Category: Asia and Pacific

Could a Third Way save Afghanistan?

As Afghanistan marks its 101^st Anniversary as an independent state, both the international community and the Afghan people themselves are concerned about the country’s future pathway.

Since the fall of the monarchy the political system in Afghanistan has suffered a few major crises. The establishment of the Jihadi regimes and anti-patriotic coup along with global colonialism have resulted into the country’s destruction and led to the rise of Taliban. Moreover, President Ghani’s predecessor Hamid Karzai has led the country to a corrupt state unable to deal with the terrorist groups and Taliban.

Invaded by various foreign-backed powers and different political ideas (left and right) Afghanistan has lost its national identity and failed to build its own economic and political system. Torn with corruption, bloodshed and terrorism over the decades, the country today, as some analysts believe, could be saved by a Third Way. The Third Way is a philosophy used to describe the voice of masses, the silent majority of people all the world, including Afghanistan.

The Afghan society needs a reform. The Third Way and adoption of it by a society can lead Afghanistan to a modern state, different from which the country has experienced over the pat 40 years. The Third Way is based on the idea of establishing a secure and sustainable state where the rights of the citizens are respected regardless the influence of any political parties or social groups and ethnic, racial and religious beliefs. Ensuring security and social justice in Afghanistan can be reached through following the several principles.

A balance of Power. Afghanistan has enough of security and defense to maintain and consolidate the national power. Supported by a strong and professional political leadership with pro-national interests Afghanistan will be able to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

A balance of domestic politics. The political and economic strategy of Afghanistan should be focused on creating sustainable living environment for its citizen and development of the economic and labor system that will allow Afghan citizens to use the country’s national resources and increase their living standards. In this scenario the Afghan people will stop looking for any possible ways to leave the country.

Balancing of economic growth and regional development will allow Afghan people to supply with jobs and comfortable life not only in major cities but also in the country’s provinces.

Finally, to achieve a Third Way the political system of the country should be based on national and democratic principles. The national principle means the country should use its own capacities and resources, while the democratic principle means that there is no other political regime acceptable in the country, but democracy.

By listening to the needs of the society and recovering its national values Afghanistan in the long-term perspective could become a safe and sovereign state with a sustainable economic growth.

August 22, 2020
USAID increases its presence in Central Asia amid the COVID-19 pandemic to foster its influence

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is increasing investments and support of the economy and social sphere in Uzbekistan through various economic, trade, healthcare and social projects. Only for the year of 2019 USAID invested over $10 million in Uzbekistan’s private sector for establishment of new orchards, installation of water saving technologies marketing, and branding to meet international standards. According to the Agency, USAID investment strategy in Uzbekistan involves large-scale and ambitious projects for the next 3-4 years that aim to increase the living standard in the country.

As part of its global campaign against the COVID-19 pandemic, the USAID in partnership with the Uzbekistan Ministry of Health has identified priority areas to provide support for the needs of Uzbekistan’s citizens, health professionals, and the government.

However, nurturing relations with the US may have a negative side effect for Uzbekistan. By tightening economic and political relations with Tashkent, the United States might take advantage of the Uzbekistan’s geopolitical location and its border with Afghanistan and start lobbying its interests in Kabul heating up complicated relations between the two countries.

Moreover, fostering the Washington’s idea to create a transparent economy in the country and the accountability of the Uzbek state to civil society may cause potential leaks of tax and financial information to the US tax authorities. Considering that the American side relies on the principle of the supremacy of the national law over the international law, this might trigger a threat to the economic security of Uzbekistan and create a ground for pressure on the Uzbekistan authorities by the United States.

Like in the case with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, a small country in the Central, could become a perfect potential target for the US so-called democratization policy. Positive social and economic changes integrated by the United States in Uzbekistan are building up a solid ground for lobbying Washington political ambitions in the country. History has already proved the United States could be unreliable business partners. The US-China trade relations scenario is a great example of it: when contradictions arose, the US changed their policy from building partnership into the policy of trade wars.

June 10, 2020
Euro banknote with the image of M.E. Rasulzade and Nuri Pasha

On Tuesday, in the Ataturk Center in Baku was hosted the presentation of a 0-euro euro banknote dedicated to the outstanding historical figures of Azerbaijan and Turkey – the founder of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) Mammad Emin Rasulzade, as well as the Ottoman army general, commander of the Caucasian Liberation Army Nuri Pasha .

