Category: America

Turkish-Armenian Roadmap Deal ‘Not Implemented’

Azerbaijan — Turkish Ambassador Hulusi Kilic, undated

17.06.2009

Emil Danielyan

A controversial framework agreement on the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations announced in late April is not being implemented, according to Turkey’s ambassador to Azerbaijan.

“There is no progress in the implementation of the roadmap signed between Turkey and Armenia,” Hulusi Kilic was quoted by the Azerbaijani APA news agency as saying on Tuesday. “Nothing is being done. Nothing has changed.”

Kilic gave no reasons for that. He reportedly said last month Turkey will not reopen its border with Armenia until the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is resolved, echoing statements repeatedly made by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in recent months. Erdogan insisted on that linkage even after the Armenian and Turkish foreign ministries announced the roadmap agreement in a joint statement reportedly brokered by U.S. diplomats.

The announcement came less than two days before the annual commemoration of the 1915-1918 mass killings and deportations of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. The timing is widely believed to have enabled U.S. President Barack Obama to avoid describing the massacres as genocide in an April 24 statement.

President Serzh Sarkisian has since been accused by his political opponents in Armenia and its worldwide Diaspora of willingly forgoing U.S. recognition of the Armenian genocide without securing the lifting of the 16-year Turkish blockade. Sarkisian has dismissed these accusations. He insisted late last month that Ankara could still agree to unconditionally normalize relations with Yerevan.

Meanwhile, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon confirmed on Tuesday that the Turkish-Armenian “roadmap” envisages the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two nations and the reopening of their border. Testifying before a U.S. congressional subcommittee, Gordon said the two sides also agreed to set up inter-governmental commissions specializing in “key areas including history,” according to the Armenian National Committee of America. The history commission would presumably look into the events of 1915-1918.

Visiting Yerevan last week, Gordon sounded optimistic about chances of the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations “within a reasonable time frame.” “I think both sides do appreciate that they need to move forward, and I think they are, and I think they will,” he said.

Gordon’s deputy, Matthew Bryza, likewise told RFE/RL’s Armenian service on May 28 that Erdogan’s statements do not preclude the implementation of the roadmap deal. “Stay tuned, keep watching for additional statements by top officials in both Turkey and Armenia which hopefully will show the implementation is moving forward,” Bryza said.

https://www.azatutyun.am/a/1756703.html

June 17, 2009
Turkey Considers Procuring American or Russian Attack Helicopters

Turkey Considers Procuring American or Russian Attack Helicopters

Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 116

June 17, 2009

By: Saban Kardas

Undersecretary of Defense Industries Murad Bayar told reporters that he is optimistic about the purchase of Super Cobra helicopters from the U.S. Navy, amidst reports that a Turkish delegation is visiting Moscow to discuss the procurement of Russian MI-28 helicopters. In a stalled bid, the Turkish military has been eyeing additional strike helicopters as a stop-gap measure to meet its needs until its own national attack helicopter project becomes operational.

Attack helicopters have been on Turkey’s defense procurement agenda since the 1990’s. In order to increase the army’s effectiveness in combating the PKK, Ankara designated attack helicopters as an urgent requirement, and developed multi-million dollar programs to meet the army’s needs. Following the purchase of several Cobra class platforms, the subsequent tenders Turkey opened were cancelled due to price disputes, licenses and technology transfers and the changing political climate. Consistent with Turkish military procurement policy after 2004, it initiated a national helicopter gunship program.

However, due to the stringent regulations on local participation and technology transfers, American firms could not participate in tenders, and Turkey eventually awarded the contract for the production of its national attack/tactical-reconnaissance helicopters to the Italian AgustaWestland. Under the $3 billion project, the Turkish army will acquire 50 T129 helicopters, a modified version of the Italian Mangusta-A129. The deliveries were expected to start in 2013, but some sources claim that this date be pushed back to 2015 (EDM, June 27, 2008).

Criticism surrounding Turkey’s military modernization program has continued unabated. According to its critics, Turkey’s handling of the helicopter project since the outset reveals poor planning and the lack of direction within the defense industry. Many ambitious weapons systems including main battle tanks, assault helicopters and UAV’s are to be produced domestically, but their design and prototypes will not be ready before 2012. Critics claim that “if the development of those projects was not followed closely, the Turkish defense industry might face a serious crisis in 2012 after falling short of meeting the real needs of the Turkish armed forces” (EDM, January 6).

