Turkish Forum

Category: Regions

  • AMERICAN BOYZ N THE HOOD

    AMERICAN BOYZ N THE HOOD

    Turkish Soldiers Hooded by America Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. 4 July 2003
    Turkish Soldiers Hooded by America
    Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. 4 July 2003

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Istanbul: 13 November 2014

    Yesterday, three sailors from the uncontrollably violent neighborhood called America met the true face of Turkey. Poor boys, they don’t even know what they represent. They don’t even know that their so-called leaders have made them punching bags for its criminal enterprise called American imperialism. They don’t even know how America and its treasonous internal agents, in particular the Turkish government, are attempting to destroy the future of the Turkish youth.

    Perhaps these American boys got a quick lesson in the true nature of Turkish-American relations yesterday? But, sadly, probably not. The American boys ran back to the false safety of their warship, re-entering their “safe” world of imperialist propaganda, economic excess and hypocrisy. But there is no safety anywhere any longer. That is the gift of America to Turkey, and to the world. As usual, America authorities and its treacherous collaborating Turkish puppets screamed in outrage. And, as usual, the youth of Turkey, the true defenders of the Republic of Turkey, went to jail for exercising their patriotic duty. Nothing has changed, except one thing. Turkish young people, the nation’s true patriotic voice, will not take American crap anymore. And America should understand that. Listen and learn, America. You owe it to your own youth. Think of it this way, think of it as a symbol.

    That’s the way the resident American-imposed agent of destruction, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, thought about his hooding of Turkish women into a grotesque series of Middle Age costumes that squeeze feminine brains into numb submission. So what, declared the then prime minister, if the head scarf is a political symbol? So what, indeed! Erdoğan used his compliant covered women to destroy democracy in his own country. He and his collaborators hid behind their women’s headscarves to do America’s dirty work. And now they cannot safely visit any neighborhood in their own land. No “hood” is safe for the hoodlums. And now the new president hides in a billion-dollar illegal palace, his inadvertent monument to treason. So what if he and his ilk cannot appear in public! So what!

    So what if in 1980 the American president celebrated the success of his CIA-engineered military coup by proclaiming “Our boys did it!” Yes, then his gangster BOYZ did it. And yesterday, today’s Turkish youth remembered. And yesterday, our Turkish boys did it to America, symbolically, of course, because Turkish youth is civilized. They can be no other way; they are the current-day “soldiers of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.” This is something that the treacherous opposition political polities can neither say nor understand. Yes, Turkish young people are civilized and enlightened by the patriotic principles of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. That’s why, yesterday, no one, neither American boy nor Turkish boy was hurt. No one was tortured. No one was hung. No one was shot, exploded, beaten, gassed, or otherwise maimed. And that’s a lot more than America can ever say about their overt and covert interventions in Turkey’s affairs.

    So what if America and its craven ambassador, Francis Ricciardone, aided and abetted the Turkish government in its beating, gassing, maiming and murdering of democratically assembled Gezi Park protestors. “The Turkish government is having a conversation with its people,” said the deceitful ambassador, as he arranged to have more poisonous gas sold to Erdoğan and his hoodlum police. A “conversation?” So what!

    So what if the same ambassador conspired with the main opposition party leader to assure the election of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the presidency!

    So what if yesterday the American boys’ heads momentarily felt the experience of being symbolically hooded! Symbolically hooded, not actually hung like so many patriotic Turkish young people have been. And by their own government! The Turkish people have been strangled and hooded by America, by its CIA meddlers and by its corrupt politicians for decades. And in the past decade of Erdoğan’s treacherous rule, America’s CIA “boys” have done it again. Or tried to.

    So what if America has used its youth to kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in its deceitful, illegal war of aggression!

    So what if America has humiliated the Turkish military by hooding its soldiers in Iraq in July 2003!

    So what if America has conspired with Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan to kill hundreds of thousands of Syrians in its deceitful pretext of bringing democracy!

    So what if America has supported the treasonous, under-educated, Islamic zealot, CIA-asset, Fethullah Gulen for decades in the Pennsylvania countryside!

    So what if Gulen and Erdoğan have collaborated for decades in treacherous union to do America’s bidding in the subversion of the Turkish Republic! So what if the Turkish Army has been destroyed! So what if the independence of the Turkish judiciary has collapsed! So what if rivers have been stopped, farmers’ fields uprooted, forests felled, eternal olive trees murdered, lakes polluted, mountains plundered, the air made poisonous, all in pursuit of private profit, all indicative of massive governmental corruption! So what if the government has looted public funds! So what if the Turkish mass media slithers like a reptile on its overstuffed belly doing the bidding of its governmental master! So what if Turkey stinks from America’s subversion like a rotting corpse in the noonday sun!

