Category: America

Spectacle by Armenian diaspora bears function of PR: expert

“One can expect anything from Armenia, but I am inclined to believe that Serzh Sarkissian will not deviate from commitments made to Turkey, Washington and the EU,” expert at Azerbaijan’s Lider TV Tofiq Abbasov said commenting on media reports claiming that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan may delay signing of protocols amid latest events.

“Today Yerevan very much needs breakthrough to revive the country, which is in a very difficult situation because of economic downturn. It will help to get out of stagnation,” he said.

“The entire illusory spectacle by Armenian diaspora that we all watched on TV still bears the function of PR,” the expert said.

“The Armenian diaspora provides financial assistance to Armenia, but this assistance is hardly crosses the line of $50 million a year. This is not such a large sum in light of current realities to say that Sargsyan risks of losing an asset,” he added.

“I believe that President Sargsyan and his team need a hefty catch. In this sense, the opening of borders with Turkey can become a good prospect for whole Armenia, because they will receive a new communication, a very attractive motivation for the development of market relations,” Abbasov said.

“Market relations are at an early primitive stage in Armenia while Turkey already has developed and full-fledged market relations with many states. They have established good relations with European countries. Turkish territory provides direct access to European markets. In this sense, Sargsyan plans to procure more favorable points to revive the economy and demonstrate its diplomatic maneuverability,” Abbasov said.

“I believe that Armenia will not deviate from the intended path and protocols on normalization of relations with Turkey and opening of borders between countries will be signed before the scheduled time. I also believe Serzh Sargsyan will go to the soccer match between Turkey and Armenia. Thus, countries can agree on fundamental issues, and along with it to earn dividends before Washington, which is the spiritual mentor of their reconciliation, but also before the European Union. By the way, after this the U.S. and EU will reward Ankara and Yerevan with a new aid. The normalization of relations between the countries will give additional benefits to Sargsyan in the negotiation process on Karabakh,” the expert said.

http://www.today.az/news/politics/56351.html

October 8, 2009
At Home And Abroad, Turkey Deal A Tough Sell For Armenian President

October 07, 2009

By Brian Whitmore

Video: The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), a political party with close ties to the Armenian diaspora, organized a hunger strike in front of the Armenian Foreign Ministry in Yerevan, protesting the agreement between Armenia and Turkey, which is due to be signed on October 10. Participants offered emotional responses to the prospect of an Armenian-Turkish rapprochement.(Video by author)

YEREVAN — Singing patriotic songs about historic battles against the Turks, dozens of hunger strikers have been camped out in front of Armenia’s Foreign Ministry building for weeks.

They are protesting a proposed agreement that would reestablish diplomatic ties between Yerevan and Ankara and open Armenia’s border with Turkey, ending a crippling 16-year blockade.

Among the demonstrators is Nashan Ajemian, a man in his 50s with a low, gravelly voice, who returned to Armenia from the United States a decade ago. Standing among the protesters, he is adamant that efforts by the country’s president, Serzh Sarkisian, to win support for the rapprochement will never convince Armenians to forget the crimes committed by the Ottoman Empire.

“He’s trying to convince everybody that everything is OK. But we know the Turks for the past 800 years. We know who they are,” Ajemian says.

“Peace is a good thing. But we’re making peace with whom? With a criminal who killed my ancestors?”

Ajemian’s comments came as Sarkisian was conducting a whirlwind, four-country tour in a last-minute attempt to persuade the 5.7 million ethnic Armenians living abroad to lend their support to opening ties with Turkey.

The agreement, months in the making, is due to be signed by the Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers on October 10 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Armenians abroad constitute one of the world’s strongest diaspora lobbying groups, and Sarkisian has met with skepticism and resentment during his tour of France, the United States, Lebanon, and Russia.

Many in the diaspora reject the proposed rapprochement with Turkey, which they hold responsible for the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915. They say a deal with Ankara, which rejects the Armenian assertion that the killings constituted genocide, could represent a disastrous capitulation to a long-standing, and deeply resented, enemy.

They also object to Armenia recognizing its existing border with Turkey, which they say reflects a Soviet-era deal between Moscow and Ankara that handed tracts of Armenian territory to Turkey.

