Author: Andres-Papazian

OBAMA SEEKS TO SOOTHE BALKY AZERBAIJAN, KEEP SUPPLY ROUTES OPEN

MyStateLine.com

June 7 2010
Baku

President Obama is promising Azerbaijan that he will confront “serious
issues” that have strained relations with the oil-rich country.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates hand-delivered a letter from Obama to
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Gates’ visit was to try and smooth the wrinkles in relations with
the country, strategically located between Russia and Iran.

It’s also a main route for both U.S. military aircraft and supply
trucks en route to Afghanistan.

Washington needs to appease Azerbaijan as it fumes over the U.S.’
warming relations with its rival, Armenia.

The two have been locked in ethnic conflict for centuries, with a
disputed territory now in Armenian hands.

Obama wrote to Azerbaijan’s government, quote, “I am aware of the
fact that there are serious issues in our relationship, but I am
confident we can address them.” Gates said as he was leaving the
country his visit, quote, “set the stage for further expansion of
the relationship.”

From: A. Papazian

LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF TURKEY
By Dr. Arash Irandoost

EuropeNews

June 7 2010

To: Pro-Islamic Turkish Neighbors and former friends From: Iranian
Pro Democracy-Anti IRI Activist Re: Erdogan

Ever since you decided to trade in the Secularism of Ataturk for the
Islamism of Erdogan, you also seem to have decided to forego your
willingness to coexist with non-Muslims on a peaceful basis. These
days all we ever seem to get from you, is video clips of your leader,
Prime Minister Erdogan, behaving erradically and barking like a dog
that its owner carelessly let off the leash. And if you don’t know
that Erdogan’s master lives in Riyadh, then you don’t know very much
of what goes on in your own country.

But your affairs are your own. If you want to let a fanatic in a cheap
suit destroy Turkish nationalism in the name of You talk about stolen
land, when your entire country is stolen land, from Cyprus to Istanbul.

Islam, that’s your business. But when he gets into business with
terrorist organizations that attack, rape and murder our mothers
and sisters (Iranian pro democracy women demonstrators), then it
becomes our business. And when a country that persecutes its Kurdish,
Assyrian and Armenian citizens, treat Iranian refugees like 3rd class
citizens and hands them over to IRI thugs at every opportunity, and
works tirelessly to appease a criminal regime, she must remember that
we will not forget her erroneous ways.

You say you want an international investigation into the flotilla
raid? Sure. Right after you allow an international investigation
into that minor matter of Armenian genocide that you’ve been ducking
for quite a while. As the new “standard bearer” in fighting for human
rights, I’m sure you will agree that it’s only fair that Turkey should
undergo the same scrutiny it demands for other countries.

And then we can move on to the more than 10,000 political prisoners in
your jails. A number that at times has topped 100,000. An independent
investigation could also begin by looking into the torture and murder
of political activists such as Engin Ceber. They could meet with
representatives of TAYAD, the organization representing the families
of prisoners. And they would no doubt be fascinated by the more than
1500 children in your prisoners who are there on “terrorism” charges.

Like that 12 year old you arrested in 2008 for singing a Kurdish folk
song. So by all means wrap yourselves in the banner of “Human Rights”
and it will surely turn it into a noose and strangle you with it.

In Israel, Arabs are a legally recognized minority. Arabic is taught
in schools and used as a legally recognized language. Meanwhile
Kurdish identity is all but banned in Turkey and Iranian heritage and
nationalism is under attack by the Islamist invaders. Kurdish names,
folk songs and even the Kurdish language itself has been repressed.

Your regime has actually prosecuted and removed officials for
simply incorporating a Kurdish phrase into a greeting. You screech
self-righteously about the “Palestinian children”– perhaps we should
talk about the hundreds of Kurdish children arrested for throwing
stones at protests. Arrested and charged with terrorism. Just more
of the thousands of political prisoners of oppressed minorities in
your prisons.

And perhaps next time your dog Erdogan gets up to bark up about human
rights and gets through lecturing us on the use of force against
Islamic terrorists, shall we discuss how many times you used jets
to bomb Kurdish rebels who were lightly armed at best. Including in
2008 when you invaded sovereign Iraqi soil in order to continue your
genocide of the Kurdish people in cooperation with criminal mullahs
of Iran.

You talk about stolen land, when your entire country is stolen land,
from Cyprus to Istanbul. Your regime is a racist illegitimate entity
based on the oppression of the Kurds, the Armenians, the Assyrians,
Iranians, and numerous others.

