Category: USA

Turkey could be America’s most important regional ally, above Iraq, even above Israel, if both sides manage the relationship correctly.

Germany says U.S. to lose financial superpower status

By Noah Barkin Reuters

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany blamed the Anglo-Saxon capitalist model on Thursday for spawning the global financial crisis, saying the United States would lose its financial superpower status and have to accept greater market regulation.

In unusually stark language, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck told parliament the financial crisis would leave “deep marks” and proposed eight measures to address it, including a ban on speculative short-selling and an increase in bank capital requirements to offset credit risks.

“The world will never be as it was before the crisis,” Steinbrueck, a deputy leader of the centre-left Social Democrats, told the Bundestag lower house.

“The United States will lose its superpower status in the world financial system. The world financial system will become more multi-polar,” he said.

Steinbrueck lay the blame for the crisis squarely on the United States and what he called an Anglo-Saxon drive for double-digit profits and massive bonuses for bankers and company executives.

“Investment bankers and politicians in New York, Washington and London were not willing to give these up,” he said. “Wall Street will never be what it was.”

The collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers and financial woes of other financial institutions like insurer AIG has prompted the U.S. government to unveil a $700 billion rescue package for the country’s financial sector.

Steinbrueck said it was neither necessary nor wise for Germany to replicate the U.S. plan for its own institutions.

The German Bundesbank said earlier this week that the financial market turbulence would hit the earnings of Germany’s big commercial lenders, its publicly-owned Landesbanks and its cooperative banks.

Tighter credit in the wake of the crisis could also constrain household consumption and corporate investment, increasing the likelihood the German economy will fall into recession this year.

But Steinbrueck said German regulator Bafin believed German banks could cope with losses and ensure the safety of private savings.

He said the crisis showed the need for a greater state role in setting the rules for markets and called the turmoil primarily an American problem.

“The financial crisis is above all an American problem. The other G7 financial ministers in continental Europe share this opinion,” he said.

“This system, which is to a large degree insufficiently regulated, is now collapsing — with far-reaching consequences for the U.S. financial market and considerable contagion effects for the rest of the world,” Steinbrueck added.

(Reporting by Noah Barkin and Kerstin Gehmlich)

Source: uk.news.yahoo.com, 24 September 2008

September 25, 2008
Istanbul-Berkeley

REVIEW When veteran Istanbulite Orhan Pamuk received the Nobel Prize in literature two years ago, the committee complimented his “quest for the melancholic soul of his native city.” Melancholic? The world’s third largest city has one big, melancholic soul? I think Pamuk, of all people, would disagree. The 10th International Istanbul Biennial, which was curated by über-busy San Francisco Art Institute faculty member Hou Hanru in 2007, took a more caustic if not realistic theme: “Not Only Possible, But Also Necessary: Optimism in the Age of Global War.” The organizers of the “Orienting Istanbul” conference at Berkeley this week have produced a truly interdisciplinary (and free to the public) conference that cuts through the jargon and confronts big ideas head-on. Nonetheless, I’m glad they snuck in some actual art, including “Istanbul-Berkeley,” Hanru’s selection of video works from the biennial.

Much of Hanru’s curatorial work has focused on urbanization and living, breathing cities. The chosen videos do not disappoint. They address spatiality in radically different ways.

San Francisco Bay Guardian : Article : Smuin Ballet.

September 25, 2008
Turkish Foreign Minister to Visit Atlanta for ‘Year of Turkey’ Program

Phil Bolton – Publisher
Atlanta – 09.22.08

Kennesaw State University’s “Year of Turkey” is to officially open on the week of Oct. 6 with the arrival in Atlanta of Kursad Tuzmen, the Turkish minister of state in charge of foreign trade and customs.

Mr. Tuzmen will be arriving with a delegation of Turkish businessmen and politicians who will attend a variety of programs including a dinner at the Istanbul Center in Midtown and a breakfast at the Southern Center for International Studies in Buckhead.

Tarik Celik, executive director of the Istanbul Center, told GlobalAtlanta that Turkish business and government leaders were focusing on Atlanta and the Southeast U.S. as a prime region with which to develop relations.

Georgia is one of six states the Turkish government is targeting for increased investment.

“This is the longest program they have ever had in the U.S.,” he said. The Istanbul Center was established in 2002 to improve relations between Turkey and the Southeast.

The Istanbul Center, the Turkish American Chamber of Commerce and Kennesaw State have developed 60 programs to take place over the course of this academic year.

Daniel S. Papp, president of Kennesaw State, traveled to Turkey with Mr. Celik to meet with academic, cultural, government and political leaders to set the agenda.

Among the officials with whom they met were Hayati Yazici, Turkey’s deputy prime minister, and Kadir Topbas, the mayor of Istanbul.

