Turkish Forum

Category: Asia and Pacific

  • Turkey scraps flights to Armenia

    Turkey scraps flights to Armenia

    ANKARA: Turkey has cancelled the first ever scheduled Turkish flights to its long-time rival Armenia, days before the first plane was due to take off, officials have said, following fierce opposition from Turkey’s ally and energy partner Azerbaijan.

    The twice-weekly flights between Turkey’s eastern city of Van and the Armenian capital Yerevan were due to begin on April 3 and, encouraged by a US push for rapprochement, were meant to boost bilateral tourism and trade.

    But with just over a week until the first flight, and with tickets already on sale, Turkey’s civil aviation authority stepped in and ordered the flights to be suspended.

    Officials at Turkey’s transport ministry confirmed the flights had been stopped but declined to give a reason.   BoraJet, the private Turkish carrier set to fly the 45-minute route, has also declined to comment on the stoppage. One BoraJet official twice denied the Van-Yerevan flights had ever been planned, even though the route was still available as a booking option on the firm’s website on Monday.

    Narekavank Tour, a Yerevan-based travel agency which has spent the last three years organising the flights together with a Turkish travel agency in Van, said the reason was political.

    “The organisers were keen on staying away from politics. It is very sad and discouraging that Turkish authorities were not able to do the same and finally let politics interfere with this promising initiative,” it said in a statement. Asked if he thought this was due to specific pressure from Azerbaijan, Armen Hovhannisyan, co-founder of Narekavank Tour, said: “Of course, it’s part of the whole formula, and maybe they have been working behind the scenes.”

    Officially at war, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a bitter dispute over the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh – a mountainous enclave within Azerbaijan with a majority Armenian population – which Armenian-backed forces seized along with seven surrounding Azeri districts in 1991.

    Turkey, which has never opened an embassy in Armenia, closed its land border in 1993 in a show of solidarity with Azerbaijan, a Muslim and Turkic-speaking ally which also supplies Ankara with billions of cubic metres of Caspian natural gas each year.

    Reuters

    via Turkey scraps flights to Armenia.

  • O.C. woman who gave money to fund terrorism gets five-year term

    O.C. woman who gave money to fund terrorism gets five-year term

    Türk Vatandaşı Ayşe Oytun Mihalik Pakistan’da teroristlere 2.050 Dolar yardım amaçlı para gönderdiği için 5 yıl hapis cezası aldı. Ne diyelim? Darısı Avrupa’da 1 kurşun parası daha diyerek döner satan PKK’lı dönercilerin başına.

    oytun ayse mihalik terrorist turkeyO.C. woman who gave money to fund terrorism gets five-year term

    Oytun Ayse Mihalik, 40, an Orange County pharmacist, admitted wiring $2,050 to Pakistan to be used to fund terrorist activities. Prosecutors had sought a 12-year prison sentence.

    By Victoria Kim, Los Angeles Times

    March 30, 2013

    An Orange County pharmacist who admitted to wiring $2,050 to Pakistan to be used to fund terrorist activities was sentenced Friday to five years in federal prison.

    Oytun Ayse Mihalik, 40, a Turkish national and a permanent U.S. resident, pleaded guilty in August to one count of providing material support to terrorists for three money orders she sent over a month’s time in late 2010 and early 2011. Mihalik used a false name, “Cindy Palmer,” to send the funds, according to authorities.

    Federal prosecutors had asked for a 12-year sentence for Mihalik, alleging that she provided the money to a man she met through a website, believing it was going to be used to harm U.S. troops. She was motivated by a “desire to participate in jihad” and knew the sum was “more than enough to finance an entire operation against the United States military forces,” they wrote, citing her email communications with the man.

    They also noted that she had created a “favorite” tab for “The Al Qaeda Manual” on her laptop and in “privacy” mode had searched the terms “true jihad” and “Jihad in Afghanistan” on her Web browser.

    Defense attorneys argued she was not motivated by radical ideology but acted during a time of vulnerability in her marriage, after she and her husband had difficulty getting pregnant and then experienced a miscarriage. She accessed the website out of worry for her brother, who was going on a pilgrimage to Pakistan, they contended in court filings.

    “A reading of the emails themselves reveals that Ms. Mihalik was being solicited, and even manipulated,” they wrote, asking that Mihalik receive a 24-month sentence.

    The woman came to authorities’ attention when her husband, Errol, called Immigration and Customs Enforcement in late 2010 after she moved out of their home for a trial separation, alleging she had married him under “false pretenses” for a green card. He described a new religious fervor in his wife after she took a monthlong trip to Turkey two years into their marriage.

    “I go, ‘Listen, did you marry … me for my citizenship and do you want to harm someone here.’ And she looked at me blank and she said, ‘If I have to kill people for Allah, I will,’” Errol said in his initial report, according to a transcript filed with court papers.

    Authorities said Friday that despite the small sum, Mihalik’s conduct was a serious crime.

