Turkish Forum

Category: Russian Federation

  • ‘Top Syrian officer among bomb victims’

    ‘Top Syrian officer among bomb victims’

    A mysterious explosion near Damascus on Saturday claimed the lives of at least 17 people, including a brigadier-general, further destabilizing the Syrian regime.

    A car bomb carrying 200 kilograms of explosives exploded near the Palestine branch of Syrian Military Intelligence, the London-based daily Asharq Alawsat reported.

    The identity of the high-ranking military officer, who was reportedly killed as a result of the explosion, had not yet been revealed.

    Palestine branch of Syrian Military Intelligence is headed by Gen. Suleiman Dayoub, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s brother-in-law, Gen. Asif Shawkat, who heads military Intelligence and is considered one of the strongest men in the Syrian regime.

    No group has yet taken responsibility for the attack.

    The Media Line’s analysts indicate this was the second incident this year directed against a security target. Earlier this year, Assad’s top security adviser Muhammad Suleiman was assassinated in Tartous. The investigation into his murder was not made public.

    Saturday’s attack may be connected to Suleiman’s assassination and to a behind-the-scenes battle within the top Syrian security command. Various unconfirmed reports over the past few months indicated that Assad may have begun to worry about Shawkat’s increasing power.

    Syria, of course, is not revealing any such internal disputes, and is trying to place the blame on outside elements.

    “Unfortunately, in the years that followed the American war on terror, terrorism has further spread. These kinds of incidents can occur anywhere and are not indicative of security breaches,” Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told reporters.

    Muallem said further that Israel was among the “biggest benefactors” of the attack.

    Source: The Jerusalem Post, Sep 28, 2008

  • U.S. Ambassadorial nominee for Turkey doesn’t dispute Morgenthau’s record on Armenian Genocide

    U.S. Ambassadorial nominee for Turkey doesn’t dispute Morgenthau’s record on Armenian Genocide

    /PanARMENIAN.Net/ Ambassador to Turkey designate James Jeffrey, in response to questions from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman and Vice-Presidential candidate Joe Biden (D-DE), affirmed that official U.S. diplomatic reports by Ambassadors Morgenthau and Elkus and other Armenian Genocide-era U.S. diplomats in the Ottoman Empire did, in fact, describe the attempted extermination of the Armenian population, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) told PanARMENIAN.Net.

    “Although falling far short of a clear and proper recognition of the Armenian Genocide, Ambassador Jeffrey, in his response to Senator Biden’s questioning, moved U.S. policy in the right direction by publicly agreeing – after long years of official disregard, disrespect, and dismissal of Ambassador Henry Morgenthau’s proud legacy – that our nation’s diplomatic representatives to the Ottoman Empire did, in fact, document the Ottoman government’s clear intent and systematic campaign to destroy its Armenian population,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We want to thank Chairman Biden for his thoughtful inquiries that led to this reaffirmation of the American record, and to, once again, express our appreciation to Senators Menendez and Kerry for their incisive lines of questioning during the Foreign Relations Committee’s confirmation hearing earlier this week.”

    In questions submitted to the Amb. Jeffrey, Sen. Biden asked: “Do you dispute that U.S. diplomats serving in the Ottoman Empire during the Armenian Genocide documented a systematic, government-sponsored campaign ‘with intent to destroy, in whole or in part’ the Armenian population?”

    Ambassador-Designate Jeffrey provided the following response: No. I have read many of the historical records from 1915-1916 related to U.S. diplomatic reporting on these events in Turkey, and I do not dispute that Ambassador Morgenthau, Ambassador Elkus, and other diplomats during that time period reported on what they described as an attempt to exterminate the Armenian population.

    Source: www.panarmenian.net, 27.09.2008

  • Ambassador Brenton: UK expects Russia to reconsider Abkhazia, S. Ossetia recognition

    Ambassador Brenton: UK expects Russia to reconsider Abkhazia, S. Ossetia recognition

    Interfax’s Interview

    British Ambassador to Russia Tony Brenton has said he hopes Russia will reconsider its position on recognizing Abkhazia’s and South Ossetia’s independence and vowed that the United Kingdom would take part in a European Union mission of military monitors in the South Caucasus.

    “I do not know the exact numbers, but I do know that we are looking for twenty, thirty, or forty participants, and I am assuming that they will be on the ground as the European community gets its people onto the ground over the next few days,” Brenton said in an interview with Interfax.

    Times New Roman;”> “I hope that your readers will note that this will be a fantastic operation. The European community, the European Union from a standing start on the 8th of September has put together a big peacekeeping observer operation in the course of three weeks. That is a strong demonstration of the will of the European Union to contribute to getting the tensions down and to getting peace back in the region,” he said.

    Brenton described Russia’s recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as “a big mistake, because the effect of it is that it makes it much more complicated for us to find a long-term solution to tensions between Georgia and Russia and between Georgia and Abkhazia and Georgia and South Ossetia.”

    “It is a pity that Russia said it is irreversible,” Brenton said.
    “I hope that, on reflection, Russia will think again, because the precedent we have for this is the president of Turkey recognizing North Cyprus, and it has landed Turkey for a period of thirty years with a small enclave unrecognized anywhere else in the world and placing on Turkey an economic and political burden. It would be very sad to see Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the same situation,” he said.

    Commenting on Russia’s proposal that an embargo should be imposed on weapon supplies to Georgia, Brenton said, “I do not think that Russia has formally made a proposal to that effect. I think that we would want to see Georgia having the capacity to defend itself in the future and having normal armed forces. I am sure we would not want to see, on the other hand, a sort of military buildup in the region which led to the problems of the 7th and 8th of August,” he said.