You went directly from being Imperialists to Fascists to Islamists,
a truly dubious achievement for any nation. Your history is filled
with slavery, ethnic cleansing, genocide and invasion. And that’s just
in the last century alone. If you had any sanity or shame, you would
dig a hole, crawl into it, and hope that no one mentions words like
“Minority Rights” or “Territorial Legitimacy” in your presence, instead
of trying to use them as a club against Iranians and Israelis (Two
nations whose national history predates yours by thousands of years).

But let us get back to your precious Islamist flotilla, decorated
with Turkish flags that used to be more than just red versions of the
Saudi flag. That ship you filled up with Muslim Brotherhood members
and Islamist radicals bound for Gaza. Over in your wonderful nation
of boundless freedom, reporters have been put on trial for even
interviewing leaders of terrorist groups.

You sentenced the head of a Kurdish party to six months in prison for
calling the head of the PKK, Mr. Ocalan, instead of just Ocalan. He
joins the more than 800 Kurdish politicians you imprisoned in the
last year alone. And after all that you actually have the nerve to
pretend to be “outraged” when Israel intercepts your flotilla full
of political terrorists?

You blockaded Armenia for Sixteen Years.

But of course we know how strongly you feel about blockades. Like
the time you blockaded Armenia for Sixteen Years. Very well then. If
you insist on sending vessels flying the Turkish flag to aid Hamas,
perhaps Israel should begin sending tanks flying the Israeli flag
to aid the PKK. And when a new democratic Iran is established,
we surely will cut the flow of gas and oil to your arid, natural
resource starved and useless land.

We’re not big fans of the PKK, but since you’ve decided to friend
Hamas and IRI murderers, then what’s good for the turkey, just might
be good for the gander. Or perhaps for every boat flying the Turkish
flag that is sent to Gaza, Israel should donate a million to the
Iranian pro democracy movement and PKK. I wonder how along IRI could
last with direct financial help form Israel.

And then there’s the Republic of Cyprus. They might benefit from
significantly upgraded air defenses. While the US insists on equalizing
weapons sales to Turkey and Greece, Israel just might have something
tastier to offer to one side. And the citizens of the Republic of
Cyprus might actually be able to sleep peacefully in their beds,
instead of being intimidated by savages showing off their F-16’s over
their heads.

Oh I know, what you’re going to say. This means war. But you
might want to reconsider. And what exactly was the last war you
won single-handedly? And no, bombing starving Kurdish rebels from
the air, or occupying Cyprus doesn’t count. And how long could you
fight that war, before a domestic Kurdish insurgency overthrows your
little empire.

If that doesn’t happen, you might want to think about the big Russian
bear at your back. The bear has been eyeing you for a long time now.

And with your military engaged in a disastrous war for the Great
Caliphate, your borders would be temptingly open. And who exactly
would bail you out then?

Oh I know you’ve made many great news friends, such as Ahmadinejad and
that fat king in the Arabian Desert, who tells your Erdogan when to
jump and how high., but if you think mullahs care about their Sunni
brethren, you’ve got another surprise coming. Meanwhile old Abdullah
in the desert can’t even protect himself without the US Marines.

And if you think Obama would send them in to save your asses, you’ve
got another thing coming. I’m sure if there were Russian tanks headed
to Ankara, he’d make a vocal statement about it. And Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov would pretend not to laugh while hanging up
the phone.

There is of course the European Union. Last time Russia pulled that
trick, it was Britain that bailed you out in the Crimean War. But
these days Her M(N)ajesty’s Empire isn’t quite in the same shape it
used to be. Sure Cameron, Clegg and Harman will lick Erdogan’s feet.

But none of them want to be the next Tony Blair either.

Germany doesn’t like you very much anymore. Perhaps that time when
it got enmeshed in WW1 to protect your Ottoman Empire may have put
them off. Or your internal campaign of subversion exploiting Germany’s
horde of Turkish laborers. What are you left with then? France, Italy
or perhaps Austria will forget that whole pesky Gates of Vienna thing
and this time ride to your rescue.

No, when Russian commandos are ripping off your wife’s head scarf–
there will be no one left to save you. Not your newfound allies, or
Erdogan who will take the first plane to Riyadh, with as much of the
18 billion in gold and cash he stole from Iran as his sweaty hands
can shove into the pockets of his cheap suit. And just think of it,
as the Hagia Sophia church that you turned into a mosque, will become
a church again.

Istanbul will once again be Constantinople, which means a certain
catchy 20’s song will require a rewrite. Of course it may not happen
exactly that way. But something close to it might happen. Erdogan’s
plan to change Turkey into a Muslim country will not succeed if
alert pro democracy and secular Turks who have seen the human rights
violation under Islam in Iran, have something to say in the next
elections.