    “Money is the mother’s milk of terrorism, and we will move aggressively against those who provide financial support to groups and individuals bent on harming the U.S. and its allies,” Claude Arnold, special agent in charge for ICE’s Los Angeles office, said in a news release.

    Mihalik, who was arrested in August 2011 as she was about to board a flight to Turkey on a one-way ticket, is expected to be deported after she finishes her sentence.

    U.S. District Court Judge Josephine Staton Tucker handed down the sentence after considering a plea from Mihalik’s husband, who in a letter to the judge called the crime “completely out of character.” He wrote that his wife is “extremely dedicated to her family, work, love for America, and is entirely peace-loving.”

    “I have never met such a remarkable individual and [am] completely in love with her,” Errol wrote.

    via O.C. woman who gave money to fund terrorism gets five-year term – latimes.com.

  • Turkish media outlets comment on closing of Yerevan-Istanbul flight

    Turkish media outlets comment on closing of Yerevan-Istanbul flight

    Azerbaijan, Baku, March 30 / Trend /

    Plane_Embraer_190

    Closing of the Yerevan-Istanbul flight is due to the bankruptcy of the Armenian “Armavia” Airline, which carried out the flight, the Turkish Hurrriyet newspaper reported on Saturday.

    Armenian airline due to its bankruptcy stops carrying out the flights to more than 100 countries, including Turkey, the newspaper reported.

    From April 1, direct Yerevan-Istanbul flight will not be carried out, Armenia News – NEWS.am. reported on Saturday.

    via Turkish media outlets comment on closing of Yerevan-Istanbul flight – Trend.Az.

  • Turkish Airlines plans Istanbul-Sydney non-stops

    The day before the Qantas-Emirates kicks off, Turkish Airlines gate crashes the party with non-stop intentions for Sydney-Istanbul flights

    Great Circle Mapper SYD-IST diagram

    Turkish Airlines CEO Temel Kotil intends to connect Europe and Australia with its first commercial non-stop air service next year by operating the Istanbul-Sydney route with either a 777-300ER or 7770200LR.

    The report in ATW is light on details, but clear about aims.

    Turkish Airlines doesn’t have any 777-200LRs in its large fleet of Airbus and Boeing airliners, which like the Airbus A345 is a jet with the range to fly the route non-stop both ways with a commercial payload, but it has been speculated that it could source some of the -200LRs within a year, and readily integrate them into its -300ER operations.

    The story should be taken seriously. Istanbul airport is growing faster than Dubai airport, and unlike the latter, can be greatly expanded.

    In the report, Kotil refers to both the non-stop ambitions and the possibility of connections through either Jakarta or Bangkok, which implies using either of those cities if the Sydney flights were operated with 777-300ERs which would need to refuel on the return leg.

    From an air treaty perspective Indonesia is considered a difficult state with which to negotiate new services, making Bangkok the favourite when it comes to the -300ER probabilities.

    The nominal great circle distance between Sydney and Istanbul is 14,956 kilometres, which is only 389 kilometres shorter than the 15,345 kilometres flown daily each way between Singapore and Newark (for New York City) by Singapore Airlines A340-500s, on what has been world’s longest scheduled passenger service since mid 2004.

    The same fleet operates the world’s current second longest commercial flights between Singapore and Los Angeles, a nominal distance of 14,114 kilometres, but both services will end later this year with the retirement of the A345s.

    The world’s third longest route but only one way is the Sydney-Dallas Fort Worth service flown by a Qantas 747-400ER  at a nominal 13,804 kilometres.

    Recently Turkish Airlines spoke cautiously about starting flights to Australia because of the Qantas-Emirates partnership over Dubai, which begins tomorrow.  Something has changed, but the airline has always been comfortable with being reported as the major competitor on a global scale to Emirates.

    Its current and rapidly growing network centred on Istanbul has the greatest potential for frequent connections to diverse European centres because the hub is within single-aisle jet range of those cities which are served by less frequent but larger Emirates wide-bodied airliners.

    via Turkish Airlines plans Istanbul-Sydney non-stops | Plane Talking.

  • Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey Sign Cooperation Plan

    Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey Sign Cooperation Plan

    The foreign ministers of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey have signed a wide-ranging plan to expand cooperation between their departments.

    Georgia’s Maia Panjikidze, Azerbaijan’s Elmar Mammadyarov, and Turkey’s Ahmet Davutoglu held talks in the Georgian port city of Batumi on March 28.

    At a joint press conference after the meeting, Panjikidze said the two-year cooperation plan would strengthen relations between the three countries.

    Mammadyarov said their cooperation was “an example for the whole region.” Davutoglu said the trilateral meeting was a “unique cooperation platform.”

    The first such trilateral foreign-ministerial meeting was held in Trabzon, Turkey, in June 2012.

    The next one is expected to be held in Azerbaijan later this year.

