Author: Toneyan Mark

IT’S NOT ABOUT THE WEST: TURKEY’S EYES ON THE EASTERN FRONT

Newsweek Magazine
November 5, 2007
International Edition

Turkey is risking ties to the U.S. and Europe for a simple reason:
its eyes are on the eastern front.

By Owen Matthews and Seth Colter Walls; With Sami Kohen in Istanbul,
Kevin Peraino and Michael Hastings in Qandil and Babak Dehghanpisheh
in BaghdadWith in Istanbul and in Qandil and in Baghdad

SECTION: WORLD AFFAIRS; World Affairs Vol. 150 No. 19 ISSN: 0163-7061

Iraqi law stops at a small checkpoint at the base of the Qandil
Mountains, 40 kilometers short of the Turkish border. The little post
is manned by a handful of Iraqi Kurdish fighters loyal–officially,
at least–to the government in Baghdad. Beyond, up an unpaved track, is
a no-man’s land controlled by outlaw groups of Kurdish guerrillas who
have used the rugged tangle of peaks to launch attacks inside Turkey,
which have left more than 95 Turkish troops dead this year alone.

But if Turkey has its way, Qandil won’t be bandit country for much
longer. While Washington has been promising to clean up Qandil
for years, it has done nothing. So Ankara has taken matters into
its own hands, sending nearly 100,000 Turkish troops to the border
area. Already, according to Turkish military sources not authorized
to speak on the record, 11 Turkish battalions have been deployed
on the Cudi, Kato, Gabar, Kupeli and Namaz mountains, surrounding
Qandil in a ring of steel. Turkish F-16 jets have been flying bombing
sorties up to 50 kilometers inside Iraq, and special mountain-fighting
commandos have launched 300-strong raids at least 10 kilometers into
Iraq. Turkey, it seems, is finally taking control of its eastern front.

But it’s not just in Iraq. Along its eastern borders, Turkey is forging
closer ties with its neighbors–reinventing relationships that date
back to when Ottoman Turkey was the colonial master of much of the
Middle East. And small wonder, considering what is happening on
Turkey’s western flank. In Brussels, Turkey has found its hopes of
joining the European Union snubbed by Turko-skeptics like France’s
Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany’s Angela Merkel, who have talked of a
kind of second-rank "associate" membership instead.

At the same time, Ankara’s old NATO ally the United States has–in
Turkish eyes–not only destabilized its neighborhood with a reckless
war in Iraq, but also failed to clean up the mess it has made by
refusing to crack down on Kurdish guerrillas in Qandil. And while
dozens of Turkish soldiers have died in Kurdish rebel ambushes, the
U.S. Congress has been spending its time considering a resolution
that would label the massacres of Ottoman Armenians a "genocide," one
of the most controversial episodes in modern Turkish history. "Turkey
will not move away from the West by its choice," says Ahmet Davutoglu,
chief foreign-policy adviser to Turkey’s prime minister.

"But if Western countries continue to make the same mistakes, Turkey
has other alternatives."

Given these wobbling relations with the West, it is perfectly logical
for Ankara to start looking east. While the United States may view
Iran and Syria as rogue states run by tin-pot dictators, to the Turks
they’re major regional players with established governments and,
indeed, civilizations they have been doing business with for centuries.

For evidence of this strengthened bond, look how far Ankara has moved
on Syria. Ten years ago, Turkey, with the wholehearted support of the
United States, was threatening to invade Syria for providing shelter
to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Now, the Turks have built
a soccer stadium and multimillion-dollar shopping mall in Syria. The
new Damascus Stock Exchange, due to open next year, is modeled on its
Istanbul counterpart. Officials in Ankara also backed Syria in its
protest of last month’s Israeli raid–and have backed Syrian claims
that Israel must return the Golan Heights as part of any peace deal
with the Palestinians.

Indeed, Turkey has gone out of its way to position itself as a talking
shop and power broker, equally at home talking to Bashar Assad
as George Bush. This week, as part of a major diplomatic effort,
Turkey will host a conference of all of Iraq’s neighbors. And the
feeling between Turkey and Syria appears to be mutual. Assad has
just visited Ankara as an honored ally and, as if to underscore the
tightening bond, Syria’s ambassador to Washington proudly told an
audience of Syrian expats in the United States two weeks ago that
"our closest ally is not Iran, it’s Turkey," according to one attendee.