So when that day of reckoning comes, you will find that you have made
enemies of former allies such as pro democracy Iranians, Israel and
the US– and that the new allies Erdogan has found for you in Islamic
Republic and Syria would prefer a Russian controlled Turkey, that has
no chance of ever reverting to a Kemalist government. And Erdogan’s
godfather in Saudi Arabia commands oil money, not troops. And while
he might be willing to sink Turkey for the sake of Islam, perhaps
there are Turks who value their nation, more than Islamism. If not,
you can look forward to Erdogan “reforming” your country, until it has
the military might of Pakistan, the literacy level of Saudi Arabia and
the poverty rate of Egypt and rapist reputation of Iran’s mullahs. It
is of course your choice.

People have the right to choose their destiny, for good or ill. And if
you find that this letter is filled with contempt, it is a contempt
fully merited by a regime that seeks to cloak its shameful betrayal
of a former allies in the guise of human rights, when it brutally
suppresses the rights of its own minorities. You may wish to go on
dancing to the tune being played by Erdogan, to sheet music composed in
Riyadh and Tehran. It is a very good tune. Filled with hate, violence
and religious fanaticism. That also is your choice. But know that
whatever you have was bought and paid by your ancestors who understood
that Turkey would either modernize out of the gutter of Islam, or
it would be washed away by the colonial tide. Your power does not
come from Islam, it comes from the bread crusts of civilization that
fall from the table of Europe and ineptitude of the corrupt mullahs
of Iran. Abandon them for the red hued madness of the Jihad, and you
will not rule over an empire, but over a wasteland. If you doubt that,
look to the south and to the east. Look to the desert.

You came from there once. And if you throw away your once secular
and democratic country for the fanatical madness of Islam– you will
return there again.

Sincerely,

Your Secular Pro Democracy Iranian Former Friend

Dr. Arash Irandoost is a pro-democracy activist who advocates regime
change in Iran. He denounces those who have corrupted the religion
of Islam, make war with all free nations and intend to dominate the
world with their theocracy. Dr. Irandoost’s work has been published
in numerous magazines around the world, as well as in hundreds of
Internet magazines, websites and blogs. He is also a researcher and
literary translator. He blogs at hakemiat-e-mardom. blogspot. com/

From: A. Papazian

LETTER TO STANDARD.NET
By Mark Salita

Standard.Net

June 7 2010

LETTERS

A world of hypocrites

(UNEDITED) It’s ironic that Turkey is honoring the deaths of
nine armed thugs aboard the so-called “freedom” flotilla, while
the Turkish government threatens any country that memorializes the
nearly one-million Armenians that it killed during the “world’s first
genocide” early in the twentieth century.

What hypocrites! Meanwhile, the rest of the world threatens Israel
for defending itself, while no country has the guts to remove the
Muslim-Arab government of Sudan for the genocide (hundreds of thousands
of deaths) it is inflicting in Darfur. What hypocrites! Much of the
world calls Israel’s response to terrorism disproportionate.

However, the appearance of that strength is what deters Israel’s
Muslim-Arab neighbors from trying to turn her into the next Darfur.

Disproportionate strength is what you need when your enemies outnumber
you 100 to 1.

From: A. Papazian

WHY I DEFEND ISRAEL

Huffington Post

June 7 2010

Of course, my position hasn’t changed.

As I said the day it happened, in a fierce debate with one of
Netanyahu’s ministers in Tel Aviv, I continue to find the manner
in which the assault against the Mavi Marmara and its flotilla was
effected off the Gaza coast as “stupid.”

Had I had the least remaining doubt, the inspection of the seventh
boat, carried out without a trace of violence this Saturday morning,
would have convinced me there were other ways to operate to have
kept the tactical and media trap set for Israel by the provocateurs
of Free Gaza from snapping shut, in a spilling of blood.

That said and repeated, the flood of hypocrisy, bad faith, and,
ultimately, disinformation that seems to have just waited for this
pretext to flow into the breach and sweep across the media of the
world, as is the case every time the Jewish State slips up and commits
an error, is by no means acceptable.

The catch-phrase trotted out ad nauseum, of the blockade imposed
“by Israel,” when the most elementary honesty requires one to make it
clear that it has been undertaken by Israel and by Egypt, conjointly,
on both borders of the two countries that share frontiers with Gaza,
and this with the thinly-disguised blessing of all the moderate Arab
regimes, can only be described as disinformation. The latter, of
course, are only too happy to see someone else contain the influence
of this armed extension, this advanced base and, perhaps one day,
this aircraft-carrier of Iran in the region.

