Author: Antonian Lara

The New Anatolian, Turkey
March 17 2007

‘Turkey could close Incirlik base’

The New Anatolian with agencies / Washington

17 March 2007

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U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried warned Congress
yesterday against passing a resolution supporting Armenian claims of
genocide, saying the move could result in Turkey closing the Incirlik
Air Base used by the U.S. military

A bill on the so-called Armenian genocide was introduced in the U.S
Senate on Thursday. The bill was drawn up by Democrat Richard Durbin
and Republican John Essington. Senators John Kerry, Edward Kennedy
and Joe Lieberman also signed the bill. It is interesting that
supporters of the bill including presidential candidates Hillary
Clinton, Barak Obama and Joseph Bidenin have not signed the bill this
time. A total of 21 out of 100 senators have declared their support
for the bill.

The bill was submitted to the House of the Representatives on Jan. 30

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried told a hearing of a
House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Europe that Turkish officials
have informed the U.S. that approval of the resolution could lead to
a shutdown of the base or a restriction on U.S. overflight privileges
granted by Turkey.

He also said the U.S. has been informed that Ankara would respond
with "extreme emotion" if the Armenian resolution were approved.

Turkey provides vital support to U.S. military operations. Incirlik
Air Force Base, a major base in southern Turkey, has been used by the
U.S. to launch operations into Iraq and Afghanistan and was a center
for U.S. fighters that enforced the "no-fly zones" which kept the
Iraqi air force bottled up after the 1991 Gulf War.

He added the U.S. fear was that "passage of any such resolution would
close minds and harden hearts."

At the same time, Daniel Fried has described the events that happened
in 1915 during the Ottoman Empire as a massacre.

Robert Wexler, chair of the Europe Subcommittee and the U.S.-Turkey
Friendship group also underlined that anti-American mood has
increased in Turkey and if the genocide draft is adopted U.S.
opposition would increase.

Joseph Ralston, the U.S. special envoy for countering the terrorist
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Daniel Fata, a Pentagon
representative said that cold relations with Turkey would affect U.S.
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"This is an incredibly sensitive issue inside Turkey, and what we are
trying to encourage the Turks to have is meaningful reform of their
dealings with Armenia," said Ralston

In joint identical letters to the speaker of the House of
Representatives and two other senior members, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the
resolution also could inflict significant damage on U.S. efforts to
reconcile the long-standing dispute between the West Asian neighbors.

In the letters, Rice and Gates drew attention to the consequences of
French Parliament’s passing genocide bill that made it crime to deny
Armenian genocide claims.

"Turkey cut off all relations with France, including the military
sphere and refused military contracts under discussion due to the
adoption of that resolution. The resolution could inflict significant
damage on the U.S. soldiers located in the region and create problems
for the divisions deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan and inflict
significant damage on U.S. efforts to reconcile the long-standing
dispute between Turkey and Armenia," they said.

The appeals went to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and
Representatives John Boehner, leader of the House’s Republican
minority, and Tom Lantos, the Democrat who chairs the House Committee
on Foreign Affairs

Turkey strongly opposes the claims that its predecessor state, the
Ottoman government, caused the Armenian deaths in a planned genocide.
The Turkish government has said the toll is wildly inflated and that
Armenians were killed or displaced in civil unrest during the
empire’s collapse and conditions of World War I. Ankara’s proposal to
Yerevan to set up a joint commission of historians to study the
disputed events is still awaiting a positive response from the
Armenian side. After French lawmakers voted last October to make it a
crime to deny that the claims were genocide, Turkey said it would
suspend military relations with France.

Baku Sun, Azerbaijan
March 16 2007

Rice, Gates: `genocide’ bill may damage US security

By William C.Mann

WASHINGTON – The U.S. secretaries of state and defense contend that
the security of the United States is at risk from proposed
legislation that would declare Armenians victims of a genocide on
Turkish soil almost a century ago. In joint identical letters to the
speaker of the House of Representatives and two other senior members,
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert
Gates said the resolution also could inflict significant damage on
U.S. efforts to reconcile the long-standing dispute between the West
Asian neighbors.

The appeals went to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Rep. John
Boehner, leader of the House’s Republican minority; and Rep. Tom
Lantos, the Democrat who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

`This is an incredibly sensitive issue inside Turkey, and what we are
trying to encourage the Turks to have is meaningful reform of their
dealings with Armenia,’ retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Joseph Ralston,
former Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, told The Associated Press
in an interview Wednesday. `It has huge ramifications for the foreign
policy of this country.’ The Associated Press obtained a copy of one
of the letters Wednesday. It was dated March 7, two days after
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian was in Washington to visit
Rice and said afterward that `Turkish lobbying at a government level’
threatened to scuttle the resolution.

