Turkish Forum

Category: America

  • Istanbul Center’s New Director Arrives

    Istanbul Center’s New Director Arrives

    Atlanta – 09.10.12

    322

    Turan Kiric

    A new executive director has arrived at the Midtown Atlanta office of the Istanbul Center, a Turkish organization aimed at building understanding between people of varying faiths and cultures.

    Turan Kilic said in a statement that he accepted the job “without hesitation” and hoped to continue the center’s work of facilitating opportunities for cross-cultural communication.

    “Difference is not the enemy of peace; rather, it is lack of knowledge and misinformation that nourish fear and hostility,” Mr. Kilic wrote in a welcome letter in the center’s email newsletter. “Dialog, reliable exchange of information, and direct communication help build trust and respect.”

    Toward that goal, the Istanbul Center each year arranges educational trips to Turkey for business, political and educational leaders from metro Atlanta and for the winners of its annual art and essay contest. In 2013, middle and high school students will write essays or create art works offering solutions to decrease humanity’s footprint on the environment.

    The center is also involved in business, partnering with the Turkish American Chamber of Commerce of the Southeast (which occupies shared office space) to host visiting Turkish trade delegations.

    Each year, hundreds of Atlantans have visited the Istanbul Center to partake in dinners during Ramadan, a month-long festival when Muslims fast from food and water until nightfall.

    Mr. Kiric replaces Tarik Celik, the inaugural executive director of the Istanbul Center in Atlanta, who left Georgia to become executive director of the Turkish American Chamber of Commerce at Texas in Houston.

    For more information about the Atlanta center, visit www.istanbulcenter.org.

    via Istanbul Center’s New Director Arrives.

  • Sam Bacile, Anti-Islam Filmmaker, In Hiding After Protests

    Sam Bacile, Anti-Islam Filmmaker, In Hiding After Protests

    İslam karşıtı filmin yapımcısı islam’ı kanser olarak niteliyor

    LOS ANGELES (AP) — An Israeli filmmaker based in California went into hiding Tuesday after his movie attacking Islam’s prophet Muhammad sparked angry assaults by ultra-conservative Muslims on U.S. missions in Egypt and Libya, where one American was killed.

    s BENGHAZI PROTESTS largeSpeaking by phone from an undisclosed location, writer and director Sam Bacile remained defiant, saying Islam is a cancer and that the 56-year-old intended his film to be a provocative political statement condemning the religion.

    Protesters angered over Bacile’s film opened fire on and burned down the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, killing an American diplomat on Tuesday. In Egypt, protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy in Cairo and replaced an American flag with an Islamic banner.

    “This is a political movie,” said Bacile. “The U.S. lost a lot of money and a lot of people in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we’re fighting with ideas.”

    Bacile, a California real estate developer who identifies himself as an Israeli Jew, said he believes the movie will help his native land by exposing Islam’s flaws to the world.

    “Islam is a cancer, period,” he said repeatedly, his solemn voice thickly accented.

    The two-hour movie, “Innocence of Muslims,” cost $5 million to make and was financed with the help of more than 100 Jewish donors, said Bacile, who wrote and directed it.

    The film claims Muhammad was a fraud. An English-language 13-minute trailer on YouTube shows an amateur cast performing a wooden dialogue of insults disguised as revelations about Muhammad, whose obedient followers are presented as a cadre of goons.

    It depicts Muhammad as a feckless philanderer who approved of child sexual abuse, among other overtly insulting claims that have caused outrage.

    Muslims find it offensive to depict Muhammad in any manner, let alone insult the prophet. A Danish newspaper’s 2005 publication of 12 caricatures of the prophet triggered riots in many Muslim countries.

    Though Bacile was apologetic about the American who was killed as a result of the outrage over his film, he blamed lax embassy security and the perpetrators of the violence.

    “I feel the security system (at the embassies) is no good,” said Bacile. “America should do something to change it.”

    A consultant on the film, Steve Klein, said the filmmaker is concerned for family members who live in Egypt. Bacile declined to confirm.

    Klein said he vowed to help Bacile make the movie but warned him that “you’re going to be the next Theo van Gogh.” Van Gogh was a Dutch filmmaker killed by a Muslim extremist in 2004 after making a film that was perceived as insulting to Islam.

    “We went into this knowing this was probably going to happen,” Klein said.

    Bacile’s film was dubbed into Egyptian Arabic by someone he doesn’t know, but he speaks enough Arabic to confirm that the translation is accurate. It was made in three months in the summer of 2011, with 59 actors and about 45 people behind the camera.

    The full film has been shown once, to a mostly empty theater in Hollywood earlier this year, said Bacile.

    via Sam Bacile, Anti-Islam Filmmaker, In Hiding After Protests.