Meanwhile, the Turkish army reported deficiencies in combating the PKK caused by the delays in the helicopter program, especially after the escalation of the PKK’s terrorist campaign in recent years. The helicopters within the Turkish military inventory, mostly Cobra class, are aging and fall short of the army’s operational meets. This situation lends credibility to the critics’ arguments, since although an attack helicopter project was considered as urgent in the 1990’s, it remains unfinished -and it will take several years before the army will acquire the quantities it needs.

Realizing that even under the most optimistic estimates national attack helicopters will not be delivered before 2013-2015, as a short term measure Turkey approached the United States in late 2007 to purchase up to 12 Cobra class helicopters already in use by the U.S. navy. U.S. sources said that they were in short supply. Since operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have overstretched U.S. military resources, Washington declined the Turkish requests (Turkish Daily News, March 28, 2008). Instead it offered Turkey AH-64 Apaches, but Ankara did not want them since having operated Cobras for almost two decades, the Turkish army lacked the infrastructure and personnel to operate Apaches. The Italian AgustaWestland offered its Mangusta-A129 helicopters, but the Turkish armed forces declined, arguing that the A129’s engine was insufficient to meet its needs (Aksam, March 28, 2008).

The issue resurfaced several times, but the American side did not change their stance. Diplomatic observers maintained that although shortages were cited as the official justification, Washington refused to sell used Cobras to Turkey to punish Ankara’s inflexibility over the attack helicopter tender. It was also claimed that Turkey’s refusal to send additional troops to Afghanistan was behind Washington’s reluctance to sell the Cobras to Ankara (Today’s Zaman, April 14, 2008; Aksam, March 28, 2008).

Turkey then reportedly turned to Russia in late 2008. Turkish and Russian media reports claimed that, after being turned down by the United States, Ankara planned to procure 32 MI-28 Night Hunters, an all-weather day-night attack helicopter, in a deal worth $1 billion. However, Russian defense officials denied these claims and said that Turkey did not officially submit such a request (Cihan Haber Ajansi, December 22, 2008).

Nonetheless, Turkish interest in pursuing the Russian option has continued, reportedly negotiating the purchase of at least 12 MI-28 choppers (Taraf, June 10). Russian defense industry officials attending the IDEF 2009 arms fair in Istanbul in late April maintained that Turkey showed interest in buying Russian air defense systems and combat helicopters (RIA Novosti, April 27). According to recent reports, a delegation from the Turkish defense ministry traveled to Moscow in order to explore the possible acquisition of between 12 and 32 helicopters within the next two or three years (RIA Novosti, June 15).

In response to a question about the visit of a Turkish delegation to Moscow, Bayar told reporters “I am very hopeful about the purchase of Cobra W class [AH-1W-Supercobra] helicopters… I believe we will acquire them. The U.S. navy is considering the acquisition of the Z series, and they will not need the Cobra W class.” He added that during his visit to the United States, the Turkish Chief of the General Staff General Ilker Basbug also raised this issue with his American counterparts (Radikal, June 14).

Given the feasibility concerns, the Turkish government is likely to reach a decision after comparing the Russian and American platforms. In addition to technical and economic factors, political considerations will also play a key role in Ankara’s decision. Given the recent rapprochement between Turkey and the United States, it might indeed acquire the Cobras as a temporary measure. Turkish plans to make a greater contribution to Afghanistan following Basbug and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s contacts (EDM, June 16) might help remove the objections of the U.S. army to Turkey’s requests.

Nonetheless, these developments demonstrate how Ankara treads carefully between Moscow and Washington to maximize its leverage. In line with its recent foreign policy orientation, Turkey also appears equally determined to keep its options open in its defense procurement policies.

https://jamestown.org/program/turkey-considers-procuring-american-or-russian-attack-helicopters/

June 17, 2009
Obama’s link to the Muslim world: Turkey

OPINION

The West can learn a lot from Ankara’s perspective and democratic successes.

By Helena Cobban

Adana, Turkey – As President Obama looks for partners in the Muslim world, he should consider listening to the government of Turkey as much as he listens to Egypt’s president. He could learn a lot from Turkey about how a smart Islamist party can be a valued participant in a democracy.

Turkey, a NATO ally, has been ruled since 2002 by a moderate Islamist party – the Justice and Development Party (AKP) – that has proved its commitment to democracy and pluralism at home and to an active, nearly always nonviolent, engagement in diplomacy abroad. And that’s why the record of the AKP in Turkey is so compelling.

At home, after the party first won power, grass-roots supporters tried to leverage that victory to ban alcohol sales in some Turkish cities. The judiciary struck down those regulations – and the national government complied with the ruling.