    Yes, SO WHAT?

    Yesterday, clearly, directly, in a street-theater performance, Turkish “boyz” encountered American “boyz” in the Turkish “hood.” The US embassy in Turkey called the incident “appalling.” What is appalling is the embassy’s ignorance and arrogance. What is appalling is the criminal behavior of its criminal boss, the president of the United States. It is he and Erdoğan and all their co-conspirators, all the ones who need protection by regiments of armed-to-the-teeth goons, who deserve to be hooded. And now they can never step foot in our hood, ever again. Not ever! That’s the message from yesterday. Take your warships and your political puppets and go!

    James C. Ryan

    Istanbul

    13 November 2014

  • Armenian Parliament Rejects Recognition Of Azerbaijan’s Karabakh Region As A Separate Independent State‏

    Armenian Parliament Rejects Recognition Of Azerbaijan’s Karabakh Region As A Separate Independent State‏

     

    Armenian parliament rejected Nov. 12 the oppositional Heritage faction’s draft law, submitted in extraordinary manner, which stipulates recognition of independence of Azerbaijan’s separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Novosti-Armenia news agency reported.

    Prior to the voting on the draft law, Artak Zakarian, an MP from the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) faction said the RPA believes that the draft law is not timely, so the RPA faction will not participate in the voting.

    Thus, the draft law gained 8 votes “in favor”, with one abstention. Other MPs didn’t vote.

    The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

    As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

    The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.

    Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

    Wednesday 12 November 2014

      Kufi Seydali

     

  • Republican Congressional Majority Casts Dark Shadow on Armenian Interests

    Republican Congressional Majority Casts Dark Shadow on Armenian Interests

    By Harut Sassounian

    www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

    Nearly all congressional candidates nationwide who supported Armenian -American issues were victorious during the November 4 elections. The outcome was similarly positive for other candidates running in state and local races. Consequently, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) announced that over 95% of its endorsed candidates had been successful. Although both Republicans and Democrats have traditionally supported Armenian-American issues, there are some dark clouds looming over Armenian lobbying efforts in Washington due to major changes in the new Congress, which take effect in January 2015, during the critical Centennial Year of the Armenian Genocide. Several key pro-Armenian Democratic Senators will lose their leadership positions as a result of the new Republican majority. For example, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), rated A+ on Armenian issues by ANCA, will no longer Chair the Foreign Relations Committee. He will be replaced by Sen. Robert Corker (R-TN), rated D+ by ANCA, one of five Republican Senators who voted against the Armenian Genocide Resolution in the Foreign Relations Committee last April. In addition, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), rated A by ANCA, will become Minority Leader. He will be replaced by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), rated C+ and endorsed for reelection by ANCA. Sen. McConnell has voted positively on some Armenian issues. The picture is not any brighter on the House side, in terms of the position of its top leadership on Armenian-American issues. Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), who saw a major surge in his party’s majority, had announced during a recent visit to Ankara that the House of Representatives will not deal with the Armenian Genocide issue. No wonder ANCA gave him a C rating. A glimmer of hope is House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), rated B- and endorsed by ANCA for reelection, who has maintained close contacts with his Armenian constituents. Fortunately, Cong. Ed Royce (R-CA), rated A+ and endorsed by ANCA, will still Chair the important Foreign Affairs Committee. It is not surprising that the Turkish media has been gloating over the congressional election results. “Republicans favor Turkey on Armenian issue,” was one of the headlines in Sabah, a Turkish newspaper. Reporter Ragip Soylu wrote: “Some changes within the Senate will help Turkey’s distasteful experience with Congress.” The “removal” of Sen. Menendez from chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee “will help Turkey’s uncomfortable and weak position in the Senate.” The reporter went on to call the continued Republican control of the House “more good news for Turkey as House Speaker John Boehner has already promised to not bring up the Armenian issue to the executive agenda of the chamber. ‘Congress won’t get involved in this issue. We don’t write history, we are not historians,’ he reportedly said during his visit to Ankara in April 2014.” In another Sabah article, Ilnur Cevik confidently wrote: “Turkey’s fortunes are not so bad,” in the face of “the likely problems posed by the advent of the 100th year since the 1915 incidents regarding the Armenians during Ottoman times.” Cevik described Republicans not as “combative” on the Armenian issue as Democrats “who are dying to appease the Armenian lobby in the U.S. and thus would be more receptive to a tough worded motion regarding Armenians, especially in 2015 when the 100th year of the events during World War I when Armenians living under Ottoman rule were killed and the Armenians called this controversially a genocide.” Another Turkish publication, “World Bulletin,” cheerfully headlined its report: “Republican Victory in US Congress Benefits Turkey.” The article pointed out that “a Democrat-led Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee would have been a nightmare for Turkish-American relations, as it would have come out with bills on Armenian claims of genocide during the 1915 incidents in eastern Turkey.” Soner Cagaptay, Director of Turkish Research Program at Washington Institute for Near East Policy, confirmed the pro-Turkish orientation of the new Senate, as “it has been Republicans in the Senate who have blocked bills on genocide claims against Turkey.” Another Turkish analyst, Kadir Ustun, observed that the chance of passing a Congressional Resolution on the Armenian Genocide “is now lower than ever, as the Republicans are in control of Congress.” It is now incumbent upon Armenian-Americans who have strong ties with Republican Congressional leaders to convince them to uphold Armenian initiatives, while exposing Turkey’s support for ISIS terrorists who threaten US national interests in the Middle East.

