Author: Badalian Vardan

PRIME MINISTERS OF RUSSIA, ARMENIA DISCUSS RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN ECONOMIC COOPERATION

Interfax
May 30 2012
Russia

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his Armenian counterpart
Tigran Sargsyan have discussed the development of economic cooperation
between the two countries.

Medvedev and Sargsyan met at the meeting of the heads of governments
of the CIS countries in Ashgabat.

“Our agenda is traditional. I have an idea of what you will be asking
me, but we can still discuss any issues related to the development
of economic and humanitarian relations between Russia and Armenia,”
Medvedev said at the beginning of the meeting.

Sargsyan, in turn, said Armenia attaches special importance to the
development of relations with Russia.

“Russia is our strategic partner and number one economic partner.

Russian investment in our economy exceeds 60%,” he said, adding that
Armenia is interested in intensifying this cooperation.

IS TURKEY MOVING AWAY FROM THE WEST? A CRITICAL REDUX
Miguel Vargas

Foreign Policy Blogs Network
May 31, 2012 Thursday 1:25 AM EST

Dear FPA Blog followers,
You might now that I feature some analyses and articles not published
elsewhere for the benefit of this blog. This post is one of them; it is
written by an exceedingly capable student of mine at Princeton Miguel
Vargas, whose final article for the course International Relations of
the Middle East provided more insight and sound analysis than much
of the scholarship that comes out of Washington s policy debate on
Turkey and whether it is moving away from the West or not.

Is Turkey Moving Away from the West? A Critical Redux by Miguel Vargas
([email protected])

According to Bulent Aliriza, the director of the Turkey Project at
Washington s Center for Strategic and International Studies: There
is a ceiling above which Turkish-American relations cannot improve,
and there s a floor which it can t go below We are getting pretty
close to the floor and the ability of the two countries to improve
their relations really has a huge question mark over it. We are now
talking about an undeclared crisis in the relations. [i] He is not
alone however in this assessment, as State Department officials such
as Philip Gordon have echoed Aliriza s remarks. [ii] But to what is
extent is this true? Has Turkey moved away from the West? In short,
no. While Turkey is expanding Eastward, forging a new strategic
set of economic and diplomatic alliances, in an attempt to become
the hegemonic influence of the Muslim world, it is not abandoning,
nor interested in leaving, its still strategically necessary ties to
the West.

Some of Turkey s recent behavior is consistent with the idea of
Western abandonment however. According to Ariel Cohen, a senior
research fellow at The Heritage foundation since taking power in a
landslide democratic election in 2002, the Just and Development Party,
or AKP, is leading Turkey in a new direction both domestically and
in terms of foreign policy. [iii] This new direction, Cohen further
attest, includes rapprochement with Iran; working more closely with
the Islamist regime of Sudan despite the indictment of its president
on genocide chargers; supporting Hamas movement which rules Gaza;
and fostering stronger ties with two of the West biggest rivals in
China and Russia.[iv]

This latter alliance is particularly surprising, as the former Soviet
Union was one of Turkey s earliest enemies and one of the sources,
if not the original source of Turkey s alliance with the United States.

[v] Nevertheless, after 32 years without a visit from a Russian
president, Turkey received Vladimir Putin in December of 2004; this
meeting was the first of many more high-level politician contacts
between the two nations as each not only shared business but also
geopolitical interests. [vi] As of 2008, Russia is Turkey s largest
trade partner with a projected trade volume of $100 billion dollars
between 2008 and 2013. [vii] Further, bounding these two nations
together is Turkey s $20 billion investment in 2010 for the Russian
construction of nuclear plant to be built on Turkey s southern
coast.[viii] Not only does this new relationship provide realist
economic benefits for Turkey, but it also secured peaceful relations
between the two former enemies that allow for Turkey s greater mission
of becoming the hegemonic influence of the Middle East. [ix]

The Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, with the Turkish prime minister,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at the Botas gas pumping station near Samsun.

(Reuters)

But what is the motivation behind such expansion. According to Stephen
Larrabee, while the AKP s Islamic roots have influenced Turkish
policy, [it] has not been the driving force behind it. [x] Rather,
Turkey s new alliances and expansions can be credited to Turkey s
new foreign minister Ahmet Davuto lu and his Strategic Depth foreign
policy. According to Larrabee, holder of the Distinguished Chair in
European Security, the concept of Strategic Depth is part of a larger
debate in Turkey about the legacy of the Ottoman Empire. [xi] Ever
since Mustafa Kemal, Atatürk, founded the Turkish Republic in 1923,
Kemalists have sought to attach a negative image to Turkey s Ottoman
legacy. Kemalists argue that Turkey s Ottoman heritage including its
public identification with Islam is inherently backwards and as such
an inhibitor to Turkey s modernization.[xii]

However, as Larrabee points out, just as the AKP have brought back
Islam back to politics in Turkey, today many Turks have begun to
view the Ottoman Empire in more nuanced and positive terms. They
see aspects of the Ottoman legacy, particularly its emphasis on
multicultural identities, as potential building blocks for a more
active regional and global role for modern Turkey. [xiii] Instead of
seeing the Kemalist Republic era and its avoidance of the rest of the
Middle East as a role model example, these Turks have instead viewed
this era as an anomaly. [xiv] Thus, the policy of Strategic Depth
is a means of reinstating Turkey, the once center of the Ottoman
Empire, as the dominant power in the Middle East. Though Turkey has
no intention of physically expanding and conquering these nations,
the AKP instead seeks through diplomatic and economic ties become
the hegemonic influence of the Muslim world.[xv]

As such, Turkey is not holding back in its formation of new allies.

