Tag: Joe Biden

U.S. Again Tells Turkey To Honor Armenia Accords

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden pressed Turkey to unconditionally ratify its Western-backed normalization agreements with Armenia “in the months ahead” during a visit to Ankara and Istanbul that ended at the weekend.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul (left) receives U.S. Vice President Joe Biden at the Presidential Palace in Ankara on December 2.

A senior official from the administration of President Barack Obama said the fate of the two Turkish-Armenian protocols signed in 2009 was on the agenda of Biden’s talks with Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and parliament speaker Cemil Cicek.

The official said that during a breakfast meeting with Cicek on December 2, Biden “applauded the fact that the protocols for normalization with Armenia were back on the agenda of the [Turkish] parliament.”

“And he expressed his hope that the parliament will be able to act on those protocols in the months ahead,” the official told U.S. journalists traveling with Biden.

The U.S. vice president met Gul later on December 2 before traveling to Istanbul for separate talks with Erdogan held on December 4.

“On Armenia, he said to the prime minister what he had raised with President Gul, as well — the hope that now that the protocols for normalization were back on the agenda of the parliament, that Turkey would be able to move on those protocols in the months ahead,” the Obama administration official said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton conveyed a similar message to the Turkish government when she visited Istanbul in July.

However, the Turkish leaders and Erdogan in particular have repeatedly made clear that the protocols will not be ratified by Turkey’s parliament before a breakthrough in international efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Armenia rejects this precondition. President Serzh Sarkisian threatened earlier this year to withdraw Yerevan’s signature from the accord if the Turks stick to the Karabakh linkage.

According to the Istanbul-based “Hurriyet Daily News,” Biden told Gul that Ankara should “speed up the normalization process with Armenia” if it wants the Obama administration to block further resolutions in the U.S. Congress recognizing the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

This warning attributed to Biden could be seized upon by Armenian critics of the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement, who say it has helped Ankara to thwart a broader international recognition of the Armenian genocide.

They were already incensed when Biden claimed last year that Sarkisian himself had asked the White House not to use the word genocide with regard to the killing of some 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians while Turkish-Armenian negotiations are in progress. Both official Yerevan and the U.S. Embassy in Armenia denied that claim, which was videotaped by an Armenian-American activist and available on YouTube.com.

Biden strongly supported Armenian genocide resolutions debated by Congress when he was a member of the U.S. Senate.

compiled from agency reports

via U.S. Again Tells Turkey To Honor Armenia Accords.

December 6, 2011
Biden’s Day Out in Istanbul

(MUSTAFA OZER/AFP/Getty Images)

VP strolls through the cobblestone streets of Istanbul’s Samatya Square neighborhood, gets a “good price” at the fish market.

Read the pool report below.

VPOTUS neighborhood visit

On a gorgeous sunny Sunday, VP Biden left the Hilton Hotel for a walkabout in an Istanbul neighborhood (some basic details from WH below). En route, his motorcade rolled along the coast of the Sea of Marmara, with the minarets of the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia looming on the hill above.

The VP, wearing a blue blazer, open-neck shirt and aviator shades, strolled up a cobblestone street lined with fish stalls. He stopped at one, out of earshot of the pool.

As the VP resumed his amble, another fish-monger called out, saying he’d give him a good price. Biden, who was by now clutching a plastic bag, said, “I already got a good price.”

VP shook hands and waved at passersby, including some peering down from their windows. He stopped again to greet a young boy. “Come visit me in the White House,” he said.

The boy’s father replied, “But how are we going to get there?”

A few steps later, he stopped at a fruit stand, flashed a small wad of lira, and bought oranges, tangerines, and other fruit. He tossed a tangerine to the same boy he had greeted earlier; the boy made a perfect catch and smiled with delight.

After that, the VP stopped by a pastrami and honey market.

Justin Fishel of Fox engaged the VP in a brief chat, asking him how his day was going.