Later, the national government tried to lift the country’s longstanding ban on admitting scarf-wearing women to universities or to jobs in government. Once again, the courts struck down the proposal. And once again, the government complied without a protest. (That, though the wives of both the prime minister and the president always wear head scarves in public.)

In 10 days of travel, in three Turkish cities and vast swaths of countryside, I saw Turkish women wearing clothes that ranged from skimpy Western dress topped by tumbling – sometimes bleached-blond – hairdos, to a stylish version of Muslim hijab that involves an elegantly tied head scarf over a mid-thigh tunic and jeans, to the baggy black coverup of the ultrapious.

Most Turkish women are near the middle of that spectrum, and in many places young women with and without head scarves mingle easily, chatting and laughing together.

Regarding domestic affairs, one professor in Istanbul told me, “If you’re a politically liberal Turk who cares about women’s rights, the rights of the Kurdish minority, and religious minorities here, you couldn’t find a better party than the AKP.” I heard versions of that voiced by several other strongly secular Turks.

Back in early April, Mr. Obama came to Turkey and delivered a first important address to the Muslim world. Turks seemed delighted that he had included their country on his first trip abroad as president, and nearly all appreciated the respectful way he addressed the concerns of Turks and other Muslims.

On June 4, he gave another major address to the Muslim world in Cairo. Egypt, like Turkey, is a historic center of Muslim life. But the Turkish government follows policies that are much more in line with Obama’s inclusive, diplomacy-focused approach to international affairs.

Turkey’s two AKP governments have maintained good ties with Europe and with all Turkey’s neighbors – including Greece, Iran, Georgia, Iraq, and Syria. In 2007-08, Ankara also undertook an important mediation effort between Israel and Syria.

But Ankara fell afoul of the Bush administration in Washington for a number of reasons. Most significantly, in 2003, Ankara – like many other NATO allies – strongly opposed the US invasion of Iraq, and it refused to allow Washington to launch part of the invasion from Turkey.

The Bush administration also objected to the good ties the AKP maintained with Syria and – after the hard-line faction won the Palestinian elections in 2006 – with Hamas.

While George W. Bush was president, he seemed to ascribe little value to the inclusive and generally de-escalatory policies the AKP government has pursued at home and in the broader Middle East. He preferred instead an approach to the Middle East that sharpened divisions between the two groups he defined as “moderates” and “extremists.”

In the former group were the notoriously anti-democratic governments of Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In the latter, any government or party that seemed to support Iran, regardless of whether – like Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah – they might have proved their popular support in democratic elections.

Indeed, in the Bush years, Washington worked actively to overthrow both Hamas and Hezbollah, and maintained what one Bush White House official has described as “a state of quasi-war” with Syria.

Several Bush-era officials openly questioned whether the electoral victories of Hamas and Hezbollah actually “proved” that a party could be both dedicated to Islamist principles and democratic rule over the longer term. Turkey’s experience provides intriguing evidence that it can.

Obama should value Turkey’s views on regional affairs. He may not be ready yet to go along with all the advice he receives from the AKP government in Ankara. But Ankara has much valuable experience that it can share with its NATO ally.

Helena Cobban is a former Monitor correspondent. Her latest book is “Re-engage! America and the World after Bush.”

Source: www.csmonitor.com, June 12, 2009

June 16, 2009
Killer at Holocaust museum linked to BNP

Man who killed guard at Holocaust museum has links to BNP

• White supremacist injured in Washington gunfight
• Records show 88-year-old was at fundraising events

Matthew Taylor and Daniel Nasaw

F.B.I. investigators examining a bullet-riddled door at the entrance of the Holocaust Memorial Museum, where a gunman entered the building and shot and killed a security guard. New York Times

A white supremacist who killed a security guard at a Holocaust memorial museum in the US has links to the British National party, which gained two MEPs in last week’s European elections.

Thousands of visitors fled the museum in Washington on Wednesday after James von Brunn opened fire, killing a security guard. In the gunfight that followed, the 88-year-old was shot, and is now in a critical condition in hospital.

Yesterday it emerged that Von Brunn, a longtime antisemite, had attended meetings of the American Friends of the British National party (AFBNP), which was set up to raise funds from far-right activists in America.

Mark Cotterill, who ran the US-based organisation before it folded in 2001, said: “He did attend meetings. I have just checked my database and he is down as ‘meetings only’, so he was not a major donor, although he may have put some money on the plate when it was passed round.”

The AFBNP treasurer, Todd Blodgett, also told the Washington Post that he and Von Brunn had attended fundraising meetings in Arlington County. The BNP leader, Nick Griffin, spoke to at least two AFBNP meetings and said the money raised by the organisation made a “significant contribution to the BNP’s [2001] general election campaign”.