  • Turkey Is No Partner for Peace

    Turkey Is No Partner for Peace

    How Ankara’s Sectarianism Hobbles U.S. Syria Policy
    Halil Karaveli
    September 11, 2012
    Letter From
    Turkey’s Democratic Dilemma
    Piotr Zalewski

    After years of cozying up to Middle East dictators, Turkey now urges its neighbors to liberalize — or risk regime change. But these calls for change will ring hollow unless Turkey gets its own democracy in order.

    Kara Erdo 411 0

    Erdogan, right, attends the funeral of two pilots shot down by Syria in June. (Umit Bektas / Courtesy Reuters)

    At first glance, it appears that the United States and Turkey are working hand in hand to end the Syrian civil war. On August 11, after meeting with Turkish officials, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released a statement that the two countries’ foreign ministries were coordinating to support the Syrian opposition and bring about a democratic transition. In Ankara on August 23, U.S. and Turkish officials turned those words into action, holding their first operational planning meeting aimed at hastening the downfall of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

    Beneath their common desire to oust Assad, however, Washington and Ankara have two distinctly different visions of a post-revolutionary Syria. The United States insists that any solution to the Syrian crisis should guarantee religious and ethnic pluralism. But Turkey, which is ruled by a Sunni government, has come to see the conflict in sectarian terms, building close ties with Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood–dominated Sunni opposition, seeking to suppress the rights of Syrian Kurds, and castigating the minority Alawites — Assad’s sect — as enemies. That should be unsettling for the Obama administration, since it means that Turkey will not be of help in promoting a multi-ethnic, democratic government in Damascus. In fact, Turkish attitudes have already contributed to Syria’s worsening sectarian divisions.

    Turkey has framed the Syrian conflict in alienating religious terms.

    Washington is pushing for pluralism. In Istanbul last month, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Gordon emphasized that “the Syrian opposition needs to be inclusive, needs to give a voice to all of the groups in Syria . . . and that includes Kurds.” Clinton, after meeting with her Turkish counterpart, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, stressed that a new Syrian government “will need to protect the rights of all Syrians regardless of religion, gender, or ethnicity.”

    It is unclear, however, whether Ankara is on board. As it lends critical support to the Sunni rebellion, Turkey has not made an attempt to reach out to the other ethnic and sectarian communities in the country. Instead, Turkey has framed the Syrian conflict in alienating religious terms. The governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), a Sunni conservative bloc, singles out Syria’s Alawites as villains, regularly denouncing their “minority regime.” Hüseyin Çelik, an AKP spokesperson, claimed at a press conference on September 8, 2011, that “the Baath regime relies on a mass of 15 percent” — the percentage of Alawites in the country. Such a narrative overlooks the fact that the Baath regime has long owed its survival to the support of a significant portion of the majority Sunnis.

    The AKP has antagonized not only Syria’s Alawites but also its Kurds. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has insisted that his country would resist any Kurdish push for autonomy in parts of northeastern Syria, going so far as to threaten military intervention. The Turkish government’s unreserved support for the Sunni opposition is due not only to an ideological affinity with it but also to the fact that the Sunni rebels oppose the aspirations of the Syrian Kurds.

    Meanwhile, the AKP has sought to sell its anti-Assad policy to the Turkish public by fanning the flames of sectarianism at home. The AKP has directed increasingly aggressive rhetoric toward Turkey’s largest religious minority, the Alevis, and accused them of supporting the Alawites out of religious solidarity. The Alevis, a Turkish- and Kurdish-speaking heterodox Muslim minority that comprises approximately one-fifth of Turkey’s population, constitute a separate group from the Arab Alawites. But both creeds share the fate of being treated as heretics by the Sunnis.

    At the September 2011 press conference, Çelik insinuated that Kemal Kiliçdaroğlu, an Alevi Kurd who leads Turkey’s social democratic Republican People’s Party (CHP), based his opposition to Turkey’s entanglement in the Syrian civil war on sectarian motives. “Why are you defending the Baath regime?” he inquired. “Bad things come to my mind. Is it perhaps because of sectarian solidarity?” In a similar vein, Erdogan claimed in March that Kiliçdaroğlu’s motives for supposedly befriending the Syrian president were religious, stating, “Don’t forget that a person’s religion is the religion of his friend.”

    On the face of it, the Obama administration’s positions on Syria are consistent with those of Turkey. In their meetings in Turkey, Clinton reiterated that Washington “share[s] Turkey’s determination that Syria must not become a haven for [Kurdish] terrorists,” and Gordon underlined that the United States has “been clear both with the Kurds of Syria and our counterparts in Turkey that we don’t support any movement towards autonomy or separatism which we think would be a slippery slope.” Such statements may comfort the Turkish government, but the preferred U.S. outcome of a Syria where all ethnic and religious communities enjoy equal rights would nonetheless require accommodating the aspirations of the Kurds to be recognized as a distinct group. And that is precisely what Turkey deems unacceptable. Consider the fact that Turkey has persecuted its own Kurdish movement for raising the same demand; in the last three years, Ankara has arrested 8,000 Kurdish politicians and activists to keep the nationalist movement in check.