The very idea of a “total and merciless” blockade (Laurent Joffrin’s
editorial in the June 5th edition of the French daily, Liberation)
“Taking hostage, the humanity [of Gaza] in danger” (former Prime
Minister Dominique de Villepin in Le Monde, of the same date)
constitutes disinformation. We mustn’t tire of reminding others the
blockade concerns only arms and the material necessary to manufacture
them. It does not prevent the daily arrival, via Israel, of between
a hundred and a hundred and twenty trucks laden with foodstuffs,
medical supplies, and humanitarian goods of every kind; humanity is not
“in danger” in Gaza, and it is a lie to state that people are “dying
of hunger” in the streets of Gaza City. It is debatable whether a
military blockade is the right option to weaken and, one day, bring
down the fascislamist government of Ismaïl Haniyeh or not. But the
fact that Israelis who cover the checkpoints between the territories
night and day are the first to make the elementary but essential
distinction between the regime (that they seek to isolate) and the
population (that they are careful not to confuse with the regime,
even less to penalize them since, once again, aid has never stopped
passing into Gaza) is indisputable.

Disinformation: The utter silence, throughout the world, about Hamas’
incredible attitude now that the flotilla has carried out its symbolic
duty, which was to catch the Jewish State out and relaunch, as never
before, the process of demonization.

In other words, now that the Israelis have carried out their
inspection and mean to take the cargo of aid to those for whom it is
supposedly intended, Hamas’ attitude in blocking that aid at Kerem
Shalom checkpoint, allowing it to slowly rot, is met with silence. To
hell with any merchandise that has passed through the hands of Jewish
customs! Chuck out the “toys” that brought tears to the eyes of good
European souls but became impure because they spent too many long hours
in the Israeli port of Ashdod! Gaza’s children having been nothing
more than a human shield for the Islamist gang who took power by force
three years ago, or cannon fodder or media vignettes. Their games or
their wishes are the last thing anyone worries about there, but who
says so? Who shows the slightest indignation? Liberation recently
ran an awful headline, “Israel, Pirate State,” which if words still
mean anything, can only contribute to the delegitimization of the
Hebrew State. Who will dare to explain that, if there is a hostage
taker, one who coldly and unscrupulously takes advantage of people’s
suffering and, in particular, that of the children — in sum, a pirate
— in Gaza, it is not Israel, but Hamas?

Disinformation once again, laughable but, given the strategic context,
catastrophic disinformation: The speech at Konyan, in central Turkey,
of a Prime Minister who has anyone who dares to evoke the genocide
of the Armenians in public thrown in prison, but who has the nerve,
there, before thousands of fired-up demonstrators yelling antisemitic
slogans, to denounce Israeli “State terrorism.”

Still more disinformation: The lament of the useful idiots who, before
Israel, fell into the clutches of these strange “humanitarians” who
are, in the case of the Turkish IHH, Jihad enthusiasts, anti-Israeli
and anti-Jewish apocalyptical fanatics, men and women some of whom,
just days before the attack, expressed their wish to “die as martyrs.”

(the Guardian, June 3rd, Al Aqsa TV, May 30th). How can a writer of
the calibre of Sweden’s Henning Mankell allow himself to be taken
advantage of this way? When he tells us he is thinking of forbidding
the translation of his books into Hebrew, how can he really forget the
sacrosanct distinction between a stupid or wrong-headed government and
the masses of those who do not identify with it and whom he associates,
nonetheless, in the same insane plan for a boycott? How can a chain of
cinemas (“Utopia”) in France decide to cancel the release of a film,
A Cinq heures de Paris, in the same way, simply because its author,
Leonid Prudovsky, is an Israeli citizen?

Disinformers, finally, the batallions of Tartuffes who regret that
Israel declines the demands for an international inquiry when the
truth is, once again, so much simpler and more logical: What Israel
refuses is an inquiry requested by a Council of Human Rights of the
United Nations, where those great democrats, the Cubans, Pakistanis,
and other Iranians reign. What Israel does not want is a procedure of
the kind that resulted in the famous Goldstone report commissioned,
after the war in Gaza, by the same sympathetic Commission whose
five judges, four of whom had never made a secret of their militant
anti-Zionism, wrapped up 575 pages of interviews of Palestinian
fighters and civilians conducted (an absolute and unprecedented
heresy in this kind of work) under the watchful eye of Hamas political
commissioners in a matter of mere days. What Israel could not stand
for is the masquerade of international justice such a botched inquiry
— whose conclusions would be known in advance and would only serve
to haul, as usual and perfectly unilaterally, the sole and unique
democracy of the region into the defendants’ dock — would be.

