Turkish Forum

Category: Asia and Pacific

  • Turkish Schools Coming Under Increasing Scrutiny In Central Asia

    Turkish Schools Coming Under Increasing Scrutiny In Central Asia

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    by Farangis Najibullah

    Saidjon, a 15-year-old student at Dushanbe’s Haji Kemal Tajik-Turkish boarding school, is happy to be among the privileged few to attend what many consider one of the best schools in Tajikistan.

    Saidjon speaks four languages and has won two international education contests. While trips abroad are beyond the dreams of most pupils in Tajikistan, Saidjon’s school opens the world to its students.

    “I’ve traveled to many countries to take part in Educational Olympiads,” Saidjon says. “I went to Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Vietnam. I mean, we are given an opportunity to see the world, to broaden our knowledge, and to represent Tajikistan in the international arena.”

    The Haji Kemal boarding school is highly popular with children from Tajikistan’s elite and well-to-do families.

    Lessons are taught in four languages — English, Turkish, Russian, and Tajik.

    Unlike many ordinary schools in the country, Haji Kemal is equipped with modern teaching facilities. Its thoroughly renovated, two-story compound with a gated courtyard stands out among other buildings in the area.

    Tolerance And Dialogue

    The first so-called Turkish schools in Central Asia were founded in the mid-1990s. Turkish educational institutions there — as well as in countries from Russia to North America — were set up by the Gulen movement led by Turkish Islamic scholar and author Fethullah Gulen. Gulen is a Sunni Muslim who advocates tolerance and dialogue among different religions.

    More than 65 Turkish educational institutions were once operating in Uzbekistan alone. There are some 25 Turkish schools, including boarding schools and two universities, in neighboring Kyrgyzstan. Tajikistan has six such institutions.

    Throughout Central Asia, Turkish schools are known for their strict educational methods and discipline and are highly regarded by students and parents.

    The majority of national and regional education contests are won by Turkish lyceum students. Easily passing English-language tests, many graduates win scholarships to Western universities.

    Parents go to great lengths to enroll their children in Turkish schools, hoping such education will guarantee bright futures for them.

    Ulterior Agendas?

    Yet, Turkish educational institutions have come under increasing scrutiny in Central Asia. Governments as well as many scholars and journalists suspect that the schools have more than just education on their agendas.

    In Turkmenistan, education authorities have ordered Turkish lyceums to scrap the history of religion from curriculums.

    In the only Persian-speaking country in the region, Tajikstan, the government, as well as academics, are wary of the possible spread of pan-Turkic ideas. They fear that these schools promote Turkish influence and the Turkish language in their country.

    However, it is Uzbekistan that has taken the toughest stance toward Turkish schools. In 1999, Tashkent closed all Turkish lyceums after its relationship with Ankara turned sour.

    This year, the authoritarian Uzbek government headed by President Islam Karimov took things a step further by arresting at least eight journalists who were graduates of Turkish schools. The journalists were found guilty of setting up an illegal religious group and of involvement in an extremist organization.

    According to Uzbekistan’s state-run media, the imprisoned men were members of the banned religious group Nurchilar and received prison sentences ranging from 6 1/2 to eight years. They have denied the charges.

    The state-run media claims that Nurchilar followers have been active in Uzbekistan since the early 1990s, with the aim of undermining the country’s secular system.

    Islam In Political Life

    Uzbek officials have expressed suspicions that Turkish-school graduates in government offices and other key institutions use their positions to weaken the secular government. They charge that graduates of Turkish schools promote an aggressive form of Islam and even a role for Islam in political life.

    There is something of an irony in the fact that such charges are being directed at schools inspired by the teachings of Fethullah Gulen. Gulen, though controversial, is generally regarded as a moderate Islamic thinker who condemns extremism and terrorism and promotes tolerance and harmony in society. He has written more than 60 books on subjects ranging from religion, Sufism, social and education issues, to art, science, and sports.

    The 68-year-old scholar calls on Muslims to study both religion and modern science, including Darwin’s theory of evolution.