    None of this is to suggest that the United States should not work with Turkey, especially since Saudi Arabia, the other main participant in the effort to bring down Assad, has even less of an interest in promoting democracy. But to have a reliable partner in the Syria crisis, Washington will have to pressure Ankara to rise above its ethnic and sectarian considerations.

    The United States should therefore confront these differences in approach head-on and encourage Turkey to see the benefits of pursuing a more pluralistic policy. Despite its fear of Kurdish agitation at home, Turkey would stand to gain from establishing a mutually beneficial relationship with the Kurds in Syria, like the one that it has come to enjoy with the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq. Indeed, representatives of the leading Syrian Kurdish party, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), have urged Ankara to forge a similar partnership. In an interview with the International Middle East Peace Research Center, Salih Muhammad Muslim, the leader of the PYD, said that Turkey should get over its “Kurdish phobia.” Erdogan’s government seems reluctant to do so, fearing that by reaching out to Syria’s Kurds and other minorities, and accepting the idea of a pluralistic Syria, Turkey would encourage its own ethnic and religious minorities to seek constitutional reform and equality. But if Turkey allows ethnic and sectarian divisions in Syria to further spiral out of control, those divisions may spill over its own borders.

    By now, it should have dawned on Ankara that shouldering the Sunni cause to project power in its neighborhood courts all kinds of dangers. Framing Turkey’s involvement in Syria in religious terms leads Sunni Turks to imagine that they are waging a battle for the emancipation of faithful Muslims from the oppression of supposed heretics. This fanning of sectarian prejudice against Syria’s Alawites naturally engenders hostility toward religious minority groups in Turkey, leading the country’s already fragile social fabric to fray.

    There is a bigger risk here, too. The AKP’s pro-Sunni agenda in Syria threatens to embroil Turkey in the wider Sunni-Shiite conflict across the Middle East. By taking on Iran’s ally, Turkey has exposed itself to aggression from the Islamic Republic. In a statement last month, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s chief of staff, General Hasan Firouzabadi, warned that Turkey, along with the other countries combating Assad, can expect internal turmoil as a result of their interference. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Kurdish rebel group considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and the United States, stepped up its attacks over the summer, notably staging a major offensive in Turkey’s Hakkari Province, which borders Iran and Iraq. Iran denies any responsibility for the PKK attacks, but Turkish officials assume that Tehran is involved and that PKK militants cross into Turkey from Iran.

    Until now, the Sunni bent of Turkish foreign policy has suited the geopolitical aims of the United States, as it has meant that Turkey, abandoning its previous ambition to have “zero problems” with its neighbors, has joined the camp against Iran. That advantage quelled whatever misgivings U.S. officials may have harbored about Turkey’s sectarian drift. But if the United States achieves, with Turkish help, its strategic objective of ousting Assad, it will need a different kind of Turkey as its partner for what comes after.

  • Expanding Turkish Airlines Will Boost U.S. Service

    Expanding Turkish Airlines Will Boost U.S. Service

    ISTANBUL — (TheStreet) — Turkey’s continuing emergence as a world power is fueling expansion by Turkish Airlines, including more U.S. service.

    In April 2013, the carrier will begin four-day-a-week service from its Istanbul hub to Houston. It also has plans to serve five additional U.S. cities: Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Miami and Orlando. Currently, Turkish Airlines flies to Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington and New York Kennedy, which has three daily flights.

    Turkish Airlines partners with United (UAL_) and US Airways (LCC_) in the Star alliance, but “nobody likes to transfer between planes,” said Turkish Airlines CEO Temel Kotil, in an interview. “This is why in the U.S. many passengers stay home. It helps us to be a Star member, but our target is home to home.”

    As a hub, Istanbul has distinct advantages. Not only is Turkey’s political and business importance growing, but also the city is an attractive tourist destination. Additionally, although Kotil said passengers don’t like to connect, they sometimes have to, and from Istanbul they can connect to 187 cities in 88 countries around the world — including Mogadishu, which is not served by any other carrier. “We link them to the world and we make a profit,” Kotil said. Meanwhile, key markets in Germany and France are about three to four hours away.

    Kotil noted Turkish Airlines’ 187 destinations make Istanbul the second largest hub in the world in terms of single carrier destinations, after Atlanta, where Delta (DAL_) has 200 destinations. Dallas, where American(AAMRQ.PK) has 171 destinations, is third.

    Turkish Airlines has 370 daily departures from Ataturk International Airport and carries about 80% of the traffic.

    In the first half of 2012, revenue rose 36% to $3.7 billion, capacity grew by 19% and the carrier reported a profit of $90 million. Revenue per kilometer rose 24%. The fleet of 184 Boeing and Airbus planes, averaging about six years in age, has grown from 62 aircraft in 2003. The carrier is 49%-owned by the Turkish government; its shares trade on the Istanbul Stock Exchange. Shares are up about 70% this year.

    via Expanding Turkish Airlines Will Boost U.S. Service – TheStreet.