Portraits of these two prominent figures are depicted on a bill made in the framework of the Euro Souvenir Bank project.

The ceremony was attended by the project’s initiator, Turkish collector Ozgur Honcha, Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Erkan Ozoral, public figures of Azerbaijan.

The presentation became the basis for discussing the problems of the formation of the modern Azerbaijani state, Turkish-Azerbaijani relations, perpetuating the memory of the leaders who founded the First Democratic Republic of 1918-1929 and laid the foundations of the Azerbaijani national idea.

“The issue of this banknote should be taken as a call to perpetuate the name of Rasulzade as the founder of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, and Nuri Pasha, as the military leader who liberated Azerbaijan from the Dashnak-Bolshevik terror and instilled the faith of Azerbaijanis in its future,” said MP Fazil Ganfaroglu.

Ozgur Honche, Serhat Jemil Kuchuk, who provided comprehensive support for the project, also played an important role in preventing the issuance of the Artsakh souvenir euro banknote, which was ordered by the Armenian separatists of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“All necessary diplomatic and legal steps have been taken to prevent this provocation against Azerbaijan. Our actions were correctly understood by Euro Souvenir Bank and the issue of banknotes was prevented, ”said Ozgur Honche.

One of the initiators of the presentation, Yagut Misirkhanli, announced that 10 thousand commemorative banknotes were issued. Souvenir banknotes with a face value of 0 euros are printed on the official machines of the European Central Bank and are registered as a trademark. A considerable part has already been transferred to statesmen and public figures in Azerbaijan, Turkey in European countries.

Translated by Turkishnews

January 23, 2020
An unknown decree of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent was discovered in Baku

An unique artifact was discovered in Baku – the decree of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.

According to Day.Az with reference to qaynarinfo.az the document was discovered by an employee of the Institute of Manuscripts named after Fizuli of the National Academy of Sciences Naila Suleymanova. The publication notes that the document is a decree on donating land.

It is reported that the decree of the Turkish Sultan dates back to the 975th year of the Hijra (1566), it was signed in Istanbul with black, gold and blue ink. The dimensions of the scroll of the document are 30 by 180 centimeters.

The decree also bears the signatures vezirs of the sultan Mohammed bin Abdulkhaya , Partav bin Abdulkhaya, Farhad bin Abdulkhaya, the Kaziaskers Ahmed bin Mustafa, Hussein bin Abdulkhaya and witness Ahmed bin al-Daftari.

Suleiman I the Magnificent (Ganuni) – the tenth sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1520-1566) and the 89th caliph since 1538. Suleiman is considered the greatest sultan of the Ottoman dynasty; under him the Ottoman Porta reached the peak of its development. In Europe, Suleiman is most often called Suleiman the Magnificent, while in the Muslim world Suleiman Kanuni.

Translated by Turkishnews/

January 13, 2020
Benazir Bhutto, Indira Gandhi and now Mehriban Aliyeva

Azer HASRET

By Azer HASRET, @azerhasret

Azerbaijan is witnessing new trends and intensive reforms the last years. The country`s economy is rapidly growing, new buildings and highways are built. New plants and workplaces are opening even every week. The President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev now emerges as a new era reformer leader. Indeed he has taken the country very far from that, which was in chaos at the beginning of 90s of the 20th Century.

Ilham Aliyev`s country now is most developing, most stable and most reliable to live. People coming from around the world every time are surprised seeing how rapidly the country is changing.

Azerbaijan`s jobless people`s scale is under 5% while some 20 years ago it was above 50%. Or poverty rate is below 5% as well while it was again above 50%.

Country`s population has grown to 10 million as well. It was around 7 million at the beginning of independence – early 90s.

Instead of partly being occupied by neighboring Armenia and having around 1 million refugees and IDPs Azerbaijan is building new life for every citizen – every person.

Now the country is in crossroads of the East and the West, of the South and the North. All important onshore (partly offshore) routs are crossing through Azerbaijan linking Europe to Far East – China and others.