The same week, Assad expressed support for Turkey’s right to act in
"self-defense" against north Iraq. Although Iraqi Foreign Minister
Hoshyar Zebari dismisses Assad’s support as a ploy to "appease the
Turks" and ease Syria’s "isolation," key figures in Turkey’s Justice
and Development (AK) Party government say creating regional ties is
a key part of its national strategy. Egemen Bagis, a top adviser to
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says that since the U.S.

attempt "to promote democracy by military means has failed," it is
time to try "Turkish democracy promotion." His formula: trade, open
dialogue and attempting to defuse threats wherever they may come from.

To this end, Turkey has also found common ground with Iran. It will
soon finalize a $3.5 billion deal to develop gas deposits there and
finish the construction of a gas pipeline from Iran to Turkey–in
defiance of strong opposition by the United States. Tellingly, Turkey
also refused to take a hostile attitude toward Tehran’s nuclear
program, preferring to use what Turkish President Abdullah Gul calls
"very constructive" relations to try to persuade Tehran to comply with
the United Nations. For its part, Tehran is helping out Turkey in its
fight against the Kurds in Qandil, according to Turkish officials,
by passing on intelligence information about the Party for Free Life
in Kurdistan, or PJAK, a PKK affiliate, as well as by shelling PKK
and PJAK positions.

At base, Turkey’s eastward turn stems from the nation’s deep
disappointment with old friends in the West. Over the last five years,
Turkey’s elite has spent enormous political capital in an ambitious
reform program, closely guided by the EU, with the hope of one day
obtaining full membership into the club of European nations.

But in the Turkish view, the EU has reneged on its earlier promises.

"As the Sarkozys and other [Turko-skeptics] make it quite clear that
Turkey isn’t getting into the EU in any near-time scenario, Turkey
has begun consolidating its relationships," says Joshua Landis,
an expert on the region at the University of Oklahoma.

Adding to the pressure to look east for partners is the sentiment on
the Turkish Street, which increasingly dismisses the benefits of entry
into the EU. Between 2004 and 2006, the percentage of Turks who viewed
membership in the EU as a "good thing" fell by 19 points to 54 percent,
according to the German Marshall Fund. Anti-U.S. sentiment is rising,
too. A Pew Foundation poll last month found that 66 percent of Turks
agree that "Western countries want to divide and break Turkey like they
divided and broke the Ottoman Empire in the past." More worryingly,
an increasingly large number of Turks are also critical of American
culture and values. More than 80 percent of Turks now say they
"dislike American ideas about democracy," up 31 points since 2002,
and 68 percent dislike "American music, movies and television," up
22 points. Even Prime Minister Erdogan is alarmed at the shift. He
warned earlier this year that until recently, Turks who disliked
the U.S. government still appreciated American people and their
culture–but now he sees an "emerging antipathy toward the Americans
and the U.S. lifestyle."

To a certain extent, Washington is in an impossible position. The
Turks and the Kurds are two of its closest allies in the region. Even
the PKK, though nominally Marxist, are pro-American, like their Iraqi
Kurdish protectors. PKK chief of daily operations Murat Karayilan
spoke glowingly to NEWSWEEK about democracy, human rights and "Mr.

Bush’s new Middle East project" in September. He claimed his fighters
could be a valuable ally for the U.S. against Islamic fundamentalism.

And PJAK’s Germany-based leader, Rahman Haji Ahmadi, made a trip
to Washington last July to ask for support to foment regime change
inside Iran–though he claims he was snubbed and had only "limited
contact" with American officials. "If someday our common interests
[the United States’ and PJAK’s] are on the same line, we’re ready,
we can negotiate," says Beryar Gabare, a top PJAK commander in Iraq.

Still, it is "shortsighted" for Washington to believe that cooperation
with Kurd leaders is more valuable than a strategic alliance with
Turkey, says Morton Abramowitz, the former U.S. ambassador to
Turkey. "We are in a defining moment," he says. But now, and only
belatedly, is Washington coming to realize that if it does nothing
to mend its ties with Turkey, it risks losing the relationship
altogether. Last week the White House fought successfully to stall
Congress’ Armenian resolution. Washington then offered to share
information about the whereabouts of PKK bases with Turkish military
intelligence. Helping the Turks to clean house in Qandil could, if
handled right, even mark a turning point in a relationship that is
surely damaged, but not yet beyond repair.