  • Video: DARPA Legged Squad Support System (LS3) Demonstrates New Capabilities – Piyade tipi Droidler

    Video: DARPA Legged Squad Support System (LS3) Demonstrates New Capabilities – Piyade tipi Droidler

    This video depicts field testing of the DARPA Legged Squad Support System (LS3). The goal of the LS3 program is to demonstrate that a legged robot can unburden dismounted squad members by carrying their gear, autonomously following them through rugged terrain, and interpreting verbal and visual commands.

  • Letter to The Honorable Abdullah Gül, President of the Republic of Turkey

    Letter to The Honorable Abdullah Gül, President of the Republic of Turkey

    9 September 2012

     

    The Honorable Abdullah Gül

    T.C. Cumhurbaşkan

    06689 Çankaya

    Ankara

     

    Dear Mr. President,

    Would you allow me to show my concern about maintaining your well-deserved prestige and to tell you that your star which, until now, has shone so brightly, risks being dimmed by the most shameful and indelible of stains.

    You have passed healthy and safe from the troubles pertaining to your rise to the presidency. You seem to have won over the hearts of the citizens. But what filth this wretched “Syria Affair” has cast on your name and the name of your country. The government of Turkey, in primary collaboration with the government of the United States of America, has dared to attempt to destroy the duly constituted government of Syria. In that process it has funded, encouraged and armed a motley gang of terrorist killers that include numerous members of Al-Qaeda and other recognized terrorist groups. The Hatay region of Turkey is being used as a staging area for attacks on a neighboring country, a country that until recent months had enjoyed great favor with Turkey. Hatay, perhaps the most enlightened, peaceful region in Turkey, now is under occupation by gangs of terrorist killers. The people are regularly accosted on the streets by these ruffians, and asked if they are Alevites. You will be next, they are told. The shops and restaurants are being ripped off by these foreign mercenaries. Send the bill, to Tayyip, they say, He sent for us. And rather than protect the citizens the police turn a blind eye. What is going on, Mr. President? Who is ruling this country?

    Many innocent Syrian people, including my wife’s uncle in Damascus, have been murdered by this assembled-in-Turkey terrorist machine. Moreover, the good citizens of Hatay are daily threatened by this scum that the government of Turkey has organized, of course with the help of the CIA, proven by history to be experts in unspeakably violent subversions. This lawless behavior, indeed a crime against the Syrian people, and a war crime in terms of the Geneva Conventions, is the supreme insult to all truth, all justice, all morality and all religion. Now Turkey is willingly sullied by this filth. History will record that it was under your presidency that this crime against humanity was committed. Something must be done Mr. President.

    As these government and foreign operatives have dared to drag the reputation of Turkey through the filth of deceit, lies and murder, so shall I dare. Dare to tell the truth, as I swear to tell it, since the normal channels of the media and the Turkish justice system have failed so miserably to do so. My duty as a good citizen is to speak, and not become an accomplice to this murderous travesty of justice. My nights would otherwise be haunted by the spectre of innocent men, women and children, not so far away, suffering the most horrible tortures of war.

    And it is to you Mr. President, that I shall proclaim this truth, with all the revulsion that an honest man can summon. Knowing your integrity, I am sure that you do not know the truth. If you did, you would have long ago taken action against this blatant attack on Turkish sovereignty. The ruling power is complicit in this attack. And the opposition is hopelessly divided and incompetent. So to whom if not you, the first magistrate of this country, shall I reveal the vile baseness of those who are truly guilty, the ones steeped in innocent blood up to their elbows.

    As you know, Mr. President, the problem has always been Turkey. Blessed with abundant natural resources, an edenic environment for agriculture, waters teeming with fish, vast olive groves overlooking the sea, a winning warm water climate, the land nexus between east and west, Turkey has always been a target. And being a target is most uncomfortable and always susceptible to treachery.

    Since the death of the founder of modern Turkey, who tossed the imperialist occupying powers into the sea, Turkey has been in a state of decline, particularly regarding its susceptibility and submission to western interests. First it was Communism! Communism! Communism! And a nervous America needed an Islamic green buffer zone against godless Russia. So Turkey said Yes! Yes! Yes! Please forgive us for not joining all you western imperialists in World War II. Please allow us to become a “green zone.” And  please, please, please take some incredibly fertile land from our agricultural heart in Çukurova, eight kilometers east of Adana. And of course build your airbase, said Turkey, but please like us and respect us. So America built its airbase in the fertile heart of Turkey. And that was the beginning of America’s close relationship—meaning CIA involvement—with Turkey. Vital rural education programs were abandoned lest those evil Communists infiltrate. And in the villages, ignorance remained. And the politicians knew it. And the plunder began. And today, Mr. President, the headquarters for this foul deed being done to Syria, the Syrian people, and the Turkish people is at Incirlik Air Base. What goes around, comes around, Mr. President.

