Category: America

Obama’s State of the Union and 2011 decisions..

President Obama focused on domestic issues in his State of the Union Address last night – as did the Republicans in their response.Glossing over the elephant in the room (two wars and an escalating Iran situation) may be a good move politically. But with troop withdrawals scheduled for Iraq and Afghanistan this year, and a likely power void for Iran to fill, America’s global situation will call for some tough decisions in 2011.

Obama Calls for Bipartisan Effort to

Fight for U.S. Jobs

Doug Mills/The New York TimesPresident Obama focused attention on preparing the United States to thrive against global competition.

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Published: January 25, 2011

WASHINGTON — President Obama challenged Americans on Tuesday night to unleash their creative spirit, set aside their partisan differences and come together around a common goal of outcompeting other nations in a rapidly shifting global economy.

Multimedia

Interactive Feature

Who Sat Where: The State of the Union Seating Chart

Interactive Feature

Patterns of Speech: 75 Years of the State of the Union Addresses

News Analysis: Obama Sets Stage for Clash of Governing Ideals (January 26, 2011)
Obama Counters G.O.P. With Plan to Extend Spending Freeze (January 26, 2011)
New Seating Chart, but Same Divides (January 26, 2011)
Two G.O.P. Responses Point to Potential Fault Lines (January 26, 2011)
Political Times: After Detour, a Map of America’s Journey (January 26, 2011)
Some Difficulties Unnoted, And Some Facts Shaded (January 26, 2011)
Remarks That Touch Not Just One City (January 26, 2011)
Nanotechnology Gets Star Turn at Speech (January 26, 2011)
Times Topic: State of the Union

Related in Opinion

Editorial: The State of the Union (January 26, 2011)

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Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

Michelle Obama with Dallas Green, brother of Christina-Taylor Green, the 9-year-old girl killed in Tucson. He was accompanied by his parents, John and Roxanna.

In a State of the Union address to a newly divided Congress, Mr. Obama outlined what he called a plan to “win the future” — a blueprint for spending in critical areas like education, high-speed rail, clean-energy technology and high-speed Internet to help the United States weather the unsettling impact of globalization and the challenge from emerging powers like China and India.

“The rules have changed,” he said.

But at the same time he proposed budget-cutting measures, including a five-year freeze in spending on some domestic programs that he said would reduce the deficit by $400 billion over 10 years.

Drawing a stark contrast between himself and Republicans, who are advocating immediate and deep cuts in spending, Mr. Obama laid out a philosophy of a government that could be more efficient but would still be necessary if the nation was to address fundamental challenges at home and abroad.

“We need to out-innovate, outeducate and outbuild the rest of the world,” he said. “We have to make America the best place on earth to do business. We need to take responsibility for our deficit and reform our government. That’s how our people will prosper.”

Just weeks after the shooting in Tucson that claimed six lives and left Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, gravely injured, Mr. Obama received a reception that was muted and civil.

There were no boos or a shout of “You lie!” as in speeches past. Many Republicans and Democrats sat side by side — the first time anyone here can remember such mixing — and nearly all wore black-and-white lapel ribbons in honor of the dead and injured. Ms. Giffords’s colleagues held a seat open for her.

The president’s speech, lasting slightly more than an hour, lacked the loft of the inspirational address he delivered in Tucson days after the shooting. But it seemed intended to elevate his presidency above the bare-knuckled legislative gamesmanship that has defined the first two years of his term.

Reaching out to Republicans who have vowed to end the pet projects known as “earmarks,” Mr. Obama pledged to veto any bill that contained them. He tried to defuse partisan anger over his health care measure with humor, saying he had “heard rumors” of concerns over the bill, and he reiterated his pledge to fix a tax provision in the measure that both parties regard as burdensome to businesses.

He drew sustained applause when he declared that colleges should open their doors to military recruiters and R.O.T.C. programs now that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the policy barring gay men and lesbians from serving openly, has been repealed.

And he tried to charm Republicans by weaving the new House speaker, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, into his narrative about American greatness, citing Mr. Boehner’s rise from “someone who began by sweeping the floors of his father’s Cincinnati bar” as an example of “a country where anything is possible.”

Still, the good will lasted only so long. Moments after Mr. Obama finished speaking, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, delivered the official Republican response, in which he criticized Mr. Obama as doing too little to attack the deficit.

And Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who delivered her own Republican critique with the backing of the Tea Party wing, complained that instead of creating “a leaner, smarter government,” Mr. Obama had created “a bureaucracy that tells us which light bulbs to buy.”

The president sought to use Tuesday night’s address to shed the tag of big-government liberal that Republicans have placed on him, and to reclaim the mantle of a pragmatic, postpartisan leader that he used to ride to the presidency in 2008.

With one eye toward his 2012 re-election campaign, Mr. Obama offered a rosy economic vision. The president who once emphasized the problems he had inherited from his predecessor was instead looking forward and making the case that the nation had at long last emerged from economic crisis.

“Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back,” Mr. Obama said. “Corporate profits are up. The economy is growing again.”

The speech was light on new policy proposals, reflecting both political and fiscal restraints on the administration after two years in which it achieved substantial legislative victories but lost the midterm elections, failed to bring the unemployment rate below 9 percent and watched the budget deficit rise sharply.

Mr. Obama did not address gun control, a hotly debated topic after the shooting in Tucson.

He did not lay out any specific plans for addressing the long-term costs of Social Security and Medicare, the biggest fiscal challenges ahead. He backed an overhaul of corporate taxes but spoke only in passing about the need to simplify the tax code for individuals. He called for legislation to address illegal immigration but provided no details.

He called for an end to subsidies for oil companies and set a goal of reducing dependence on polluting fuels over the next quarter-century, but without any mechanism to enforce it. And in a speech largely devoted to economic issues, he talked only generally about the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As he drew a contrast between the United States and other nations, Mr. Obama gave a nod to the nation’s high unemployment rate, arguing that “the world has changed” and that it was no longer as easy as it once was for Americans to find a good and secure job.

Government itself, he said, needs to be updated for the information age. “We can’t win the future with a government of the past,” he said.

He packaged his message in optimistic, almost nationalistic phrasing, saying the country had always risen to challenges.

“So yes, the world has changed,” Mr. Obama said. “The competition for jobs is real. But this shouldn’t discourage us. It should challenge us. Remember, for all the hits we’ve taken these last few years, for all the naysayers predicting our decline, America still has the largest, most prosperous economy in the world.”

He continued: “No workers are more productive than ours. No country has more successful companies, or grants more patents to inventers and entrepreneurs. We are home to the world’s best colleges and universities, where more students come to study than any other place on earth.”

Mr. Obama outlined initiatives in five areas: innovation; education; infrastructure; deficit reduction; and a more efficient federal bureaucracy. He pledged to increase the nation’s spending on research and development, as a share of the total economy, to the highest levels since John F. Kennedy was president, and vowed to prepare an additional 100,000 science and math teachers over the next 10 years.

He proposed new efforts on high-speed rail, road and airport construction and a “national wireless initiative” that, administration officials said, would extend the next generation of wireless coverage to 98 percent of the population.

“Our infrastructure used to be the best, but our lead has slipped,” Mr. Obama said. “South Korean homes now have greater Internet access than we do. Countries in Europe and Russia invest more in their roads and railways than we do. China is building faster trains and newer airports.”

Saying it was imperative for the nation to tackle its deficit, Mr. Obama reiterated his support for $78 billion in cuts to the Pentagon’s budget over five years, in addition to the five-year partial freeze on domestic spending. But he did not adopt any of the recommendations of the bipartisan fiscal commission he appointed to figure out ways to bring the deficit under control.

Mr. Obama headed into the speech in surprisingly good political shape, given the drubbing Democrats took in the November elections. His job approval ratings are up — in some polls, higher than 50 percent. The public is feeling more optimistic about the economy, voters are giving Mr. Obama credit for reaching out to Republicans in a bipartisan way, and the president won high marks for his speech in Tucson after the shooting.

“There’s a reason the tragedy in Tucson gave us pause,” Mr. Obama said Tuesday night. “Amid all the noise and passions and rancor of our public debate, Tucson reminded us that no matter who we are or where we come from, each of us is a part of something greater — something more consequential than party or political preference.”

A version of this article appeared in print on January 26, 2011, on page A1 of the New York edition.

January 26, 2011

In State of the Union, Obama to call for ‘competitiveness’

24 January 2011

By Perry Bacon Jr.Washington Post Staff Writer

President Obama will call for a broad “competitiveness” initiative in Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, proposing a series of steps the United States should take to retain its standing as the world’s largest and most influential economy.