While Cohen believes that Turkey would oppose any strengthening
of the Kurdish autonomy in northern Iraq, recent evidence suggests
otherwise.[xvi] According to Turkish international relations expert
Soli Ozel, given the instability of Iraq, especially in the face of a
US withdrawal, and the fact that relations with Bagdad are rotten now,
it now transpires that the Kurds are the Turk s natural allies in
Iraq. They are the second largest export market, and if you include
informal trade, they may very well be the first. [xvii] Furthermore,
Turkey s geopolitical position with regards to the shipment and sale
of Iraqi oil and gas has drastically changed the manner by which
the Turkish government deals with the northern Iraqi Kurds; the
relationship between leaders of these two states is vastly different
today than it was in the past.[xviii] So much so, that whereas talks
of an independent Kurdish state in Iraq used to strike fear in the
Turkish leadership who believed that their own Kurdish populations
would follow suit, today, Turkey upon hearing such rhetoric fails to
reply with any opposition. [xix] Given the instability of the Iraqi
state and the large presence of Kurds in Turkey, an economic alliance
with the Northern Iraqi Kurds makes strategic sense, as such alliance
would effectively deter the PKK s ability and desire to destabilize
the Turkish state.

To the apparent dismay of the West, Turkey has also extended support to
the Iranian regime. According to Cohen, above all else, it is Turkey
s support for Iran s nuclear program that proves to Washington that
Turkey s foreign policy objectives are changing. [Whereas] Ankara,
was once an important ally in helping to contain Iran, [today, Turkey]
has become a friendly diplomatic ally of the Islamist dictatorship in
Tehran. [xx] However, like Robert Wexler, president of the S. Daniel
Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, suggests Turkey s relationship
with Iran does not appear to be intended to undercut American
foreign policy on Iran.[xxi] Instead, it seems that Turkey may have
actually believed that it was doing what Americans wanted them to
do, as Turkey, like America does not want Iran to develop a nuclear
weapons program. [xxii] This position makes more sense as both Iran
and Turkey have goals of becoming the Middle East s hegemonic power;
Iran s nuclear attainment would undermine all of Turkey s influence on
the region.[xxiii] Thus, the difference between American and Turkish
foreign policy with Iran appears to be a difference in means not ends.

According to Wexler, America and Turkey share the same objective but
have a fundamentally different view as to how to get there. Turkey
has regional interests that may at times be different from American
interests. The challenge is to take those differences and channel
them in a positive way. In the case of the Security Council vote,
however, the channeling was anything but positive. [xxiv] Furthermore,
by appearing defiant to Western regimes, Turkey can appear to be
an independent Muslim power and further its influence within the
Middle East. After all, Turkey s new foreign policy concept is to
emerge as regional hegemony through developing economic presence,
interdependence, and a conspicuously important diplomatic role. [xxv]
One of the only nations to which Turkey has not extended a friendly
hand to has been its former ally, Israel. After the tragic Israeli
raid and murder of several activists on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish
ship carrying humanitarian relief to the Palestinians, Turkey has
gradually abandoned its role as a neutral mediator between Israel and
its Arab neighbors and instead has become an active supporter of Arab
and Muslim causes against Israel. [xxvi] This shift in alliances did
not occur however without granting Israel a chance to redeem itself.

According to Gul Tuysuz, after the raid, Turkey offered Iran an
ultimatum: apologize for the raid, pay compensation to the victims,
and lift the blockade on Gaza, or face reduced diplomatic relations,
the departure of the Israeli ambassador in Turkey, and possible
prosecution on behalf of the International Court of Justice. [xxvii]
After refusing to apologize, Turkey made good on its threat to
eject the ambassador and downgrade relations. [xxviii] Furthermore,
when Turkey rewrote the Red Book, an assessment of Turkey s national
security threats, Iran was taken off its critical threats list and
in its place Israel s name was placed. [xxix] In sum, as President
Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Erdo an hastened to clarify [Turkey
s] friendship with Israel is over. [xxx] Making sense of this move
is a bit more difficult, as hostility to Israel does not favor an
alliance with the West. However, like Turkey s apparent defiance at
the UN, hostility to Israel may also advance Turkey s popularity in
the rest of the Middle East. Nevertheless, as will be shown below,
this behavior may have actually arisen from a Western source.

In order to arrive at the thesis of this paper, we must analyze all of
Turkey s foreign policy movements in a greater context, as otherwise
the evidence seems clear that Turkey is going East.[xxxi] The reality
of the matter is that Turkey is seeking to become a member of the
European Union[xxxii] and that as such it is expected to behave as
other European nations do. While scholars such as Ionnis N.

Grigoriadis cite as a milestone in the deterioration of US-Turkey
relations the refusal of the Turkish Parliament on March 1, 2003 to
allow US troop the use of Turkish territory in preparation for their
invasion in Iraq, [xxxiii] such scholars fail to realize as Tarik
Oguzlu points out that the absence of support from the European Union,
particularly that of France and Germany, is considered to be one of the
reasons as to why Turkey was reluctant to partake in the War in the
first place.[xxxiv] Furthermore, the European Union as evidenced in
the European s Commission most recent progress report is not only in
full support of Turkey s foreign policy activism under its Strategic
Depth but encourages it.[xxxv]