    At the root of it all is one man, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the head of the AKP ruling party and the prime minister of the Republic of Turkey. A man of bombast, scowls and ill-humor, he seems not to like anyone. It’s the strangest thing, Mr. President, to observe his grin when visiting the White House in Washington DC. And then the pain that comes to his face when he returns to his native land. He came to power in a landslide election in 2002 that was repeated four years later. Could it have something to do with the lack of education in the provinces, Mr. President? Since he came to power he has relentlessly embarked on a policy to divide and weaken the republic. I am sure you have noticed this, Mr. President. Haven’t you?

    Who is this man? Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he is grown so great?

    I suspect American hamburgers and hotdogs, Mr. President. For he and his ilk are of them. And now, during these days of tragedy, there are no longer any secrets, Mr. President.

    Who is this prime minister who so disparages, dismisses, defames and divides, to wit:

    • What head of government would jail the senior officers and the command and general staff of a nation’s armed forces and within months enter a de facto war against its hitherto peaceful neighbor, Syria?
    • What head of government would actively solicit the entry into its country of known terrorists?
    • What head of government would defy the will of the people as expressed by the existence of a parliament by arming known terrorists at the behest of a foreign power, i.e., the United States of America?
    • What head of government would jail many hundreds of students for protesting their desire for a free education? Some are sentenced to as much as an eight year imprisonment for being members of a “terrorist” organization because they wore traditional poşhu headscarves.
    • Who is this prime minister of a secular, democratic, equal rights espousing country who:
    • In Istanbul 2010 International Women’s Day, opined to a conference of representatives of women’s organizations that women are not equal to men. His wife sat stoically on the dais.
    • On International Women’s Day, 2008 encouraged women to have three and even better, five, children each.
    • On 16 August 2008, called martyred (killed in action) Turkish soldiers “kelle”, a derogatory expression likening them to heads of cattle.
    • In 2011 changed the name of the Ministry for Women and Family to the Ministry of Family and Social Policies thus further effacing and disparaging women.
    • In 2011 on International Women’s Day, he was asked why honor killings had increased 14 fold since 2002 under his regime. In bizarre logic, the prime minister said the enormous increase was because more murders were being reported, thus apparently both praising and loathing improved administrative procedures.
    • After the Turkish Air Force with the help of American “intelligence” from drone observation aircraft bombed and killed 34 innocent Kurdish citizens on 28 December 2011 in Uludere, the prime minister announced his opposition to abortion preposterously likening it to rape. He thus deflected attention from the massive loss of life caused by the Turkish military.  No viable explanation has yet been given.
    • In 2011, in a gross demonstration of his Taliban state of mind, the prime minister ordered the destruction of The Statue of Humanity by the acclaimed sculptor Mehmet Aksoy. The statue stood in Kars on the Armenian border. The prime minister called the statue dedicated to Turkish-Armenian peace, “ucube,” a “freak.”
    • And now, in primary collusion with agents of the United States of America, the prime minister and his oh-so-willing underlings have launched an illegal, unconstitutional aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic, a sovereign nation. Can they have so soon forgotten the international crime and human disaster that such illegal recklessness brought to the innocent Iraqi people? Have they so quickly become emboldened to disregard the will of the Turkish people who so courageously chose not to collaborate with the western rape of Iraq in 2003?
    • And now, in primary collusion with agents of the United States of America, the prime minister and his oh-so-willing underlings have launched an illegal, unconstitutional aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic, a sovereign nation. Can they have so soon forgotten the international crime and human disaster that such illegal recklessness brought to the innocent Iraqi people? Have they so quickly become emboldened to disregard the will of the Turkish people who so courageously chose not to collaborate with the western rape of Iraq in 2003?
    • Has he forgotten the many historical foreign connivances of America? Has he forgotten the murderous campaigns of subversion that featured ruthless CIA involvement? Has he forgotten the American CIA killer-puppet Pinochet? Has he forgotten the destabilizing bombings, the tortures, the disappearances of pregnant women who were executed after giving birth, their children re-engineered for the “new” Argentine society? Has he forgotten the School of the Americas at Ft. Benning, Georgia, a state terrorist training camp? How about the KUBARK program, the CIA how-to-do-it interrogation manual, the book that destroys victims’ minds? Deep, disorienting shocks, day and night jumbled, electroshock, humiliation, silence, noise, sensory deprivation, the slow destruction of brains, has he remembered any of this? And now Turkey has the very same type of organization teaching assassination, sabotage and terror. Mr. President, in times like these we must remember our Nietzsche: “He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.”
    • Has he forgotten Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), Cuba (1959-present), Congo (1960), Cambodia (1961-73), Brazil (1965), Argentina (1976), Indonesia (1965), Vietnam (1961-74), Laos (1961-73), Cambodia (1961-73), Greece (1946-81), Chile (1973), Afghanistan (1979-present), El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua (1980s), Grenada (1983), Turkey (1980-present), Agfhanistan (1979-89) (2001-present) and Iraq (1991-present)? These are all victims of terror American style.
    • Has he forgotten the human wreckage caused by these American assaults? Surely he remembers the horror that America brought to Turkey in 1980, the torture, the mass imprisonment, the executions? Has the prime minister not had his fill of the criminal antics of the USA and its CIA? Most of humanity has, Mr. President? Have you?