Khachik Khachaturian, another Armenian returnee to Yerevan, says his father was forced to flee his homeland when Ottoman forces massacred Armenians toward the end of World War I.

Armenians marked the 90th anniversary of the Ottoman-era mass killings in Yerevan in April 2005.

“Why does Armenia have a diaspora? Why? How did it happen? These people, most of them, their ancestors are from western Armenia — Kars, Ardahan, Tikranagert, Van — these are areas we cannot give up,” Khachaturian says.

“The genocide is an issue, and the land is a second issue. There is no way people can forget that. And we will never forgive this president. Governments come and go, but justice remains. All we ask for is justice.”

‘A Threat To Their Very Identity’

The diaspora’s sentiment is gaining a foothold back home, as ethnic Armenians like Khachaturian and Ajemian return to their native land, firm in the conviction that a peace deal with Turkey must be fought at all costs. The ongoing hunger strike is organized by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, a nationalist party with close ties to the diaspora.

The fierce diaspora opposition to rapprochement with Turkey reflects the political minefield Sarkisian must navigate as he pursues a policy that has the strong backing of Armenia’s main foreign allies, including the United States, the European Union, and Russia.

In an interview published in “The Wall Street Journal” on October 7, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Yerevan “should not allow its policies to be taken hostage by the Armenian diaspora. It should be up to the government to carry out its policies.”

Part of Sarkisian’s dilemma, however, lies in convincing the diaspora of the anticipated benefits of the deal. Renewed ties with Turkey have the potential to bring commerce and clout to tiny, impoverished, and landlocked Armenia.

But that incentive has far less sway among the diaspora, who have moved on decades ago to better lives abroad.

“The diaspora has a one-issue identity; it’s the genocide and nothing more. They see this whole rapprochement with Turkey as a threat to their very identity. They don’t see it in the same context that the Armenian government sees it, in terms of a need to open the border and a need for normal relations,” says Richard Giragosian, director of the Yerevan-based Armenian Center for National and International Studies.

“The only benefits that could come will be accrued by the Armenian government and the Armenian population. The diaspora sees nothing but harm and nothing but a threat.”

‘Don’t Betray Us’

In fact, Turkey and Armenia briefly had diplomatic relations in the past. Turkey was among the first countries to recognize Armenian independence after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. But afterwards, when Armenian forces occupied the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which falls within the borders of Turkey’s historic ally Azerbaijan, Ankara broke off diplomatic ties with Yerevan and closed its border with Armenia.

Last month, Yerevan and Ankara said they would set aside hostilities and establish diplomatic ties. The protocols to be signed on October 10 sidestep the genocide issue by establishing a joint commission to study the massacres.

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian met with representatives of the Armenian diaspora in Los Angeles on October 4.

That step did nothing to mollify the diaspora, however. Violent protests broke out on the first leg of Sarkisian’s diaspora tour on October 2 in Paris, where an estimated 200 demonstrators clashed with riot police and shouted “traitor” at the Armenian president.

In the United States, Sarkisian faced angry crowds in both New York and Los Angeles. An estimated 12,000 Armenian-American demonstrators gathered on October 4 outside the L.A. hotel where Sarkisian was staying. Held back by blockades and guardrails, protesters held signs reading: “Don’t Betray Us” and “Turkey Accept the Genocide.”

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) issued a statement ahead of Sarkisian’s visit criticizing the opening to Turkey as “a flawed and dangerous set of protocols that threaten the security of Armenia, surrender the rights of the Armenian nation, and insult the dignity of the Armenian people.”

In an interview with RFE/RL in Washington, Aram Hamparian, ANCA’s executive director, assailed Sarkisian for presenting the diaspora with a fait accompli, rather than taking their views into account.

“It’s not a sincere opportunity for dialogue, but rather a theater, designed to create the impression that there’s a back-and-forth. The fact is there is no back-and-forth,” Hamparian says.

“The document was negotiated in secret, and the document is not subject to any changes, so the idea that he’s coming to have a dialogue on the subject is simply not credible.”

White House Support

Not all Armenian-Americans are so staunchly opposed to normalized ties with Turkey. The Armenian Assembly of America joined two dioceses of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the diaspora’s largest charity, the Armenian General Benevolent Union, in issuing a statement supporting the rapprochement with Ankara.