“You can tell I’m eating whatever I can eat,” Biden replied.

Asked what he was buying, the VP said, “I got some sweets, I got some fruit, I got some olives, some cheese, and the ambassador ate all the fish.”

That was a reference to US Ambassador Frank Ricciardone, who had been busily noshing as he walked.

Was the VP taking anything back for the wife?

“Well, knowing Franny and the plane and you on it, you probably will eat it all on the way back,” he said (Fran Person is his body man)

“Only if you share,” Justin shot back.

“I’m happy,” Biden said. “I’m gonna share.

The VP then headed into the Develi restaurant, where he is lunching privately with Greek religious leaders, including Father Alex Karloutsos from New York and Andy Manatos, a prominent Greek-American.

Pool is holding on another floor of the same restaurant.

WH details on neighborhood:

The Vice President will visit Samatya Square, a traditional Istanbul neighborhood. Samatya is in the Fatih district and represents a “mosaic of life” in Istanbul, having been home to Turks and various minority groups for centuries. The neighborhood includes many traditional small local vendors: grocery shop, butcher, fish stand, bread maker and more.

via The Page by Mark Halperin | Biden’s Day Out in Istanbul.

December 5, 2011
In Turkey, Biden touts political freedoms

In Turkey, Biden touts political freedoms

Originally published: December 3, 2011 6:45 AM

Updated: December 3, 2011 1:36 PM

By The Associated Press CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA (Associated Press)

Quick ReadTurkey: Biden tells entrepreneurs that democracy spurs economic innovation

Photo credit: AP | In this photo provided by the Turkish Presidency Press Office, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, right, and Turkish President Abdullah Gul pose for photographers during their meeting in Ankara, Turkey, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. Biden urged Turkey to impose new sanctions against Iran and praised Ankara for its role in pressuring Syria to stop its bloody crackdown on protesters. (AP Photo/Turkish Presidency Press Office, Murat Cetinmuhurdar) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

Photos

(AP) — A free political climate is essential to economic innovation, and countries that try to censor the Internet are pursuing a “dead end,” U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told a group of young entrepreneurs gathered in Istanbul on Saturday.

The international forum, which drew hundreds of attendees, followed up on a meeting in Washington last year aimed at deepening ties between the United…

via In Turkey, Biden touts political freedoms.

December 5, 2011
Biden asks Turkey to impose more sanctions on Iran

South Asian News Agency (SANA) ⋅ December 3, 2011 ⋅

WASHINGTON, (SANA): United States vice President Joseph Biden stressed on Turkey to impose more sanctions on Iran.

In an interview with an American newspaper he said that he would continue his support for political solution of the Iran issue but for it, it is necessary to put pressure on Iran for dialogues and for this he wants that Turkey should impose more sanctions on Iran.

On the other hand US is making efforts to impose more sanctions by other countries and forbade Turkey for holding business with the black listed banks of Iran.

Meanwhile Turkey has said that it will not impose more sanctions except the sanctions imposed by United Nations.

It is worth mentioning here that in the current weak the European Union imposed sanctions for holding business with 180 personalities and companies of Iran, while it is considering imposing sanctions on oil trade with Iran.

via Biden asks Turkey to impose more sanctions on Iran | World | South Asian News Agency.

December 5, 2011
Biden Parries Turkish Official’s Economic Boast

In Turkey to Strengthen Ties, Biden Refuses to Ignore a Host’s Economic Boast

By MARK LANDLER

Published: December 3, 2011

ISTANBUL — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. came to this ancient city that spans Europe and Asia to talk about building bridges between the United States and the Islamic world. But on Saturday, he felt compelled to brush back a challenge from his Turkish hosts.

Mr. Biden was a keynote speaker at an annual gathering of students and young entrepreneurs that President Obama inaugurated last year as a way of encouraging American-style business in Muslim countries. This entrepreneurial spirit, Mr. Biden said, had helped to fuel the political uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa.