If Turkey s foreign activism is not an indication of it moving away
from the West than what is. According to Ihsan Dagi, in accusing Turkey
of turning against the West [critics] are mainly looking at Turkey s
critical position with Israel. [xxxvi] While the Turkish government
did call Israel s attack of the Mavi Marmara, disproportionate and a
war crime, Turkey was only joining the opinion of the body of nations
it sought to join, as European states repeated the same comments
regarding Israel s atrocities in Gaza. [xxxvii] Furthermore, as Dagi
points out even if Turkey s political stance towards Israel is out
of line with that Europe and the United States, why should it mean
a departure from Turkey s pro-Western foreign policy orientation? Is
Israel the West? Obviously, it is not and as such Dagi indicates it
would be a mistake to equate an aggressive stance against Israel with
one against the West. [xxxviii] Turkey has never been this integrated
with the West economically, socially, and politically. It is in fact
breaking its self-imposed isolation and opening up the world around
itself. Turkey today is not bullying in its region but trying to
establish cooperative relationships with Armenia, Iraq, the Iraqi
Kurdish administration, Iran, Syria, Georgia, Russia, Bulgaria,
and Greece. [xxxix] According to Dagi, Turkey has never become more
Westernized in its foreign affairs. [xl]

However, not everyone is convinced; after all, Europe is not the entire
West. According to Ian Lesser, Turkey is now a place where public
opinion counts [During the Bush Administration], opinion polls point
to a dramatic decline in public perceptions of the U.S. and Turkish
views of American policy are among the most negative in Europe. [xli]
According to Ionnis N. Grigoriadis recent findings allude to the
development of an emerging anti-US bias in large segments of Turkish
society. This could presage the establishment of anti-Americanism as
a permanent feature of Turkish political discourse The deterioration
of the US image in Turkey could be considered a result of the recent
US political and military involvement in the Middle East and the
perceived clash of US and Turkish national interests in the region
.The election of Barack Obama has mitigated this trend but not
reversed it. [xlii] Continuing polls do not show promising signs,
as President Obama s gains in the first two years of his presidency
(14%; 17%) has dropped to an all time low of 10% merely a point better
that president Bush worst rating upon leaving office.[xliii] Despite
a long and enduring alliance between the United States and Turkey,
Turkey now ranks among the countries where the United States enjoys
its least popularity. Although the shift of public opinion against
the United Stated is not tantamount to a wholesale rejection of the
US political and cultural model, it still has the potential to harm
bilateral relations and US interests. [xliv]

According to a 2007 PEW Global Attitudes Survey, 64% of the respondents
from Turkey defined the U.S. as a “threat”; a figure that began to
lower slightly following the Obama administration

The publication by Wiki Leaks of classified cables between Ankara
and the United States embassy that portray Prime Minister Erdogan
and Foreign Minister Davuto lu negatively have not aided the public
opinion situation. [xlv] However, while embarrassing, the leaked
cables represent a diplomatic tempest in a teapot and not a serious
crisis in bilateral relations. [xlvi] Mid-level diplomats wrote
these cables during the Bush administration a time when strains in
U.S.-Turkish relations were much worse than they are today. [xlvii]
Indicating a desirability for the West, Davuto lu has gone out of his
way to downplay the significance of the leaks, stressing the close and
cordial ties that exist at the highest level with U.S. officials in
the Obama Administration, and both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
and President Obama have publically reiterated the importance that
the United States attaches to good relations with Turkey. [xlviii]

Despite the decline in public support inside of Turkey, according
Joshua W. Walker, it is clear that Turkey has not suddenly switched
sides but rather still objectively represents America s best ally [as]
Turkey represents a critical partner to the U.S. on its three most
urgent strategic issues: Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq. [xlix] According
to David Ignatius, President Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan have developed a working relationship that is one of
the most important but least discussed developments shaping the Arab
world. [l] After Turkey voted not in favor of, a previously mentioned,
UN sanctions resolution against Iran in 2010, Obama and Erdogan
discussed their foreign policy goals and established this new sense of
partnership.[li] Sources from the White House claim that just in 2011
both of these leaders have spoken by phone 13 times.[lii] Currently,
the most delicate piece of Turkish-American business is trying to
organize a peaceful transfer of power in Syria [where] Erdogan, once
the closest foreign ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is now
a bitter foe. [liii] According to Ignatius, Turkey s shift in policy
towards Syria originates from a diplomatic negotiation failure where
Erdogan promised Obama a reform deal within 72 hours that Syria left to
dry.[liv] Even with Iran, Turkey has demonstrated has turned a new leaf
as Erdogan has recently agreed to deploy forward-based radar system
as part of a NATO missile defense plan aimed chiefly at Iran. [lv]

According to a senior Obama administrator, Erdogan s signing of
this missile defense plan is probably the biggest strategic decision
between the U.S. and Turkey over the past 10 to 15 years. [lvi]

Lastly though no less important is the issue of public support in
Turkey. According to Ian Lesser, in order for public opinion of
the United States to increase, the US must aid Turkey in its fight
against the PKK. [lvii] Not surprisingly, the administration has
stepped up military cooperation and assistance to Turkey in its
struggle against the PKK Turkey s number one security problem and a
source of tension with the Bush Administration [lviii] Furthermore,
the Obama administration has recently entertained pleas from Turkey
s regime asking for a Predator drone base to deal with the PKK in
Northern Iran and has supported Turkey s desire to purchase drones
of their own.[lix] Combined with massive grants of intelligence
and diplomatic support against the PKK, it is not surprising that
commander of the Turkish armed forces, Gen. Iker Basbug has deemed
the US and Turkish relationship perfect. [lx] Furthermore, the Obama
administration has strongly backed Turkey s bid for EU membership,
the rapprochement with Armenia, and the Erdogan government s Kurdish
Opening three other important Turkish policy priorities. [lxi]
According to Philip Gordon and Omer Taspinar, the most troubling of
Turkey s relationships with the West is that Ankara no longer has a
fallback U.S. option in case its relations with EU sour. Turkish-US
relations have become a casualty of the war in Iraq. [lxii] Given what
was just presented about Obama & Erdogan s relationship, Gordon and
Taspinar s observations could not be farther from the truth. Rather as
Larrabee points out Turkey still wants and needs strong ties the United
States. [lxiii] Furthermore, despite frustration at the slow progress,
most Turkish politicians still insist EU membership is a goal worth
pursuing, even if they have to wait many years to get there. [lxiv]
Turkey benefits greatly from the military assistance it gains from
both the US and the economic gains in energy and business deals with
Europe. [lxv] Thus, Turkey has a strategic interest in remaining with
the West for the benefit of its security and its economy. However,
there is no denying that Turkey s Strategic Depth plan of expansion
East is also providing it large strategic benefits.

