ataturk@yahoo.com

September 10, 2009