Venezuela says it has agreed to sell fuel to Turkey and that the two countries have pledged to invest jointly in oil projects.
The agreements are part of an energy accord signed by Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro during a visit to Ankara.
The foreign ministry said in a statement Thursday that Turkey will receive fuel and that the countries will cooperate in oil projects, including planned Turkish investment in Venezuela’s crude-rich Orinoco River basin.
It did not give details of projected investment or how much fuel would be sold.
President Hugo Chavez has sought to diversify Venezuela’s oil industry and boost exports to allies while reducing dependence on the United States, the top buyer of Venezuelan oil.
U.S. — A voter casts his ballot during the midterm elections in Centreville, Virginia, 02Nov2010
03.11.2010
Emil Danielyan
The two leading Armenian-American advocacy group have expressed their overall satisfaction with the results of Tuesday’s mid-term congressional elections in the United States that ended in a resounding victory for the Republican Party.
The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) said over 90 percent of candidates endorsed by it have been elected or reelected to the House of Representatives and the Senate.
“We join with Armenian Americans from across the country in congratulating the winners of these elections from both parties, and look forward to working constructively with the new members and leaders of Congress,” the ANCA’s executive director, Aram Hamparian, said in a statement issued hours after the closure of the polls.
The Armenian Assembly of America, the other major lobby group, emphasized the fact that most of the more than 150 House members aligned in the congressional Armenian Caucus won reelection. “We congratulate the Armenian Caucus members who were re-elected to serve another term in Congress and look forward to expanding the Caucus,” Bianka Dodov, an Assembly representative, said on Wednesday.
Unlike the ANCA, the Assembly is not allowed to openly endorse election candidates because of its tax-free status.
The ANCA had urged its members and supporters to vote for 158 Democratic and Republican candidates (152 of them incumbents) across the U.S running for the House and sympathetic to Armenian-American causes such official U.S. recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide. Only seven of them lost their seats, while six other, non-incumbent candidates backed by the ANCA prevailed in hard-fought races in other districts.
U.S. — A US flag is displayed in front of the Capitol during a Flag Ceremony hosted by the Tea Party Patriots in Washington, DC, 02Nov2010
The ANCA singled out Republican Michael Grimm’s victory in the state of New York over a Democratic congressman opposed to a draft congressional resolution describing the 1915 Armenian massacres in Ottoman Turkey as genocide. It also welcomed the defeat of at least three other Democratic incumbents who “have worked against Armenian American priorities.”
Also victorious were five out of six pro-Armenian Senate members endorsed by the ANCA. Those include Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and fellow Democrat Barbara Boxer, a fact also emphasized by the Assembly.
Boxer appears to have boosted her popularity among ethnic Armenian voters in California by blocking recently the congressional confirmation of Matthew Bryza, President Barack Obama’s pick for U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan. The ANCA has been strongly opposed to Bryza’s appointment, accusing the career diplomat of pro-Azerbaijani bias in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Another pro-Armenian candidate, Republican Mark Kirk, was elected to the Senate from Illinois, filling the seat once held by Obama. “The only ANCA backed Senate candidate to lose was Russ Feingold (D-WI), a perennial co-sponsor of Armenian Genocide legislation,” said the ANCA statement.
The ANCA and the Armenian Assembly did not comment on possible implications of Republican control over the House for their key objective: the passage of the genocide resolution. The House Foreign Affairs Committee narrowly approved it in March. Virtually all of the committee members that voted against it were Republicans.
The Assembly noted only that Eric Cantor, the presumptive new House majority leader, and two other senior Republicans are co-sponsors of the resolution. The ANCA likewise referred to them as “key winners.”
The Armenian-American lobby has failed to push the resolution, tacitly opposed by the Obama administration, through the full House so far, despite having key longtime allies in outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other ranking Democrats. It is expected to make another push for genocide recognition before the newly elected House convenes for its first session in January.
“With the new changes in store for the 112th Congress, now more than ever, our grassroots outreach will be critical,” said Taniel Koushakjian, the Assembly’s grassroots director.
To the extent that the story was covered at all, it was mostly straight reporting of a changed domestic political landscape. Indeed, most of the reporting was little different from that in the American press. See, for example, Guardian’s “US midterm election results herald new political era as Republicans take House” and “The Tea Party has just begun” or Deutsche Welle’s “Opinion: US election outcome expresses country’s dissatisfaction” or BBC’s “How will House Republicans wield their power?”