Which way Turkey ends up leaning remains a matter of enormous debate
within the Turkish government–one which has stood many traditional
affiliations on their head. Turkey’s AK Party has Islamist roots,
for instance, yet favors sticking to a program of joining the EU and
maintaining friendly relations with the United States, despite all the
setbacks. The Army, by contrast, has traditionally been close to the
United States–yet is pushing hard to go into Iraq, in defiance of
Washington. In fact, it seems that ideology is not much of a factor
in Ankara’s shift eastward. Rather, says RAND Corporation analyst
Stephen Larrabee, pragmatism drives policy. "This isn’t all about
Turkey turning its back on the West," he says. "It’s simply a matter of
Turkish national interests." In other words, which hemisphere can offer
Ankara a better return on its diplomatic investments? At the moment,
a Turkish backlash against the West remains a serious danger–and not
just for the narrow reasons of Mideast diplomacy. If the West can’t
manage to engage with the Islamic world’s most democratic and liberal
member, there is little hope it can find common ground with the rest.

With Sami Kohen in Istanbul, Kevin Peraino and Michael Hastings in
Qandil and Babak Dehghanpisheh in Baghdad

WILL JUDGES KEEP THEIR PROMISE?

A1+
[04:37 pm] 31 October, 2007

October 26 under a decree of RA President Robert Kocharian Armen
Babayan was appointed Judge of the First Instance Court of Avan and
Nor Nork communities.

According to another decree of the RA President, Arshak Petrossian
was appointed Judge of the First Instance Court of Kentron and
Nork-Marash communities.

The swearing in ceremony of the newly appointed Judges took place
during today’s sitting of the Judicial Council, featuring Robert
Kocharian. The Judges swore to carry out their responsibilities in
compliance with RA Constitution and laws, to be unbiased, fair and
humane, to ensure the rule of law and keep high the reputation of
the judicial authority.

BUSH SAYS CONGRESS IS WASTING TIME
By Brian Knowlton

International Herald Tribune, France
Oct 30 2007

WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush lashed out at Congress Tuesday,
the third time he has done so in two weeks, this time saying the House
had wasted time on "a constant string of investigations" and the Senate
had similarly wasted its efforts by trying to rein in the Iraq war. Its
failure to send a single annual appropriations bill to his desk,
he said, amounted to "the worst record for a Congress in 20 years."

"Congress is not getting its work done," the president said in brief
remarks from the North Portico of the White House.

He urged Congress to act on defense-funding legislation and on a
compromise on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or S-CHIP.

As he spoke, Bush was flanked by two senior Republicans, Representative
John Boehner of Ohio, the minority leader, and Representative Roy
Blunt of Missouri, the minority whip.

The three had emerged from a meeting in the East Room of the House
Republican Conference, and perhaps reflecting the campaign season
under way, the president’s words took on a partisan edge.

According to The Associated Press, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, chairman of
the House Democratic Caucus, responded by saying: "President Bush’s
rally this morning reminds us that congressional Republicans remain
ready and willing to rubber-stamp the Bush agenda: no to children’s
health care; no to a new direction in Iraq; and no to investing in
America’s future."

Republicans have chafed amid the nearly continuous investigations,
many by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,
which that panel’s Democratic leadership describes as accountability.

Referring to the current congressional session, Bush said: "We’re
near the end of the year, and there really isn’t much to show for it.

The House of Representatives has wasted valuable time on a constant
stream of investigations, and the Senate has wasted valuable time on
an endless series of failed votes to pull our troops out of Iraq."

Members of the Democratic-led Congress, he added, hadn’t "seen a bill
they could not solve without shoving a tax hike into it."

"Proposed spending is skyrocketing under their leadership," he said.

But Democrats, and some Republicans, have regularly criticized the
administration for spending increases since Bush came to office.

The president again criticized Democrats over the S-CHIP bill, saying
the Senate had taken up a second version of the legislation passed by
the House "despite knowing it does not have a chance of becoming law."

While the president vetoed the first version, saying it spent too
much money and covered not just the poor children it is intended to
help but some middle-class children and adults, he said this version
would spend even more.

