WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The air forces of China and Turkey have carried out a joint exercise, the U.S. Defense Department said on Friday, in what appeared to be the first such drill involving Beijing and a NATO member country.
Turkey assured the United States it would take the “utmost care” to protect sensitive U.S. and NATO technologies, said U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Tamara Parker, a department spokeswoman.
She described Turkey’s government as committed to the NATO alliance and the continuation of strong ties to the United States.
“To the best of our knowledge, U.S.-made F-16s were not involved in the exercise,” Parker said. She referred a caller to the Turkish government for details of the maneuvers.
The office of the Turkish defense attache in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.
Turkish press reports have said the exercises took place September 20 through October 4 at the Konya air base in Turkey’s central Anatolia region.
Some U.S. experts described the exercise as underscoring China’s capability to operate beyond its territory.
David Finkelstein, director of China Studies at the CNA research group in Alexandria, Virginia, said it may be the first time China’s People’s Liberation Army air force engaged in a combined exercise with a NATO country in a NATO country.
“Indeed, an incipient expeditionary PLA is in the making,” said Finkelstein.
Another Pentagon official, who asked not to be identified, said indications were that the Turkish air force flew F-4 Phantom fighters, used extensively by the United States during the Vietnam War, while China flew Russian-built SU-27s.
The Chinese-Turkish maneuvers occurred before a visit to Turkey this week by Premier Wen Jiabao. Turkey and China aim to triple two-way trade to $50 billion a year by 2015 under a new “strategic partnership,” Wen told a news conference in Ankara on Friday with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
James Clad, a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia from 2007 to 2009, said the drill highlighted Turkey’s “omni-directional” foreign policy.
The dislike by Turkey and the Muslim world of Chinese policies in western China “won’t be going away soon,” added Clad, now with the Defense Department’s National Defense University.
Turkey’s ties with China have been strained at times, notably over Beijing’s tough approach to unrest in Xinjiang, home to China’s Muslim Turkic minority Uighurs.
“It seems the Turks opted to react to overtures from the Chinese which, with appropriate technological restrictions, could prove useful in assessing Chinese air capabilities,” Clad said.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has reportedly opened its airspace to Chinese warplanes taking part in joint military maneuvers with Turkey.
Ankara and Beijing conducted the drills in Turkey’s Central Anatolia region last month.
The war games, codenamed the Anatolian Eagle, were the first involving Turkey and China. Turkey had previously carried out Anatolian Eagle maneuvers with the US and other NATO members as well as Israel.
Turkish F-16, Chinese Su-27 and Mig-29 fighter jets took part in mock dogfights during the drills.
The maneuvers come ahead of a planned visit by Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to Turkey.
Turkey and China took their first step in military cooperation in the late 1990s with joint missile production, manufacturing weapons with a 150-kilometer range, the Hurriyet daily reported on its website.
The multinational Anatolian Eagle exercise is hosted by the Turkish Air Forces and is aimed at boosting aerial cooperation and training. The exercises have been performed since June 2001.
The Turkish and Chinese air forces secretly participated in a military drill in Konya as part of the “Anatolian Eagle” war games, prompting a reaction from Washington,daily Taraf reported Thursday.
Taraf based its report on Turkish and Western military sources, who confirmed that the military drills took place but did not state the exact dates of the games or what kind of aircraft were involved.
Washington has requested information on the matter from Turkey, the report added.
Last year, Ankara excluded Israel from the war games, reportedly because of political tension that arose with Tel Aviv after the Israeli-led war in Gaza in January 2009.
The Turkish government decided to freeze all military exercises with Israel in response to the killing by Israeli commandos of nine people on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May. Last year, Ankara excluded Tel Aviv from the same exercise, which prompted fellow NATO members the United States and Italy to withdraw from the drills. Turkey had to conduct the exercise on a national instead of an international level.
Since the early 2000s, Turkey, a NATO member, has conducted war games in the central Anatolian province of Konya with other members of the alliance or non-member friendly nations. But this year was the first time a military drill was conducted with China.
The US administration reportedly contacted the Turkish foreign and defense ministries and asked why the drill was conducted and what kind of maneuvers were practiced.
http://news.az/articles/turkey/23775, 01 October 2010
Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias gave Foreign Policy an interview earlier this week, where he offered an eloquent explanation of the factors that have conspired to leave his country his country divided [sic.], even after 36 years of diplomacy. But his answer to why the average U.S. citizen — or even the average diplomat in Foggy Bottom — should care about Cyprus’s plight was rather unsatisfying. “The United States of America is a bastion of freedom and human rights, isn’t it?” he said. “I call upon the Americans to respect the Cypriots as they respect themselves.”
That’s true, of course. Human rights are inalienable and universal, and if the approximately 1 million Cypriots are forced to live in a bifurcated nation, and the quarter million citizens of northern Cyprus exist in a state of international isolation, that’s an issue that deserves our concern. We should also be concerned with the treatment of the Uighur population in China, the work of Cambodia’s international tribunal, and the ongoing chaos in the Congo. In a world of finite resources, however, concern doesn’t necessarily translate into the United States spending time and money to resolve a problem.