    He was also once a follower of Said Nursi before he broke ranks with that Turkish scholar’s mainstream movement, which many see as the basis of Nurchilar.
    However, Ilhom Merojov, a Russia-based academic, insists there is no such group or Islamic ideology called Nurchilar.

    Merojov said there are people in Uzbekistan who are followers of Nursi, a Turkish religious thinker who advocated combining scientific and religious education, supported Turkey’s participation in Western organization, and tried to unite Muslims and Christians in the fight against communism.

    Merojov, whose translation of Nursi’s works prevent him from returning to his native Uzbekistan, said that although there are Turkish lyceum graduates among Nursi and Gulen followers, these people are not necessarily related to Turkish schools.

    “Uzbek authorities’ claims do not make any sense at all,” says Merojov. “Moreover, Gulen’s and Nursi’s works promote the exact opposite of religious extremism.”

    “In Said Nursi’s 14 volumes of works, there is not a single page that mentions extremism. Likewise, Fethullah Gulen’s works have nothing to do with extremism. Not at all. Their works are about science and religion,” Merojov says. “They call for studying both science and Islam, because Islam says that a person who understands science can better understand Islam. These two scholars support dialogue — they support peaceful coexistence.”

    Gulen, who currently resides in the United States, condemns terrorism and insists there is no connection between terrorism and Islam. In Turkey, he has been accused of trying to overthrow the secular system in order to replace it with an Islamic state. However, a Turkish court acquitted him in 2006.

    The Gulen movement insists it has no political agenda. And Turkish schools have lately been taking steps to prove it.

    ‘Suspicious’ Content

    In an unprecedented move earlier this year, Turkish lyceums in Tajikistan invited local journalists to examine their curriculums to ensure they do not include “suspicious” and “dangerous” content.
     
    In Turkmenistan, Turkish schools have accepted the government’s demand to remove all religion-related subjects from their teaching programs.

    As for Uzbekistan, it is unlikely that Turkish schools will resume operations there any time soon.

    Many Uzbek experts believe that Turkish schools and so-called Nurchilar followers have simply fallen victim to the Uzbek government’s paranoia about dissent and opposition.

    Tashpulat Yuldashev, an Uzbek political analyst, told RFE/RL that Nurchilar is “just a new enemy created by the government to justify its repressive policies.”

    “Because of his own fear, [Islam] Karimov has fought against Wahhabists, Hizb ut-Tahrir, and Akramiya groups. They all are suppressed and now Karimov has to find a new enemy,” Yuldashev says. “It shows that there are problems inside the country and that Karimov feels insecure. In order to keep people in constant fear and turn their thoughts away from social and economic hardships, he always needs a new enemy within.”

    In Dushanbe’s Haji Kemal boarding school, Saidjon is looking forward to going to an English-language university abroad to study physics.

    “I want to go either to Prague or Seoul,” said Saidjon. “I will study there and come back to serve my country.”

    RFE/RL’s Uzbek, Tajik, Kyrgyz, and Turkmen services contributed to this report

    https://www.rferl.org/a/Turkish_Schools_Coming_Under_Increasing_Scrutiny_In_Central_Asia/1616111.html

  • Turkey – Only in a Tank!

    Turkey – Only in a Tank!

    vahan-hovhanissianThat was the retort from a leader of one of Armenia’s coalition parties, when in 2004 he was asked whether Armenia should resolve its differences with its western neighbor; the person who promised to release details of his 2004 Parliamentary Commission studies of grants, credits and humanitarian assistance, former Deputy Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly, Vahan Hovhanissian.

    In 2004, Vahan Hovhanissian’s Parliamentary Commission found corruption worth $200 million dollars, at a time when the total Armenian state budget had just increased from $400 million to 600 million dollars. But he reneged on his promise to release the details to the Armenian people, so his rating plummeted and the party’s reputation suffered another setback. The Dashnak Party had long been hanging on to Kocharian’s apron strings, so Hovhanissian was put up as Republican Party fodder in the 2008 Presidential election to allow the apron to be passed on to the Dashnaks arch enemy Serzh Sargsyan.