White House officials say the speech will include a number of ideas, from increasing the number of U.S. exports to improving the American education system.

In speeches over the last two months, the president has previewed this competitiveness theme–warning in a December address in North Carolina, for example, that without greater innovation, the U.S.could fall behind other countries, as it did briefly in the 1950s when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the earth.

In a speech Friday at General Electric plant in upstate New York, Obama said that the “new mission” of his administration’s policies would be to “do everything we can to ensure that businesses can take root and folks can find good jobs and America is leading the global competition that will determine our success in the 21st century.”

The competitiveness idea is supposed to link the administration’s proposals for increasing spending on education and other long-time Democratic priorities with its agenda to create more jobs as America recovers from the recession.

“My principal focus . . . is going to be making sure that we are competitive, that we are growing, and we are creating jobs,” Obama said in a preview video of the speech sent to supporters Saturday.

But officials have bumped up against multiple problems as they have worked on the economic components of the address, which comes weeks before the White House will release the budget for the next fiscal year.

Administration officials said they do not believe another major stimulus bill is possible with Republicans in control of the House of Representatives, leaving them struggling to find another mechanism to create jobs. At the same time, many ideas Republicans are willing to embrace – such as a reduction in the payroll tax – have already been included in the December tax deal.

Along with the economic focus, Democratic officials briefed on the speech said, Obama will challenge members of both parties to prove wrong the widely-held perception that the next two years will be full of political gridlock.

With members of both parties seated together in the gallery for the first time, the appeal will dovetail with Obama’s new-found emphasis on reaching out to Republicans and working more closely with the business community, which opposed much of his agenda during his first two years in office.

In discussing foreign policy, Obama is expected to underscore the end-of-year deadline for all U.S. troops to leave Iraq. Regarding Afghanistan, Obama will highlight the July deadline he has set for the start of troop withdrawals, a process scheduled to unfold through 2014 at a pace to be determined by conditions on the ground.

But on other subjects, what exactly the president will say remains unclear.

Gun-control groups are pushing for Obama to embrace stricter gun laws in the wake of the shooting in Tucson. Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said he wants Obama to support specific legislation, but would be satisfied if the president instead appointed a commission to look at the causes of gun violence.

“A national tragedy took place, there should be a response,” Helmke said. He added of the Tucson shooting, “no laws were broken until [the gunman] starting shooting.”

White House officials have been non-committal on supporting any new legislation, and have not said if Obama will address gun control in his speech.

Liberal groups are wary of Obama including in the speech the conclusions of the bi-partisan deficit commission, which released a report in December that proposed controversial ideas such as a gradual increase in the retirement age.

The president will emphasize the importance of deficit reduction in the speech, but it’s not clear if he will offer specific proposals.

“The White House has prematurely turned to deficit reduction,” said Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, a liberal activist group. “Voters are clear, they care about the deficit, but their first priority is jobs and the economy.”

The speech is some ways less important than was anticipated a few months ago, because the administration started recalibrating its domestic agenda and approach immediately after the November elections.

“I think the president has gone to school on lessons learned,” said Kenneth Duberstein, former chief of staff to President Reagan, one of many Washington veterans Obama consulted after his party’s election defeat in November. “One would hope he continues to down the path that began in the lame-duck session as far reaching out.”

And while the speech will loom large on prime-time television Tuesday night, and in the media stratosphere for many hours afterward, experts cautioned that its shelf life will most likely be relatively short.

“Who remembers them six weeks later, let alone a year or two,” said Robert Dallek, a presidential historian. “How many State of the Union addresses do people remember? They don’t resonate that way.”

January 25, 2011
Chinese president concludes state visit to US

Chinese President Hu Jintao left Chicago for home on Friday after concluding a four-day state visit to the United States, during which Hu and his US counterpart Barack Obama agreed to build a China-US cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit.

“It is also conducive to world peace and development,” Hu said.

In his speech, Hu elaborated on the domestic and foreign policies of the Chinese government and on how to advance China-US relations in the new era.

“Working together hand in hand, we will build and develop a China-US cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit and deliver greater benefits to the people of our two countries and the world over,” he said.

The Chinese president flew to Chicago on Thursday afternoon to continue his visit to the United States.