Yesterday a spokesman for the party said: “You get a lot of people coming to meetings but I don’t think you can blame us for that. Even if he did go to meetings, it was nothing to do with us.”

However, anti-racism campaigners said Von Brunn’s links to the BNP underlined its extremist agenda. “It is clear that Nick Griffin is at the centre of an international network of white supremacists,” said Dan Hodges, of Searchlight. “The BNP must explain the full extent of his organisation’s links with this antisemitic gunman.”

The far-right party gained its first two MEPs in last week’s European elections – Griffin in the north-west and former National Front leader Andrew Brons in Yorkshire and the Humber.

During the campaign, photographs emerged of Griffin alongside the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard Stephen “Don” Black, who was banned from the UK by the then home secretary, Jacqui Smith. He was also criticised for defending a BNP leaflet that said black and Asian Britons should be referred to as “racial foreigners”.

Yesterday Von Brunn was charged with murder and killing in the course of possessing a firearm at a federal facility, both capital offences under US federal law; police said hate crime charges were also possible.

At a press conference in Washington, Cathy Lanier, the Washington police chief, said security guard Stephen Johns was shot when he opened the door of the museum for Von Brunn. Other guards opened fire, and Von Brunn slumped to the ground.

In his car, officers found a notebook with a handwritten note saying, “You want my weapons, this is how you’ll get them. The Holocaust is a lie. Obama was created by Jews,” according to a court affidavit.

Von Brunn’s .22-calibre rifle held 10 more bullets and investigators found more in his car and at an apartment in nearby Annapolis, Maryland, that he shared with his son and his son’s fiancee.

Joseph Persichini, assistant director of the Washington FBI field office, said Von Brunn was known to the police as an antisemite and a white supremacist, who had a website that espoused hatred against African-Americans, Jews and others.

“We know what Mr Von Brunn did at the Holocaust museum. Now it’s our responsibility to determine why he did it,” said Joseph Persichini, assistant director of the Washington FBI field office. “We have to ask ourselves did all these years of public display of hatred impact his actions.”

A self-described artist, advertising man and author, Von Brunn wrote an anti-semitic treatise, Kill the Best Gentiles, decried “the browning of America” and claimed to expose a Jewish conspiracy “to destroy the White gene-pool”.

In 1983 Von Brunn was convicted of attempting to kidnap members of the US federal reserve board. At the time, police said he had wanted to take the members hostage because of high interest rates and the nation’s economic difficulties. On the website, Von Brunn blames his six-year imprisonment on “a Jew judge” and “Negro jury”.

Last night civil rights groups said they had been monitoring Von Brunn for decades.

Heidi Beirich, director of research for the Southern Poverty Law Centre’s intelligence project, said: “He thinks the Jews control the Federal Reserve, the banking system, that basically all Jews are evil. He’s an extreme antisemite.”

Source: www.guardian.co.uk, 12 June 2009

June 13, 2009
U.S. Envoy Upbeat On Turkey-Armenia Relations

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs Philip Gordon’s next stop on his regional tour is Georgia.

June 10, 2009

By Emil Danielyan, Ruben Meloyan

In Armenia on the first stop of his first tour of the region, the new top U.S. diplomat for Europe and the former Soviet Union sounded optimistic about prospects for the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations.

“I have only been in office for two weeks, but it seemed to me that there are such important and even historic developments going on in Armenia and the region that I should try to come out here as soon as possible,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon told journalists on June 9.

After holding what he called “excellent and productive talks” with President Serzh Sarkisian and Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian, Gordon also criticized the Armenian authorities’ handling of the May 31 municipal elections in Yerevan.

According to official Armenian sources, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement were high on the agenda of his Yerevan talks. They also discussed the current state of U.S.-Armenian relations. Sarkisian was quoted by his office as telling Gordon that his government finds their expansion “extremely important.”

Speaking at an ensuing news conference, Gordon reaffirmed Washington’s strong support for the year-long fence-mending negotiations between Armenia and Turkey and an unconditional normalization of their relations.

“Turkey-Armenia normalization would benefit Turkey, it would benefit Armenia, and it would benefit the entire region. Because of that, we don’t think it should be linked to anything else,” he said, commenting on Turkish leaders’ renewed linkage between the reopening of the Turkish-Armenian border and a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan.

Gordon stressed that normalization “should proceed within a reasonable time frame,” meaning that “the process can’t be infinite,” he said. “It can’t go on forever. I think the parties understand that.”

“It’s not for me to tell the parties exactly what that means,” added the U.S. official. “But I think both sides do appreciate that they need to move forward, and I think they are, and I think they will.”