    Vahan has since parked his tank, and together with his fellow party leaders, for the past few months he has been sneaking toward the Turkish border, ‘Cap-in-Hand’, eagerly awaiting his pickings from the compensation package Sargsyan and Nalbandian have negotiated for their ‘No Pre-conditions’ capitulation with Turkey.

    That was until the 27th April, when Dashnak Party leaders eventually decided they could no longer stay in Armenia’s Government coalition, ostensibly betrayed by their leader, Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan.

    Vahan Hovhanissian, Armen Rostumian, Kiro Manukian, Hrai Karapetian, and other Dashnak Party leaders have long known of the deal their President and his MFA Nalbandian have been clandestinely negotiating for Turkey to open (or maybe not to open) the Armenian border. But they have been silently sitting back and waiting for the ‘No Pre-conditions Roadmap’ to be finalized. Public knowledge of a signed 22nd April ‘Genocide Sell-Out Memorandum’ was the straw which broke the Dashnaks party back in the Sargsyan coalition; they could no longer reasonably explain their collusion in such treachery, especially with such opposition outrage and probably under pressure from Genocide lobbying Dashnaks in the Diaspora.

    But with regard the signed memorandum, the Dashnaks should not blame their President Sargsyan, the blame for that has to go to America’s President. Assurances of a ‘warming relationship with Turkey’ would no longer hold water for the honest and well-intentioned Barac Obama, not even from the President of Armenia. Only a signed document would have sufficed for him to renege on his Genocide promise to the people of Armenia, so that is what he and his administration demanded – and got.

    The signed document came in the form of the Nalbandian – Babacan ‘No Pre-conditions Roadmap’, which officially remains under wraps. But snippets of the details can be found through Turkish, Russian or other international media, even Azerbaijan – but certainly not from Armenia.

    • First non pre-condition: Armenia will agree to Turkey’s commission, or a number of commissions, to study Turkish / Armenian affairs, not excluding Genocide.
    • Second non pre-condition: Armenia will ratify the Kars agreement of 1920, formally withdrawing claims to historic Armenian lands in the east of Turkey.
    • Third non pre-condition: Armenia will agree to Azerbaijani demands on Karabakh, including withdrawal of troops from the surrounding territories.
    • Fourth non pre-condition: Armenia will not have an embassy on Turkish territory, but diplomatic relations will be conducted through Tbilisi.
    • Fifth non pre-condition: Turkey will determine if and when the border will be opened, possibly starting with one day each month.

    The Nalbandian – Babacan ‘Roadmap’ will no doubt motor on unhindered by the Dashnak Party departure, and Armenia’s coalition will probably be more relieved than distraught by the Dashnak Party loss.

    But whilst the Dashnaks did little good in the coalition, they could well do considerable harm out of it. If the Dashnak Party effort goes towards regulating the out of control Sargsyan regime, then there may be the hope of a better future for Armenia. But if the Dashnak Party continues collaboration with its Kocharian / Sargsyan mentors, and its capabilities and influence are directed toward frustrating the efforts of Armenia’s only real opposition leader, Levon Ter-Petrossian, and his National Congress, then the Dashnak Party will seriously harm the chances of a more democratic future for the Republic and add yet another disgrace to its already badly tarnished reputation.

    Bruce Tasker
    Armenian Parliamentary Analyst

  • ‘Too late’ to contain swine flu

    ‘Too late’ to contain swine flu

    Infection control experts are scrambling to respond to outbreaks of swine flu in Mexico and the US, and suspected cases elsewhere.