"After going alone and going nowhere, Congress should instead work
with the administration on a bill that puts poor children first,"
he said. "We want to sit down in good faith and come up with a bill
that is responsible."

Bush was also sharply critical of a reported plan by congressional
leaders to combine the Defense Department appropriations bill with
bills for domestic departments.

"It’s hard to imagine a more cynical political strategy than trying to
hold hostage funding for our troops in combat and our wounded warriors
in order to extract $11 billion in additional social spending,"
he said.

The president had used scathing language about the Democratic majority
during an Oct. 17 news conference, saying Congress was dragging its
feet on a range of important legislation while spending time debating
whether the deaths of more than a million Armenians in the early 20th
century amounted to a genocide at Turkish hands.

The president had continued his denunciations of Congress last Friday,
saying its leaders had also failed to act yet to confirm Michael
Mukasey as attorney general, despite Democrats’ complaints about
a lack of leadership at the Justice Department. "This is not what
congressional leaders promised when they took control of Congress
earlier this year," he said then.

FBI WHISTLEBLOWER SIBEL EDMONDS WILL NOW TELL ALL, NAME NEW NAMES
by Brad Friedman

Huffington Post, NY
Oct 30 2007

to Any Major Television Network That Will Let Her

Will Release the Identity of Two ‘Well-Known’ Congress Members Involved
in Criminal Corruption…and Much More

The ‘Most Gagged Person in U.S. History’ Tells The BRAD BLOG She’s
Now Exhausted All Other Channels…

Attention CBS 60 Minutes: we’ve got a huge scoop for you. If you
want it.

Remember the exclusive story you aired on Sibel Edmonds, originally on
October 27th, 2002, when she was not allowed to tell you everything
that she heard while serving as an FBI translator after 9/11 because
she was gagged by the rarely-invoked "States Secret Privilege"? Well,
she’s still gagged. In fact, as the ACLU first described her,
she’s "the most gagged person in the history of the United States
of America."

But if you’ll sit down and talk with her for an unedited interview,
she has now told The BRAD BLOG during an exclusive interview, she
will now tell you everything she knows.

Everything she hasn’t been allowed to tell since 2002, about
the criminal penetration of the FBI where she worked, and at the
Departments of State and Defense; everything she heard concerning
the corruption and illegal activities of several well-known members
of Congress; everything she’s aware of concerning information omitted
and/or covered up in relation to 9/11. All of the information gleaned
from her time listening to and translating wire-taps made prior to
9/11 at the FBI.

Here’s a handy bullet-point list, as we ran it in March of 2006,
for reference, of what she’s now willing to tell you about.

"People say, ‘why doesn’t she just come forward and spill the beans?’
I have gone all the way to the Supreme Court and was shut down, I
went to Congress and now consider that shut down," she told The BRAD
BLOG last week when we spoke with her for comments in relation to our
story on former House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s original attempt to
move a resolution through the U.S. House in 2000 declaring the 1915
massacre of 1.5 million ethnic Armenians in Turkey as "genocide."

"Here’s my promise to the American Public: If anyone of the major
networks — ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, FOX — promise to air the
entire segment, without editing, I promise to tell them everything
that I know," about everything mentioned above, she told us.

"I can tell the American public exactly what it is, and what it is that
they are covering up," she continued. "I’m not compromising ongoing
investigations," Edmonds explained, because "they’ve all been shut
down since." …

bi-whistleblower-sibel-e_b_70383.html

TURKISH AMBASSADOR ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: "EVENTS OF 1915 CAN BE TREATED DIFFERENTLY"

Regnum, Russia
Oct 30 2007

"The 1915 events can be treated differently," Turkey’s Ambassador to
the Russian Federation Kurtulus Taskent said during a news conference
in Moscow today, a REGNUM correspondent reports.

"In 2005, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed to Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan to examine our archives related to the
events in order to establish the reason once and for all, but no answer
from Kocharyan has been received until now," the Turkish ambassador
to Russia announced.

It is worth mentioning, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan did
reply to the address of the Turkish prime minister, in which
he once again reminded on Armenia’s position. In particular,
Kocharyan proposed to the Turkish side to establish the diplomatic
relations without preconditions and called ineffective to found a
commission of historians, because "the fact of the Armenian Genocide
is self-evident." The letter was sent by the Armenian president to
the Turkish prime minister on April 26, 2005.