Regarding, the West the more influential Turkey is in the Middle
the higher the likelihood that the US will continue supporting it
militarily and the higher the likelihood that the EU will not reject
Turkey s ascension.

However, its expansion East is also providing it other strategic
benefits similar to those it gains from the West. Turkey s involvement
in the Middle East has been accompanied by soft power and the expansion
of economic relations. Growing tourism from Arab states, coupled with
cultural interactions mainly with the popularity of Turkish soap
operas has improved the image of Turkey in the Middle East. While
Turkey s trade with Arab countries stood at $6.5 billion in 2000,
it reached $35 billion in 2011. Last year approximately 1.5 million
Arab tourists visited Turkey. [lxvi] Furthermore, its popularity has
increased incredibly with one poll conducted by the Turkish Economic
and Social Studies Foundation measuring that of Middle Eastern citizens
78% have at least somewhat favorable view of the nation, 71% believed
it should have a larger role in the region, and 61% thought of Turkey
as a role model. [lxvii] What does this money and influence translate
to Davuto lu the designer of Turkey s long term plan Strategic Depth
frames Turkey s strategic, or realist, goals best: A new Middle East
is about to be born. We will be the owner, pioneer and servant of this
new Middle East. [lxviii] Turkey is neither leaving nor interested
in leaving the West, for the West provides Turkey the security and
stability it needs to dominate the East.

[i] Yigal Schleifer, US-Turkish Relations Appear Headed for Rough
Patch, EurasiaNet.org, January 28, 2010, accessed May 18, 2012,

[ii] Yigal Schleifer, US-Turkish Relations Appear Headed for Rough
Patch,

[iii]Arial Cohen, Washington Concerned as Turkey Is Leaving the
West, Hurriyet Daily News, September 1, 2011, accessed May 18, 2012,

01-09.

[iv] Arial Cohen, Washington Concerned as Turkey Is Leaving the West,

[v] Stephen F. Larrabee, Turkey s New Geopolitics, Survival 52, no. 2
(2010), doi:10.1080/00396331003764686.

[vi] Arial Cohen, Washington Concerned as Turkey Is Leaving the West,

[vii] Arial Cohen, Washington Concerned as Turkey Is Leaving the West,

[viii] Arial Cohen, Washington Concerned as Turkey Is Leaving the West,

[ix] Farruk Akkan, Turkey and Russia Develop Strategic Alliance,

[x] Larrabee, Stephen F. Turkey s New Geopolitics. Survival 52, no. 2
(2010): 157-80. doi:10.1080/00396331003764686.

[xi] Larrabee, Stephen F. Turkey s New Geopolitics.

[xii] Larrabee, Stephen F. Turkey s New Geopolitics.

[xiii] Larrabee, Stephen F. Turkey s New Geopolitics.

[xiv] Larrabee, Stephen F. Turkey s New Geopolitics.

[xv] Larrabee, Stephen F. Turkey s New Geopolitics.

[xvi] Arial Cohen, Washington Concerned as Turkey Is Leaving the
West, Hurriyet Daily News, September 1, 2011, accessed May 18, 2012,

[xvii] Dorian Jones, Regional Crises Boost Turkey s Ties
With Iraq s Kurds, VOA, May 17, 2012, accessed May 18, 2012,

[xviii] Dorian Jones, Regional Crises Boost Turkey s Ties With Iraq
s Kurds,

[xix] Dorian Jones, Regional Crises Boost Turkey s Ties With Iraq
s Kurds,

[xx] Arial Cohen, Washington Concerned as Turkey Is Leaving the West,

[xxi]Robert Wexler, United States and Turkey: Allies at Odds?,
Insight Turkey 12, no. 4 (2010), accessed May 18, 2012,

[xxii] Robert Wexler, United States and Turkey: Allies at Odds?,

[xxiii] Dorian Jones, Regional Crises Boost Turkey s Ties With Iraq
s Kurds,

[xxiv] Robert Wexler, United States and Turkey: Allies at Odds?,

[xxv] Arial Cohen, Washington Concerned as Turkey Is Leaving the West,

[xxvi] Arial Cohen, Washington Concerned as Turkey Is Leaving the West,

[xxvii] Gul Tuysuz, Has Turkey Abandoned the West?, Has Turkey
Abandoned the West?, September 22, 2011, accessed May 18, 2012,

[xxviii] Gul Tuysuz, Has Turkey Abandoned the West?,

[xxix] Arial Cohen, Washington Concerned as Turkey Is Leaving the West,

[xxx] Arial Cohen, Washington Concerned as Turkey Is Leaving the West,

[xxxi] Ihsan Dagi, Is Turkey Abandoning West?, Today
s Zaman, November 2, 2009, accessed May 18, 2012,

[xxxii] EU Seeks Fresh Start with Turkey on Membership
Bid, BBC News, May 17, 2012, accessed May 18, 2012,

[xxxiii] Ioannis N. Grigoriadis, Friends No More? The Rise of
Anti-American Nationalism in Turkey,

[xxxiv]Tarik Oguzlu, Turkey and Europeanization of Foreign Policy?,
Political Science Quarterly 125, no. 4 (Winter 2010), accessed May 18,
2012,

[xxxv] Ihsan Dagi, Is Turkey Abandoning West?, Today
s Zaman, November 2, 2009, accessed May 18, 2012,