One last word. For a man like me, someone who takes pride in having
helped invent, with others, the principle of this kind of symbolic
action (the boat for Vietnam; the march for the survival of Cambodia
in 1979; various and sundry anti-totalitarian boycotts and, more
recently, the deliberate violation of the Sudan border to break
the blockade that hid the perpetration of the massacres of Darfur),
in other words, for a militant of humanitarian interference and the
media fuss that goes with it, this pathetic saga has something of a
caricature, a gloomy grimace of destiny. But, all the more reason not
to give in. All the more reason to refuse this confusion of genres,
this inversion of signs and values. All the more reason to resist this
hijacking of meaning that places the very spirit of a policy conceived
to counter the intent of barbarians at their service. Destitution of
the anti-totalitarian dialectic and its mimetic reversals. Confusion of
an era when we combat democracies as though they were dictatorships
or fascist States. This maelstrom of hatred and madness is about
Israel. But it also concerns, as we should be well aware, some of the
most precious things established in the movement of ideas in the last
thirty years, especially on the left, and these are thus imperiled. A
word to the wise is sufficient.

From: A. Papazian

ISRAELI STUDENTS PLAN COUNTER-FLOTILLA TO TURKEY

Israel Today

June 7 2010

The National Students Union of Israel is planning to launch a
counter-flotilla to carry aid to oppressed minorities in Turkey
in an bid to unmask the hypocrisy of the international community,
and especially Ankara, in the wake of Israel’s raid on the Free
Gaza flotilla.

Boaz Torporovsky, chairman of the students union, told Ynet that
“Turkey, which leads the campaign against Israel and makes all sorts of
threats is the same Turkey that carried out a holocaust and murdered
an entire nation of Armenians, and oppresses a minority larger than
the Palestinians – the Kurds – who deserve a state, who have demanded
a state for longer than the State of Israel has existed.”

It is the Kurdish minority in Turkey that the group will try to reach
with primarily medical supplies. Torporovsky knows the boat will be
stopped by the Turkish authorities, which will hopefully reverse the
negative attention on Israel.

Torporovsky said the group is currently seeking a suitable vessel
and enough funding to carry out its plans. Arik Ofir, a former naval
officer and current business owner, has agreed to captain the ship.

The group hopes to set sail by the end of the week.

From: A. Papazian

ISRAEL AND TURKEY: IT’S COMPLICATED
By Christopher Hitchens

Slate Magazine

June 7 2010

The flotilla foul-up pits former friends against each other.

I hope that by now the state of Israel regrets its past collaboration
with some of the worst elements in modern Turkey. It’s not so long
since American Jewish lobby groups, and reportedly even the Israeli
ambassador in Washington, were successfully lobbying Congress to vote
down the resolution condemning the genocide of the Armenians. (The
narrow passage of the resolution this year seems to have contributed
to the increasingly evident paranoia and megalomania of Turkey’s
thuggish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.) And, even as Turkish
troops occupied one-third of Cyprus and expelled one-third of its
Greek population, as well as mounted illegal incursions into Iraq in
pursuit of rebel Kurds, the Israeli armed forces happily embarked on
joint exercises with them. If this era of unseemly collaboration is
over, then so much the better. Even so, there’s something slightly
hypocritical about the way in which Israeli crowds have suddenly
discovered the human rights record and the regional imperial ambitions
of their former ally.

Talking of hypocrisy, though, how do you like the way that the words
activist and humanitarian have suddenly made their appearance in our
media? Activist is employed to describe a core group of Turks and
Arabs, very many of them identifiable by name as affiliates or members
or emulators of the Muslim Brotherhood. (I suppose in fairness it also
covers such figures as the credulous Irishman Denis Halliday, who used
to campaign so loudly for the lifting of sanctions on Saddam Hussein.)
And humanitarian is used to describe the materials that these worthies
are seeking to donate to Hamas. But is it really humanitarian to make
contributions to a ruling party that has a totalitarian and racist
ideology and is in regular receipt of nonhumanitarian aid from Syria
and Iran, two of the most retrograde and aggressive dictatorships in
the world?

Those who care about justice and self-government for the Palestinians
might want to be helping Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as they build up the institutions of an
embryo state on the West Bank. And those who worry about the conditions
of the Gazans might want to send convoys of aid to the many United
Nations and NGO operations in the Strip that have a proven record
of transparency and efficiency. But, from a Muslim Brotherhood or
activist perspective, where would the fun be in that? It is only Hamas,
with its thrilling violence and hysterical rhetoric, that is truly
“authentic.” Incidentally, in a little-noticed statement last week,
U.N. special regional coordinator Robert Serry denounced a series
of raids and lootings mounted by Hamas supporters on the offices of
genuinely humanitarian operations in Gaza City and Rafah.