  • Greece should bet on Turkish semi-democracy rather than Egyptian dictatorship

    Greece should bet on Turkish semi-democracy rather than Egyptian dictatorship

     

    I was planning to write a follow up to the latest article I wrote about Turkish-Greek cultural cooperation, which I learned had been translated and published on a number of Greek websites. However, the recent cool winds blowing in the Mediterranean changed the focus of this article.

    The discovery of gas in the Mediterranean had raised hopes that diplomatic work to find a solution to the Cyprus problem could be sped up. Unfortunately, it has become an additional obstruction for settlement efforts.

    Following attempts to start drilling in 2011 and 2013, both of which triggered a reaction from Turkey, Greek Cyprus once more decided to try its luck in late October, by starting exploration activities just as talks were continuing between the two communities.

    It is hard to imagine that the Greek Cypriot leadership was not expecting a reaction from Ankara. Indeed, Turkey sent the Barbaros Hayrettin Paşa scientific ship to carry out seismic surveys around the same area, which was declared an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) by Greek Cyprus, disputed by Turkey and Turkish Cyprus.

    Antonis Samaras of Greece and Nicos Anastasiades of South Cyprus

    Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades then announced that he would not attend the peace talks.

    I would not be surprised if many Turkish decision-makers are convinced that the exploration activities were authorized by Anastasiades, specifically at this time, in order to trigger a reaction from Ankara that would give him an alibi to quit the negotiations, which Turks believe he was not incredibly enthusiastic about anyway.

    Meanwhile, just as third party players, like the U.N. Secretary General’s representative, were trying to find a way out from the impasse, the leaders of Greece, Greek Cyprus and Egypt recently met in Cairo to pledge greater energy cooperation in the Middle East.

    Ankara refrained from making an official statement about the summit, but let their naval forces commander made an announcement that there were more assertive rules of engagement in the Mediterranean.

    Now we learn that the trilateral meeting in Cairo will be followed by a new trilateral meeting between Greek Cyprus, Greece and Israel. The time of that meeting is not yet set, but Anastasiades is due to visit Israel on Dec. 2. This visit was preceded by a visit to Nicosia last week of Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who lambasted Turkey for intruding on Greek Cyprus’ EEZ.

    So the picture that comes around is like this: On the one side is Turkey, whose international standing is not exactly brilliant, and on the other an alliance of Israel, Egypt and Greek Cyprus, each of which have, for the time being at least, very hostile relations with Turkey.

    As someone who has been highly critical of Turkey’s foreign policy course in the past, you might think I will talk about how the government’s erroneous policies have landed Turkey in such a situation in the East Mediterranean.

    Nicos Anastasiade, Antonis Samaras and Abdel Fatah el-Sisi

    Indeed, Turkey is partly responsible for the picture in which you can see Egypt’s former military leader, now President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi standing between Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Anastasiades.

    I can understand Greek Cyprus’ futile effort to forge an alliance with Egypt and Israel up to a certain point, but Greece? Tension in the Aegean has never served Athens. The last decade is a testament to how Greece has benefited from engaging with Turkey.

    Let’s suppose Turkey’s policy on the issue is totally wrong. Even so, is it the right course for Greece to go and pose together with a coup leader just to support Greek Cypriots? Does the Greek government seriously think an alliance with Israel and Egypt will frighten and deter Turkey? Couldn’t Greece surprise us and work as a silent mediator to defuse the tension?