    HOW SWINE FLU OUTBREAK EMERGED

    Flu viruses in different species
    Flu viruses mutate over time causing small changes to proteins on their surface called antigens. If the immune system has met particular strain of the virus before it is likely to have some immunity; but if the antigens are new to the immune system, it will be weakened. The flu currently making headlines is a strain of H1N1 influenza A virus, which affects birds, some mammals and humans.
    Flu virus mutation
    The influenza A virus can mutate in two different ways; antigenic drift, in which existing antigens are subtly altered, and antigenic shift, in which two or more strains combine. Antigenic drift causes the slight mutations year on year in the flu strains that normally affect humans. As a result humans have partial, but not complete, immunity. By contrast, the new strain of H1N1 appears to have originated via antigenic shift in Mexican pigs.
    Antigenic shift in pigs
    The name “swine flu” is a slight misnomer as it is believed pigs acted as a mixing pot for several flu strains, containing genetic material from pigs, birds and humans. Some of the antigens involved in the new strain have never been seen by the immune systems of almost all humans, so the new strain has the potential to cause a pandemic.
    Virus transmission to humans
    The new virus has made the jump from pigs to humans and has demonstrated it can pass quite easily from human to human. This is why it is demanding so much attention from worldwide health authorities. The virus passes from human to human like other types of flu, either through coughing, sneezing, or by touching infected surfaces. However, not much else is yet known about how the virus acts on humans.

    BACK 1 of 4 NEXT  
    What is swine flu?

    Swine flu is a respiratory disease, caused by influenza type A which infects pigs.

    There are many types, and the infection is constantly changing.

    Until now it has not normally infected humans, but the latest form clearly does, and can be spread from person to person – probably through coughing and sneezing.

    What is new about this type of swine flu?

    The World Health Organization has confirmed that at least some of the human cases are a never-before-seen version of the H1N1 strain of influenza type A.

    SWINE FLU Symptoms usually similar to seasonal flu – but deaths recorded in Mexico It is a new version of the H1N1 strain which caused the 1918 flu pandemic Too early to say whether it will lead to a pandemic Current treatments do work, but there is no vaccine Good personal hygiene, such as washing hands, covering nose when sneezing advised

    H1N1 is the same strain which causes seasonal outbreaks of flu in humans on a regular basis.

    But this latest version of H1N1 is different: it contains genetic material that is typically found in strains of the virus that affect humans, birds and swine.

    Flu viruses have the ability to swap genetic components with each other, and it seems likely that the new version of H1N1 resulted from a mixing of different versions of the virus, which may usually affect different species, in the same animal host.

    Pigs provide an excellent ‘melting pot’ for these viruses to mix and match with each other.

    How dangerous is it?

    Symptoms of swine flu in humans appear to be similar to those produced by standard, seasonal flu.

    These include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, chills and fatigue.

    Most cases so far reported around the world appear to be mild, but in Mexico lives have been lost.

    How worried should people be?

    When any new strain of flu emerges that acquires the ability to pass from person to person, it is monitored very closely in case it has the potential to spark a global epidemic, or pandemic.

    FLU PANDEMICS 1918: The Spanish flu pandemic remains the most devastating outbreak of modern times. Caused by a form of the H1N1 strain of flu, it is estimated that up to 40% of the world’s population were infected, and more than 50 million people died, with young adults particularly badly affected
    1957: Asian flu killed two million people. Caused by a human form of the virus, H2N2, combining with a mutated strain found in wild ducks. The impact of the pandemic was minimised by rapid action by health authorities, who identified the virus, and made vaccine available speedily. The elderly were particularly vulnerable
    1968: An outbreak first detected in Hong Kong, and caused by a strain known as H3N2, killed up to one million people globally, with those over 65 most likely to die

    The World Health Organization has warned that taken together the Mexican and US cases could potentially trigger a global pandemic, and stress that the situation is serious.

    However, experts say it is still too early to accurately assess the situation fully.

    Currently, they say the world is closer to a flu pandemic than at any point since 1968 – rating the threat at three on a six-point scale.

    Nobody knows the full potential impact of a pandemic, but experts have warned that it could cost millions of lives worldwide. The Spanish flu pandemic, which began in 1918, and was also caused by an H1N1 strain, killed millions of people.

    The fact that all the cases in the US and elsewhere have so far produced mild symptoms is encouraging. It suggests that the severity of the Mexican outbreak may be due to an unusual geographically-specific factor – possibly a second unrelated virus circulating in the community – which would be unlikely to come into play in the rest of the world.

    Alternatively, people infected in Mexico may have sought treatment at a much later stage than those in other countries.

    It may also be the case that the form of the virus circulating in Mexico is subtly different to that elsewhere – although that will only be confirmed by laboratory analysis.