The near-incredible stupidity of the Israeli airborne descent on
the good ship Mavi Marmara, by troops well-enough equipped to shoot
when panicked but not well-enough prepared to contain or subdue a
preplanned riot, has now generated much more coverage and comment
than Erdogan’s cynical recent decision to become a partner in the
nuclear maneuvers of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It has
also generated much more coverage and comment than Erdogan’s long-term
design to de-secularize Turkey, a design in which his recent big-mouth
grandstanding on Gaza is a mere theatrical detail. What on earth
are self-proclaimed humanitarian activists–as they will soon enough
be called at this rate–doing in such an open alliance between one
cruel and bankrupt Iranian theocracy, one religio-nationalist Turkish
demagogue, and Hamas?

Israeli self-pity over Gaza–“You fire rockets at us! And after all
we’ve done for you!”–may be incredibly unappetizing. An occupation
that should never have been allowed in the first place was protracted
until it became obviously unbearable for all concerned and then
turned into a scuttle. The misery and shame of that history cannot
be effaced by mere withdrawal or healed by the delivery of aid. It
can only really be canceled by a good-faith agreement to create a
Palestinian state. But Hamas is a conscious obstacle to this objective,
as it shows by its dependence on foreign dictatorships and by the
criminal and violent methods it has used against Fatah and the PLO.

Let me give another case in point: Hamas’ charter and many of its
official proclamations announce that it endorses the so-called
Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a dirty anti-Semitic fabrication
produced by Christian and czarist extremists and adopted by the Nazis.

Would you, if you wanted to help Gaza and the Gazans, knowingly
augment the power of such a flat-out racist organization by helping
make it the proud and exclusive distributor of food and medicine?

Staying with this fascinating point for a moment: What if the
international community put one simple question to the Hamas
leadership? We will consider lifting the sanctions if you will renounce
a barbaric and discredited concoction of lies that identifies all
Jews everywhere as targets for murder. (The name notwithstanding,
the Protocols have nothing to say about Palestine.) And what if the
journalistic community–just once–was to ask a similar question
of the “activists”? Do you endorse the Protocols: Yes or no? We
would instantly be much closer to understanding what was meant by
humanitarian.

While we wait for this puncturing of the current balloon of
propaganda, we might as well savor the ironies. As well as being
the two most intimate allies of the United States in the region,
Turkey and Israel possess large and educated populations that want
in their way to be part of “the West.” They also both suffer from
mediocre and banana-republic-type leaders, who are willing prisoners
of clerical extremists in their own second-rate regimes. Turkey cannot
be thought of as European until it stops lying about Armenia, gets
its invading troops out of Cyprus, and grants full rights to its huge
Kurdish population. Israel will never be accepted as a state for Jews,
let alone as a Jewish state, until it ceases to govern other people
against their will. The flotilla foul-up, pitting former friends
against each other, only serves to obscure these unignorable facts.

From: A. Papazian

AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT AND TURKISH PM MEET

Trend
June 7 2010
Azerbaijan

Today, a meeting has been held between Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul,
AzerTaj state news agency reported.

Satisfaction with the development of relations between our countries
in all spheres was expressed at the meeting. It was noted that signing
of documents related to the gas supply, will be a new phase in energy
cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey. The importance of these
documents was also noted. The two sides expressed confidence that
cooperation in energy and other spheres between Azerbaijan and Turkey
will continue to successfully develop.

The views on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict were
exchanged at the meeting.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that he fully supports Turkey
in connection with events in the Mediterranean Sea. He expressed his
condolences over the death of Turkish civilians during these events.

The President said that Azerbaijan is close to Turkey in this issue.

From: A. Papazian

CENTRAL ASIAN DEAL PAVES WAY FOR NON-RUSSIAN GAS TO EUROPE
by Tamsin Carlisle

The National
June 7 2010
UAE

Turkey and Azerbaijan have signed a long-awaited natural gas deal,
opening the way for the first Central Asian gas exports to Europe.

The memorandum of understanding signed earlier today on the sidelines
of an energy security summit in Istanbul could be crucial in securing
early gas supplies for the proposed â~B¬7.9 billion (Dh34.65bn)
Nabucco pipeline, which aims to supply Central Asian and Middle
Eastern gas to Europe through Turkey, bypassing Russia.

The agreement also advances Ankara’s plan to establish Turkey as an
energy hub for oil and gas supplies to Europe.

Under the deal, Turkey would have the right to re-export gas from
the second phase of production of the giant Shah Deniz field in the
Caspian Sea offshore Azerbaijan.