    And now Syria, a new horror brought to the Syrian people courtesy of Turkey and America.

    And of course, the not-so-secret planning that turns out to be so terribly fatal. Earlier this year, General Dempsey, David Petraeus, now the CIA capo, and Hillary Clinton came to town, and came to down, and still come to town. A typical American foreign policy team, one civilian and two generals. In case you haven’t been paying attention, Mr. President, American foreign policy has shrunken to its bare essentials: military muscle-flexing and threats. Culturally insensitive and hopelessly hypocritical, it relies on force alone. In between these American visits the Turkish foreign minister feverishly visited Washington. Their cartoonish visits are insulting to Turkey. Meanwhile, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Mu’ammar al-Khaddafi Human Rights Award winner for 2010, soon after the award ceremony ended commenced raining bombs on al-Khaddafi’s head. He then proceeded (like Hillary Clinton) to celebrate his former host’s murder by evisceration via sodomy with various sharp instruments. Then he turned his invective on his former Syrian friend, Bashar al-Assad. How seductive must be the eye-popping smiles of that most incompetent, amoral American secretary of state.

    The deep and treacherous pockets of Saudi Arabia and America’s other military stooge, Qatar, would provide the financing of their fellow Arab neighbor’s demise. In violation of its constitution Turkey now provides a safe haven for the so-called Free Syrian Army, a collection of mercenaries and terrorists dredged up by the collective intelligence services of Turkey, the USA, Israel, and any other western jackals that want some of the action. How does such a safe haven in Hatay differ from the safe haven provided to the PKK in Iraq? Make no mistake, Mr. President, the Free Syrian Army is the equivalent in every way of the America-financed mujadhideen, the “freedom fighters” of the 1980s war in Afghanistan. And venal Turkish businessmen, having been denied projects in Iraq due to governmental blundering, rub their hands together anticipating post-war reconstruction contracts in Syria.

    And lately, again the CIA visited Turkey in the form of its boss, the military man, the general, David Petraeus, a man who as an honorable West Point cadet swore to not lie, cheat or steal, all of which he now does with wanton abandon for his country. Who would not say that this man has not become a monster? And the day after Petraeus left, the prime minister suddenly became a latter-day Mehmet the Conqueror shouting that “In a short time we will go to Damascus and God willing pray in the Emevi mosque.” And a day later 25 soldiers were exploded into very small pieces carrying ammunition in an armory in the middle of the night in Afyonkarahisar. A minister blamed God. The commanding general blamed the media. As usual, all explanations were garbled. As usual, the circumstances are highly suspicious. As usual, an investigation is pending. Chaos, chaos, always the chaos.

    Isn’t this all this a disgusting business, Mr. President?

    Of course, Mr. President, all the posturing about meetings and speeches are hoaxes. This rape of Syria was cooked long ago in Washington. How so? On 20 August 2012 a car bomb exploded in downtown Gaziantep. Warnings had been issued weeks ago that this would. But despite this “intelligence,” the car bomb was carried by a flat-bed truck and offloaded in front of the police station. So much for being alert. Nine people were killed, scores injured. But suddenly something spilled out of a blacker-than-black bag. It seems that three American neo-con think tanks (the Brookings Institute, the America Enterprise Institute and the War Studies Institute) had figured it out in advance months ago at a Washington DC conference. It was attended by representatives from Turkey and Saudi Arabia. First it was called a “scenario,” later a “plan,” then, amazingly, it wasn’t called anything. It just disappeared, never to be mentioned again.

    What’s the difference? Well, hundreds of generals and other senior staff officers remain jailed because of a laughable military coup “scenario” called “Sledgehammer” (Balyoz). This cartoon involved bombing mosques and shooting down Turkish planes. The so-called evidence was slathered across on the front page of so-called newspapers like Taraf, Mr. President. Hundreds of senior officers were arrested, Mr. President! A mammoth investigation and round-up ensued. The army’s command and general staff was purged. But about the American bomb “scenario?” Nothing! The story ran in the press for one day. After that a great silence has prevailed. Why, Mr. President? No arrests. No investigation. No questions. And soon thereafter the CIA’s David Petraeus came to town again, this time peddling another deceitful scheme. How disgusting, Mr. President.

    And guess what familiar names surround the think-tank bomb fiasco? Richard Perle of the 1980 Turkish military coup infamy, Eric Edelman and Douglas Feith, neo-con diplomatic thugs from the recent Bush regime. It all smells to the highest of heavens, Mr. President.