On Friday, Hu, accompanied by local officials, visited Walter Payton College Preparatory High School in downtown Chicago.

The high school houses the Confucius Institute in Chicago (CIC), which primarily focuses on the Chinese language and cultural education programs and is the only such institute targeting primary and middle school students in the United States.

Later in the day, Hu visited an exhibition of companies operating in the US Midwest. Most companies at the exhibition in Chicago’s suburban city of Woodridge are Chinese-funded ones.

During his tour of the exhibition, Hu encouraged Chinese companies operating in the US to play a bigger role in promoting economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

The success of Chinese companies in the United States is a specific example of the China-US mutually beneficial cooperation, he said.

The operation of these companies not only yields profits for themselves, but adds momentum to economic development in the US Midwest, he added.

At least 40 Chinese businesses now have operations in the Chicago area, and the number is growing. For example, Wanxiang America Corp., which makes solar panels, has opened plants and a headquarters around Chicago in the last two years.

Before leaving the US for home, Hu sent a message of thanks to US President Obama, expressing his belief that through the efforts of the two sides, China-US relations would be further developed to better benefit the peoples of the two countries and make a greater contribution to world peace, stability and prosperity.

The Chinese president began his state visit on Tuesday in Washington. The visit, Hu’s second as head of state, is aimed at enhancing the positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship between the two countries.

Hu last visited the United States in April 2006.

President Hu, who began his visit on Tuesday, had extensive and in-depth discussions with Obama at the White House on Wednesday on major bilateral, regional and world issues.

The Global Times

January 22, 2011
Suprime Court Rejects The ATAA & TCA Sponsored Genocide Denial into Public Schools

WE HAVE LOST ONE MAJOR STEP- FALSE ARMENIAN CLAIMS WILL BE THOUGHT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS AMERICAN SUPRIME COURT RULES:

AMERIKAN YUKSEK MAHKEMESI SOZDE SOYKIRIMIN OKULLARDA OKUNMASINA YESIL ISIK YAKDI:

TO SUPPORT TURKISH FORUM’S GLOBAL LOBBY ACTIVITIES PLEASE VISIT

https://www.turkishnews.com/tr/content/bagislar-ve-uye-aidatlari/

===============================================================

ANCA Welcomes Supreme Court Rejection
Of Massachusetts Genocide Denial Lawsuit

High Court Declines to Consider Turkish Lobby-Sponsored Bid to Force
Genocide Denial into Public Schools

WASHINGTON–A longstanding legal campaign, spearheaded by pro-Turkey
lobbies, to force the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to include historically
inaccurate Armenian Genocide denial materials in their education curriculum
was killed Wednesday by a U.S. Supreme Court decision declining to hear an
appeal to a lower court ruling dismissing the case, reported the Armenian
National Committee (ANCA).

“We welcome the Supreme Court’s decision to decline to hear this deeply
flawed and dangerous case, and thus uphold the U.S. Court of Appeals First
Circuit landmark decision rejecting efforts by genocide deniers to abuse the

Document2 1/21/2011

American legal system to bring their hateful agenda to our nation’s public
schools,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “This victory, while
certainly a serious setback to Turkey’s campaign of denial, will, just as
surely, not mark the end of the concerted and well-funded efforts by allies of
Ankara to use our nation’s great freedoms to enforce their own version of
Article 301, silencing discussion of the Armenian Genocide in America’s
classrooms.”

This legal battle started in 2005, when, according to media accounts, the
Assembly of Turkish American Associations solicited the assistance of two
local teachers, a student, and his parents to file the Griswold vs. Driscoll
case against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in an effort to force the
state to include Genocide denial materials in its online education curriculum
guide. In June of 2009, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Wolf dismissed the
case stating that the plaintiffs are “are not entitled to relief in federal court.”
The ATAA and fellow plaintiffs appealed the decision, sending the matter for
review by the First Circuit Court of Appeals. In August, 2010, the First Circuit
Court affirmed Judge Wolf’s dismissal of the case, with the majority opinion
prepared by retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter.
The First Circuit Court decision can be read in the appendix.