“This opens the way for the securing of supplies for projects like
Nabucco,” said Taner Yildiz, the Turkish energy minister. “The signing
today will accelerate the Nabucco project.”

The president of Socar, the Azeri national petroleum company, said
Azerbaijan planned to send 10 billion cubic metres per year of gas
from Shah Deniz II to Europe, starting in 2018. Another 1 billion
cubic metres per year could supply customers in Turkey.

“This is a step in the right direction,” said Reinhard Mitschek,
the managing director of the Nabucco development consortium, which
is led by the Austrian petroleum group OMV.

The EU has pledged financing for the pipeline because it regards
Nabucco as strategically important in reducing Europe’s dependence
on Russian gas.

Last week, the Turkish parliament ratified an intergovernmental
agreement with five EU countries on construction of the 3,300km
pipeline, which would pass through Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary and
Romania on its way to delivering supplies to an Austrian gas hub on
the outskirts of Vienna.

Turkey and Azerbaijan have been in talks since 2008 over a gas
agreement, which was a prerequisite for the further development of
the Shah Deniz field. The second phase of the big Caspian project
was expected to underpin Azeri gas exports to Europe.

Negotiations had been complicated by Baku’s strong objections to a
Turkish proposal to open its border with Armenia, with which Azerbaijan
is technically at war in a dispute over the breakaway territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh. But in April, Armenia suspended talks aimed at
establishing normal diplomatic relations with Turkey.

According to Mr Yildiz, the deal signed by the the Azeri president
Ilham Aliyev and the Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
included an agreement on the price of Turkish gas imports from phase
I of Shah Deniz. That had been a sticky issue during the protracted
negotiations.

Mr Yildiz said the agreement would allow the price of the gas to be
adjusted according to market conditions, rather than being fixed.

Turkey would pay less for Azeri supplies than for Russian imports,
he added.

Nabucco is aiming to secure up to 31 billion cubic metres per year of
gas from a number of countries, but analysts and some industry sources
regard Azeri supplies as crucial to the project’s viability. They could
pave the way for later supplies from other Caspian states including
Turkmenistan, which holds the world’s fifth biggest gas reserves,
and from Middle Eastern producers including Iraq, Qatar and even Iran.

Ashti Hawrami, the energy minister of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan
region of Iraq, said in Istanbul today that Kurdistan was ready to
commit surplus gas supplies to Nabucco. That would depend, however,
on the region reaching an accord with Baghdad over gas exports.

Separately, Baghdad has expressed interest in supplying up to 15
billion cubic metres of gas to Nabucco from untapped fields in the
rest of Iraq.

Turkmenistan announced last month that it would soon start building
a 1,000km pipeline linking big gasfields in its eastern desert to the
Caspian Sea coast, in preparation for exports to Europe. The UAE has
expressed interest in backing the project.

Even if the Nabucco initiative fails, the Turkish-Azeri gas agreement
could bolster rival developments aimed at supplying Caspian gas to
Europe. Those include the Italy-Turkey-Greece Interconnector and the
Trans-Adriatic Pipeline projects.

The biggest rival to Nabucco, however, remains Gazprom’s Southstream
project to supply Russian gas to Europe through a pipeline under
the Black Sea. Earlier today, Russia signed a deal with Greece for
construction of the â~B¬20bn pipeline.

From: A. Papazian

TURKISH RULING PARTY AT ODDS ON MILITARY TIES WITH ISRAEL

Hurriyet
June 7 2010
Turkey

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. AA photo

Conflicting statements issued by ruling-party officials seem to
indicate a rift over whether all military and defense agreements with
Israel should be cancelled – and perhaps how the country should pursue
future ties with Tel Aviv.

The government intends to sever military agreements and other
connections with Israel in the wake of its assault on a Turkish aid
ship, Justice and Development Party, or AKP, deputy leader Omer Celik,
who is responsible for foreign affairs, said in an interview late
Sunday with the private channel NTV.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu also indicated that such relations
might be at risk.

“The future of any agreements with Israel depends on Israel’s
attitude,” Davutoglu told reporters early Monday at a joint press
conference with his Afghan and Pakistani counterparts in Istanbul. If
Israel does not give the green light, and its full cooperation, to
an international inquiry into the deadly incident at sea, he added,
“Turkish-Israeli relations cannot be normalized.”

Defense Minister Vecdi Gönul denied there had been any request
to cancel military agreements, saying such measures fall under the
mandate of the Foreign Ministry.