    This is the plain truth, Mr. President, and it is terrifying. It will leave an indelible stain on your presidency. I realize that you may have no direct power over this issue, that you may be limited by the Constitution and your entourage. You have, nonetheless, your duty as a man, which you will recognize and fulfill. As for myself, I have not despaired in the least of the triumph of the right and justice. I say with the most vehement of conviction: truth is on the march, and nothing will stop it. Today is only the beginning, for it is only today that the positions have become clear: on one side, those who are guilty, who do not want the light to shine forth, who crave war and power, on the other hand, those who seek justice and peace and eschew the disgusting laws of the jungle.

    Yes, Mr. President, truth is on the march. The full deception is apparent. And now the Turkish government stands alone in the eyes of the world as a deceiver par excellence. A conniver for the base interests of its American boss. A subversive conspirer who illegally arms, quarters and trains secret terror forces, and by doing so subverts its own constitution. How can this not be treason, Mr. President?

    Mr. President, when the truth is buried underground by lies and deceptions and subterfuges, it grows and builds up so much force that the day it explodes it blasts everything with it. We shall see whether we have been setting ourselves up for the most resounding of disasters. Sadly, it seems clear that Turkey is well along its own road to perdition.

    Today, the endgame now rages inside and outside Turkey. The dangers to the nation and its citizens are clear and present and deadly. And all these dangers lay bare the full deceit of the plan. All is now in plain sight, particularly the vastness of the crimes.

    Herein follows some of the international laws and agreements possibly broken by this violent, criminal cabal organized and directed by the United States of America and the Republic of Turkey, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and The State of Qatar, among others. These are the laws and statutes possibly breached by this vile bunch, headquartered in Istanbul and Incirlik Air Base in Adana. And whose international terrorist militants who are trained and staged in the Hatay region in southeastern Turkey. Of course, there are other higher level operators far distant from Turkey that can easily be traced through the nefarious deeds of their hired henchmen. We know who they are, and where they are, Mr. President. Their list of offenses is long and grievous, Mr. President, particularly for a nation whose government takes great pride in its religious piety.

    I accuse this monstrous cabal of possible crimes against the following standards of civilized behavior.

     

    CRIMES AGAINST MANKIND

    Realizing that the Republic of Turkey is the sole operator within your jurisdiction, I nevertheless accuse all the above mentioned parties and their agents of committing the crime of naked, treacherous aggression, of committing crimes against peace, of committing crimes against humanity, and of committing war crimes against the Syrian people of catastrophic proportions. These grave offenses are described in greater particularity as follows:

    The Constitution of the Republic of Turkey

    Declaration of State of War and Authorization to Deploy the Armed Forces

    Article 92.

    1. The power to authorize the declaration of a state of war in cases deemed legitimate by international law and except where required by international treaties to which Turkey is a party or by the rules of international courtesy to send Turkish Armed Forces to foreign countries and to allow foreign armed forces to be stationed in Turkey, is vested in the Turkish Grand National Assembly.
    2. If the country is subjected, while the Turkish Grand National Assembly is adjourned or in recess, to sudden armed aggression and it thus becomes imperative to decide immediately on the deployment of the armed forces, the President of the Republic can decide on the mobilization of the Turkish Armed Forces.

     

    United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3314: Definition of Aggression

    Aggression is the use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of another State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations.

     

    Charter of the United Nations

    Chapter VII: Action with respect to threats to peace, breaches of the peace, and acts of aggression

    Article 40.

    In order to prevent an aggravation of the situation, the Security Council may, before making the recommendations or deciding upon the measures provided for in Article 39, call upon the parties concerned to comply with such provisional measures as it deems necessary or desirable. Such provisional measures shall be without prejudice to the rights, claims, or position of the parties concerned. The Security Council shall duly take account of failure to comply with such provisional measures.

     

    International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

    Article 20.

    1. Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law.
    2. Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.

     

    Nuremberg Tribunal Charter
    The Tribunal established by the Agreement referred to Article 1 hereof for the trial and punishment of the major war criminals of the European Axis countries shall have the power to try and punish persons who, acting in the interests of the European Axis countries, whether as individuals or as members of organizations, committed any of the following crimes.

    The following acts, or any of them, are crimes coming within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal for which there shall be individual responsibility:

    (a) Crimes Against Peace: namely, planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing;

    (b) War Crimes: namely, violations of the laws or customs of war. Such violations shall include, but not be limited to, murder, ill-treatment or deportation to slave labor or for any other purpose of civilian population of or in occupied territory, murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity;

    (c)Crimes Against Humanity: namely, murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war; or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated.

    Leaders, organizers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such plan.

    Note: the above provisions were codified as legal principles by the International Law Commission of the United Nations.

     

    Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol 1) (2nd part)

    Article 50. Definition of civilians and civilian population

    1. A civilian is any person who does not belong to one of the categories of persons referred to in Article 4 A (1), (2), (3) and (6) of the Third Convention and in Article 43 of this Protocol. In case of doubt whether a person is a civilian, that person shall be considered to be a civilian.

    2. The civilian population comprises all persons who are civilians.

    3. The presence within the civilian population of individuals who do not come within the definition of civilians does not deprive the population of its civilian character.