Throughout the legal process, the ANCA partnered with the Armenian Bar
Association and groups including the Irish Immigration Society, Jewish
Alliance for Law and Social Action, NAACP, Genocide Education Project and
the Zoryan Institute in preparing amicus briefs in support of the
Massachusetts Commonwealth’s calls to dismiss the case. Attorneys from
Wilmer, Cutler, Hale and Dorr LLP, filed the briefs and championed the case
pro-bono. Other groups that submitted their own amicus briefs included the
International Association of Genocide Scholars and the Armenian Assembly.
This case is seen as part of a larger strategy by Turkish American groups to
use the legal system to harass human rights advocates on issues relating to
the Armenian Genocide. The most recent instance is the lawsuit filed by
representatives of the Turkish Coalition of America against the University of
Minnesota for cautioning visitors to their Holocaust Studies website about
online resources which deny the Armenian Genocide.

The Middle East Studies Association, this week, sent an open letter to the
Turkish Coalition urging them to drop the lawsuit, the full text of which can
be viewed in the appendix

Document2 1/21/2011

FOR FULL TEXT AND ATTACHMENTS…LETTERS ..PICTURES .. SEE

ABD Yüksek Mahkemesi’nden Türk Tezlerine Ret/ Inludes ANCA news/court
ruling/Amicus brief by Armenians
Download PDF 8MB

January 22, 2011
Turkey’s ascent as a regional superpower

Lebanon Shows Shift of Influence in Mideast

By ANTHONY SHADID

BEIRUT, Lebanon — In Lebanon’s worst crisis in years, whose resolution may determine whether Hezbollah controls a government allied with the United States, American diplomacy has become the butt of jokes here. Once a decisive player here, Saudi Arabia has all but given up. In their stead is Turkey, which has sought to mediate a crisis that, given events on Tuesday in Beirut’s streets, threatens to turn violent before it is resolved.

The confrontation here is the latest sign of a shifting map of the Middle East, where longtime stalwarts like Saudi Arabia and Egypt have further receded in influence, and emerging powers like Turkey, Iran and even the tiny Persian Gulf state of Qatar have decisively emerged in just a matter of a few years. It is yet another episode in which the United States has watched — seemingly helplessly — as events in places like Tunisia, Lebanon and even Iraq unfold unexpectedly and beyond its ability to control.

The jockeying might be a glimpse of a post-American Middle East, where the United States’ allies and foes, brought together in the interests of stability, plot foreign policies that intersect in initiatives the United States must grudgingly accept.

“There is a sense that the regional players have gone up as the United States has gone down in terms of its presence, its viability, its role,” said a high-ranking Lebanese official allied with the American-backed side in the crisis, which erupted last week.

In a series of stalemates — from the Arab-Israeli conflict to Lebanon — Turkey has proved the most dynamic, projecting an increasingly assertive and independent foreign policy in an Arab world bereft of any country that matches its stature. Its success is a subtle critique of America’s longstanding policy in the Middle East of trying to isolate and ostracize its enemies. From Hezbollah here to the followers of a populist, anti-American cleric in Iraq, Turkey has managed to forge dialogue with America’s enemies and allies alike.

“Turkey has become, I think, until the contrary is proven, an indispensable state in the reorganizing of this region,” said Sarkis Naoum, an analyst and prominent columnist in Beirut.

So far, the interventions of Turkey and others in the Lebanese crisis are mostly symbolic, ventures into a maddeningly complex political landscape that hews to a formula of “no victor, no vanquished.” But in contrast to past crises, when Turkey was virtually irrelevant, the new effort signals the country’s ascent as a regional superpower.

“Our region could not cope with Lebanon entering a new atmosphere of uncertainty,” Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Monday before he left for Syria, where he met the leaders of Qatar and Syria. (Over the weekend, he talked with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran.) “We want to discuss what we can do to overcome this crisis and what other countries in the region must do for Lebanon’s stability.”

Lebanon’s renewed crisis, cutting across questions of sectarian tension in the Middle East, conflict with Israel and Hezbollah’s power in the country, pits the movement against its foes in a stalemate over an international tribunal investigating the assassination of Rafik Hariri, a billionaire and a former prime minister, in February 2005.

The tribunal issued indictments on Monday, and, though the charges remained sealed, Hezbollah has acknowledged that members of the Shiite Muslim movement will be named in the investigation, which it has denounced as an American-Israeli tool. For months, it has sought to undermine the tribunal, questioning its witnesses and evidence, and demanding that the government end its cooperation and denounce the charges. The government led by Mr. Hariri’s son, Saad, refused, and in protest, Hezbollah and its allies withdrew from it, forcing its collapse after a 14-month tenure.