    Brenton urged the beginning of a discussion on launching a peace process “with nobody setting too many preconditions.”

    The immediate issue is the implementation of the 8th of September agreement [reached at negotiations between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy]. Once that agreement is fully implemented, then I hope the political tensions will begin to calm down and we will begin to be able to discuss the resumption of contacts of various sorts,” he said.

    “I know that the French presidency of the EU, for example, has made it clear that on the assumption that the 8th of September agreement is implemented, the European Union will then resume the negotiations on the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Russia,” he said.

    “NATO has not yet reflected on what the conditions have to be for the resumption of NATO-Russia contacts,” he said.

    Source: www.interfax.com

  • Turkey and Armenia Friends and neighbours

    Turkey and Armenia Friends and neighbours

     

    Sep 25th 2008 | ANKARA AND YEREVAN
    From The Economist print edition
    Rising hopes of better relations between two historic enemies

     
    KEMAL ATATURK , father of modern Turkey, rescued hundreds of Armenian women and children from mass slaughter by Ottoman forces during and after the first world war. This untold story, which is sure to surprise many of today’s Turks, is one of many collected by the Armenian genocide museum in Yerevan that “will soon be brought to light on our website,” promises Hayk Demoyan, its director.
    His project is one more example of shifting relations between Turkey and Armenia. On September 6th President Abdullah Gul became the first Turkish leader to visit Armenia when he attended a football match. Mr Gul’s decision to accept an invitation from Armenia’s president, Serzh Sarkisian, has raised expectations that Turkey may establish diplomatic ties and open the border it closed during the 1990s fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. The two foreign ministers were planning to meet in New York this week. Armenia promises to recognise Turkey’s borders and to allow a commission of historians to investigate the fate of the Ottoman Armenians.
    Reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia could tilt the balance of power in the Caucasus. Russia is Armenia’s closest regional ally. It has two bases and around 2,000 troops there. The war in Georgia has forced Armenia to rethink its position. Some 70% of its supplies flow through Georgia, and these were disrupted by Russian bombing. Peace with Turkey would give Armenia a new outside link. Some think Russia would be happy too. “It would allow Russia to marginalise and lean harder on Georgia,” argues Alexander Iskandaryan, director of the Caucasus Media Institute.
    Mending fences with Armenia would bolster Turkey’s regional clout. And it might also help to kill a resolution proposed by the American Congress to call the slaughter of the Armenians in 1915 genocide. That makes the Armenian diaspora, which is campaigning for genocide recognition, unhappy. Some speak of a “Turkish trap” aimed at rewriting history to absolve Turkey of wrongdoing. Indeed, hawks in Turkey are pressing Armenia to drop all talk of genocide.
    Even more ambitiously, the hawks want better ties with Armenia to be tied anew to progress over Nagorno-Karabakh. But at least Mr Gul seems determined to press ahead. “If we allow the dynamics that were set in motion by the Yerevan match to slip away, we may have to wait another 15-20 years for a similar chance to arise,” he has said.

  • Turkey facing difficult choice on nuclear energy

    Turkey facing difficult choice on nuclear energy

    By Thomas Grove and Orhan Coskun

    ISTANBUL/ANKARA, Sept 26 (Reuters) – Turkey has a difficult decision ahead as it ponders if it can afford to reject the single bid it received in a long-delayed $7.5 billion nuclear tender at a time when global liquidity is drying up.

    A consortium led by Russian-based Atomstroyexport was the single bidder on Wednesday in the tender to construct and operate the first of three planned nuclear power plants.

    The plants are a cornerstone of the Turkish government’s policy to cut dependence on imports and address power consumption demand, seen rising at eight percent a year.

    But doubts the tender will go ahead have mounted as analysts say the government will want a broader range of options beyond a single offer, and Atomstroyexport’s plan is considered expensive for the technology on offer.

    Analysts also have pointed out that the Russian-based company’s construction of the plant undermines Ankara’s energy policy of limiting its dependence on Russia, which already provides more than 60 percent of Turkey’s gas imports.

    “The fact the tender came at the moment of the latest global financial crisis really weighed on the process. If a competitive second bid had come in it would have been much better,” said a senior Turkish Energy Ministry source, who declined to be named.

    Business Feed Article | Business | guardian.co.uk.

  • Are Russia and Turkey Trying to Alter the Nagorno-Karabakh Peace Process Format?

    Are Russia and Turkey Trying to Alter the Nagorno-Karabakh Peace Process Format?

    Confronted with widespread international criticism over its actions in Georgia, Russia is eager to show that it can still serve as a peace broker the post-Soviet area. A primary Kremlin aim appears to be checking any further advance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

    “The South Ossetian crisis will not constitute a precedent,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee on September 18. “We will continue to responsibly fulfill our mediation mission in the negotiation process and peacemaking [and] that fully applies to [the separatist conflicts of] Transdniester and Nagorno-Karabakh,” he said.

    The signal the Kremlin wants to send is that “it is not restoring its empire and that it is ready to reconcile warring parties while playing a leading role in the process,” wrote Sergei Markedonov of the Moscow-based Institute for Political and Military Analysis in the September 16 issue of Russia’s “Kommersant” daily.

    Russia has been expending a lot of energy since the August crisis to revive the Transdniester and Nagorno-Karabakh peace processes outside the framework of the existing international settlement mechanisms.

    Concerning Karabakh, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met twice in September with his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan and once with

    EurasiaNet Eurasia Insight – Are Russia and Turkey Trying to Alter the Nagorno-Karabakh Peace Process Format?.