Yerevan Vote ‘Not Satisfactory’

Gordon also discussed with Sarkisian and Nalbandian U.S. economic assistance to Armenia under the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) program. Some of that $236 million in assistance has been suspended by Washington because of Yerevan’s poor democracy and human rights records.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry said that Nalbandian briefed Gordon on “steps taken by the Armenian authorities to implement democratic reforms.” It did not specify whether those steps include the May 31 municipal elections in Yerevan condemned as fraudulent by the opposition.

Gordon indicated that the United States did not consider the polls free and fair. “The results were only tallied up a couple of days ago, and so we don’t have a formal statement or judgment right now,” he said.

“But I have heard reports of irregularities and problems with the election. That wasn’t up to the standard that we would like to see.”

The U.S. ambassador in Yerevan, Marie Yovanovitch, who was also present at the news conference, said a more detailed assessment of the elections based on the findings of U.S. Embassy observers will be released “in the next couple of days.”

“We saw a number of instances of irregularities, fraud, and intimidation not only in one or two districts but throughout the city during voting and also during the count,” she said.

Gordon at the same time disapproved of the decision by the main opposition Armenian National Congress not to take up its seats in Yerevan’s new city council. “Even imperfect election would be a better result if those who were asked to serve are able to do so,” he said.

https://www.rferl.org/a/US_Envoy_Upbeat_On_TurkeyArmenia_Relations/1751225.html

June 11, 2009
Court dismisses Armenian Genocide denial

Massachusetts District Court dismisses Armenian Genocide denial case

In a major blow to Turkey’s global campaign to suppress the truth about the Armenian Genocide, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Mark Wolf today ruled in favor of the Massachusetts Department of Education, allowing it to continue teaching the facts of the Armenian Genocide, and other crimes against humanity, in public schools across the Commonwealth as constitutionally protected government speech, reported the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly).

“The Armenian Assembly appreciates the court’s ruling in this matter. It sends a clear message to Turkey and its revisionist allies that history cannot be rewritten to further Ankara’s state-sponsored denial campaign,” said Assembly Board of Trustees Chairman Hirair Hovnanian. Carolyn Mugar, the Board’s President, added, “Given the overwhelming historical and legal evidence documenting the incontestable fact of the Armenian Genocide, this ruling is a victory for all those concerned about genocide education and prevention.”

Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny noted that “today’s decision is in keeping with a growing trend toward teaching genocide prevention with nearly every state, including Massachusetts, formally recognizing the Armenian Genocide. We want to thank the office of the Attorney General of Massachusetts for not backing down in this case.”

The court’s ruling preserves the teaching of accurate history, which is part of the official “Massachusetts Guide to Choosing and Using Curricular Materials on Genocide and Human Rights,” prepared in 1999. In 2005, the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), along with others, filed the suit against the Department of Education arguing that the Commonwealth violated the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights by removing materials from the curriculum that deny the events of 1915.

In an unprecedented move, the plaintiffs attempted to use the federal courts to argue a tired and discredited practice that the “other side” of the story should be taught.

“In light of the fact that Turkey criminalizes honest discussion of the Armenian Genocide, it is especially ironic that Turkish denialists turned to U.S. courts in an attempt to twist freedom of speech in America,” stated Assembly Board of Trustees Counselor Van Krikorian. “Even though the court viewed this case ‘in the light most favorable to plaintiffs,’ it still ruled in favor of truth, history and the U.S. Constitution. The sooner Turkey comes to terms with its past, the better it will be for everyone.”

The Armenian Assembly immediately responded when the suit was filed, hiring Duke University Law Professor Irwin Chemerinsky, one of the nation’s leading First Amendment experts, and co-counsel Arnold Rosenfeld of the firm K&L Gates LLP. Over the past four years, the Assembly, and others, challenged the ATAA at every turn by filing a series of pleadings including an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief. The brief was intended to assist the Court in bringing the case to a conclusion in favor of the Commonwealth.

Attorneys Rosenfeld and Krikorian presented the amicus brief before Judge Wolf. Rosenfeld and Krikorian warned that if the court accepted the plaintiffs’ First Amendment claims, it would open the door for any extremist group, such as Holocaust deniers, to challenge curriculum matters in court.

Attorney Gabrielle R. Wolohojian, then of Wilmer, Cutler, Hale and Dorr LLP, also represented an Amicus Class, which included the Armenian Bar Association, the Armenian National Committee of America, the Irish Immigration Center, the Jewish Alliance for Law and Justice and the NAACP.

11.06.2009 11:28

June 11, 2009