However, there is a good reason that the United States should be paying active attention to the progress, or lack thereof, in resolving the Cyprus dispute. It just has less to do with the plight of Cypriots themselves, and more to do with the fate of Christofias’s primary rival: Turkey. The Turkish government, which is increasingly throwing its weight around in the Middle East, still refuses to recognize the Republic of Cyprus or let its vessels dock in Turkish ports. Cyprus, as a full member of the European Union, can be expected to continue to block Turkey’s EU accession bid until a resolution is reached. The fear is that, if Prime Minister Erdogan’s government finds its path blocked to the West, it will increasingly drift into the orbit of Iran and Syria.
Indeed, the lack of progress on the Cyprus issue is just one instance of how Erdogan’s ambitious foreign policy has been unable to resolve issues closer to its borders. While Erdogan travels the globe blasting Israel for its policy toward Gaza or mediating the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program, his diplomats have also made little progress in normalizing relations with Armenia; efforts to resolve the increasingly violent conflict with Turkey’s Kurdish population have also stalled. Issues like Cyprus, Armenia, and Kurdish integration might not command the international spotlight in the same way as Iran and Israel can, but they are arguably more important for Turkey’s long-term well being.
The new Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dimitris Dollis, stated to “Neos Kosmos” that the decision of the Prime Minister, George Papandreou, to include him in the new cabinet is a “great honor and a great challenge”.
He said that his appointment as one of the two Deputy Prime Ministers is an “honor for the Greeks of Australia but also for the Greek Diaspora in general”.
Mr. Dollis made a commitment that he will do “the best possible for the Greek Diaspora”, from his current position as well, within the framework of the government’s policy.
Dimitris Dollis was born in Kastoria. He developed his political activities in the state of Victoria, in Australia, where his family emigrated when he was 15 years old. Within the 29 years he spent in Australia, he served as City Councilor, Member of the Parliament*, Shadow Minister and Deputy Leader of the Labor Party. When he returned to Greece, he was appointed as the General Secretary for Greeks Abroad of the Greek Government.
He made a close connection with George Papandreou and supported him during his course. As the Prime Minister of Greece, George Papandreou appointed him as Ambassador-at-Large and Special Envoy of the PM for the release of the Greek teacher Thanassis Lerounis, who had been abducted by the Taliban.
Source: ANA–MPA
* Greek Parliamentarians Abroad
Jim Karygiannis (CANADA)
http://www.karygiannismp.com
Turkish troops arrive in the southeastern port city of Busan in 1950 to join the Korean War. Some 21 countries took part in the conflict. / Korea Times file
UNC waged crusade against communism
By Andrew Salmon
On 29 August, 1950, a bright summer day, a startlingly alien sound blasted across Busan docks: A series of flatulent drones followed by a piercing wail.
The sound was emanating from a group of young men pacing the gun turrets of an approaching heavy cruiser. Their appearance was even more bizarre: They were clad in skirts and chequered, tasseled headgear. The cacophonous lilt emanated from sack-like objects the men were plying.
The objects were bagpipes; the men were Scottish troops of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the lead battalion of 27th British Brigade. At an urgent American request, and in response to the deteriorating military situation, this unit had been dispatched. post-haste, from Hong Kong with such speed that they dubbed themselves the “For-God’s-sake-send-something Brigade.”
27th Brigade were just the first of the non-American contingents to arrive in Busan to help stem Kim Il-sung’s invasion. On the embattled peninsula, a new concept in world affairs was being born: A United Nations military intervention force, or, to give it its formal title in Korea, the United Nations Command, or UNC.
This was the force enabled by UN Security Council resolutions of 25th and 27th June and 7th July 1950 calling for the “restoration of international peace and security in the area” following Pyonyang’s 25th June invasion. Several contingents, however, would not land until 1951, by which time the South had been saved, the North defeated and counter-invaded – and then the entire situation reversed by the Chinese intervention at the end of 1950.
Under the U.N. banner, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Columbia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, India (Field Ambulance), Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Thailand and Turkey supplied ground combat troops, while South Africa deployed its “Flying Cheetah” fighter squadron. Denmark, Italy, Norway and Sweden provided non-combatant medical units.
The United States commanded this polyglot force, and, after South Korea, provided its main muscle, contributing seven infantry division and a marine division, as well as logistical support, and the largest naval and air units. In July 1953, a survey showed that South Korea had 590,911 troops in the UNC; the US, 302,482; and other U.N. contingents totaled only 39,145.
Most of the non-American UNC contingents were small. Once the war entered its static stage in late 1951, the Australian, British, Canadian, Indian and New Zealand units fought together, but the Commonwealth Division was the only unit in the UNC that was operationally independent. Turkey provided a brigade, but all other contingents ― except for little Luxembourg’s, which was a platoon fighting within the Belgian battalion ― were battalion-sized and were absorbed into American parent formations.
The cosmopolitan expansion of the coalition defending South Korea provided the U.S.-run logistics chain with a range of problems. While the U.S. Army was dry, the Dutch wanted gin, the French wine, and the Australians, Belgians and British, beer to fight on. On the rationing front, the Turks would not eat pork and like the Dutch, demanded fresh bread. The Greeks wanted figs, raisins and olive oil.