[xxxvi] Ihsan Dagi, Is Turkey Abandoning West?,

[xxxvii] Ihsan Dagi, Is Turkey Abandoning West?,

[xxxviii] Ihsan Dagi, Is Turkey Abandoning West?,

[xxxix] Ihsan Dagi, Is Turkey Abandoning West?,

[xl] Ihsan Dagi, Is Turkey Abandoning West?,

[xli] Ian Lesser, Turkey in the EU Means a New
Kind of US-Turkish Relationship | Wilson Center,
Woodrow Wilson Center, 2005, accessed May 18, 2012,

[xlii] Ioannis N. Grigoriadis, Friends No More? The Rise of
Anti-American Nationalism in Turkey, Middle East Journal 64, no. 1
(Winter 2010), accessed May 18, 2012, doi:10.3751/64.1.13.

[xliii] Opinion of the United States Do You Have a Favorable or
Unfavorable View of the U.S.?, Datbase | Pew Global Attitudes,
accessed May 18, 2012,

[xliv] Ioannis N. Grigoriadis, Friends No More? The Rise of
Anti-American Nationalism in Turkey, .

[xlv] F. Stephen Larrabee, The New Turkey and U.S.-Turkish
Relations, The New Turkey, May 12, 2011, accessed May 18, 2012,

[xlvi] F. Stephen Larrabee, The New Turkey and U.S.-Turkish Relations,

[xlvii] F. Stephen Larrabee, The New Turkey and U.S.-Turkish Relations,

[xlviii] F. Stephen Larrabee, The New Turkey and U.S.-Turkish
Relations,

[xlix]Joshua Walker, Turkey: Still America s Best Ally in the Middle
East?, Foreign Policy, January 25, 2010, accessed May 18, 2012,

[l] David Ignatius, U.S. and Turkey Find a Relationship That
Works, Washington Post, December 07, 2011, accessed May 18, 2012,

[li] David Ignatius, U.S. and Turkey Find a Relationship That Works,

[lii] David Ignatius, U.S. and Turkey Find a Relationship That Works,

[liii] David Ignatius, U.S. and Turkey Find a Relationship That Works,

[liv] David Ignatius, U.S. and Turkey Find a Relationship That Works,

[lv] David Ignatius, U.S. and Turkey Find a Relationship That Works,

[lvi] Craig Whitlock, Turkey Agrees to Host U.S. Radar
Site, a Key Piece of Europe Missile Shield, Washington
Post, September 15, 2011, accessed May 18, 2012,

[lvii] Ian Lesser, Turkey in the EU Means a New Kind of US-Turkish
Relationship | Wilson Center, .

[lviii] F Stephen Larrabee, The New Turkey and American-Turkish
Relations, Insight Turkey 13, no. 1 (2011), accessed May 18, 2012,

[lix] Craig Whitlock, Turkey Agrees to Host U.S. Radar Site, a Key
Piece of Europe Missile Shield,

[lx] Craig Whitlock, Turkey Agrees to Host U.S. Radar Site, a Key
Piece of Europe Missile Shield,

[lxi] F Stephen Larrabee, The New Turkey and American-Turkish
Relations, Insight Turkey 13, no. 1 (2011), accessed May 18, 2012,

[lxii] Phillip Gordon and Omer Taspinar, Turkey on the Brink,
The Washington Quarterly, December 2006, accessed May 18, 2012,

[lxiii] Stephen F. Larrabee, Turkey s New Geopolitics, Survival 52,
no. 2 (2010), doi:10.1080/00396331003764686.

[lxiv] EU Seeks Fresh Start with Turkey on Membership Bid, BBC News,
May 17, 2012, accessed May 18, 2012, EU Seeks Fresh Start with Turkey
on Membership Bid, BBC News, May 17, 2012, accessed May 18, 2012,

[lxv] EU Seeks Fresh Start with Turkey on Membership Bid, BBC News,

[lxvi] Opportunities and Limitations: Turkey s Diplomatic Strength in
the Middle East, 16 May 2012 Wednesday 15:31. The Journal of Turkish
Weekly. May 16, 2012. Accessed May 18, 2012.

[lxvii] Opportunities and Limitations: Turkey s Diplomatic Strength
in the Middle East

[lxviii] Opportunities and Limitations: Turkey s Diplomatic Strength
in the Middle East

MAYRIG: WHERE AUTHENTIC ARMENIAN FLAVORS MEET FAMILY RECIPES

Arab News

May 29, 2012 Tuesday
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

It all started in the town of Jabal Moussa, Armenia, when Manouchag,
an Armenian grandmother, who though was not rich or famous, had one
particular talent that set her aside from any other grandmother in
the town; Manouchag was a fantastic cook.

Manouchag, Armenian for violet eyes, was a little girl when a big war
broke out in her native country forcing her to set sail to Cyprus. She
grew up in a children’s home, where she stayed until she graduated
from high school. She then moved to Lebanon where she met her future
husband. They both lived in a beautiful mansion overlooking the sea
in Ayn Mreisseh, where she raised her six children.

Manouchag used her cooking skills to quiet down her grandchildren,
asking them to help her in the kitchen; her mission was to create
wonderful Armenian dishes for her family. She was extra careful in
guarding her secret recipes. However, she made one important exception:
her children and grandchildren.

Manouchag inspired her grandchildren to start a business to celebrate
her talent. They opened a restaurant that serves traditional Armenian
cuisine and named it Mayrig. The restaurant was born in Beirut with
an army of professional mothers working as chefs and using only
Manouchag’s ancient recipes.