Ilham ALIYEV

Under the leadership of the President Ilham Aliyev Azerbaijan became a hub for very important international meetings. Even NATO and US military leadership and Russian military representatives continuously choose Azerbaijan`s capital Baku for very important close meetings and consultations.

President Ilham Aliyev made Azerbaijan a member of space family having 3 space stations on the highs above our planet.

Multiculturalism and tolerant society building is state policy implemented successfully in Azerbaijan. All 3 major religions – Islam, Christianity and Judaism are developing in this country side by side in very friendly atmosphere.

While Ilham Aliyev started to rule the country in 2003 not so many people around were confident about his successes. To rule and develop a country which is continuously threatened and occupied partly by aggressive neighbor – Armenia must not be so easy for even very experienced leader. But Ilham Aliyev managed with the situation, housed hundreds of thousands refugees and IDPs, built economy and even liberated some parts of lands from Armenian occupation. The country has to solve Armenian occupation in full yet, but this is not an obstacle to country`s development due to Ilham Aliyev`s very successful leadership.

Alongside with the President Ilham Aliyev the country and the world is witnessing grow of female leader of Azerbaijan. This is Mehriban Aliyeva, The First Vice-President of Azerbaijan.

Some 3 years ago the country didn`t have vice-president, as the Constitution didn`t oversee this opportunity. As in 2016 Azerbaijani people voted in a referendum to change the major law of the country now the president has an opportunity to appoint even the first vice-president.

In the fall of 2018 Azerbaijan was going to presidential elections. But the President Ilham Aliyev decided to step down early and launch new election in early spring – April 2018. He was absolutely confident that the people of Azerbaijan will vote for him again. Because only he was that leader who brought the country so far to the new stage of very successful development. Indeed the people of Azerbaijan voted for him on April 11, 2018 and Ilham Aliyev von the election with absolute majority of votes cast. More than 80% of voters wanted him to continue to rule the country. He had renewed confidence of his nation.

Mehriban ALIYEVA

After having Constitutional changes in 2016, Ilham Aliyev appointed Mehriban Aliyeva as The First Vice-President of Azerbaijan.

Mehriban Aliyeva assumed the office on February 21, 2017. But was she new to the politics? Or was she new even on the public? Not of course.

Before coming to the Vice-Presidency Mehriban Aliyeva was very popular and successful world female leader. She was and stays as a President of Heydar Aliyev Foundation, which is acting worldwide to bring more happiness to people in different countries.

Or she is a chairperson of Azerbaijani Culture Friends Foundation and the President of Azerbaijani Gymnastics Federation with many more successes.

Mehriban Aliyeva was recognized for her contributions to peace worldwide and served as a goodwill ambassador of UNESCO and ISESCO.

The First Vice-President of Azerbaijan – new era female leader Mehriban Aliyeva arises as very successful politician. She is a friend of children, or sport lover. She is a person who never keeps an eye away from the problems of people. She is widely loved inside and outside of country. Even the world leaders see her as a strong female leader of our century.

Mehriban ALIYEVA with Ilham ALIYEV

The President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin invited her a month ago to visit his country. And Mehriban Aliyeva was the only vice-president to be received by the President of Russia.

The Vice-President of Azerbaijan deserves attention not just for only being a female leader. She is emerging new female leader in the East after past female leaders in this part of the world. She is arising after very famous Pakistani female politician Benazir Bhutto and Indian leader Indira Gandhi. They both were very positively assessed on the world as well. As they are not on the stage now, the East needed to have new female face of political leadership and Mehriban Aliyeva of Azerbaijan is very suitable successor of this mission.

By the way, Azerbaijan is going to early parliamentary elections. Ordinary it had to be conducted on November, 2020. But the parliament dissolved itself early December in order to support reforms of President Ilham Aliyev. Now the nation is going to vote for on February 09, 2020. We are witnessing that new generation politicians with Western education and new skills are moving candidacy for parliament membership. Even ruling New Azerbaijan Party has moved candidacy of those answering new calls and challenges. And there are many MP candidates which served for good in the different teams of The First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva. So the people of Azerbaijan are happy to meet these new faces in the parliament. Seems that Azerbaijan is stepping up to new stage of development after February 09, 2020 and Mehriban Aliyeva is in a forefront of this stage. The world has to be ready for meeting new female leader of the East after Benazir Bhutto and Indira Gandhi.

