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

  • REACTIONS – Six dead in attack on U.S. consulate in Istanbul

    REACTIONS – Six dead in attack on U.S. consulate in Istanbul

    Here are the first reactions to the armed attack on U.S. consulate in Istanbul:

    ABDULLAH GUL – TURKISH PRESIDENT

    “Unfortunately, three police officers were martyred in a terrorist attack outside the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul earlier in the day. I offer my condolences to their families. Turkey will fight against those who masterminded such acts and the mentality behind it till the end. Everybody has already seen that terrorism would not serve anything.”

    TAYYIP ERDOGAN – TURKISH PRIME MINISTER

    “Such betrayed attacks against Turkey’s peace and stability won’t be able to attain their goals thanks to the determination of our security forces.”

    ROSS WILSON – U.S. AMBASSADOR

    “We remain a close friend and ally of Turkey. Well not be deterred in any way by terrorists who are seeking to strike at us or at U.S.-Turkish relations. Our countries stand together in the fight against international terrorism…. We will confront this as we have confronted similar problems in the past.”

    ERIC GREEN – U.S. CONSULATE IN ADANA

    “We are grateful to the Turkish police for the bravery they displayed. We always take the necessary measures for our security, and will continue to do so. We receive great support from the Turkish police, and very happy with our relations with them. I don’t want to speculate. I don’t know which terrorist organization is responsible for the attack.”

    AMADEU ALTAFAJ TARDIO – EUROPEAN COMMISSION SPOKESPERSON

    “We strongly condemned the armed attack outside U.S. Consulate in Istanbul. We share the sorrow of the Turkish authorities and relatives of the policemen who were killed in the attack.”

  • US ambassador says Istanbul attack was terrorism

    US ambassador says Istanbul attack was terrorism

    US Ambassador Ross Wilson told reporters in Ankara :

    “It’s an obvious act of terrorism, This was an attack on an American diplomatic establishment. The persons who lost their lives are Turkish citizens and we are very sad about that.

    We remain a close friend and ally of Turkey. We’ll not be deterred in any way by terrorists who are seeking to strike at us or at US-Turkish relations, our countries stand together in the fight against international terrorism…. We will confront this as we have confronted similar problems in the past.”

  • Six dead in attack outside U.S. consulate in Istanbul

    Six dead in attack outside U.S. consulate in Istanbul

    From the Associated Press
    2:30 AM PDT, July 9, 2008
    ISTANBUL, Turkey — Istanbul’s governor says an armed attack against a police guard post outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul left three attackers and three policemen dead.

    Gov. Muammer Guler says the attackers’ identities are under investigation.

    A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman says there were no reports of casualties among American consulate employees in Wednesday’s attack.

    The spokeswoman says “at least one assailant opened fire on the Turkish police guard post area near the main entrance to the consulate.” She requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

    Source :

    Read More in Turkish :

  • After meetings in Turkey, Foxman says fallout over ‘genocide’ flap is ‘behind us’

    After meetings in Turkey, Foxman says fallout over ‘genocide’ flap is ‘behind us’

    JPost.com » International » Article

    Jul 7, 2008 23:04 | Updated Jul 7, 2008 23:11

    After meetings in Turkey, Foxman says fallout over ‘genocide’ flap is ‘behind us’

    By HERB KEINON

    The controversy and fallout over the Anti-Defamation League’s statement last year that Turkish actions toward Armenians during World War I was “tantamount to genocide” is “behind us,” ADL National Director Abe Foxman said Monday in Jerusalem, where he arrived from Ankara and a series of meetings with Turkey’s leadership.

    Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti Defamation League.
    Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski

    Last August, Foxman – who was in a dispute in the Boston area over the ADL’s position on the Turkey-Armenia issue – infuriated Turkish leaders by issuing the following statement: “We have never negated but have always described the painful events of 1915-1918 perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians as massacres and atrocities. On reflection, we have come to share the view of Henry Morgenthau, Sr. (the US ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the time) that the consequences of those actions were indeed tantamount to genocide.

    If the word ‘genocide’ had existed then, they would have called it genocide…

    “Having said that, we continue to firmly believe that a congressional resolution on such matters is a counterproductive diversion and will not foster reconciliation between Turks and Armenians and may put at risk the Turkish Jewish community and the important multilateral relationship between Turkey, Israel and the United States.”

    The Turks viewed this as a reversal of the organized Jewish community’s position on the issue, and warned that Turkish-Israeli ties could be harmed if the American Jewish organizations did not work – as they had done in the past – to ensure that the US Congress did not pass a resolution characterizing the massacre of Armenians during World War I as genocide.

    The legislation was eventually removed from the table after US President George W. Bush, and numerous former secretaries of state and defense, wrote letters saying that passing the legislation would harm American interests.