But there was some treatment of what impact the Republican tsunami will have on America’s foreign policy.
BBC world affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds (“Obama’s world image tarnished – but policies will remain”) begins with some general speculation:
Peoples and governments around the world might think that if he cannot impress his own people, then he cannot impress them either. His reception at the G20 meeting in South Korea next week will be watched closely.
Foreign policy played almost no role in these elections and little immediate change is expected, though some big decisions lie ahead.
In Afghanistan – how fast should Mr Obama withdraw troops? In the Middle East – does he give up on peace talks? These results have not weakened backing for Israel in the US Congress, and its supporters will not want the administration to exert undue pressure on it.
However, the American economic weakness that largely caused these election results might encourage Mr Obama to be more active in world economic affairs – stepping up criticism of China over its currency, for example.
While concerns over a “weakened” president are understandable, they’re mostly silly. But Reynolds is right in thinking Obama will feel more pressure from Congress on a handful of issues now. Moreover, since he’s unlikely to be able to make major inroads in domestic policy with Republicans blocking him, the natural move would be to spend more time on foreign affairs, where he has relatively higher autonomy.
Reynolds then turns to more plausible specifics:
One key result is that, while the Republicans swept the House of Representatives, the president’s fellow Democrats held on to the Senate, and this has important implications. It means there is still a chance of getting two key treaties ratified – the Senate has to approve all American treaties. The first is the new strategic arms treaty with Russia, known as New Start.
[…]
One piece of legislation which President Obama hoped for will take a tumble – a climate bill aimed at reducing carbon emissions by taxing them. Republicans will not have this.
It’s true that it will be harder for Obama to get treaties ratified now. But, considering that the Constitution requires a supermajority of 66 votes in the Senate to ratify a treaty and the Republicans already had enough votes to keep him below that threshold, it’s largely a moot point.
Deutsche Welle has a roundup piece titled “German politicians predict US elections will impact world politics.” A few excerpts:
The German government’s Coordinator for German-American relations, Hans-Ulrich Klose, said Wednesday he expected Obama to turn his gaze outward in light of new difficulties in domestic politics. He told national radio station Deutschlandradio that the president would now be concentrating more on the Mideast conflict. “I hesitate to speak of a solution to the problems, but it would be good if there were more intelligent conflict management,” Klose said.
The chairman of the Bundestag parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Ruprecht Polenz, also stressed that Obama could maintain a strong role in international politics, as the president is only dependent on Congress in matters of international diplomacy when it comes to ratifying treaties.
However, Polenz took a different position from Klose’s, positing that conflicts within American politics could weaken the US’s leading position in worldwide diplomacy. “Of course, the US’s role in the world will be judged by its partners according to how strong they are at home. In that sense, [Obama] is somewhat weakened,” Polenz told Deutsche Welle.
Polenz stressed that Germany and Europe would have to take a stronger position in global diplomacy if the US were to take a step back, especially in matters such as the Mideast conflict, Russian-American relations and China’s ascent to the world stage. “We need solutions to certain conflicts and problems in this world, and if the Americans can’t focus on that as strongly as in the past, then Europe will have to do more,” he said, adding, “We don’t have an eternity to answer as many foreign-policy questions as possible with one voice and act accordingly.” “One message of this election is that we are now being put more to the challenge,” Polenz added.
[…]
The big question facing American politics is whether Democrats and Republicans can work together, or if increased control by the opposition Republicans will mean a political stalemate. Polenz believes a standstill would be “fatal” for the US both at home and abroad.
Of one thing we can be certain: The United States will maintain an active agenda on the world stage. That’s been the case for a century now and, if anything, the Republicans will demand a more muscular policy.
Finally, from Monday’s Hurriyet, “Key Turkish issues at play in US elections.”
Though Obama’s administration has expressed confidence about its continued relationship with Turkey’s newly energized ruling party, many lawmakers in the restless Congress seek retaliation against Turkey for Ankara’s improved ties with Iran and worsened relations with Israel.
The first major test in the post-election period will come at a NATO leaders’ summit in Lisbon on Nov. 19 and 20, when the alliance will seek to endorse a common position on a U.S.-proposed missile shield to protect NATO members from ballistic threats from rogue states. Washington seeks to deploy the system’s special X-band detection radars on Turkish soil, an issue that has added further tension to the already stressed relationship between the two allies.