In February 2011, Mayrig opened its second branch in Jeddah. The
restaurant is located in a small villa overlooking King Road and the
Andalus Street. The exterior of the villa is done in Armenian style –
with wood, stones and marble. Inside is a two-story restaurant: The
ground floor serves only men while the second floor is for families.

The interior of the restaurant is colorful with walls made of beige
rocks and wood and Syrian-designed marble floors. Mayrig can seat
250 diners at once and 50 diners in the terrace area.

The menu comprises a range of authentic Armenian dishes. Among their
fresh salads is Itch, an Armenian tabouleh made with buckwheat, onion,
tomatoes and parsley. The dish is eaten with cabbage leaves as serving
spoons. Sempougov salad is a cold eggplant salad with onion, tomatoes,
parsley and lemon and olive oil dressing. Vospi salad is a lentil
salad with chopped onions, tomatoes and pomegranate vinegar sauce,
eaten with crispy bread, and it is highly recommended here.

For cold entrees, Derevov Sarma is a dish made with zesty vine
leaves wrapped around juicy rice mix. The Mayrig Selection is highly
recommended, which is a dish of kebbe with lentils served with chopped
white onion and olive oil. Kebbe with potatoes is served with chopped
tomatoes, onion and parsley while the raw meat kebbe is served with
minced meat, onions and pine nuts.

In the category of hot entrees, on offer are different appetizing
dishes such as Gdzou Patates, consisting of diced, spicy fried
potatoes. Sou Beureg is a layered pastry made with three kinds of
cheeses. Soujok Fekhara that is made with Armenian beef sausage with
tomato sauce is cooked and served in pottery.

As for the main course, Mayrig serves authentic Armenian dishes cooked
with Armenian spices and baked in pottery. Mante is a minced meat
dumpling cooked in a stone oven. Tomato sauce and yogurt is added
when serving the dish. Fishnah Kebab is another popular dish here
and consists of a grilled kebab dish topped with wild sour cherries
and french bread.

Tika Kebab is a diced beef grilled in skewers and served with diced
fried potatoes and salad. Missov Frikeh is another recommended dish
made with Frikeh pilaf, beef and topped with wild sour cherries.

Every good meal has to have a sweet ending. For dessert, diners should
try the Armenian style walnut pakhlava or Achtalieh, which is a milk
pudding topped with pistachios and served in a pottery jar. Anouch ser,
a sweet rolled pastry filled with cream, is a smart choice too.

The restaurant offers Shisha indoors and outdoors for its diners.

Expect to pay: SR150 to SR200 per person.

Opening hours: From 1 p.m. to 1 a.m. on weekends and from 1 p.m. to
12 a.m. on weekdays.

BROTHER WHO TOOK SONS ON INTERNATIONAL ODYSSEY SENTENCED TO 27 MONTHS
BY: FRED SHUSTER

City News Service
May 29, 2012 Tuesday 1:42 PM PST

The first of two Syrian-Armenian brothers who took their sons out
of the country without the consent of the children’s mothers was
sentenced today in Los Angeles to 27 months behind bars.

George Silah, a 49-year-old U.S. citizen, was extradited from the
Netherlands last October and pleaded guilty in February to two counts
of international parental kidnapping.

According to federal prosecutors, George Silah and his 51-year-old
brother left the United States in July 2008, taking with them his two
sons and John Silah’s only son. Months later, the boys’ anguished
mothers appeared on TV’s “Dr. Phil” begging for their return or at
least word of their safety. George Silah’s 16-year-old son Alex told
U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II that he was able to call his
mother during the two years he spent abroad with his father, brother,
uncle and cousin, but chose not to.

“I knew if I called my mom, my dad would go to jail,” the teen said,
calling his father “a hero.”

Wright said the act of taking the boys out of the country without
notice was designed to “inflict as much psychic harm as possible”
on the former spouses.

The father, however, told Wright that while he had made the wrong
decision by running, the move was prompted by threats he said he had
received from former business clients who had apparently lost money
to him.

“I should have most probably left (the boys) with their mothers,
but I was in panic mode,” Silah said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin R. Rhoades said there is “strong
evidence” that George Silah was involved in a fraudulent business
scheme, but disagreed with the defendant’s explanation that he fled
with the boys to protect them.

The prosecutor said the Silah brothers embarked on a “calculated” and
“well-planned” effort to flee from those who were defrauded before they
“caught on.”

As for the teen-ager’s insistence that he was always free to
telephone his mother anytime during the two years, Rhoades said
“that never happened.” The father never allowed such an opportunity,
the prosecutor said.

The boy’s claims to the contrary are perhaps evidence of Stockholm
syndrome, a phenomenon where kidnap victims, over time, become
sympathetic to their captors, Rhoades told the judge.

In any case, Silah defense attorney Matthew D. Kohn argued, the boys
received a mind-broadening education while they lived outside the
country, returning home “smarter” and “wiser.” Their father hired
tutors for them and kept them healthy and happy, the attorney said.

“There were positives,” Kohn said.

Following his release from prison, Silah must serve a year under
supervised release, including 20 hours of community service per week,
Wright ordered.

When they fled, the Silah brothers were divorced from the boys’
mothers and had only partial legal custody of their sons, who lived
in the San Fernando Valley.

Over the next two years, the group traveled through Mexico, Central
America and Europe. In November 2010, the Silah brothers and their
sons were found in the Netherlands and detained. The boys’ mothers
then flew to the Netherlands, where they were reunited with their sons.

John Silah, a citizen of Syria, was brought to the United States
in March and pleaded guilty to one count of international parental
kidnapping. Sentencing is set for Aug. 6.

RPA AND RULE OF LAW PARTY TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ARMENIA’S POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

ARMENPRESS
30 May, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, MAY 30, ARMENPRESS: A coalition agreement has been signed
between Republican Party of Armenia and Rule of Law by RPA Chairman
Serzh Sargsyan and Arthur Baghdasaryan, leader of Rule of Law party.