    “They were angry,” Foxman said of the Turkish response to the ADL’s statement last year. “But I think today there is an understanding of where we were, and that we were opposed to Congressional legislation, and that we stood very firm that that was not the way to resolve the issue, and that there is nothing cataclysmic about using the ‘genocide’ word.”

    Foxman, who met with President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan and other key government figures, said his message was that the Turks should be “proactive” and try to help today’s Armenia as part of an effort to resolve the historic affair.

    “In the conversations I had with all of them I said there is a need to be proactive, that they need to deal with live Armenians, and strengthen the relationship between Turkey and Armenia, and by strengthening the relations today – frontier issues, opening borders – it will place the historical issue in the background and be much easier to deal with,” Foxman said.

    By the same token, Foxman said that the Armenian community in the US should understand that pressure to use “certain words they want us to use is not going to help one Armenian.”

    Rather, Foxman said, one of the ways the American Jewish community can help the Armenians it to “help convince the Turkish government to normalize relations” with Armenia.

  • Iraqi Kurds Out-Lobby Iraqi Arabs In Washington

    Iraqi Kurds Out-Lobby Iraqi Arabs In Washington

    By Andrew Tilghman – July 4, 2008, 2:22PM

    This week, we learned that the White House knew about last year’s deal between Texas-based Hunt Oil and the Kurdish Regional Government.

    Apparently the threat it posed to the fragile negotiations in Baghdad didn’t concern the president as much as he suggested in public.

    The Kurds have made a lot of friends in Washington during the past few years — especially among Republicans.

    It’s a relationship that’s bolstered by aggressive lobbying by the Kurds. The Kurdish Regional Government has 11 active contracts with U.S. lawyers and lobbyists, according to the State Department’s database maintained under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The Kurds have been shelling out far more money on K Street than any other group or government in Iraq.

    A key ally for the Kurds is the firm Barbour Griffith Rogers, the lobbying shop founded by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, formerly head of the Republican National Committee. BGR receives $700,000 a year from the Kurdish Regional Government. Their agreement says the firm will “arrange meetings” with U.S. media and government officials.

    The firm has a separate agreement with the Kurdistan Democratic Party for a $262,500 annual fee, according to the FARA database.

    The Kurdish Regional Government also has a deal with the Republican-linked firm Russo, March and Rogers for running a “media campaign” and a “public relations campaign.”

    The Washington Post last year also noted the Kurds efforts to reach out to evangelical Christians.

    In the past year, the Kurds have spent more than $3 million to retain lobbyists and set up a diplomatic office in Washington. They are cultivating grass-roots advocates among supporters of President Bush’s war policy and evangelicals who believe that many key figures in the Bible lived in Kurdistan. And they are seeking to build an emotional bond with ordinary Americans, like those forged by Israel and Taiwan, by running commercials on national cable news channels to assert that even as Iraq teeters toward a full-blown civil war, one corner of the country, at least, has fulfilled the Bush administration’s ambition of a peaceful, democratic, pro-Western beachhead in the Middle East.

    The Kurds are probably watching this year’s campaign very closely.
    Source:
  • “opinion of Azerbaijanis will carefully be considered”

    “opinion of Azerbaijanis will carefully be considered”

    Barack Obama: “I can assure you that opinion of Azerbaijanis will carefully be considered if the issue of Mourad Topalian’s terrorist activity comes before the Senate”

    [ 02 Jul 2008 11:53 ]

    Washington. Husniyya Hasanova–APA. “I can assure you that opinion of Azerbaijanis will carefully be considered if the issue of American Armenian National Committee’s former chairman Mourad Topalian’s terrorist activity comes before the Senate”, said US presidential nominee Barack Obama in his response to the letter of protest of Azerbaijanis living in Illinois.

    Obama represents Illinois in the US Senate. The presidential candidate also noted that he was gratified by the opportunity that the people of Illinois had given him to work on some very challenging issues that would affect the country’s future. This year, the U.S. Senate has considered – or will soon consider – important legislation relating to the President’s surveillance program, consumer protection, energy policy, and next year’s federal budget. “As I have approached these and other issues, I have appreciated the input I have received from Illinoisans like you. While lawmakers and their constituents may hold different perspectives at times, I feel it is particularly important that I hear the views of any Illinois resident, who feels strongly about a particular issue”, said Obama. Former chairman of the American Armenian National Committee arrested for his terrorist activity met after his release with the pro-Armenian Congressman Howard Berman and discussed with him the “Lobbyist issue”. Thousands of Azerbaijanis living in the United States sent letters of protest to all elected bodies of the country, as well as to Senator Barack Obama via US Azerbaijanis Network (USAN). Alongside with Obama, other congressmen have also reacted to the Mourad Topalian’s meeting with the Howard Berman, member of Californian House of Representatives.