Haig Deranian, grand master of the Knights of Vartan, an Armenian-American fraternal organization that does charitable work, also signed on to the assembly’s supportive statement. He says diaspora Armenians “come from an emotional position, because we’ve lived the genocide” since childhood.

“Growing up — I’m a first-generation Armenian-American — I heard the gruesome stories from my parents and grandparents about what happened. So I’m very emotional about this issue,” Deranian tells RFE/RL.

“But by the same token, you can be emotional but also be objective, and try to do what’s good for the Armenians and our country.”

While in the United States, Sarkisian received a telephone call from U.S. President Barack Obama expressing support for his pursuit of normalized relations with Turkey.

Back on the road, however, Sarkisian faced fresh resistance. In Beirut on October 6, an estimated 2,000 protesters gathered outside the president’s hotel, carrying Armenian flags and signs reading “We Will Not Forget.”

Sarkisian is due to visit Rostov-na-Donu in southern Russia before wrapping up his trip.

At 5.7 million, Armenians abroad far outnumber the 3.2 million living in Armenia proper. Due to their lobbying power, remittances, and investments in the Armenian economy, they have historically enjoyed significant influence over the country’s politics and foreign affairs.

But observers say the momentum for a Turkish-Armenian rapprochement has become so strong internationally that the diaspora is unlikely to be able to scuttle the deal.

Public opinion in Armenia on the opening with Turkey is difficult to gauge, as no public opinion polls on the subject have been released. Analysts say, however, that most Armenians favor reestablishing ties with Turkey, even as deep historic resentments remain.

“I think the opening of the border will be of benefit to us,” says Vahag Galstyan, a 24-year-old man walking through a park in central Yerevan.

“It would be desirable not to forget the past, but to come to terms with it, and live in peace and move forward.”

RFE/RL correspondent Heather Maher contributed to this report from Washington; Suren Musayelyan of RFE/RL’s Armenian Service contributed to this report in Yerevan.

https://www.rferl.org/a/At_Home_And_Abroad_Turkey_Deal_A_Tough_Sell_For_Armenian_President/1846073.html

October 8, 2009
U.S. UNDER SECRETARY WELCOMES TURKEY’S DECISION TO BUY MISSILES

WASHINGTON D.C. – U.S. under secretary of state
for arms control welcomed on Wednesday Turkey’s decision to purchase
missiles from the United States. Ellen Tauscher, the U.S. under secretary of state for arms control and international security, said that the United States was pleased that Turkey would buy patriot missiles from the United States.
The United States had invited all NATO members, including Turkey, to join the missile shield project on which Obama administration was to make changes, Tauscher told the AA correspondent.
Tauscher said the new system would ensure more protection to Turkey when compared with the system proposed by the previous U.S. administration.
The U.S. under secretary said that only the U.S. presence was in question in the previous system, however the new system would also be American but in addition other countries could contribute to it with “assemble-use” model and with the technologies they purchased or developed by themselves.
Therefore, the United States wanted all its allies to establish dialogue with itself to be a part of this new system, Tauscher said.
The U.S. under secretary also defined Turkey as a significant ally and strategic country.
On September 9, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), a part of the U.S. Department of Defense, said the Obama administration could make a deal with Turkey to sell Patriot Advanced Capability-3 guided missile systems, which would be the biggest weapons deal ever between the two countries.
In its statement, DSCA said, the DSCA notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Turkey of 13 PATRIOT Fire Units, 72 PATRIOT Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missiles, four PAC-3 Lot Validation Missiles, 197 MIM-104E PATRIOT Guidance Enhanced Missiles-T (GEM-T), four MIM-104E GEM-T Lot Validation Missiles, five PATRIOT Digital Missiles, five Anti-Tactical Missiles and other related support and equipment. The estimated cost is 7.8 billion USD.

AA

October 8, 2009
China calls time on dollar hegemony

You can date the end of dollar hegemony from China’s decision last month to sell its first batch of sovereign bonds in Chinese yuan to foreigners.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
06 Oct 2009

The Chinese yuan: friends take a photo in front of a sculpture of a one-hundred yuan banknote in Beijing

Beijing does not need to raise money abroad since it has $2 trillion (£1.26 trillion) in reserves. The sole purpose is to prepare the way for the emergence of the yuan as a full-fledged global currency.