    There is also hope that, as humans are often exposed to forms of H1N1 through seasonal flu, our immune systems may have something of a head start in fighting infection.

    However, the fact that many of the victims are young does point to something unusual. Normal, seasonal flu tends to affect the elderly disproportionately.

    Can the virus be contained?

    The virus appears already to have started to spread around the world, and most experts believe that containment of the virus in the era of readily available air travel will be extremely difficult.

    Can it be treated?

    The US authorities say that two drugs commonly used to treat flu, Tamiflu and Relenza, seem to be effective at treating cases that have occurred there so far. However, the drugs must be administered at an early stage to be effective.

    Use of these drugs may also make it less likely that infected people will pass the virus on to others.

    The UK Government already has a stockpile of Tamiflu, ordered as a precaution against a pandemic.

    It is unclear how effective currently available flu vaccines would be at offering protection against the new strain, as it is genetically distinct from other flu strains.

    US scientists are already developing a bespoke new vaccine, but it may take some time to perfect it, and manufacture enough supplies to meet what could be huge demand.

    A vaccine was used to protect humans from a version of swine flu in the US in 1976.

    However, it caused serious side effects, including an estimated 500 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome. There were more deaths from the vaccine than the outbreak.

    What should I do to stay safe?

    Anyone with flu-like symptoms who might have been in contact with the swine virus – such as those living or travelling in the areas of Mexico that have been affected – should seek medical advice.

    But patients are being asked not to go into doctors surgeries in order to minimise the risk of spreading the disease to others. Instead, they should stay at home and call their healthcare provider for advice.

    Although the Foreign and Commonwealth Office says people “should be aware” of the outbreak, it is not currently advising people against travelling to affected areas of Mexico and the US.

    What measures can I take to prevent infection?

    Avoid close contact with people who appear unwell and who have fever and cough.

    General infection control practices and good hygiene can help to reduce transmission of all viruses, including the human swine influenza. This includes covering your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing, using a tissue when possible and disposing of it promptly.

    It is also important to wash your hands frequently with soap and water to reduce the spread of the virus from your hands to face or to other people and cleaning hard surfaces like door handles frequently using a normal cleaning product.

    If caring for someone with a flu-like illness, a mask can be worn to cover the nose and mouth to reduce the risk of transmission. The UK is looking at increasing its stockpile of masks for healthcare workers for this reason.

    But experts say there is no scientific evidence to support more general wearing of masks to guard against infections.

    Is it safe to eat pig meat?

    Yes. There is no evidence that swine flu can be transmitted through eating meat from infected animals.

    However, it is essential to cook meat properly. A temperature of 70C (158F) would be sure to kill the virus.

    What about bird flu?

    The strain of bird flu which has caused scores of human deaths in South East Asia in recent years is a different strain to that responsible for the current outbreak of swine flu.

    The latest form of swine flu is a new type of the H1N1 strain, while bird, or avian flu, is H5N1.

    Experts fear H5N1 hold the potential to trigger a pandemic because of its ability to mutate rapidly.

    However, up until now it has remained very much a disease of birds.

    Those humans who have been infected have, without exception, worked closely with birds, and cases of human-to-human transmission are extremely rare – there is no suggestion that H5N1 has gained the ability to pass easily from person to person.

    Where can I get further advice?

    Further information and advice on swine flu can be found at websites of leading health and research organisations around the world. The World Health Organisation gives background information on the virus. The UK’s Health Protection Agency advises the public about what to do if returning from an affected area. NHS Choices outlines how swine flu is different from other flu. The US government’s Centre for Disease Control is counting the number of cases in the US.

    You can also track the spread of swine flu reports using unofficial sources. Healthmaps maps viruses using news reports. Social media guide Mashable lists some ways to track the virus . Links to useful websites are being shared on Twitter , the micro-blogging service.