Deadlock has ensued. Many believe that a negotiated solution will eventually end it, but the urgency to find a deal may not come before more strife. In what many saw as a signal by Hezbollah on Tuesday, scores of men dressed in black gathered in various neighborhoods in the capital after dawn. Organized and disciplined, they seemed to move toward Beirut’s downtown and airport, but dispersed within an hour.

“What happened today was just a small message,” said Rafic Nasrallah, an analyst and director of the International Center for Media and Research in Beirut. “The other side should read it very carefully. Until now, the opposition is giving a chance to mediation.”

“But,” he asked, “how long should it wait?”

After the summit meeting in Damascus on Monday, the foreign ministers of Qatar and Turkey visited Beirut on Tuesday, seeing all the parties to the conflict. The trip itself seemed to signal a more intense regional effort that has filled a vacuum left by what some officials describe as an incoherent Saudi policy and an unfocused American approach.

“I wouldn’t call it an aggressive role,” Mohammed Chattah, a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Hariri, said of the American effort here. “I wouldn’t even call it a central role, certainly not at this stage. The regional players are much more visible.”

Even for American allies, like Mr. Hariri, the United States has become such a contentious player, loathed so deeply by one side in the crisis, that a more visible role would only harm its friends. In an embarrassing episode, its ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry for interfering in Lebanon’s affairs after a visit to a minor lawmaker. The meeting was soon skewered by television stations across the spectrum.

Saudi Arabia, long the main Arab backer of Mr. Hariri, has receded since it failed to find a compromise with Syria last week.

Turkey’s entry into the fray follows a pattern of initiatives in the region that do not always line up with American wishes. In May 2008, American officials were taken aback at the announcement of indirect talks, mediated by Turkey, between Syria and Israel. That year, Qatar mediated a deal between Lebanon’s factions that left American officials divided. In both cases, its officials were left in the dark, diplomats say, so as not to undermine a deal.

In Lebanon on Tuesday, Turkey found the rarest of circumstances when Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu arrived here: a welcome from both sides.

“They’re well placed more than any other country in the region,” said Mr. Chattah, the foreign policy adviser to Mr. Hariri.

Ali Hamdan, an aide to Nabih Berri, the Parliament speaker and an ally of Hezbollah, called Turkey “helpful.” He added, “Their international relations will help market any deal they can reach.”

Nada Bakri and Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.

www.nytimes.com, January 18, 2011

January 20, 2011
NBA Game Promises to Be a Turkey? Call In the Turks—or the Filipinos

By JOEL MILLMAN

Donald Weber for The Wall Street Journal HERITAGEToronto fans turned out for Jewish Heritage day featuring the Sacramento Kings’ Israel-born Omri Casspi.

LOS ANGELES—Salih Eroglu prepared carefully for the Los Angeles Clippers’ big day-after-Christmas basketball game.

The 33-year-old gathered Turkish baklava pastries, sparkling “evil eye” pendants and sunflower seed snack packs. He ordered 1,000 red “Turkiye” baseball caps and 1,000 T-shirts emblazoned with images of Hedo Turkoglu, Istanbul-born forward of the visiting team, the Phoenix Suns.

On hand, too, were Turkish dancing girls, a Turkish pop star to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and raffle stubs for an airline ticket to Istanbul. In short, Mr. Eroglu had everything for a successful Turkish heritage event—an occasion meant to boost attendance for the Clippers, one of the National Basketball Association’s worst-drawing teams.

“We were really, really ready,” says Mr. Eroglu, an engineer who organizes the annual Turkish event.

Across the NBA, teams with losing records like the L.A. Clippers are turning to events like Turkish Heritage night to fill seats. WSJ’s Joel Millman reports.

Except for one thing. Just before the event, Phoenix sent the Turkish fans’ favorite Sun—the 31-year-old Mr. Turkoglu—to the Orlando Magic. The move left hundreds of ticket holders without a countryman to root for.

It’s that time of year in the NBA: the deep winter slog when teams with losing records search far and wide for gimmicks to fill seats. That’s why many teams are drumming up “Heritage” events, meant to court even the smallest émigré enclaves to NBA courts, and provide just a tad of buzz—and a souvenir trinket or two—to pump up attendance.