    Based on reporting by ITAR-TASS and Apsny.ge

    via Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey Sign Cooperation Plan.

  • David L. Phillips: Turkey and Armenia at Loggerheads

    David L. Phillips: Turkey and Armenia at Loggerheads

    Turkey and Armenia missed an historic opportunity to improve ties when Turkey refused to ratify the Protocols on the Establishment of Diplomatic and Bilateral Relations signed on October 10, 2009. Rather than rapprochement, Armenians are now fully mobilized to organize worldwide activities commemorating the one hundred year anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on April 24, 2015. Armenia would never sacrifice gaining greater global recognition of genocide for cross-border cooperation with Turks. However, trade can still play a helpful role reducing tensions and creating positive momentum in Turkish-Armenian relations.

    More than a closed border, Turks and Armenians are divided by different perceptions of history. More than one million Armenians perished during the final years of the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923. Turkey disputes these facts, referring to the events as “shared suffering.” Turkey demands a joint historical commission to address the “Armenian question.” The political impasse between Turkey and Armenia is compounded by Ankara’s linking of relations with Armenia to resolution of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh where Armenians and Azerbaijanis fought a brutal war displacing 600,000 people in the early 1990s.

    The governments of Turkey and Armenia may be at loggerheads, but Turks and Armenians are still engaging in economic diplomacy, working on cross-border activities beneath the radar. Commercial contact involves mostly “suitcase trade” involving consumer goods transported from Turkey through Georgia to Armenia.

    But bigger business is possible. Armenia could sell surplus electricity to Turkey which needs energy to power its economic boom. Armenia could also tap into Turkey’s state-of-the-art fiber optic cable to meet its growing demand for Internet. Railway service between Kars in Turkey and Gyumri in Armenia could resume when Turkey opens its border gate. In anticipation, Armenia could begin conforming the country’s Soviet-era railway gauge to Turkish and European standards.

    In addition, Qualifying Industrial Zone (QIZ) could be established to catalyze joint enterprises between Turks and Armenians. A QIZ is an industrial park and a free-trade zone, which is linked to a free-trade agreement with the United States. Goods qualify when partners contribute raw material, labor, or manufacturing. Kazan, an area in Armenia on the Turkish border, would be a suitable destination for joint ventures in textile and piece goods manufacturing.

    The QIZ should proceed with steps to relax restrictions on the surface transport of commercial goods. Armenian trucks are allowed to use Turkey as a transit country, but can’t off-load on Turkish soil. The same holds true for Turkish trucks transiting through Armenia. Trucks should be allowed to transfer goods destined for markets in the neighboring countries, with Turkey and Armenia identified as destinations in the export registry.

    Normalized travel and trade would also stimulate the tourist industry. Many Armenians are coming from Russia to cultural sites in Eastern Turkey. Allowing Armenian tourist buses to cross the Turkish-Armenian border would be a windfall for local business. Charter flights between the eastern Turkish city of Van and Yerevan would enhance commercial contact and a Turkish Airlines office in Yerevan would boost travel. The Ani Bridge across the Akhurian River, which symbolized the connection between Armenian civilization and the Anatolian plain, should be restored.

    A useful database is being prepared by the Turkish-Armenian Business Development Council profiling opportunities and connecting potential business partners. Linkages could also be established between local chambers of commerce and mayors with the goal of establishing sister-city relationships and fostering trade and investment.

    Such civil society and private sector initiatives have intrinsic value. Moreover, they can also incentivize official diplomacy or serve as a safety net when diplomacy stalls. They are not, however, a substitute for official diplomacy.

    There is currently no contact between Turkish and Armenian officials. While the Turkey-Armenia protocols called for a “dialogue on the historical dimension,” Armenians balked when Turkey demanded a commission to determine whether the events of 1915 met the definition of genocide.

    Instead of trying to reinvent history, Turkey’s Prime Minister Erdoğan can make history through an executive order to open the border and normalize travel and trade as a step toward diplomatic relations. Bolder yet, he could submit the protocols on normalization and diplomatic relations to the Turkish parliament with his personal endorsement for ratification.

    With an eye on his legacy, Erdoğan could also call for parliament to repeal Article 301 of the penal code, which makes it a crime to “denigrate Turkishness” and is used to repress free the freedom of expression. Repealing regressive legislation would make Turks more free, and also benefit Turkey’s EU aspirations.

    Turkey’s moral authority is undermined by the government’s denial of the Armenian Genocide. On Remembrance Day, April 24, Erdoğan should apologize for what happened to Armenians during the waning days of the Ottoman Empire. Reconciling with Armenia would help consolidate Turkey’s role as a regional power, as well as a force for good in the world.

    Mr. Phillips is Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights

    via David L. Phillips: Turkey and Armenia at Loggerheads.

    David L. Phillips

    Director, Program on Peace-building and Rights, Columbia University Institute for the Study of Human Rights