    Greece has more to benefit from cooperating with a semi-democracy like Turkey than a dictatorship like Egypt, or Israel, which is increasingly being isolated by the European Union.

    In addition, Turkey may have temporary strains in its relations with Israel and Egypt, but the moment is there for normalization; both Tel Aviv and Cario have ties with Ankara that will always outweigh those with Greece and Greek Cyprus, as was rightly underlined in a comment published yesterday in the Cyprus Mail titled “Realism needed on the power of regional agreement.”

    I am still optimistic that the Turkish-Greek reconciliation will stand strong against this new wave of tension.

    It’s good to know that just as the foreign ministers of Greece, Greek Cyprus and Egypt were meeting in Nicosia to prepare for the Cairo summit, the Greeks were attending a Turkish film week in Athens. Meanwhile, just as the two countries’ naval officers issued statements over the weekend about new rules of engagement in the Mediterranean, Turks were attending the Athens marathon on Nov. 9. In addition, the Turkish economy minister and the Greek development minister will be attending a business forum this week in İzmir; while as Israel prepares to welcome Anastasiades on Dec. 2, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is set to visit Athens on Dec. 4.

    November/11/2014

    BARÇIN YİNANÇ

    barcin.yinanc@hurriyet.com.tr

      Kufi Seydali

  • Takeaways from the GOP romp

    Takeaways from the GOP romp

    The Democratic field program did not live up to the hype. | AP Photo

    By JAMES HOHMANN | 11/5/14 4:21 AM EST

    Even optimistic Republican operatives didn’t anticipate this.

    The GOP seized control of the Senate, won House seats no one saw coming and expanded its footprint in governors’ mansions.

     

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    Here are our takeaways from the night:

    The Republican takeover of the South is finally complete.

    Arkansas was a last Democratic stronghold in the South. Native son Bill Clinton went several times for days at a time to try holding the governorship and a Senate seat. Democrats hoped the enduring popularity of Sen. Mark Pryor’s father, David, a former governor and senator, would generate goodwill and insulate him from anti-Barack Obama sentiment.

    (PHOTOS: Election Day 2014)

    Not only did Republican Tom Cotton trounce Pryor by 16 points, but the outgoing Democratic governor, Mike Beebe, will be replaced by former Rep. Asa Hutchinson, a member of the House team that led impeachment proceedings against Clinton in 1998. National Democrats believed that the moderate former mayor of North Little Rock, Patrick Henry Hays, would pick up an open House seat — but he fell to a banker named French Hill.

    “Battleground Texas,” the much ballyhooed effort to turn the state blue, was a bust. Democratic star recruit Wendy Davis was crushed by 21 points, and even lost among female voters.

    Hundreds of stories were written about how Georgia is trending purple because of a growing minority population, and nonprofit executive Michelle Nunn was a top Democratic recruit. But Republican David Perdue easily topped the 50 percent threshold to win outright. So did Gov. Nathan Deal, who beat Jimmy Carter’s grandson Jason by 8 points.

    Democrats failed at distancing themselves from the president.

    Democrats knew Barack Obama was unpopular, and he avoided campaigning anywhere but solidly blue states. It didn’t work.

    (Also on POLITICO: Tom Cotton defeats Mark Pryor in Arkansas)

    More than 300,000 advertisements aired across 28 Senate races linking the Democrat with Obama, according to Kantar Media. The races where he came up most often were Kentucky, Louisiana and North Carolina.

    In Kentucky, Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes was mocked for refusing to say whether she had voted for Obama — even though she was a delegate at her party’s national convention. McConnell wound up winning by just under 16 points — a much bigger margin than even GOP internal polls showed.

    Everywhere else, incumbent Democrats tried to localize the races. In North Carolina, Democrat Kay Hagan tried to make her race about larger class sizes and education spending cuts by the GOP state Legislature. That frame didn’t stick.

    (Senate results by state)

    The national exit polling put Obama’s overall approval rating at 41 percent. But the bigger story is that voters are really down about the status quo: two-thirds said the country is on the wrong track, just 22 percent believe their children will be better off than them and 72 percent worry about a terrorist attack on American soil.

    Voters crave authenticity and hate phonies.

    Scott Brown was one of the few dark spots for Senate Republicans on Tuesday, losing his challenge to New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen by about 4 points — even though Obama’s popularity in the state is in the 30s.

    The fact that Brown just became a New Hampshire resident last December was never a centerpiece of the campaign, but it was always the undertone of Democratic ads. And it helped explain why Brown was viewed more unfavorably than favorably.