[…]
Whether or not Turkey endorses the missile-defense project will be of key importance for its relations with Washington and the rest of the West. One danger for Turkey is a vote on a resolution recognizing Armenian claims of genocide that the House Foreign Affairs Committee narrowly approved in March. The Obama administration has thus far stood firm in its opposition to the bill, but U.S. Armenians seek a full House vote on the resolution during the “lame-duck” session that will follow Tuesday’s election.
[…]
The pending lame-duck session of Congress may also affect the position of U.S. ambassador in Ankara, a post that has remained empty for more than three months. The last ambassador to Ankara, James Jeffrey, now is ambassador to Baghdad, and his presumed successor, Frank Ricciardone, has thus far failed to win Senate confirmation, with prominent Republican Senator Sam Brownback effectively blocking his appointment.
If Brownback lifts his veto – and there has been no sign of that so far – Ricciardone could be confirmed in the Senate’s lame-duck sessions, which are scheduled to begin Nov. 15. If Brownback refuses to change his stance, however, or if the lame-duck Senate fails to vote on the appointment, the post of ambassador to Ankara would remain vacant at least until the new Congress convenes in January. Alternatively, Obama might withdraw Ricciardone’s nomination and propose someone else to this post.
On that last score, at least, Turkey is in for some relief: Brownback has been elected governor of Kansas and will presumably not bother returning to Washington for a lame duck session.
As to the X-band radar issue, it’s one where the president has a relatively free hand. Republicans are likely to favor doing it but unlikely to force his hand on the issue.
But both the genocide resolution and a tougher line on Iran are more likely under a Republican House and more influential Republican caucus in the Senate.
Yesterday’s elections weren’t about foreign policy. But they’ll have a modest influence beyond the water’s edge just the same.
James Joyner is managing editor of the Atlantic Council. Photo credit: Getty Images.
Much of the world considered Tuesday’s mid-term U.S. election a stinging rebuke to President Barack Obama. But among many in Turkey, it may only have increased his stature.
Owner of the Gulluoglu Baklava shop, Nadir Güllü, shows off his Obama baklava.
At the Karakoy Gulluoglu landmark bakery in Istanbul, the “Baraklava” – giant image of President Obama made in Turkey’s flaky, sweet baklava pastry – is still pleasing the crowds two years after it was made in honor of Mr. Obama’s election, says proprietor Nadir Gullu.
“Maybe the mistakes [that led to the Democrats’ drubbing in midterm elections] weren’t his, but the people around him,” says Mr. Gull. When he pulls out the Baraklava, “even Iraqis and Iranians start smiling and snapping pictures,” he says.
Mr. Obama remains personally more popular in Turkey than his policies or the U.S. itself, a curiosity, given the series of disputes and wrangles the two Cold War allies have had over Armenia, Israel, Iran and other issues since he came to power. But Turks appear to have disassociated Mr. Obama from the U.S. administration as a whole.
“Turks generally believe Obama is sincere, but has not been able to do what he wanted,” says Kerim Balci, a columnist who describes himself as speaking for Turkey’s “religious majority” and is now editor of a recently launched foreign policy magazine, Turkish Review.
According to Mr. Balci, among religious Turks sympathy for Mr. Obama’s stock may even have risen over the past two years. Often called “Black Turks” and excluded for decades from power by a dominant, military-backed secularist elite, religious Turks sympathized with Mr. Obama as the first black American president, he says. They likened his struggles to get things done once in power with similar entrenched resistance that has faced Turkey’s Islamic leaning government.
“They had sympathy for him when he was elected because he was black, and in the view of these religious Turks, now seems even more black,” says Mr. Balci.
In Ankara, Mr. Obama’s sliding popularity is a real concern among policy makers, though. A weak administration could prove more difficult for Turkey in sensitive areas from relations with Israel, to negotiations with Iran, analysts say.
Other politicians are drawing the opposite conclusion, that Mr. Obama will discount the possibility of a second term and carve his own swathe through the last half of his presidency, says Mr. Balci. “They think: now we’ll have ‘our’ Obama, finally,” he says, though he believes that view is “utopian.”
Despite all the disputes the government has had with Washington, the idea is now dawning that Mr. Obama could be a one-term president, says Suat Kiniklioglu, a parliamentarian and foreign affairs spokesman for the ruling Justice and Development party. If that turns out to be true, he said, “both Turkey and Europe might have to grapple with another president from the Republican, Tea Party strain and that would be very hard to deal with, for many of us.”