     

    Article 51. Protection of the civilian population

    1. The civilian population and individual civilians shall enjoy general protection against dangers arising from military operations. To give effect to this protection, the following rules, which are additional to other applicable rules of international law, shall be observed in all circumstances.

    2. The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack. Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited.

    3. Civilians shall enjoy the protection afforded by this Section, unless and for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities.

    4. Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited. Indiscriminate attacks are:

       (a) Those which are not directed at a specific military objective;

       (b) Those which employ a method or means of combat which cannot be directed at a specific military objective;

       (c)  Those which employ a method or means of combat the effects of which cannot be limited as required by this Protocol; and consequently, in each such case, are of a nature to strike military objectives and civilians or civilian objects without distinction.

    5. Among others, the following types of attacks are to be considered as indiscriminate:

    (a) An attack by bombardment by any methods or means which treats as a single military objective a number of clearly separated and distinct military objectives located in a city, town, village or other area containing a similar concentration of civilians or civilian objects; and

       (b) An attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.

    6. Attacks against the civilian population or civilians by way of reprisals are prohibited.

    7. The presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield, favour or impede military operations. The Parties to the conflict shall not direct the movement of the civilian population or individual civilians in order to attempt to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield military operations.

    8. Any violation of these prohibitions shall not release the Parties to the conflict from their legal obligations with respect to the civilian population and civilians, including the obligation to take the precautionary measures provided for in Article 57.

     

    Article 52. General protection of civilian objects

    1. Civilian objects shall not be the object of attack or of reprisals. Civilian objects are all objects which are not military objectives as defined in paragraph 2.

    2. Attacks shall be limited strictly to military objectives. In so far as objects are concerned, military objectives are limited to those objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military of advantage.

    3. In case of doubt whether an object which is normally dedicated to civilian purposes, such as a place of worship, a house or other dwelling or a school, is being used to make an effective contribution to military action, it shall be presumed not to be so used.

     

    Article 57. Precautions in attack

    1. In the conduct of military operations, constant care shall be taken to spare the civilian population, civilians and civilian objects.

    2. With respect to attacks, the following precautions shall be taken:

    (a) Those who plan or decide upon an attack shall:

    (i) Do everything feasible to verify that the objectives to be attacked are neither civilians nor civilian objects and are not subject to special protection but are military objectives within the meaning of paragraph 2 of Article 52 and that it is not prohibited by the provisions of this Protocol to attack them;

         (ii) Take all feasible precautions in the choice of means and methods of attack with a view to avoiding, and in any event to minimizing, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects;

     

    The Nuremberg Principles

    These principles define a crime against peace as the “planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements, or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for accomplishment of any of the forgoing.”

    Mr. President, these are grievous, heavy offenses. I well realize that some, in particular the government of the United States, may consider them to have become “quaintly” obsolete. But that is not the opinion of the overwhelming majority of mankind and its nations. I have hitherto considered the Republic of Turkey to be among those nations advocating the primacy of the rule of law. Unfortunately, given the current situation, I am no longer so sure.

    Finally, I must turn to another aspect of morality, the concept of divine justice. Because of the outrageous hypocrisy of the accused parties these are the most disgusting and egregious of charges, Mr. President.

     

    CRIMES AGAINST GOD

    I accuse these Turkish ringleaders and their murderous operators, these so-called Muslims who take such great public pride in proclaiming their faith while reviling the faith of others, in particular, the Alevites, I accuse these blatant hypocrites of sinning against the word of God as revealed by his esteemed prophet, Muhammad, as proscribed by the following verses of the Holy Koran:

    Sura 4:92 that says “It is unlawful for a believer to kill another believer.”

    Sura 4:93 that says “He that kills a believer by design shall burn in Hell forever. He shall incur the wrath of God, who will lay his curse upon him and prepare for him a mighty scourge.”

    Sura 5:60 that says “Shall I tell you who will receive a worse reward from God? Those whom God has cursed and with whom He has been angry, transforming them into apes and swine, and those who serve the devil. Worse is the plight of these, and they have strayed farther from the right path.”

    Sura 49:11 that says “Do not defame one another…”

    Only God can judge them. And God will do it in God’s good time. But in the meantime, while these so-called Muslims and their non-Muslim supporters, advisors, financers and protectors still live in this world so should they be compelled to adhere to the laws of this world else we all become like them, demons and monsters.

    I realize that this letter is long. But so is the list of transgressions against humanity by the current Turkish government and its enablers. I have but one passion, Mr. President, the search for light, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My protest is simply the cry of my very soul.

    With my deepest respect, Mr. President,

     

    James (Cem) Ryan, Ph.D.

    Founder, West Point Graduates Against the War

     

     

     

    PS. With apologies and thanks to Emile Zola who would surely understand.

     

    Cc.  International Criminal Court, Office of the Prosecutor, The Hague, The Netherlands