A series of meetings will be held with the visiting Turkish officials and business leaders with the possibility of one-on-one meetings.

The programs scheduled at Kennesaw State over the course of the year are to include wide ranging cultural, economic and political presentations.

But, according to Dr. Papp, a highlight of the year is to be a conference that is to be held with the support of the United Nations at the end of January.

The Alliance of Civilization conference is to explore current conditions in Turkey as an example of how cultural and historical conflicts don’t have to degenerate into violence.

Kofi Annan, the former U.N secretary-general, established the Alliance of Civilization initiative to provide practical recommendations for addressing the roots of polarization between societies and cultures.

The U.N. program was launched in 2005 at the recommendation of the governments of Spain and Turkey.

Mr. Tuzmen is a member of the Turkish parliament and has been serving as minister of state since 2002. Among the former positions he held are undersecretary and deputy undersecretary of foreign trade and general director of free zones.

September 25, 2008
Russia engages in ‘gangland’ diplomacy as it sends warship to the Caribbean

Russia flexed its muscles in America’s backyard yesterday as it sent one of its largest warships to join military exercises in the Caribbean. The nuclear-powered flagship Peter the Great set off for Venezuela with the submarine destroyer Admiral Chabanenko and two support vessels in the first Russian naval mission in Latin America since the end of the Cold War.

“The St Andrew flag, the flag of the Russian Navy, is confidently returning to the world oceans,” Igor Dygalo, a spokesman for the Russian Navy, said. He declined to comment on Russian newspaper reports that nuclear submarines were also part of the expedition.

The voyage to join the Venezuelan Navy for manoeuvres came only days after Russian strategic nuclear bombers made their first visit to the country. Hugo Chávez, the President, said then that the arrival of the strike force was a warning to the US. The vehemently antiAmerican Venezuelan leader is due to visit Dmitri Medvedev, the Russian President, in Moscow this week as part of a tour that includes visits to Cuba and China.

Peter the Great is armed with 20 nuclear cruise missiles and up to 500 surface-to-air missiles, making it one of the most formidable warships in the world. The Kremlin has courted Venezuela and Cuba as tensions with the West soared over the proposed US missile shield in Eastern Europe and the Russian invasion of Georgia last month. Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, said recently that Russia should “restore its position in Cuba” – the nation where deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles in 1962 brought Russia and the United States to the brink of nuclear war.

Igor Sechin, the Deputy Prime Minister, made clear that Russia would challenge the US for influence in Latin America after visits to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba last week. He said: “It would be wrong to talk about one nation having exclusive rights to this zone.”

Moscow was infuriated when Washington sent US warships into the Black Sea to deliver aid to Georgia after the war. Analysts said that the Kremlin was engaging in gunboat diplomacy over the encroachment of Nato into the former Soviet satellites of Georgia and Ukraine.

Pavel Felgengauer, a leading Russian defence expert, told The Times: “It’s to show the flag and the finger to the United States. They are offering a sort of gangland deal – if you get into our territory, then we will get into yours. You leave Georgia and Ukraine to us and we won’t go into the Caribbean, OK?” He described the visit as “first and foremost a propaganda deployment”, pointing out that one of the support vessels was a tug in case either of the warships broke down.

Latin America was one of the arenas of the Cold War in which the US and the Soviet Union battled for ideological dominance. Russia has agreed to sell more than $4 billion (£2 billion) worth of armaments to Venezuela since 2005 and disclosed last week that Mr Chávez wanted new antiaircraft systems and more fighter jets.

Mr Dygalo denied any link with Georgia and said that Mr Chávez and Mr Medvedev had agreed on the exercises in July.

Sea power

— In the Battle of Tsushima in 1905 – the largest naval battle since Trafalgar – the Russian fleet sailed 18,000 miles (33,000km) to Port Arthur in the Pacific, where it was outmanoeuvred and destroyed by Japanese forces

— During the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the Soviet Navy conducted 180 voyages on 86 ships to transfer weapons to Cuba

Sources: Times Archive; russojapanesewar.com

The Times 23 September 2008

September 23, 2008
US urges EU to diversify energy supplies

BRUSSELS, Belgium: Russia’s fight with Georgia has added new urgency to the Europe Union’s need to find alternatives to Russian oil and gas imports, the new U.S. ambassador to the EU said Monday.

“Russia’s willingness to defy the international community, act in violation of international law, (and) be threatening in its neighborhood is a reminder of why progress on this issue is so important,” ambassador Kristen Silverberg said.

At an emergency summit on the Georgia conflict early this month, EU leaders called for a study into how the 27-nation body can find alternative energy sources to diminish growing dependence on Russia, which currently supplies a third of EU oil imports and more than 40 percent of the natural gas European Union countries buy from abroad.