That kind of president wouldn’t get a baklava at Gulluoglu’s. Asked what would have happened had he made one of former U.S. President George W. Bush, Mr. Gull said: “Some people told me they’d smash my shopfront windows.”
via ‘Baraklava’ Still Pleasing Crowds in Turkey – Washington Wire – WSJ.
The afternoon talk concerns an extraordinary response to the rise of Nazi persecution in Central Europe. It begins with a 1933 request for help from Albert Einstein to President Atatürk of the Turkish Republic. In this rare exchange almost 200 “heimatlos” or expelled professors, mostly of Jewish descent, immigrated to Turkey and taught the first generation of modern Turkish citizens, who would later become the professors, specialists, reformers and creators of the new Republic of Turkey. Many of the heimatlos professors eventually stayed permanently in Turkey.
The lecture will be presented by Mr. Mesut İlgim, a highly respected Turkish researcher, specialist on historical monuments, and photographer. His research began over a decade ago when he first found the letter Einstein wrote to Atatürk offering the assistance of a group of expelled professors in modernizing/westernizing the newly founded educational, architectural, musical, medical, legal, and scientific initiatives in Turkey.
The participants of the panel discussion are Rudi Lindner, Professor of Ottoman Studies, and Associate Professor Kader Konuk of the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures and Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan. Professor Lindner is the son of Austrian refugees and knew some of the exiles. Professor Konuk is an expert in Turkish-German Studies and the author of a recent book on German Jews in Turkey entitled East West Mimesis: Auerbach in Turkey.
This event is organized and supported by the Turkish American Cultural Association of Michigan and American-Jewish Committee, as well as financial support from theTurkish Cultural Foundation and the University of Michigan Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies.
Our supporting sponsors are Beth Israel Congregation, The Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, The Jewish Community Center of Greater Ann Arbor, The Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice and Temple Beth Emeth.
This event is free and open to the public
You may also RSVP to the event on ourFacebook event page
A probable Republican win in today’s US congressional elections is likely to have a significant impact on communication between Ankara and Washington since key players taking a role in determining US Congress’ approach towards Turkey and maintaining certain balances between the two capitals will change with such elections results.
Republican dominance in the House of Representatives along with the Democrat administration in the White House will weaken coordination between the government and the legislation in the field of foreign policy. For instance, if the Obama administration wants to block any congressional move against Turkey, it will have to persuade opposition party lawmakers. Turkey’s vote against further UN sanctions on Iran and the deterioration in Turkish-Israeli ties have already raised questions in US Congress on the future of ties with Ankara. Last month, the US called on Turkey to back NATO’s proposed missile defense system and took steps to counter growing resistance in US Congress to any future sale of drone aircraft. The atmosphere in Congress, which is not favorable for Turkey, is not likely to change for the better after the elections, since members in the new Congress will prioritize the concerns of Armenian-Americans and Greek-Americans when shaping their policies.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is likely to be replaced by Ohio Congressman John Boehner if the Republicans take the House.
Turkey’s vote against Iran sanctions and the crisis with Israel have already raised questions in the US Congress on the future of ties with Ankara. The atmosphere is unlikely to change for the better, since members in the new Congress will prioritize concerns of Armenian-Americans and Greek-Americans
Officials in Ankara, in line with foreign policy traditions of the Turkish capital, have refrained from making any comment on the probable composition of US Congress after the elections and the results of this composition in the foreign policy arena. The Israel lobby — which wields significant influence in both houses of Congress and was upset with Turkey’s harsh rhetoric after Israel’s deadly assault on a Gaza-bound flotilla — is known to be influential among the more conservative wing of the Republican Party.
Additionally, the Republicans generally have an ideological line that is more nationalistic and a pro-war rhetoric that attaches little importance to concerns of international legitimacy when it comers to foreign policy issues. Republicans assume a more hawkish policy than Democrats towards Iran. Such hawkish policies are not in line with Ankara’s peaceful line, which constantly seeks consensus on ways to solve global disputes.
Pentagon and legislation
Republicans are also expected to be open to suggestions from the Pentagon as they generally pay heed to the Pentagon’s security concerns. The Pentagon, which attaches importance to military cooperation with Turkey and, thus, a relationship with the Turkish General Staff, may become one of the units with the highest capability of lobbying in favor of Turkey in Congress.