    (Also on POLITICO: Jeanne Shaheen vanquishes Scott Brown in New Hampshire)

    Network exit polls asked voters whether they thought Brown had lived in the state long enough to effectively represent it. Among the 45 percent who said yes, Brown won 93 percent. Among the 52 percent who said no, Brown won just 10 percent.

    Likewise, in Florida, Republican Gov. Rick Scott has never been popular but he spent tens of millions successfully hitting Charlie Crist as a political opportunist. Many of his ads showed Crist flip-flopping: calling for Clinton to resign in the 1990s then calling him one of the greatest Americans to ever live.

    And in New York, Sean Eldridge — the husband of Facebook early employee Chris Hughes — lost by 30 points. Eldridge, a Canadian native who has worn his political ambitions on his sleeve, bought a house in the district so that he could challenge Republican Chris Gibson.

    Republican governors thrived in blue states.

    Only one of the nine GOP governors up for reelection in states Obama carried twice went down: Pennsylvania’s Tom Corbett, which has been expected for years.

    (Also on POLITICO: Tom Wolf ousts Gov. Tom Corbett in Pennsylvania)

    Against the odds, not only did Maine Gov. Paul LePage survive despite being somewhat polarizing in a blue state, he got 10 percent more of the vote than he did four years ago during the 2010 GOP wave.

    Despite spirited, well-funded challenges, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder both won with a couple points to spare.

    Ohio Gov. John Kasich won reelection by 31 points after his opponent imploded. Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval coasted to a second term with 70 percent. New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez beat a former state attorney general by 16 points.

    Several of those will take a serious look at 2016 presidential campaigns.

    Mary Landrieu is vulnerable, but her chances of winning might have just gone up.

    The Louisiana Senate race, as expected, will be decided by a Dec. 6 runoff since no one got to 50 percent. The third-term Democratic senator pulled only 42 percent of the vote, a very dangerous place for an incumbent. Republican Bill Cassidy, who had to fend off tea party challenger Rob Maness, got 41 percent.

    The centerpiece of Landrieu’s campaign was that she has clout for the state as chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The senator has now lost her chairmanship.

    But Landrieu would have almost certainly been toast if control of the Senate came down to Louisiana. Tens of millions in national money would have poured in, and she wouldn’t have been able to distance herself from Harry Reid.

    The fact that the race won’t determine Senate control could allow Landrieu to frame the runoff as a personality contest about who is more likeable. She can also promise to be a check on the GOP Senate. Landrieu did this successfully in 2002, unexpectedly winning a runoff after Republicans took control of the Senate a month before.

  • Putin: Turkey is governed by a demagogue dictator who supports terrorists

    Speaking on the sidelines of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, the Russian president Vladimir Putin accused the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of supporting foreign Islamist rebel fighters in Syria and providing them with medical care and turning turkey to an international hub for global terrorism.

    “The Turkish regime became a serious threat to international security and is jeopardizing the regional stability; hence the Russian Federation won’t hesitate to ignore this grave menace and will do the necessary steps to prevent Erdoğan from committing a suicide adventure in the Middle-East,” state news agency Itar-Tass cited Putin as saying on Friday in Russian resort town of Sochi.

    The Russian strongman mentioned the ISIS vicious phenomenon, adding that beneath the Saudi-backed terrorist group’s barbaric and brutal façade lies the Turkish and Qatari intelligence agencies that ignited a sectarian war in Iraq and neighboring Syria, claiming tens of thousands of innocent civilians.

    Previously having blamed Ankara for deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Syrian Kurdish besieged border-town of Kobani, Putin further criticized the Turkish deceitful Prime Minster, Ahmet Davutoğlu, who recently stated that Ankara would take part in the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS in only if it ultimately leads to Syrian government’s overthrow.

    “If Mr. Erdoğan intends to intervene in Syria only and only to unseat the Syrian president, Moscow will certainly increase the pace of sending missiles and weaponry consignments to its Arab ally,” warned Putin in a stentorian language reminiscent to the Cold War rhetoric.

    Meanwhile the Chairman of the Russian State Duma, Sergey Naryshkin blasted Turkey for plotting to replace the Syrian government with a puppet regime since early 2011 and trying to intervene under the pretext of creating a buffer-zone inside the Syrian territory, describing Erdoğan’s latest move to obtain Turkish parliament’s authorization for a possible military action against Damascus as ‘a pathetic charade’.

    I regret to see that Turkey’s Prime Minister’s famous doctrine of “zero problems with neighbors” is turned to be “zero friends policy” in the Middle-East, added Naryshkin.

    via AWDNews – Putin: Turkey is governed by a demagogue dictator who supports terrorists.