A Democratic aide said Pelosi, who controls the House agenda, has no
plan to bring the proposal before the House soon. The aide spoke
anonymously because final plans have not been approved. A
congressional staff aide, also speaking without attribution, said it
is understood that Lantos, whose committee would deal with the
resolution, was awaiting word from Pelosi. Both the speaker and
Lantos have been supporters of the legislation. The dispute involves
the alleged deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians during the
waning years of the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of the Turkish
state. Armenian advocates contend they died in an organized genocide;
the Turks say they were victims of widespread chaos and governmental
breakdown as the 600-year-old empire collapsed in the years before
Turkey was born in 1923. The bipartisan resolution was introduced on
Jan. 30. Passage of the resolution would harm `U.S. efforts to
promote reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia and to advance
recognition by Turkey of the tragic events that occurred to ethnic
Armenians under the Ottoman Empire,’ the letters said. They said the
United States is encouraging `our friends in Turkey to re-examine
their past with honesty and to reconcile with Armenia, as well as
security and stability in the broader Middle East and Europe.’

Rice and Gates reminded the lawmakers of repercussions from a vote in
the French National Assembly last October to criminalize denial of
Armenian genocide. `The Turkish military cut all contacts with the
French military and terminated defense contracts under negotiation,’
the letters said. Similar reaction against passage of the House
resolution `could harm American troops in the field, constrain our
ability to supply our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and
significantly damage our efforts to promote reconciliation between
Armenia and Turkey at a key turning point in their relations.’

Turkey has NATO’s second-largest army. The U.S. Air Force has a major
base in southern Turkey near Iraq, which it has used for operations
in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Between the Persian Gulf War in
1991 and the Iraq war, warplanes from Incirlik Air Base enforced a
flight ban in Northern Iraq against the Iraqi air force.

Today, Azerbaijan
March 16 2007

Turkey’s National Security Council official: "We do have evidence
against Armenians’ claims"

16 March 2007 [13:02] – Today.Az

"In 1919, the Ottoman government requested Switzerland, Sweden,
Denmark, the Netherlands and Spain-countries that did not take part
in the World War I to investigate the claims on so called Armenian
genocide," Turkey’s National Security Council department chief Gursel
Demirok said.

He told the APA Turkey bureau that the Ottoman’s appeal to neutral
countries has been found from the archives and made public.

"At the same time another document that I found from English archives
proves that England was against the establishment of a commission
composed of these five countries to investigate groundless genocide
claims. Now I ask these states – Why did not you reply the request of
the Ottoman empire? The realities of that period are quite different.
I was born in Gazientep, the French dressed Armenian soldiers their
uniforms and made them attack on Turkish soldiers during the World
War. Our family was also subject to genocide committed by Armenian
soldiers in French uniform. I call for Armenians to give up their
malice. Every nation should posses its own culture and traditions.
Ethnic identity cannot be preserved though malice" Mr.Demirok
underlined.

Gursel Demirok said that the Armenian lobby in the west tries to
oppress Turkey.

"Our archives are open to Armenians. We call them to come and
investigate them. But they refuse to see and hear the truth. We do
have evidence against their claims. A lot of evidences prove who is
murderer. I have found some documents in the archived of the German
empire that appraise the governors of the Ottoman Empire – Enver
Pasha, Telet Pasha, Midhet Pasha. Armenians committed genocide in the
Azerbaijani town of Khojaly, in 1992. They cast aspersions on other
countries to cover up their crimes," he concluded.

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FOREIGN MINISTRY THE NEW BATTLEGROUND BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AND ESTABLISHMENT
Lale Sariibrahimoglu

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 15 2007

President Ahmet Necdet Sezer’s refusal to sign a decree envisaging the
appointment of five deputy undersecretaries for the Foreign Ministry,
the first of its kind in the history of the republic as described by
the daily newspaper Hurriyet in its March 14 edition, has revealed an
ongoing battle at the Foreign Ministry between the political leadership
and the establishment. President Sezer, regarded as the mouthpiece
of the establishment that prefers to rule the nation independent
of the political leadership, has returned to parliament numerous
decrees envisaging the appointments of top bureaucrats. He has also
vetoed, sometimes rightly, various laws passed by the parliament —
all mainly on grounds that the Islam-based conservative Justice and
Development Party (AK Party) sought to seriously infringe on the
secular character of the nation through the appointments of top and
lower-level bureaucrats.