But while the vice president was here to reach out, and did so in a later meeting with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he got a taste of how the economic travails in the United States and Europe have bolstered the brashness of emerging powers like Turkey, which has so far avoided the troubles in Europe and the United States.

Ali Babacan, a deputy prime minister of Turkey who oversees the economy, delivered a confident address about Turkey’s future and its status as a model Muslim democracy. He attributed Europe’s spiraling debt problems to its lack of political leadership.

“If they had a strong government like we have in Turkey,” he said, “they would be able to solve their problems.”

Mr. Babacan said that with 7.5 percent economic growth projected this year, Turkey, not the larger but troubled economies of the United States and Europe, was poised to win in the 21st century. “The fast fish, not the big fish, eats the small fish,” he said.

Mr. Biden then got up to speak, and after declaring that he did not plan to talk about the American economy, he did just that. First he took issue with Mr. Babacan’s competitive tone, saying, “I am going to suggest that we, all nations, are in this together.” Then, even as he was acknowledging economic difficulties, he pointedly reminded the audience that in a sea of young sharks, the United States was still the whale.

“The fact that our economy is three-and-a-half times as large as the next-largest economy, and larger than the next four combined, does not make us immune from what’s happening around the world,” Mr. Biden said.

The vice president’s aides said he had added those words to his 31-minute speech after listening to Mr. Babacan. There was no evidence that either man was ruffled by the episode. They posed next to each other with broad smiles after their speeches.

The rest of Mr. Biden’s day appeared more harmonious, including his two-hour session with Mr. Erdogan, who was recuperating from a medical procedure at his private residence. Mr. Biden and his aides put on slippers and were introduced by Mr. Erdogan to his son, daughter and son-in-law, according to a senior administration official.

Turkey and the United States, NATO allies since 1952, have had a rich but complicated relationship during the Obama administration. The president has assiduously cultivated Mr. Erdogan, viewing him as part of a new generation of Muslim democratic leaders.

But the two clashed over Turkey’s vote in the United Nations Security Council against harsher sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program. Turkey and Brazil tried to break the impasse with Iran — a diplomatic gambit that the United States repudiated.

Mr. Biden appeared not to have pushed Mr. Erdogan on Iran. While the vice president made the case for continued pressure, the senior official said, the two did not discuss specific sanctions. Mr. Biden urged Mr. Erdogan to repair Turkey’s badly frayed relations with Israel, and the leaders discussed the upheaval in Syria, where Mr. Erdogan has imposed sanctions and backed up the American demand that President Bashar al-Assad step down.

Despite his striking pushback, Mr. Biden made clear later in his speech that he admired Turkey’s ambition. He noted that Turkey, whose economy is now the 17th largest in the world, aspired to enter the top 10 by 2023, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish republic.

“With what I know about Turkey’s people and its leaders over the past 35 years, and what I’ve seen in the last decade, and what I’ve seen this week,” he said, “I’d say that’s a pretty good bet.”

A version of this article appeared in print on December 4, 2011, on page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: In Turkey to Strengthen Ties, Biden Refuses to Ignore a Host’s Economic Boast.

via Biden Parries Turkish Official’s Economic Boast – NYTimes.com.

December 5, 2011
U.S. Veep Biden Meets Patriarch Bartholomew in Turkey

NEW YORK — U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, in Istanbul on Saturday.

Nicholas Magginas U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, in Istanbul on Saturday.

Vice President Biden was greeted at the entrance to the Patriarchal compound by His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America, together with the Chancellor, the Chief Secretary of the Holy and Sacred Synod, and the Patriarchal Court.

His All-Holiness met with the Vice President in his personal office for a private conversation. Among the issues discussed were religious freedom in Turkey, the reopening of the Theological School of Halki, Turkey’s accession to the European Union, and the ecological initiatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

via U.S. Veep Biden Meets Patriarch Bartholomew in Turkey – Udated.

December 5, 2011