Tag: Gul

Turkish President Raises Eyebrows with No Interpretation Speech in Bulgaria

Turkish President Abdullah Gul (middle) at the opening of the monument of legendary wrestler Koca Yusuf in Hitrino in Northeastern Bulgaria. Photo by BGNES

Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul has stirred a controversy when he gave a speech in Turkish in a village in Northeastern Bulgaria without allowing for interpretation.

Gul, who was visiting Shumen and Northeastern Bulgaria on the second day of his state visit, Tuesday, spoke for 9 minutes to about 2000 locals in the village of Hitrino, the correspondent of BGNES reported.

Even though the interpreter made an attempt for a consecutive translation of the speech, Gul did not stop to allow for interpretation. Thus, his speech was understandable for local ethnic Turkish population and the journalists from Turkey but not for the some 30 Bulgarian journalists.

According to the locals who heard Gul’s speech, he spoke about the good neighborly relations between Bulgaria and Turkey.

The Mayor of Hitrino Nuridin Ismail spoke after Gul in Bulgarian with interpretation in Turkish.

Gul was also present at the opening of a monument of legendary Bulgarian-Turkish wrestler Koca Yusuf (1864-1898) who is a native of the neighboring village of Cherna.

The 8-ton marble statute of Koca Yusuf is authored by Shumen sculptor Bihcet Danaci, it bears an inscription in Bulgarian, Turkish, and English.

Koca Yusuf is known for winning numerous wrestling matches across Europe and in America. In 1898, he perished on his way back to his native region of Northeastern Bulgaria on a trans-Atlantic voyage when his ship sank.

In Hitrino, Turkish President Gul was also congratulated by children reciting poems in Bulgarian and Turkish and performing Bulgarian folklore dances.

In Shumen, he visited the famous Tombul mosque, and the monument of the Creators of the Bulgarian State.

via Bulgaria: Turkish President Raises Eyebrows with No Interpretation Speech in Bulgaria – Novinite.com – Sofia News Agency.

July 13, 2011
Turkish President to pay visit to Bulgaria

Istanbul. Turkish President Abdullah Gül is to pay a two-day visit to Bulgaria on July 3 and 4, Nahit Dogu, a journalist in the southern Bulgarian municipality of Kardzhali, told FOCUS News Agency.

The Turkish delegation will include also businessmen who will participate in a bilateral business forum within the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation.

This is the Turkish head of state’s first visit to Bulgaria.

via Turkish President to pay visit to Bulgaria – FOCUS Information Agency.

June 19, 2011
Turkey to vote for PA recognition in UN

Ankara’s Abdullah Gül tells Japanese publication his country will support unilateral Palestinian bid in September

Turkey will vote for a UN resolution to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state, Turkish President Abdullah Gül said Thursday.

“We hope that an independent Palestine (is) established based on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital,” Gül was quoted by the Japanese newspaper Nikkei.

“We are among the strongest supporters of Palestine,” he also said.

Israel and the United States object a unilateral UN bid by the Palestinians. Washington has urged the Palestinian Authority and to avoid any unilateral steps that could jeopardize a final peace settlement.

Gül said there is “no doubt” that Turkey would vote for the resolution.

In a recent speech at the UN Security Council, Turkey’s Ambassador to the UN Ertuğrul Apakan stated Ankara’s support for the Palestinian’s move: “Through their state building efforts, the Palestinian Authority has proven to all the skeptics that they deserve to attain their decades-long target of internationally recognized statehood, even though they continue to suffer under occupation.”

via Turkey to vote for PA recognition in UN – Israel News, Ynetnews.

June 18, 2011
$Turkish President to infract Neutrality…$

Turkish President to infract Neutrality…

$Turkish President to infract Neutrality… 5$ As you all know, in parliamentary systems of government, the Presidents, as Head of State, stand for the state, which charges them the obligation to reflect neutrality, no matter whether they are from a political party out of the parliament. In Turkey, additionally, the President is supposed to stand for the republic and, thus, the “people of Turkey”, which enforces him to be neutral as an ethical and moral task.

The mentioned neutrality that should supposedly be considered by Presidents is of a greater importance especially in times of elections. Although the neutrality in state issues could not be properly observed throughout his presidency which is evident in the activities that he has carried out in his office so far: The immediate and absolute ratification of the government decrees and draft bills, the way of appointing university rectors, the expressions absolutely in line with those of government etc., one expected a clear attitude of neutrality from the President at least in the course of the general elections. This he pretended to show by declaring that he would not make official state visits within Turkey until the end of the elections. This can be taken to be an appreciable attitude; however, in his official visit in Poland, he transgressed the rule of neutrality more than once.