The problem with Sezer’s policy is the double standard that lies
behind his attitude. To start with, since the establishment of the
Turkish Republic by Ataturk 84 years ago, the Turkish bureaucracy has
always turned into a battlefield between the different ideologies,
from the left to the right, depending on what type of coalition or
single party governments then ruled the nation.

There has been no objective criteria applied to the appointment of
bureaucrats who have mostly fallen victim to the ill-defined policies
of the then ruling political leadership. Due to the absence of a
fully established rule of law in Turkey, sometimes bureaucrats not
affiliated with any party view can find themselves being linked to
a certain ideology through rumors instead of objective criteria that
should dictate their appointments.

It is also true that in Western democracies the winning party or the
parties setting up the government would choose to work with bureaucrats
they feel are close to their own ideologies. But in Turkey, we have
always witnessed a massive shakeup in public institutions from top
to bottom with every new government, resulting with the danger of
creating bureaucrats who could only keep their positions if they were
loyal to government policies they sometimes did not agree with.

Those who have been resisting AK Party appointments thus pursue a
double standard with the sometimes unnecessary fear that the Turkish
secular order would receive a serious blow with certain appointments.

Such resistance damages the credibility of the resistors because the
same voices criticizing AK Party appointment policies have remained
relatively indifferent when in the past governments close to their
ideologies made appointments that, for example, resulted in the
ministry of education and ministry of culture being staffed with
either ultranationalists or extreme conservatives — appointments
that contributed to ultranationalism in society sometimes turning
into violent nationalism. This was the case with the slaying of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in January this year.

President Sezer’s rejection of a decree envisaging the appointment of
five Foreign Ministry deputy undersecretaries is significant because it
reveals that the ongoing battle between the establishment the current
government over the appointment of top level bureaucrats has spread
to the foreign ministry, an institution regarded as the closest to
the status quo.

The current names appointed as deputy under-secretaries mark
a rejuvenation drive by the government at the ministry to create
a team of top diplomats who would be much more loyal to the ruling
government than the older diplomats who are part of the establishment,
says a senior Turkish diplomatic source.

But in my opinion this rejuvenation drive by the government is
positive in the sense that those top but young diplomats would act
in a more realistic manner toward world affairs. I myself know in
person a majority of the five deputy undersecretaries that Sezer
rejected by not signing the appointment decree. They are intelligent
and sophisticated enough to inject energy into the ministry which
has not done much in the past in taking initiatives to help the
government in its efforts to pursue a proactive stance in solving
Turkey’s chronic foreign policy problems.

As a long time journalist dealing with diplomacy and defense I
believe that the new deputy under-secretaries, who now must remain as
acting deputy under-secretaries in the absence of Sezer’s approval,
will contribute positively to the government’s efforts to settle the
country’s chronic foreign policy issues; issues that the status quo
preferred not to solve, thereby putting too heavy a burden on the
citizens of this country.

DRAFT RESOLUTION ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE SUBMITTED TO US SENATE

Regnum, Russia
March 15 2007

A draft resolution on the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire of
1915 has been introduced to the US Senate. The move was initiated by
Dem. Richard Durbin and Rep. John Ensign.

The draft is similar to draft Resolution 106 introduced late January
to the US House of Representatives by Congressmen Adam Schiff, George
Radanovich, Frank Pallone, Joe Knollenberg, Brad Sherman and Thaddeus
McCotter. The document has already received support of 180 congressmen.

"Armenian Genocide was the Twentieth Century’s first genocide,
a vicious, organized crime against humanity that included murder,
deportation, torture, and slave labor. U.S. clarity on this historical
fact is of utmost importance and long past due," Richard Durbin said
adding that today, when another genocide continues in Darfur, Sudan, it
is important to recognize the Armenian Genocide, Radio Liberty informs.

RUSSIA HOPES FOR SOONEST SETTLEMENT OF KARABAKH CONFLICT

PanARMENIAN.Net
14.03.2007 17:34 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Russia actively participates in the talks on the
Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement in the framework of the OSCE
Minsk Group, RF Ambassador to Armenia Nikolay Pavlov told reporters
in Yerevan.

There is nothing strange in the visits of U.S. and French Co-chairs to
the region, he said. "The mediators themselves agree on the schedule
of visits.