December 30, 2019
Institute of Turkish Studies To Close Down in 2020: Good Riddance

By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

The Institute of Turkish Studies (ITS), a non-profit organization, was founded in 1983 with $3 million donated by the Government of Turkey in Washington, D.C. ITS issued a press release on May 31, 2019 announcing that it will cease its operations on September 30, 2020.

This was a surprising announcement for two reasons:

1) The sum of $3 million is a relatively small amount for the Turkish government having spent tens of millions of dollars to hire public relations and lobbying firms in the United States for many years. Returning the $3 million or whatever is left of it to Turkey will not make a major difference in the country’s financial condition. Turkey needs several hundred billion dollars to recover from its economic collapse.

2) Despite the boastful press release by the Institute’s leadership about its accomplishments, the withdrawal of the funds by the Turkish government implies that the Institute had failed to meet its propaganda goals. The Turkish government stopped funding ITS in 2015. To make matters worse, the Institute’s leaders acknowledge in their press release that they have not been successful in raising sufficient funds from outside sources to continue the Institute’s operations. In recent years, the ITS received partial financial support from Georgetown University, Koç Holding, FIBA Holding, and Mr. and Mrs. Muhtar Kent (former Board chairman of The Coca-Cola Company), and other individual donors.

The ITS press release claims that its grants since 1983 have promoted Turkey and Turkish studies “in 45 US states plus the District of Columbia. Over 130 dissertation writing grants translated into 70-plus professorial positions at American institutions of higher education, and language and research awards helped prepare at least 235 others who took up teaching and research positions in the United States and elsewhere. Awards to several dozen developing scholars over the last five years will pay further dividends in the future. Nearly 80 US institutions established library/research collections relating to Turkey, or added significantly to existing resources, thanks to ITS funding, and 19 American universities received seed money to support the establishment of new, Turkey-related teaching positions.”

In recent years, the ITS was located at the offices of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service on the campus of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The Honorary Chairman of the Institute was the Turkish Ambassador in the U.S., confirming the close supervision of ITS grants by the Turkish government.

The Institute of Turkish Studies has been embroiled in a number of scandals, starting with Heath Lowry who was the founder and executive director of the Institute from 1983 to 1993. Lowry was instrumental in preparing and publishing full-page ads in the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Washington Times on May 19, 1985, signed by 69 ‘scholars’ who denied the occurrence of the Armenian Genocide. Lowry subsequently became the Ataturk Professor of Ottoman & Modern Turkish Studies at Princeton University, funded by a $750,000 Turkish government grant.

I was the first target of a legal confrontation with the Turkish Institute, after I wrote an editorial in 1985 in The California Courier listing the names of the U.S. scholars and the amount of money they had each received from the Turkish Institute. Interestingly, many of these scholars were the same ones who were given grants by the Turkish Institute. I received a letter from the attorneys of ITS stating that they will sue me for libel unless I published a lengthy retraction which I refused to do. My attorneys informed the Turkish Institute lawyers that their allegation of libel had no merit and informed them that we will file a counter lawsuit. In response, the ITS dropped its threatened lawsuit!

Then in 1995, an article titled “Professional Ethics and the Denial of Armenian Genocide,” was published in Holocaust and Genocide Studies exposing a letter sent to Prof. Robert Jay Lifton, drafted by ITS Executive Director Heath Lowry in 1990 on behalf of the Turkish Ambassador Nuzhet Kandemir, denying the facts of the Armenian Genocide. Lowry’s draft letter in the name Ambassador was inadvertently sent to Prof. Lifton, causing a major academic scandal.

In 2006, American professor Donald Quataert resigned from the chairmanship of ITS Board after refusing to obey the Turkish Ambassador’s orders that Turkey would revoke the ITS funding unless Prof. Quataert retracted a scholarly book review in which he had written “what happened to the Armenians readily satisfies the U.N. definition of genocide.” Several other ITS Board members resigned shortly in protest.

With the announced closing of the Institute of Turkish Studies, there will be one less outlet for Turkish propaganda in the United States distorting the tragic truths of the Armenian Genocide.

June 12, 2019