Turkey recalled its ambassador to Tel Aviv and cancelled three joint
military exercises with Israel following the Israeli attack against
a Turkish ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. Eight Turks and
one American of Turkish descent were killed during the attack.

Indirectly criticizing his fellow party members for speculating on
the additional measures Turkey might take against Israel, Deputy
Prime Minister Bulent Arınc said Monday afternoon that discussions
are ongoing about Turkey’s response.

“It is not appropriate to say, ‘We will do this and that,’ whenever we
see a microphone,” he said. “As a state we’ll do whatever is needed in
response to this aggressiveness. We shouldn’t do this in daily talks.

We should consider it in a serious way.”

The legal framework for bilateral military and defense cooperation
between Israel and Turkey were provided in 1996, when the two
countries inked cooperation agreements regarding the military and
the defense industry. Both caused strong reactions from other Muslim
countries, which accused Turkey of aligning itself with Israel and that
country’s occupation of Palestinian territory. The military signed both
agreements despite opposition from the religious-oriented government
at the time, which was later shut down by the Constitutional Court
on charges of anti-secular activity.

Hidden military agreements?

The discussion about canceling military deals with Israel has also
prompted speculation about the existence of other deals between the two
countries that have been kept secret. Sedat Laciner, the head of the
Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization, or USAK,
said Turkey and Israel have signed some secret documents in the past.

“There are hidden agreements signed between the militaries of Turkey
and Israel without the knowledge of previous governments. And now the
government has learned about them,” Laciner said in a phone interview
with the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Monday. He did not,
however, disclose what these secret agreements might be.

Laciner stressed that Israel’s armament industry is not developed
enough to be Turkey’s biggest partner. “The arms sales from the U.S.

to Turkey that were blocked in Congress by the lobbies of Armenians and
Greek Cypriots were directed to Israel,” he said. “This provided Israel
the opportunity to be the first country in arms trade with Turkey.”

Commenting on the possibility of canceling military agreements with
Israel, Laciner said: “There will be problems over arms sales from
the U.S. Then Turkey will have to find new markets or improve its
domestic armament industry to handle these problems.”

From: A. Papazian

GATES TALKS STRENGTHEN AZERBAIJAN PARTNERSHIP
By John D. Banusiewicz

Department of Defense

June 7 2010
USA

American Forces Press Service

ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT, June 7, 2010 – Calling Azerbaijan an
important partner in the coalition’s efforts in Afghanistan, Defense
Secretary Robert M. Gates said he discussed a stronger military
relationship between Azerbaijan and the United States in meetings
with two of the country’s leaders yesterday and today.

After arriving in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku yesterday, Gates
visited with President Ilham Aliyev, and met today with Defense
Minister Col. Gen. Safar Abiyev.

“They play an important part in Afghanistan, not only in terms of the
troops they have there – and also a civilian presence – but [through]
ground transportation and allowing over flights,” Gates said, “so
[the visit] was partly to express appreciation for that.”

Azerbaijani servicemembers are part of NATO’s International Security
Assistance Force in Afghanistan, and the country is a key part of the
global air and ground network that resupplies ISAF and Afghan forces
and brings in supplies for construction projects.

The secretary delivered a letter to Aliyev from President Barack Obama
that expresses gratitude for Azerbaijan’s contributions in Afghanistan,
saying such assistance has “strengthened your country’s stature as a
steadfast security partner.” The letter also conveys Obama’s desire
for a broader and deeper future relationship between the two countries.

During his talks in Baku, Gates said, he and the Azerbaijani leaders
discussed strengthening the bilateral military relationship and the
possibility of further U.S. help with maritime security in the Caspian
Sea. “We already help them there with several tens of millions of
dollars, boats, radars and capabilities,” the secretary said.

More military exercises and intelligence sharing also came up during
the meetings, he added, and the discussions also touched on Iran and
Russia. “These guys clearly live in a rough neighborhood,” Gates said,
“and I told them at the same time how much the international community
appreciated what they were doing to help everybody in Afghanistan.”

The Azerbaijani leaders expressed concern about a lack of progress
in a long-standing territorial dispute with Armenians in the
Nargorno-Karabakh region, Gates said, and he promised to relay the
message to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Obama also
mentioned the dispute in his letter to Aliyev, saying a peaceful
resolution is critical to the South Caucasus region and promising
support for such an outcome would remain a U.S. priority.

“All in all,” Gates said, “I would say it was a very positive
visit, and I think it set the stage for further expansion of the
relationship. We will have a bilateral defense consultation next
month, where I think a lot of the things that we discussed will be
put on the table and perhaps fleshed out.”

The secretary left Baku this morning, bound for London to meet with
leaders of the new British government.

From: A. Papazian