As a Co-chair, Russia stands for the soonest resolution of the Karabakh
problem," Amb. Pavlov emphasized.

UNTIL TURKEY RECOGNIZES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ARMENIA’S SECURITY UNDER THREAT

Yerkir
13.03.2007 16:42

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – 218 votes are necessary for the adoption of the
Armenian Genocide resolution by the U.S. Congress, which hopefully we
can reach., Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of
America (ANCA) Aram Hamparian told a press conference in Yerevan. He
said, the U.S. legislature has such a system that neither the State
Department, and moreover nor the Turkish Foreign Minister can influence
on it.

"I would advise not to believe in what is written in Turkish
press. More often Turkish media gives misinformation in order to
show the public that it actively works for preventing the possible
adoption of the Armenian Genocide resolution by the U.S. Congress,"
Hamparian stressed. He also said that until Turkey recognizes the
Armenian Genocide, Armenia’s security will be under threat. "As to
Turkey’s opinion that the United States needs Ankara’s assistance,
it is a temporary phenomena. May happen that the U.S. will be able
to find strategic allies in the region without Turkey.

Alongside I would like to underline that President George Bush does
not have a clear stance on the issue of the Armenian Genocide. He says
neither "yes" nor "no". If such a policy existed the American Armenian
community wouldn’t protest against Richard Hoagland’s nomination as
U.S. Ambassador to Armenia.

Really, Armenia needs a U.S. ambassador, but the future ambassador must
not be pro-Turkish in any cases," the ANCA Executive Director told.

BAGIS ON ARMENIAN RESOLUTION

Turkish Press, MI
March 13 2007

WASHINGTON D.C. – "If the draft (on the so-called Armenian genocide)
submitted to the U.S. Congress is adopted, Turkish-U.S. relations
will be harmed by the Congress itself," Egemen Bagis, Justice &
Development Party (AKP) MP, said on Tuesday.

Bagis is a member of the Turkish parliamentary delegation actually
in Washington D.C. to lobby against the draft resolution.

In an exclusive interview with the A.A correspondent, Bagis said,
"we are endeavoring to prevent the U.S. Congress to make a wrong
historic decision. We will inform and warn them within this scope."

Expressing uneasiness over the situation since he is also the Chairman
of Turkish-U.S. Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group, Bagis said,
"Congress members are under pressure by their own voters. The voters
exerce pressure for their own ethnic interests."

"This resolution will also kill the chance of Armenia to open up
to the West. Turkey is the gate for Armenia to open to the Western
world. This is a passage of peace, civilization, democracy and
economic development. However, Armenia insistently try to close this
gate through such kind of campaigns," Bagis indicated.

"Armenia should abandon remaining stuck between the controversial
pages of the history and should catch up with the 21st century. In that
case we will have many things to discuss with Armenia," Bagis noted.

On the other hand Turkish parliamentary delegation members met
executives of AIPAC, a Jewish institution, on Monday evening.

The delegation is expected to have talks in U.S. State Department
and meet executives of some Jewish organizations today.

The delegation will also have talks in the Congress on Wednesday
and Thursday.

Radio Liberty, Czech rep.
March 9 2007

Hovannisian Says Not Responsible For Opposition Discord

By Irina Hovannisian

Former Foreign Minister Raffi Hovannisian on Friday denied any
responsibility for the failure by several Armenian opposition parties
to form an electoral alliance, insisting that he never sought to
become its top leader.

His Zharangutyun (Heritage) party looked set last month to team up
with three other opposition groups for the May 12 parliamentary
elections. Those included the Hanrapetutyun (Republic) party, the
National Democratic Union (AZhM), and the former ruling Armenian
Pan-National Movement (HHSh).

Talks between their eventually broke down for reasons that are still
not fully clear. Some of their participants privately blame
Hovannisian for the fiasco, saying that his uncompromising desire to
top the list of the would-be bloc’s list of candidates precluded an
agreement.

Hovannisian rejected the claims, saying that the pre-election deal,
which would have boosted opposition chances in the elections, fell
through because of the presidential ambitions of some of his
partners. `One or two of my partners have announced their
presidential aspirations, which I think is quite telling,’ said the
former U.S. citizen.

One of them, AZhM leader Vazgen Manukian, confirmed this week plans
to participate in next year’s Armenian presidential election despite
his party’s decision to boycott the May 12 vote. Manukian told RFE/RL
that during the talks he suggested that the would-be bloc have a
collective leadership and decide who should top its slate by a draw.