    Read answers from an expert to some of your questions on swine flu

    Policemen on Reforma Avenue in Mexico City wearing surgical masks, 27 April 2009 ‘Too late’ to contain swine flu The deadly swine flu virus can no longer be contained, says a WHO official, as the health agency raises its alert level. Life at centre of outbreak Q&A: What is swine flu? How well prepared is the world? Mapping the outbreak Swine flu: Your experiences Economic im

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  • Cautious expectations for relationship between Russia and the US

    Cautious expectations for relationship between Russia and the US

    This online supplement is produced and published by Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russia), which takes sole responsibility for the contents

    Anatoly Torkunov, Professor and Diplomat
    27 Apr 2009

    The estrangement between Moscow and Washington has lately given way – with the election of Barack Obama – to a cautious sense of expectation. The apprehension is palpable in both Russia and the US. Given how much effort both countries have put into improving relations over the last 20 years, it would be a pity to lose the fruits of this difficult rapprochement.

    Having said that, one cannot deal with a partner who does not value the partnership and who ignores your interests. No matter how important America is, friendship or enmity with her is not paramount in the life of the Russian people.

    A new feature of American politics is the recent spate of moderately concerned pronouncements about Russia. Also the changes in personnel. Russia experts have been appointed to the National Security Council, to the State Department and to intelligence. Former ambassadors to Moscow were behind a recent report published by the Bipartisan Commission on US Policy Toward Russia.

    in any case, for the first time in 20 years the American public has been told in no uncertain terms that US interests and those of Russian-border states are not one and the same thing. The commission’s report says that there is no reason to fear Russian investments outside the energy-sector in the US and the EU.

    The report recommends extending the Start 1 treaty, suspending the Jackson-Vanick amendment, and making Russia a member of the World Trade Organisation. It also urges new negotiations on Russia’s participation in the planned American ABM systems in Poland and the Czech Republic.

    Most revolutionary of all is the report’s idea that America should not try to build spheres of influence along Russia’s borders while counting on a “constructive response” from Moscow.

    The report’s key theme is that the US administration must stop ignoring Russia’s interests since co-operation with Russia will be important in achieving American goals such as the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and solving the “Iran problem”.

    Right after the report was made public Moscow was visited by Henry Kissinger. Dr Kissinger was accompanied by a group of Russia experts, including the authors of the report. Now that they have gone, everyone is waiting anxiously for the results…

    Though some of the recommendations made informally by the Americans are encouraging, their formal proposals leave much to be desired. The Americans are trying to sell as a constructive idea a plan that would enhance their superiority of forces while forfeiting the last remnants of our former strategic parity – Russia’s only guarantee, in essence, of military-strategic security.

    The American proposal does not stipulate a parallel reduction of tactical weapons of mass destruction, conventional forces and so-called geographical offensive weapons, meaning America’s new Nato bases near and around Russia.

    The leitmotif of these expert recommendations is that America stop ignoring Russia’s interests. Yet US actions suggest a determination to restore America’s total strategic invulnerability. What does that have to do with Russian interests? Where is the opportunity to consider and defend them? The iron fist in the velvet glove…

    I do not think that Russian diplomacy can easily return to the romantic atmosphere of Soviet-American relations under Gorbachev. “Perestroika diplomacy” was never poisoned by the bitterness of deception. It remained the diplomacy of negotiated breakthroughs.

    But post-Soviet diplomacy is another matter entirely. It has been saturated with the spirit of the disappointments of the 1990s: the Nato-isation of Eastern Europe, Kosovo, poi-soned relations with Ukraine and – worst of all – the military destabilisation of Russia’s borders in the Caucasus.

    To restore honest and respectful relations with the US is one thing; to accept American proposals that do not benefit Russia in order to do so is quite another. If the US is as intent on improving relations with Russia as Russia is on improving relations with the US, it must be prepared for some very tough negotiations – tougher than any since the 1980s – on a broad range of issues, including regional security.

    The US is primarily interested in co-operation with Moscow over non-prolif-eration and Iran. Moscow, by contrast, is more interested in reforming the security system in Europe. We need to learn again how to link such things. The first meeting between presidents Medvedev and Obama seemed to have a generally stimulating effect on diplomats and politicians in both countries.

    At the same time one must be clear: while Russia wants stable and friendly relations with America, for Russian foreign policy this is not an end itself. Rather it is an important tool for building a safer and more prosperous world. Russia will advance along this path in any case – preferably with the US, but if necessary without.