Salih Eroglu

The Toronto Raptors have Filipino Night set for early next month, arriving on the heels of Serbian, Jewish and Chinese nights in January.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are hosting both an Israeli Heritage and a Jewish Heritage event, with a Canadian Heritage Night teed up for late January and a German Heritage night for March.

The Golden State Warriors’ Latino Night is on Jan. 28, after the team held events saluting fans from Iran and China.

Heritage events became popular in the U.S. about a decade ago, when the NBA began signing more talent from overseas. Currently, there are 86 foreign-born players in the NBA.

Pitching ethnicity is an easy win for clubs that don’t typically draw big crowds. With 41 games on a team’s home schedule, most won’t sell out. Weak opposing teams can further dash hopes for a strong turnout. But by focusing on visiting ethnic players, heritage events can generate interest, raising the odds of higher ticket sales. With the right plans—such as special foods and autograph signings with the star player—some teams say they can fill as many as 2,000 additional seats.

But heritage events can be tricky. Many NBA rosters aren’t intact long enough to justify an ethnic night based on a particular athlete—thus, for example, creating Turkish events without a Turkish player.

Still, many teams continue with their heritage proceedings even without the ethnic player slated to showcase the event. “1,300 tickets, and counting,” exulted Toronto Raptors’ media director Jim LaBumbard in anticipation of a Jan. 14 Serbian event arranged to show off Raptors player Peja Stojakovic. This, despite Mr. Stojakovic’s absence from the roster since late November due to a knee injury.

The biggest heritage star this season is 6-foot-9 Omri Casspi, Israel’s lone NBA representative, who plays small forward for the Sacramento Kings. Despite having one of the NBA’s worst records, the Kings are a touring sensation this year, packing arenas with Jewish fans eager to greet the lanky Israeli.

“I meet a lot of kids who get tickets to a Kings game as a bar mitzvah present,” says the 22-year-old Mr. Casspi, who adds he’s also fielded several offers of marriage as he tours NBA arenas.

This month, Mr. Casspi’s Kings lured Jewish fans in Toronto, Washington, Boston and Atlanta. Fans at the Washington Wizards game got Wizards yarmulkes in conjunction with Mr. Casspi’s appearance last week. Organizers at the Atlanta and Boston games provided kosher foods at concession stands.

While a pre- or post-game opportunity to meet with players like Mr. Casspi drives ticket sales, there’s no guarantee that players will oblige. “He’s done more than his share,” says Troy Hanson, the Kings’ spokesman. “We just had to say no to some teams.”

Some NBA teams have found a safer bet is to showcase others, such as ethnic coaches and retired players—thus eliminating any risk of a celebrity no-show. Raymond Townsend, who last played in the NBA in 1981, has been making a comeback of sorts hosting Filipino Heritage events across the NBA.

“When I played, people thought I was just one of the lighter-skinned NBA players with an Afro. No one knew I was Filipino,” says the 55-year-old former Indiana Pacers guard, son of an African-American father and a mother born in Batangas, Philippines.

Two seasons ago, Mr. Townsend returned to NBA courts as a packager of Filipino Heritage events, starting with the Golden State Warriors and the Clippers in California.

“Who knew there were 300,000 Filipinos in Los Angeles? I sure didn’t,” says Carl Lahr, the Clippers’ vice president for marketing.

Mr. Eroglu began organizing the Clippers’ Turkish events in 2003 while running the Turkish students association at the University of Southern California. “We’ve tried to do Turkish Night at Lakers games, but it’s so hard to get seats together,” he says of the city’s more successful team and current NBA champion.

Back then, Mr. Eroglu says, he might sell 50 tickets to a Clippers game. Nowadays, Turkish events routinely bring over a thousand fans, even when the star player can’t be there. Indeed, December’s Turkey Day was only the second sell-out the Clippers enjoyed all season.

At that event, the Clippers didn’t offer ticket refunds after learning Mr. Turkoglu wouldn’t be attending. Instead, the team let every Turkish fan who bought a ticket to the Suns game return free on Dec. 29. The Clippers’ opponent that night: The Utah Jazz, which also features a Turk, Mehmet Okur.

Mr. Okur was injured during the game, but did manage to wave to Turkish fans before leaving the arena.

January 19, 2011