“It’s the tolling of the bell,” said Michael Power from Investec Asset Management. “We are only beginning to grasp the enormity and historical significance of what has happened.”

It is this shift in China and other parts of rising Asia and Latin America that threatens dollar domination, not the pricing of oil contracts. The markets were rattled yesterday by reports – since denied – that China, France, Japan, Russia, and Gulf states were plotting to replace the Greenback as the currency for commodity sales, but it makes little difference whether crude is sold in dollars, euros, or Venetian Ducats.

What matters is where OPEC oil producers and rising export powers choose to invest their surpluses. If they cease to rotate this wealth into US Treasuries, mortgage bonds, and other US assets, the dollar must weaken over time.

“Everybody in the world is massively overweight the US dollar,” said David Bloom, currency chief at HSBC. “As they invest a little here and little there in other currencies, or gold, it slowly erodes the dollar. It is like sterling after World War One. Everybody can see it’s happening.”

“In the US they have near zero rates, external deficits, and public debt sky-rocketing to 100pc of GDP, and on top of that they are printing money. It is the perfect storm for the dollar,” he said.

“The dollar rallied last year because we had a global liquidity crisis, but we think the rules have changed and that it will be very different this time [if there is another market sell-off]” he said.

The self-correcting mechanism in the global currency system has been jammed until now because China and other Asian powers have been holding down their currencies to promote exports. The Gulf oil states are mostly pegged to the dollar, for different reasons.

This strategy has become untenable. It is causing them to import a US monetary policy that is too loose for their economies and likely to fuel unstable bubbles as the global economy recovers.

Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, a board member of the European Central Bank, said China for one needs to bite bullet. “I think the best way is that China starts adopting its own monetary policy and detach itself from the Fed’s policy.”

Beijing has been schizophrenic, grumbling about the eroding value of its estimated $1.6 trillion of reserves held in dollar assets while at the same time perpetuating the structure that causes them to accumulate US assets in the first place – that is to say, by refusing to let the yuan rise at any more than a glacial pace.

For all its talk, China bought a further $25bn of US Treasuries in June and $25bn in July. The weak yuan has helped to keep China’s factories open – and to preserve social order – during the economic crisis, though exports were still down 23pc in August. But this policy is on borrowed time. Reformers in Beijing are already orchestrating a profound shift in China’s economy from export reliance (38pc of GDP) to domestic demand, and they know that keeping the dollar peg too long will ultimately cause them to lose export edge anyway – via the more damaging route of inflation.

For the time being, Europe is bearing the full brunt of Asia’s currency policy. The dollar peg has caused the yuan to slide against the euro, even as China’s trade surplus with the EU grows. It reached €169bn (£156bn) last year. This is starting to provoke protectionist rumblings in Europe, where unemployment is nearing double digits.

ECB governor Guy Quaden said patience is running thin. “The problem is not the exchange rate of the dollar against the euro, but rather the relationship between the dollar and certain Asian currencies, to mention one, the Chinese Yuan. I say no more.”

France’s finance minister Christine Lagarde said at the G7 meeting that the euro had been pushed too high. “We need a rebalancing so that one currency doesn’t take the flak for the others.”

Clearly this is more than a dollar problem. It is a mismatch between the old guard – US, Europe, Japan – and the new powers that require stronger currencies to reflect their dynamism and growing wealth. The longer this goes on, the more havoc it will cause to the global economy.

The new order may look like the 1920s, with four or five global currencies as regional anchors – the yuan, rupee, euro, real – and the dollar first among equals but not hegemon. The US will be better for it.

Telegraph

October 8, 2009
WHAT DOES PROTOCOLS BRING TO TURKEY

A DISCUSSION: From: Ergun [[email protected]]

Dear Orhan,

It is unfair to characterize being agaisnt the protocls “no solution is good solution” approach.

I have read both protocols and seen point-by-point analysis of it, have you?