    • Professor Anatoly V Torkunov, a former Washington diplomat, is rector of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations

    Source: www.telegraph.co.uk, 27 Apr 2009

  • Barack Obama Is No Jimmy Carter. He’s Richard Nixon.

    Barack Obama Is No Jimmy Carter. He’s Richard Nixon.

    THE NEW REALISM

    By Michael Freedman | NEWSWEEK

    Published Apr 25, 2009
    From the magazine issue dated May 4, 2009

    Republicans have been trying to link Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter ever since he started his presidential campaign, and they’re still at it. After Obama recently shook hands with Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez, GOP ideologue Newt Gingrich said the president looked just like Carter—showing the kind of “weakness” that keeps the “aggressors, the anti-Americans, the dictators” licking their chops.

    But Obama is no Carter. Carter made human rights the cornerstone of his foreign policy, while the Obama team has put that issue on the back burner. In fact, Obama sounds more like another 1970s president: Richard Nixon. Both men inherited the White House from swaggering Texans, whose overriding sense of mission fueled disastrous wars that tarnished America’s image. Obama is a staunch realist, like Nixon, eschewing fuzzy democracy-building and focusing on advancing national interests. “Obama is cutting back on the idea that we’re going to have Jeffersonian democracy in Pakistan or anywhere else,” says Robert Dallek, author of the 2007 book, “Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power.”

    Nixon met the enemy (Mao) to advance U.S. interests, and now Obama is reaching out to rivals like Chávez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the same reason. “The willingness to engage in dialogue with Iran is very compatible with the approach Nixon would have conducted,” says Henry Kissinger, the architect of Nixon’s foreign policy. “But we’ll have to see how it plays out.” Hillary Clinton has assured Beijing that human rights won’t derail talks on pressing issues like the economic crisis, another sign of Nixonian hard-headedness. And echoing Nixon’s pursuit of détente, Obama has engaged Russia, using a mutual interest in containing nuclear proliferation as a stepping stone to discuss other matters, rather than pressing Moscow on democracy at home, or needlessly provoking it on issues like missile defense and NATO expansion, which have little near-term chance of coming to fruition and do little to promote U.S. security. Thomas Graham, a Kissinger associate who oversaw Russia policy at the National Security Council during much of the younger Bush’s second term, says this approach by Obama, a Democrat, resembles a Republican foreign-policy tradition that dates back to the elder George Bush and Brent Scowcroft, and then even further to Nixon and Kissinger.

    It’s hard to know if such tactics will work, of course. But Obama has made clear he understands America’s limitations and its strengths, revealing a penchant for Nixonian pragmatism—not Carter-inspired weakness.

    © 2009

    Source: Newsweek, Apr 25, 2009

  • Armenia’s Dashnaktutsiun Party leaves Government coalition

    Armenia’s Dashnaktutsiun Party leaves Government coalition

    Dashnak flag

    Could it possibly be true that Armenia’s Dashnaktutsiun Party has decided to leave the Government coalition and join the opposition?

    PanArmenian reports that that was the only issue on the Dashnaktutsiun 25th April agenda, when the party apparently also resolved to resign from their ministerial positions. If so, this is a decided blow to Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan’s plans to continue along his ‘roadmap’ with Turkey, and could even mark the beginning of the end for his illegitimate regime.

    The Armenia / Turkey dispute must of course be resolved as should the Karabakh issue with Azerbaijan, but the clandestine manner in which the process has been conducted by the Armenian authorities to date has been absolutely unacceptable. If this article can be believed, it seems the Dashnaks could have decided enough is enough.

    PanArmenian is however an Armenian state-backed media organization, so this information could simply be the Republicans throwing a cat amongst Armenia’s already flighty opposition pigeons, to buy time whilst Sargsyan and Nalbandian crawl their ways out of the political ‘roadmap’ fallout. That could well be the case, as PanArmenian also released an article “ARFD to launch an internet protest campaign against Armenian-Turkish agreement”, which actually refers to a petition published, not by the Dashnaks, but by the highly popular Canadian Diaspora website ‘Keghart’.