When he was asked about the questions concerning the “freedom of thought” and “freedom of press” in Turkey by referring to the journalists and authors under arrest, he reacted just like a judge saying: “those people were not arrested due to their writings, but due to what they have done as the members of illegal terrorist organizations”. It is a pity that Turkish President could clearly explain his prejudices about uncompleted case in which nobody is either guilty or innocent yet, as the universal rule of “presumption of innocence” envisages. This saying conspicuously showed the prejudices in background coated by the pretensions of so-called neutrality.
A second infraction of neutrality was in the course of the interview with the journalists, in which President Gul claimed to know that some MPs were threatened by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) not to participate in elections of President in the parliament in 2007. Although the ones, claimed to do that denied the allegations, the agenda-setting mechanism of the power functions very well. It is another pity that Turkish politics
was thought to need to be interfered at the level of President, when we are five days away from the general elections. I think the subjects of the story are consoling themselves by saying “anything goes in politics”.

While saying these all, President Gul should have considered the peace and the safety of the election-process in Turkey which is psychologically a necessity with the sense of duty. Therefore I wish for President Gul to be more neutral, to reflect the will of the whole people regardless of any social cleavage and division. It is an ethical responsibility while standing for the “people”.

I expect the elections will bring people more hope and not more despair… I hope people will decide in its own favour…
Edgar ŞAR

[email protected]

June 8, 2011
Turkey’s President Hails Death As a Warning

By Joe Parkinson

ISTANBUL — In Turkey, where coordinated Al-Qaeda attacks on Istanbul killed more than 60 people and wounded hundreds in 2003, President Abdullah Gul hailed the news, stressing it should serve as a warning to terrorist leaders elsewhere that they would be caught “dead or alive.”

Speaking to reporters at Ankara airport before departing for a state visit to Austria, Mr. Gul was quoted by state-run Anadolu Ajansi news agency as saying; “This news shows that the fate of terrorists and the leaders of terrorist organizations is to be caught in the end, dead or alive. That the most dangerous and sophisticated (terrorist) leader was caught this way, should be a lesson to everyone.”

Al-Qaeda has been held responsible for sporadic attacks in Turkey over the past decade, with Turkish police regularly targeting suspected al-Qaeda supporters since two sets of twin suicide bombings hit Istanbul five days apart in November 2003. A Turkish cell of al-Qaeda was held responsible for the attacks, in which explosive-laden trucks first targeted two synagogues, and then the British consulate and a British bank, killing a total of 63 people.

Turkey’s Islamic-leaning government has taken a tough stand against all forms of terrorism, but security services here say Al-Qaeda cells remain operational at a low level across the country, while there are small pockets of sympathy for jihadist Islam.

Turkish police arrested 120 al-Qaeda suspects in a major nationwide anti-terror operation in January, while Al-Qaeda’s leader in Istanbul was among a group of around 40 people detained by police last month (April) in a series of raids targeting Islamists in Turkey’s largest city.

via Turkey’s President Hails Death As a Warning – Dispatch – WSJ.

May 3, 2011
Turkey, a Regional Mediator

Letters to the International Herald Tribune

Turkey, a Regional Mediator

Published: May 1, 2011

Regarding “The revolution’s missing peace,” (Views, April 22): There could be several reasons why President Abdullah Gul of Turkey would like his government to help Israel in reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians and the Arab world.

Turkey has already established itself as a so-called soft-power giant of the Middle East. The country is anchored to the Arab world by common Islamic values, to Russia by pragmatic cooperation, and to the West by its membership in NATO, but not to the generally ineffective foreign policy of the European Union.

Moreover, progress on achieving a peace settlement would qualify Turkey to be mediator on other political issues affecting the security and prosperity of a wider region — notably, the issues of the future governance of Libya and Syria, Iran’s nuclear program, the complex problems in the Caucasus, and the Afghanistan exit strategy.

It is to be hoped that Israel and the United States will consider Mr. Gul’s proposal.

Xiao Ling, Singapore

via Turkey, a Regional Mediator – NYTimes.com.

May 2, 2011