I have serious reservations on these two protocols. Armenia brings nothing to the table to cause these protocls to be signed and gets a “kiss of life” from Turkey in return. I feel Turkey is short-changed and out-smarted by the Armenians and/or pressured real hard by the real powers behind these protocols, namely the U.S. and the E.U.

I am a businessman who believes in give-and-take. Diplomacy and international relations are all give-and-take. I feel like these protocls are give-and-give. I do not see any “take” on the table, do you? (What you may think will happen in future is an “expectation”, that may or may not pan out, not a “take”.)

Let’s do this mental exercise wioth you:

Suppose the protocols are signed on October 10, 2009.

The Turkish parliament ratifies them, despite fierce opposition in and out of the parliament, six weeks after that.

And the borders are opened two months after that.

That’s the sequence of events described in the protocols.

Technically, by February or March, Turkey-Armenia border can be opened with no tangible gain for Turkey.

1- Is there any reason left as to why Armenia should take any step towards peace in Karabakh + 7 provinces after that point?

2- Can Turkey dare to close the borders if Armenian insists on making no moves citing million reasons or excuses?

3- Would not Turkey be under even more pressure by the US, EU, and UN not to close the borders then?

4- And if Turkey closes the borders anyway–like Turkey resisted international pressure on the Cyprus issue in 1974–would not Turkey be isolated further?

5- Aren’t we boxing ourselves into another TRNC situation here where Turkey looks like the cruel bully of a neighbor who takes sadistic pleasure in punishing the cute, little, poor, helpless kid next door, e.g. Armenia?

6- Do you see any signs of toning down of the genocide rhetoric now, or coveting of Turkish lands, or changing Armenian constitution?

7- Why give so much upfront while receiving little more than empty promises in return?

8- What if we lose Azerbaijan because of this? Who will fill the oil and gas pipelines on which so much of Turkey’s new policies of being the “new energy hub” depends?

9- Doesn’t this feel like the “soldier’s promise to Evren” by the American chief of staff, General Rogers, back in 1981 when Turkey removed its objection to Greece’s return to NATO? Greece kept none of the promises since and our only capital in negotiations with Greece was wasted. Our only capital in negotiations with Armenia is opening the border. That is being wasted away on vague promises in a couple of loosely worded protocols.

Dear Orhan, if I did such poor trades in my business, I would be bankrupt by now.

I am not against dialog, negotiations, raproachment, and normalization. But I believe, this just ain’t it.

If Armenia vacated 5 of the 7 provinces immediately, for instance, and agreed to turn over security of the remaining 2 provinces along with that of Karabakh to UN security forces; and allowed the return their home of Azeri refugees, I could see signing of the first protocol.

And if Armenia promised to remove reference to Western Armenia in its constitution (code for Eastern Anatolia,) agree to turn over the genocide claims to a joint historians’ committee, and stop coveting Turkish lands, I could agree to sign the second protocol.

It is as simple as that.

Last word: I am not against normalization; I am against a poor business deal.

Best regards,

Ergune

—–

From: [email protected]

Sent: Monday, October 05, 2009 10:27 PM

Dear Javid and Ergun,

It is unfortunate that many Turkish Americans are reacting negatively to the protocols to be signed by the Turkish and Armenian governments. I am no fan of the Erdogan government, but this is a right step long overdue. We need to change the “no solution is a good solution” mentality.

I know the path forward will be difficult. There are many people who will be threatened by any reproach between Turkey and Armenia; Armenian diaspora comes to mind. The Middle East is known for many conflicts that are never resolved. I hope in a few years there will be one less problem and Turkey and Armenia will show the way.

Both governments should be applauded for taking this giant but dangerous step. I hope they will not be stuck in the past and will find a win-win solution.

Orhan Gurbuz

In a message dated 10/05/2009 11:46:09 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:

Excellent comments Ergun bey.

I have to say that I am disappointed by ATAA and TCA support for the protocols initiated in the Armenian Foreign Ministry. Especially in ATAA case, was the decision behind the official support letter based on the opinion of community conducted through an open poll?

These documents would bring no benefits to Turkey in return to far bigger losses in regional foreign policy. From a moral standpoint, this is the first time in the history of Turkish Republic when a deal is concluded on enemy’s terms.