Yet, while these UNC units might cause cultural, linguistic and logistical headaches for U.S. commanders, and while they did not compare in size with the Americans, many of them proved to be exceptionally high quality fighting units. This was particularly so in the first six months of the war when, by comparison, the U.S. Army was suffering significant morale and leadership problems.
The Turks forged a legend in their first action. Sent to hold the flank of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, disintegrating under Chinese onslaught at the end of November 1950, the ferocity with which they employed their bayonets earned them global fame. At the same time, they took massive casualties, partly due to linguistic problems and poor liaison with American forces.
The French battalion proved a lynchpin at Chipyong-ni, a battle of encirclement in February 1951 that was widely considered the first UNC tactical victory against the onrushing Chinese.
At the heart of the greatest enemy offensive of the war in April 1951, stood the British 29th Brigade, which earned global attention for its tragic stand on the Imjin River. On the opposite end of the front, the Australian and Canadian battalions of 27th Commonwealth Brigade won plaudits for their masterly defensive battle at Kapyong during the same Chinese offensive.
The fighting quality of the Commonwealth Division would be evident in the key ground they were assigned to once the war entered its static stage: Flanking the U.S. Marine division, generally considered the best of the U.S. ground units, along the Samichon Valley, at the northern end of the so-called “Uijongbu Corridor” the traditional invasion route to Seoul.
The Belgians were noted for their enthusiastic professionalism, and the Greeks for their excellence in mountain warfare.
What compelled such a disparate group of nations to fight for a country that very few of their citizens had even heard of before 25 June 1950?
Although the ostensible causus belli was the defense of South Korea, Rhee Syngman’s government – a regime of questionable democratic credentials, and one which operated, in the view of many UNC men, with comparable brutality to Kim Il-sung’s – hardly made a compelling case for intervention.
There were, instead, three main reasons. National desires to win the goodwill of Washington; national suspicions of militant communism; and a more general desire to support the efforts of the then-fledgling, but promising, U.N.
For the U.K., which fielded the second-largest contingent, it was a fight to stem global communism, but the country was also under pressure to maintain its “special relationship” with the U.S. France, heavily engaged in Indochina, needed to earn American goodwill for aid in that struggle. It is fair to say that all the northern European contingents felt a debt of honor toward the U.S. after World War II, and the Greeks had even more recent reasons to thank the U.S. for its assistance in winning the Greek Civil War.
Two units that UNC officers were careful not to deploy alongside one another were the traditional enemies of southern Europe, the Greeks and the Turks. Ankara was keen to cement ties with Washington, in order to gain membership in NATO; ironically, Athens shared the same motive.
After the armistice was signed in July 1953, this international legion, a force as polyglot as any since the Crusades, dispersed. Australian and British veterans headed for a less intense anti-communist struggle in the jungles of Malaya, but for one contingent, the end of the Korean War spelled disaster. The French battalion was assigned to Indochina, where Paris’ position was deteriorating. The much-admired battalion was wiped out by Viet Minh forces in 1954.
Some who fought under the U.N. banner in Korea were disappointed at the organization’s less effectual role thereafter. The original U.N. resolutions that had underwritten the UNC’s existence had been made possible by the absence of the USSR’s envoy to the body, Josef Malik, who was boycotting the body in summer of 1950 (due to the U.N.’s refusal to grant a seat to communist China).
Once Moscow rejoined the world body and Cold War politics began affecting its operation, it became difficult to employ U.N. forces on anything other than “peacekeeping” missions — many of questionable effectiveness. It would not be until the end of the Cold War, and the U.N. intervention in the Gulf War of 1991, that the U.N. would again field a military force with real teeth.
Sixty years later, the leading nation in the UNC, the United States, is still South Korea’s most important political ally, but it is fair to say that the trade and commercial links forged between Seoul and other UNC capitals have fallen in importance since the end of the Cold War. Then-enemy China, for example, has replaced the United States as Korea’s top trade partner.
Still, emotional ties endure: South Korea and Turkey, for example, displayed a mutual affection during their World Cup semifinal match in 2002 that was born in the war years and after, when Turkish troops founded the “Ankara” orphanage.
The peninsula had seen international contingents fighting on its soil before. Kublai Khan’s multi-ethnic legions used Korea as a staging area for their doomed invasions of Japan in the 13th century, and Japanese, Manchu, White Russian, Chinese and Soviet troops would all leave blood on Korean soil in succeeding centuries.
But the UNC troops of 1950 made up of the most cosmopolitan army the peninsula had ever hosted; their ethnic and national diversity would not be witnessed again in Korea until the 1988 Summer Olympics. For modern Korea, the internationalization of its fight for survival in late 1950 was the first, if unacknowledged, step in a process that few South Koreans would start talking about until the early 1990s: Globalization.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The air forces of China and Turkey have carried out a joint exercise, the U.S. Defense Department said on Friday, in what appeared to be the first such drill involving Beijing and a NATO member country.