While admitting that he rejected the idea, Hovannisian claimed that
he was ready to cede the five top places on the opposition list to
the other parties. `We had no problem with the list or presidential
candidacies,’ he said. `The sequence [of parliamentary candidates]
was never important to us.’

The opposition talks were initiated by Hanrapetutyun’s outspoken
leader, Aram Sarkisian. They initially also involved the People’s
Party of Stepan Demirchian, President Robert Kocharian’s main
challenger in the last presidential election. The four parties
reportedly rejected Demirchian’s implicit demands to endorse his 2008
presidential bid.

Today, Azerbaijan
March 10 2007

Erdogan challenges Armenian diaspora at joint forum in Baku

10 March 2007 [10:40] – Today.Az

Truth cannot be built on lies, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said Friday in Baku, as he called on the Armenian diaspora to
prove their allegations of genocide by the Ottoman Empire with
documents.

Erdogan’s remarks came as he was delivering a keynote speech at the
First Forum of the World Azerbaijani and Turkish Diasporas
Organizations, in order to counter the intensifying attacks from the
Armenian diaspora, which has been striving for international
recognition of the so-called Armenian genocide. The congress also
intended to prompt Turks and Azeris abroad to take action.

Turkish Cypriot President Mehmet Ali Talat also participated in the
forum, which was hosted by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev — a
clear sign of Baku’s support for easing international isolation of
the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC).

In his speech, Erdogan called the Nagorno Karabakh dispute "a
bleeding wound for the Turkish people," and referred to a December
2006 referendum in the region by Armenia. Ankara has already
announced that it will not recognize the outcome of the referendum
backing independence in the Nagorno Karabakh region, saying the
referendum was held while "ignoring international law."

"Did the world recognize [the outcome of the referendum]?" asked
Erdogan.

"It didn’t, because what was exercised there was fake, wrong, a lie
and fabricated. Sooner or later, justice will prevail. We believe
this," Erdogan said.

The border gate between Turkey and Armenia has been closed for more
than a decade. Turkey shut the gate and severed diplomatic relations
with Armenia after Armenian troops occupied the Azeri territory of
Nagorno Karabakh.

"This is a common characteristic of Armenia, — unfortunately — a
large portion of Armenians and the diaspora. Now there are Armenian
genocide campaigns all around the world … alleged Armenian genocide
… nobody will fall for this trick. Turkey and the Turks will never
fall for this trick," Erdogan said.

Turkey vehemently denies that Armenian allegations of a genocide
under its predecessor the Ottoman Empire. Facing a mounting Armenian
campaign to get international recognition for the alleged genocide,
Turkey called for a joint committee of Turkish and Armenian experts
in 2005 to study the allegations.

At the time, Erdogan sent a letter to Armenian President Robert
Kocharian proposing the establishment of such a committee.
Nevertheless, Yerevan hasn’t given a positive answer to Ankara’s
proposal up to date, instead arguing that such a committee should be
inter-governmental.

Armenian fear of facing Hojaly

In Baku, Erdogan brought to mind his call to Yerevan and reiterated
that conducting historical research was not an issue for politicians.
"Let historians, political scientists, archeologists, lawyers and
historians of art study this issue. If it is eventually understood
that there is a grievance, then we will do what we’re supposed to
do," he said.

"There is still no answer, because then they will have to face the
Hojaly massacre," he added.

The city of Hojaly in Nagorno Karabakh, which is still under Armenian
occupation, was seized by Armenian armed forces and Russian troops
based in the region on Feb. 25, 1992. About 2,500 civilians, the
majority of whom were women, children and the elderly, were bombarded
before military forces seized the city. People in the city, which was
largely burnt down, had fled for Agdam, the only open direction
allowed by the occupying powers, but after a short while it was
reported that this way was blocked, too, and those who had started to
flee were ambushed.

A total of 613 Azerbaijanis, including 106 women and 63 children,
were massacred by Armenian and Russian forces, in addition to earlier
attacks in Hojaly. Armenian forces occupying the city captured 1,275
people and 150 were reported missing.

Meanwhile, Erdogan thanked Aliyev for inviting Talat to a meeting,
saying this "meant a lot" for Turkey. State ministers Besir Atalay
and Mehmet Aydin accompanied Erdosan at the Baku meeting, which was
also attended by representatives from Australia, Iraq, the KKTC and
the US as well as from European and Central Asian countries. Today’s
Zaman

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