ANGRY TURKS WITHDRAW FROM MILITARY EXERCISE
Brian Laghi
Ottawa Bureau Chief; With A Report From Stan Oziewicz
Globe and Mail, Canada
May 10 2006
Turkey has pulled out of an international military air exercise at
CFB Cold Lake to protest against Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s
characterization of a mass killing of Armenians as a genocide,
escalating an already testy diplomatic spat.
Officials with the Turkish embassy confirmed yesterday that a
half-dozen Turkish jet fighters, as well as support aircraft that were
supposed to take part in the exercise May 17 to June 24 in Alberta,
have been withdrawn. The move comes after the Turkish government
recalled its ambassador, Aydemir Erman, to Ankara for discussions.
“I think one can draw that conclusion at this point,” said one
official, when asked whether the decision flowed from Mr. Harper’s
remarks. “This seems to be related to the not-so-good period of
relations we are going through.”
The Harper government sparked Turkey’s ire after Mr. Harper recognized,
on behalf of the federal government last month, that Armenians had
suffered a genocide at the hands of Turkey during and after the First
World War. The issue is hugely controversial in Turkey, where the
government says the deaths were caused by the war and civil strife.
A spokesman for Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor said the Turks
cancelled their participation on Friday.
“This is a Turkish decision,” communications director Etienne Allard
said. “Exercise Maple Flag is a major training exercise which brings
great benefits to all participants. Turkey is an important NATO ally
and we hope they will be able to participate in future exercises.”
Exercise Maple Flag, at the Canadian Forces base in northeastern
Alberta, will involve about 40 aircraft and the pilots of nine
countries — Canada, Germany, France, Britain, the Netherlands,
Sweden, the United States, New Zealand and Singapore.
The Turkish embassy released a statement this week in which it
suggested Canada should avoid meddling in the issue.
“Turkey rejects and condemns attempts based on long years of propaganda
and political designs to create one-sided versions of history and to
have lies be acknowledged as if they were facts,” the statement said.
About 70,000 Armenians live in Canada, mostly in Toronto and
Montreal. They are just as adamant that what happened to their
forebears was a genocide.
The Conservative Party’s sympathy for the Armenian viewpoint stems
back to well before the party was created from the merger of the old
Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party, a source said.
The source added that Mr. Harper traditionally has been opposed to
recognition of past historical wrongs, but is no longer.
Turkey’s criticism of the characterization of the Armenian deaths as
genocide is long-standing and consistent.
Orhan Pamuk, a leading Turkish novelist, was accused last year of
insulting the Turkish nation and faced criminal charges for telling a
Swiss newspaper that a million Armenians had been killed on Turkish
soil.
The case was highly embarrassing to the government in Ankara because
it coincided with important meetings concerning Turkey’s attempt to
join the European Union. It is not entirely clear why the case was
dropped in January.
Last month, a court in Istanbul dropped charges against four Turkish
journalists accused of insulting the country’s courts, but decided
to press ahead with the trial of a fifth, according to the state-run
Anatolia news agency.
The five, who had faced from six months to 10 years in prison, have
been on trial since February for criticizing in print a court’s
decision last year to shut down a conference in Istanbul about the
mass killings of Armenians by Turks during the Ottoman Empire.
The court dropped charges against four of the journalists because
prosecutors had not filed the charges within the required two-month
period after the publication of the articles, the state-run Anatolia
news agency reported.
But the court decided to proceed with the trial of Murat Belge,
a columnist for Radikal, the agency said.