BAKU EXPECTS YEREVAN’S RESPONSE: MINISTER (VIDEO)

TREND Information, Azerbaijan
Oct 29 2007

Trend S.Agayeva / Official Baku expects the results of the OSCE Minsk
Group Co-chairs’ talks with the Head of Armenia. After talks in Baku
at the end of the last week, the OSCE Minsk Group’s French, US and
Russian Co-chairs went to Yerevan to continue the talks with the Head
of Armenia. "Yet it is early to say if the mediators could obtain
progresses in the conflict settlement. We expect to receive news
from them," the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov,
briefed the media on 29 October in Baku. In addition, the Minister
said that yet it is unclear where the next meeting of the Co-chairs
will take place. According to him, this time the Co-chairs did not
bring new proposals or initiatives. "Several issues and principles
still remain uncoordinated and the Co-chairs believe that they will
find compromise," he said. The Minister stressed that bilateral
meetings are not planned to be held by the elections. "However,
if the Co-chairs decide that the meetings of the Azerbaijani and
Armenian Foreign Ministers are in demand, we are prepared to go
to the meeting," Mammadyarov concluded. The conflict between the
two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to Armenian
territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, Armenian Armed
Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh
region and its seven surrounding districts. In 1994, Azerbaijan
and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active
hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia,
France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.

ARTHUR ABRAHAM VS WAYNE ELCOCK ON DECEMBER 8

armradio.am
29.10.2007 16:35

Unbeaten IBF middleweight champion King Arthur Abraham, an Armenian
sportsman residing in Germany will defend his title against #12 rated
Wayne Elcock on December 8 in Basel, Switzerland.

"I am looking forward to my first fight in Switzerland," King Arthur
said.

"It will be a hard fight against a strong opponent."

FIRST VICTORIES OF ARMENIAN CHESS TEAMS IN THE EUROPEAN TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP

armradio.am
29.10.2007 17:11

The Armenian men’s chess team won a 3:1 victory over the team of
Romania in the first round of the European Team Championship underway
in the Greek city of Heraclion. Gabriel Sargsyan and Smbat Lputyan
defeated Lupulesko and Murariu respectively. Vladimir Hakobyana
nd Karen Asrtan played drew the games with Nevidnichi and Jianu
respectively. He Armenian team currently ranks 14th with 3 points. Six
teams are sharing the 1st to 6th places.

In the second round of the tournament the Armenian team will play
against Russians. Levon Aronyan will compete with Pyotor Svidler,
Vladimir Hakobyan will play with Alexander Morozevich, Gabriel Sargsyan
– with A. Alexeyev, Karen Asryan – with A. Yakovenko.

In the same tournament the Armenian women’s tem defeated the team of
Sweden 3:1 and occupy the 10th position with 3 points. In the next
round the women’s team will also compete with Russian chess players.

IT DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY TO BE PRESENTED SOON

armradio.am
26.10.2007 17:45

The Armenian Government is working out a new strategy of development
of information and high technologies, which will be submitted for
discussion in the near future, RA Minister of Trade and Economic
Development Nerses Yeritsyan said, speaking at the opening ceremony
of the Digitec-2007 exhibition of information, telecommunication and
high technologies.

In Yeritsyan’s words, the conduct of the exhibition will promote
the development of business contacts between participants of the IT
market and possible consumers and will create conditions for attraction
of investments.

This year more that 40 companies are participating in the Digitec-2007
exhibition, which is twice as much as compared to the previous year.

COMMENT ON BRYZA’S STATEMENT WILL COME LATER

KarabakhOpen
26-10-2007 17:55:04

The press secretary of the Armenian foreign ministry Vladimir
Karapetyan declined to comment on the likelihood of the presidents of
Armenia and Azerbaijan to sign a framework agreement on the Karabakh
conflict. "The co-chairs will return to Yerevan from Baku, they will
meet with the Armenian foreign minister, and afterwards we will comment
on the statement by the U.S. co-chair," said the press secretary to
News Armenia. In particular, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair Matthew
Bryza stated in Baku that the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan
may sign a framework agreement on the Karabakh conflict by the spring
of 2008.

Karapetyan informs that after returning from Baku the sides will
discuss the document that is on the table of negotiations.