Silverberg told reporters the EU should work with Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia and other nations to diversify sources of energy and supply routes for oil and gas from the Caspian and Central Asian regions.

“We hope that Europe will engage with active outreach with some of the supplier countries, the Azeris for example,” she said. “We have always thought that it was in Europe’s interest to diversify its supply routes generally.”

In particular, the EU should work closely with Turkey to develop pipelines and other infrastructure to ensure oil and gas can flow westward through routes not controlled by Moscow, she told reporters Monday.

“We hope that Europe will work closely with Turkey to help make sure that Turkey is a viable and active transit route for Caspian gas,” Silverberg added.

“That involves negotiating with Turkey over reasonable terms for a transit agreement. It means working with Turkey on helping to improve its infrastructure so helping to make sure its an efficient transit route.”

One project under consideration is the so-called Nabucco pipeline, which would deliver gas from Turkmenistan and other Central Asian and Caspian countries westward through Turkey while bypassing Russia.

The project, however, has been slowed by high costs and uncertainty over sources of supply, and Russia is promoting rival routes through its territory as a cheaper and safer alternative.

International Herald Tribune 22 September 2008

September 22, 2008
BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S AMBASSADORIAL NOMINEE FOR TURKEY TO FACE SENATE

Deputy national security adviser James F. Jeffrey is getting his
reward for long hours of service at the White House: President Bush
nominated him last week to be U.S. ambassador to Turkey.

Jeffrey has been the deputy chief of mission in Baghdad and the ambassador to
Albania, among a long list of assignments. No word as to when he will
be heading out, but Senate confirmation is not expected to be a
problem since he is a career official.”

Jeffrey previously served as principal deputy assistant secretary of
state for near eastern affairs, where he held the State Department’s
non-nuclear Iran brief and co-chaired the now defunct Iran-Syria
Policy and Operation Group. I interviewed him for a National Journal
story last year before he moved to the NSC, but the piece is
subscription only and not online.

Update: A Hill contact writes of the Jeffrey nomination for US
ambassador to Turkey: “Not surprising. Prior to this Administration,
he was viewed as a Turkey specialist. Served as DCM in Ankara in the
late 1990s.”

——————–

September 18, 2008, 7:01 pm

BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S AMBASSADORIAL NOMINEE FOR TURKEY TO FACE SENATE
FOREIGN RELATIONS PANEL

Ending Denial through Affirmation of the Armenian Genocide, Ending the
Blockade are Key Issues to be Addressed

Washington, DC -The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, has
scheduled the nomination hearing of Bush’s Ambassadorial Nominee for
Turkey, James F. Jeffrey, for Wednesday, September 24, 2008, reported
the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly).

“We are hopeful the nomination hearing is not a question and answer
session, which in the past has resulted in equivocating on the
historical fact of the Armenian Genocide and America’s proud record of
humanitarian intervention,” said Assembly Executive Director Bryan
Ardouny. “This represents a critical opportunity for the U.S.
Ambassador to Turkey to go further than Ambassador Yovanovitch and
this time to squarely affirm the Armenian Genocide. The U.S. record of
affirmation is clear as evidenced by the 1951 U.S. filing before the
International Court of Justice. The Armenian Genocide is an historical
fact and Mr. Jeffrey would be well served to follow in the tradition
of Ambassador Henry Morgenthau,” continued Ardouny.

In addition to its campaign of denial and application of article 301
of its penal code, which punishes discussion of the Armenian Genocide,
for more than a decade, Turkey, in coordination with Azerbaijan, has
blockaded Armenia. The Turkish blockade not only costs Armenia
hundreds of millions of dollars, but also undermines the stated U.S.
policy goals of regional cooperation and economic integration in the
South Caucasus Region.

While Turkey’s President Gul did accept the bold invitation by
Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan to visit Armenia on the occasion of
a soccer game between the two countries earlier this month, more
concrete steps are needed, including establishing working diplomatic
relations and a process of normalization that removes blockades, opens
borders, restores economic relations, and strives toward the peaceful
resolution of differences and disputes in the region. In fact, the
U.S. Administration has repeatedly called upon Turkey “to restore
economic, political and cultural links with Armenia.”

Jeffrey, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, currently
serves as Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security
Advisor at the White House. Prior to this, he served as Principal
Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs.
Earlier in his career, he served as Deputy Chief of Mission in
Baghdad, United States Ambassador to Albania, and three other
assignments in Turkey. Ambassador Jeffrey received his bachelor’s
degree from Northeastern University and his master’s degree from
Boston University.

Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest
Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public
understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a
501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.
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NR#2008-065

September 22, 2008