For the issue concerning the pending resolutions for denouncing and recognizing as a genocide the World War I-era killings of Anatolian Armenians by Ottoman forces, eyes in Turkey will have to be on the speaker, the majority group leader and the chair of the foreign affairs committee at the House of Representatives. A largely symbolic resolution on the Armenian claims was passed by a House committee in March, but amid protests from Ankara, the House Democratic leadership never brought it to the chamber’s floor for a vote.
Current Speaker Nancy Pelosi, democrat of California, which has a large Armenian community, is likely to be replaced by Ohio congressman John Boehner if republicans take the House. Unlike California, there is no significant Armenian electorate in Boehner’s election district. During a vote on a similar House committee resolution in autumn of 2007, Boehner had opposed the resolution on ground of national interests. At the time, Boehner had called the debate on the resolution a “debacle” by democratic leaders. “This entire situation calls their judgment into question,” said Boehner.
In previous periods of Republican control of the House of Representatives, party leaders had blocked attempts to pass resolutions recognizing the World-War I-era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.
Following the elections, republican Eric Cantor of Virginia is widely expected to become House majority leader in place of democrat Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Hoyer is sympathetic to the Armenian Diaspora and is a member of the congressional Armenian caucus, while Cantor is a pro-Israel politician.
Howard Berman, a congressman from California who serves as the democratic chairman of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, will lose this post following the elections. Berman’s performance as the committee chairman during the March committee voting was subject to harsh criticism by Turkish leaders, who accused him of failing to display a professional stance for pressuring committee members to vote for the resolution.
Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, who is poised to replace Berman, is a pragmatic politician who tries to get along with different lobbying groups. The maternal grandparents of Ros-Lehtinen, the first Hispanic woman elected to Congress, were Sephardic Jews from Turkey who had been active in Cuba’s Jewish community. In March she had voted against the Armenian resolution.
‘National interests argument’
The whole picture of the day after today’s elections show that politicians who support Armenian issues like activists will be less likely to be key players in the House as democrats from California will be eliminated. Nevertheless, if the US Congress want to hurt Turkey and dare to do so, the Armenian resolution can still be revitalized.
It is also still possible to have the “national interests argument” prevail in US Congress at a time when NATO ally Turkey is overseeing activities that decrease direct or indirect risks for US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
For some time the US administration has been having some difficulty in persuading Congress to approve Turkish requests for weapons sales. Time will reveal the approaches of the committee members in the new Congress concerning the same issue. Having committees related to weapons sales chaired by republicans may lead to relief to a certain extent, as the Republican party is known to be close to the arms lobbies based in the United States. Yet, it wouldn’t be realistic to expect republicans — who heed national security concerns — to stay silent if Turkey continues to not be on the same page with some vital US policies; for example, if it eventually opposes the planned NATO missile defense system.
The Obama administration, meanwhile, is expected after the elections to intensify its efforts to put an end to the US Senate’s delay in confirming US President Barack Obama’s choice of ambassador to Turkey. In July, he nominated career diplomat Francis Ricciardone as ambassador to Turkey. Yet, Ricciardone’s long-awaited confirmation has been delayed since then.
In a bid to reach out to the US Congress, a delegation from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) had talks in Washington in June, while a bureaucratic delegation led by Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu also had talks in the Capitol Hill in late August. At the time, a group of US lawmakers warned Turkey that its ties with Washington would suffer if it continued on what they considered an anti-Israel path, with both some leading republicans and democrats denouncing NATO ally Turkey for supporting the convoy of aid ships that tried to run the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
The lawmakers also criticized Turkey’s opposition to the UN Security Council resolution extending punitive sanctions on Iran for its secretive nuclear program.
Venezuela says it has agreed to sell fuel to Turkey and that the two countries have pledged to invest jointly in oil projects.
U.S. — A voter casts his ballot during the midterm elections in Centreville, Virginia, 02Nov2010
Owner of the Gulluoglu Baklava shop, Nadir Güllü, shows off his Obama baklava.
![[NEWS ANALYSIS] A Republican victory may widen rifts between Turkey, US](https://www.turkishnews.com/en/content/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/us-republicans_obama_pelosi.jpg "[NEWS ANALYSIS] A Republican victory may widen rifts between Turkey, US 11")