As Armenpress reports, the agreement specifically reads: “The
parties make up a coalition which takes responsibility for Armenia’s
political, economic and social development. The parties are committed
to act within the agreement – to conduct a united policy and closely
cooperate for implementation of the joint program on government’s
activity in combination with their election programs. The parties
hope that their cooperation will help to confront the foreign and
home challenges of Armenia.

The political coalition attests its decision on forwarding a joint
candidate in the upcoming presidential elections on behalf of Serzh
Sargsyan, thus expressing political will and resoluteness to take
political responsibility for further sustainable development of
the country.”

OC Bookly

OC Bookly in Little Armenia and West Covina:
Not Orange County. Elsewhere. (But Close!)
By Andrew Tonkovich
Sun., May 20 2012 at 8:00 AM

This modest blog’s ostensible focus is OC reading, writing, literary
people and generally what the highly-opinionated Mr. Bib deems bookly
about our benighted, beatific and beloved county but, of course, no
county is an island entire of itself, every county is a piece of the
continent, a part of the main and, well, you know the rest. So, I’m
asking you bibliogals and bibliofellas to stretch your literary
geographical reach just a bit as I talk pretty this morning about two
novels which are still in the neighborhood, up the road apiece, in the
County of Los Angeles, where a sometimes parallel and often familiar,
and certainly connected, story unfolds.

Aris Janigian’s This Angelic Land

Alas, This Angelic Land, the new novel by Aris Janigian, has yet to be
reviewed by the LA Times, which is a shame as the book’s putative tie-in
“occasion” has come and gone, if not disappeared. The so-called LA
Riots, Uprising, Civil Disturbance, whatever, twenty years ago, is the
three-day and lifetimes-of-reflection ago-inducing event for a serious,
exciting, elegantly written novel about immigrants from, yup, Beirut,
Lebanon, who’d imagined perhaps some kind of new life only to find, of
course, that their new is new only in its own complications on the dread
story of community, hope and violence.

DJ Waldie, the Scribe of Lakewood, California, writes enthusiastically
over at Los Angeles Review of Books about the Fresno-born Janigian, an
eclectic and experienced writer in multiple genres. Waldie’s imprimatur
should help sales, and maybe get the book the attention it deserves. By
the way, Waldie’s own Holy Land, a great little book indeed, was
optioned by James Franco. Hey, Jimbo, please send a big check to Aris
J. immediately if you want another book that would make a great script.

Still, I admit I was not, frankly (or Franco), at all prepared forThis
Angelic Land. Janigian’s earlier novels, Riverbig andBloodvine, are
terrific, sure, if much less ambitious. They seem to me a variety of
“first novels.” Riverbig is about another fictionalized
autobiographical-seeming Armenian-American from, yes, the agricultural
Central Valley, a guy trying to reconcile the Genocide. It turns out to
be a mystery of sorts, with history and cultural conflict and class
analysis and mobsters. But with This Angelic Land, Janigian the author
finds, works and totally hits out of the ballpark all expectation of
those same themes with his mature, careful prose-stylist voice in a
combination of Beat poetic and ecstatic realist and historically
confident everyday political layering of the moments before, during, and
after the violence and catharsis that was (and is) the social earthquake
of April 1992.

The story is told by a distant yet emotionally intimate voice, an
authorial persona whose observations about the putative main character,
his brother, give the story urgency, and earn our trust. This point of
view gambit is so important, with the brother documentary film maker
Eric Deridian explaining to us–we soon guess why–what he has learned
of both the recent and long-ago moments in the life of his younger
brother Adam, a single guy who runs a club in Little Armenia, is ripped
off by his partner, takes home a troubled woman the night of the
verdict, maintains strong friendships with mentoring artist father-types
and struggles with despair as a kind of LA Everyman. His is only one, if
the the singular compelling story among the interconnected (as it must
be) compelling life stories, case studies for this “a day in the life”
(and death) of the city on fire and under fire.

This is one beautiful, ambitious, surprising book, which keeps the
reader engaged, provoked through a variety of straightforward yet
somehow mysteriously seductive narrative techniques, from the obvious if
essential TV reporters at the scene to long conversations with Adam’s
philosopher king old dude buddies, to his own journals, with sly and
grim humor, too, especially from the old country parents an
grandparents, who find themselves in a sectarian, racialized,
class-ridden New World.

Not out yet (but soon) and available for pre-order is Elsewhere,
California, by Dana Johnson, author of the previous collection, short
stories, called Break Any Woman Down, which won the Flannery O’Connor
Award for Short Fiction. In Elsewhere we read the life of, Avery, a
young African-American girl who appeared in two stories from that
celebrated collection. This, then, is a first novel, a coming-of-age
book, but with a twist. Its simultaneous struggle to justify, explain,
make sense of the adult Avery is the parallel story, and one whose
theme of course happily corresponds to both the political moment,
civic anniversary-wise, and my own blogging needs on a Sunday morning!
Indeed. “cultural confusion,” or, more politically, struggle, is a
familiar trope, but in the adult graphic artist who makes collages and
objects and looks for herself and finds in her own relationship to the
city and its other inhabitants we find more loss, and pain and wisdom
and ironies a-plenty.