Best,
Javid

2009/10/4 Ergun Kirlikovali <[email protected]>

Dun Los Angeles Times ile yarim saatlik bir gorusme yaptik. Bugun haberlerde cok kucuk bir kismi cikti. Buna da sukur.

Ergun KIRLIKOVALI

Tentative deal between Armenia, Turkey brings opposition from both sides

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-oct-04-me-armenia-protest4-story.html

Armenian Americans and Turkish Americans both say the governments in their homelands are giving too many concessions. A commission that would study the Armenian genocide is a sore point for some.

Upset over an agreement that would establish diplomatic ties between Armenia and Turkey and reopen their common borders, members of the Los Angeles Armenian community plan to rally in Beverly Hills today.

Organizers of the demonstration say they will call on Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan to refrain from signing protocols with Turkey that they believe would threaten Armenia’s interests and security.

Sargsyan is scheduled to visit Los Angeles today.

A deal that would essentially normalize relations between the long-estranged nations is expected to be signed this month. But the agreement faces opposition from both Armenian Americans and Turkish Americans, who argue that the governments in their homelands are making unreasonable concessions.

“We’re not against normalization and peace with Turkey,” said Arek Santikian, a UCLA student and chairman of the Armenian Youth Federation of the Western United States. “We really would want peace. But we can’t have peace with preconditions.”

Among the agreement’s provisions is the creation of a historical commission that would evaluate the bloody history between the two countries. The Armenian genocide of 1915 to 1918 claimed the lives of about 1.2 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, which became the modern republic of Turkey. The Turkish government disputes that a genocide took place.

A historical commission would allow Turkey “to question the veracity of the genocide,” Santikian said. “We know that it happened. We can’t put a question mark on that.”

Turkey disputes the number of those killed and argues that Armenians were equally brutal in slaying Turks when they revolted against their Ottoman rulers and aligned themselves with invading Russian troops.

Armenian American critics of the agreement also argue that the protocols would allow Turkey to keep eastern territories they say are historically part of Armenia.

They are also concerned about the future of Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed enclave populated mainly by ethnic Armenians but within the borders of Azerbaijan, which has close ethnic and political ties with Turkey.

“The protocols are not proportional,” said Caspar Jivalagian, a student at Southwestern Law School and an Armenian Youth Federation member. “It is a very pro-Turkish document.”

But many Turkish Americans disagree.

“Turkey is giving too much and getting too little in return,” said Ergun Kirlikovali, West Coast director of the Assembly of Turkish American Assns.

Some believe the Turkish government is selling out Azerbaijan by reconciling with Armenia before the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh has been settled. Others fear Turkey might be forced to give back land.

Kirlikovali said Turks are also tired of being defamed by Armenians who were “constantly pushing a bogus genocide claim . . . and distorting and misrepresenting history.”

He argued that a historical commission would allow experts to come to a “nonpolitical” verdict on the issue, and said that’s why Armenians were opposed to the creation of such a panel. It could debunk their main indictment against Turks, Kirlikovali said.

Gunay Evinch, the assembly’s Washington, D.C.-based president and a Fulbright scholar, said that despite the concerns over the consequences of the accord between Turkey and Armenia, the agreement presented “a unique opportunity to move forward for these countries and their people, but not without risks.”

[email protected]

Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

October 7, 2009
Turkey anti-IMF protest dispersed

Police in Turkey have used tear gas and water cannon to break up protests against a meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Several hundred protesters shattered the windows of banks and a fast-food restaurant in Istanbul, reports say.

Dozens of arrests were made, and many shops in the city centre remain closed.

Delegates of the two organisations are holding their annual meetings, with co-operation in international finance reportedly high on the agenda.

“Long live freedom,” chanted crowds of protesters, some of whom covered their faces with red scarves. “IMF get out of our city.”

Shield-wielding riot police wearing gas masks erected barriers around the convention centre where finance ministers, central bankers and economists were meeting.

Police helicopters hovered above the protests, which were organised by several Turkish trade unions.

A student was arrested last week for throwing a shoe at Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF managing director, during a speech he gave at an Istanbul university.

The IMF is urgently discussing ways to make itself more representative of the new world order where developing countries make up nearly half of the world economy, but only have about one-third of the votes in the IMF.

BBC

October 6, 2009