Elswhere. It’s near West Covina

Avery, who is beautiful (see author photo, above!), talented, insecure
and married to a loving, pushy, rich older man–an immigrant himself,
because this is Los Angeles where, if you have the scratch you can be
anybody–comes from a middle-class black family who leaves South LA
for West Covina. Complications ensue. So, yes, the well-told struggle
for a young black girl to try to figure out other people’s racism and
class prejudice. But there’s also her effort to figure out her
confused parents, and to see in action the generational journey from
the American South, in this case Tennessee. So, yes, teenage Black
English descriptions of 1970’s pop culture, sexuality, the Dodgers,
“Soul Train,” David Bowie. All is fair game, and none of it is fair,
this making of a worldview. It forms the aesthetics, politics,
personality of the adult Avery, whose show at a trendy mid-town art
gallery is the ostensible celebratory occasion for all of this
reflection, refraction, revision and, finally, reaffirmation, much
like, it turns out, her art. Yet this is not a feel-good novel. It is
too honest and rich and, in places cruel and complicated for that.
It’s out in early June. Get a copy.

Cover art by Mark Vallen

Programming Note: I’ll host readings by three terrific writers on
Wednesday night in celebration of the newest Santa Monica
Review. Reading will be contributors Michelle Chihara, Jonathan Cohen
and Dwight Yates. The event is free, with refreshments and camaraderie
organized by the UC Irvine bookstore. Humanities Instructional
Building HIB 135. 5 PM. See you there!

Elsewhere, California, Dana Johnson, Counterpoint, 304 ppp, $15.95
This Angelic Land, Aris Janigian, West of West, 234 pp, $18.95

Andrew Tonkovich hosts the Wednesday night literary arts program
Bibliocracy Radio, on KPFK 90.7 FM in Southern California.

ARMENIA’S AMBASSADOR MEETS WITH ARAB LEAGUE SECRETARY-GENERAL

news.am
May 31, 2012 | 15:02

Armenia’s Ambassador to Egypt, Armen Melkonyan, on Tuesday met with
Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby of the League of Arab States.

They discussed the prospects for cooperation between Armenia and the
Arab League, Armenia’s ties with Arab countries, and regional matters
of bilateral interest.

Also, Armenia’s ambassador briefed Elaraby on the most recent
developments with respect to the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process.

In his turn, Arab League Secretary-General specifically stressed the
Armenians’ great contribution to the societal life in a variety of
Arab states.

To note, Armenia and the League of Arab States cooperate on the basis
of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2005, and, ever since
2008, Armenia’s Ambassador to Egypt is simultaneously accredited as
authorized representative to the League.

BRAZILIAN ARMENIAN COMMUNITY FACING SERIOUS CHALLENGES

Panorama.am
31/05/2012

“Brazilian Armenian community comprises 30 thousand people. It is
the fifth generation growing up there,” chairman of Brazil branch of
“Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund Oshin Leon Mosditchian said in news
conference.

He said there are Armenian churches in Brazil, one Armenian school
where 90-100 schoolchildren are studying and several Armenian
institutions.

Representatives of Brazilian Armenian community Eduardo Mekbekyan and
Arshak Janyan told the reporters that knowledge of Armenian language
and decreasing number of the community are the main challenges.

“A very little part of Brazilian Armenians know Armenian language,
in Armenia too few people speak Portuguese,” said the reps of Armenian
community.

According to them Armenians and Brazilian Armenians fail to efficiently
communicate through English, too. Hence, Armenia faces serious
challenges in keeping communication with Brazilian Armenian community.

HIGH-LEVEL DEFENSE HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED IN NAKHCHIVAN – PRESIDENT

News.Az
Thu 31 May 2012 04:32 GMT | 5:32 Local Time

‘There is a successful dynamic development process, growth of
industrial production and opening up new businesses in all areas
of Nakhchivan’.

The statement came from President Ilham Aliyev at the opening ceremony
of the Nakhchivan-Julfa highway, APA reports.

He noted that Nakhichevan-Sadarak and Nakchevan-Julfa highways will
turn Nakhcivan into an important transit hub.

The President said that Azerbaijan leads the tempo of economic
development, increases the country’s GDP. According to the first
quarter of this year, growth in non-oil field was 16%.

Over the past eight years, GDP has tripled, and for the next 10 years
should grow two times. Basically, this should be achieved through
non-oil sector.

Speaking about the development of Nakhchivan, he noted that further
measures will be taken to develop road and transport infrastructure
of Nakhchivan in the future.

The President said that other projects also has implemented
successfully in the country. In particular, natural gas is available
for 100 percent and high-level electricity is provided in all the
regions of Nakhcivan. At the moment, drinking water and sewerage
system projects are implemented and they should be completed till
the end of next year.

The President noted that the same issues related to education and
health. Renovation plan of Nakhchivan City Hospital is prepared.

The President noted that the high-level defense has been established
in Nakhchivan. New air defense and modern artillery systems were
brought and installed in the Autonomous Republic.

ZARAKOLU ASKS ARMENIAN LEADER TO GRANT RESIDENCE TO ARTSAKH WAR HERO

tert.am
31.05.12

Turkish publisher Rgagip Zarakolu, who was recently honored with
presidential award in Armenia, has asked Serzh Sargsyan to grant
residence to Karabakh war hero and ex-political prisoner Sargis
Hatspanyan.

In a letter to the president, the Turkish rights activist calls for
assisting Hatspanyan, considering him a patriot who left France for
Armenia back in the Soviet period to seek permanent residence in his
home country.

“I am unable to tell you anything about his patriotism as I am
more than sure you know better this man who left Paris 23 years
ago to find permanent residence in his homeland; he is one of the
Diaspora-Armenians who never avoided sacrificing his life to protect
his own nation, whose existence was at stake.

According to the Turkish publisher, the Hatspanyan’s being deprived
of the right to live and work in Armenia after facing a jail term in
the aftermath of the March 2008 post-electoral turmoil, is a serious
problem for the activist whose wife and two children are Armenian
citizens.

Considering Hatspanyan his respected friend, Zarakoulu urgently
requests the president to do everything possible to grant him the
right to reside and work in his cherished homeland.