PanARMENIAN.Net

George Bush has his `beacons’ of democracy

Turkey is the very country which will never miss the
chance to involve other countries in the resolution of
its own problems, especially countries like the USA or
Russia, at worst.
10.01.2008 GMT+04:00

The visit of the Turkish President Abdullah Gul to the
USA was perfectly organized: meetings with George
Bush, Condoleezza Rice, congressmen and the
American-Turkish organizations were held. This is
quite natural, since the Turkish President’s visit to
Washington was his first one as the President of
Turkey. But the most noteworthy announcement was the
one made by George Bush, who said that Turkey is the
perfect example of a democratic country, which
co-exists together with Islamic values.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `Europe only benefits if Turkey is
integrated into the EU, since Turkey could become the
bridge between Europe and the Islamic world,’ said the
President of the USA. However, the U.S. President has
rather strange `beacons’ of democracy; speaking about
Turkey or Georgia. `Both countries have to face the
problem of terrorism, and the Kurdistan Workers Party
is a terrorist organization, which threatens Turkey,
Iraq, and everybody else who wants to live in peace,’
said the U.S. President. The President of Turkey stood
next to Bush with a smile and added that `His country
and the USA have common approaches and common urge
towards working for the sake of peace and prosperity,
as well as fighting against PKK.’

It happens so that all the problems regarding with the
human rights and democracy in Turkey are now solved
and that the only problem left is the one with the
Kurds who have been fighting for more than 30 years.
The truth is that after September 11, 2001 Turkey
received a `present’ in the form of PKK, which is a
terrorist organization and against which Turkey needs
to fight with the help of the American tax-payers.
Turkey is the very country which will never miss the
chance to involve other countries in the resolution of
its own problems, especially countries like the USA or
Russia, at worst. However, things are not that smooth
with Russia yet, instead everything is quite fine with
President Bush. It’s very unlikely that the Bush
Administration and the Department of States are not
aware of the existence of Article 301, which is very
far from democracy and the values it practices, or of
the blocked borders with Armenia, or of the
oppressions of the religious minorities in Turkey,
which have become hostage because of Ankara’s stubborn
unwillingness of recognizing several historical facts,
such as the Genocides committed against the Armenians,
Greeks, Assyrians, the pressure upon the Oriental
Orthodox Church, and the ban on own history.

The truth is that not everyone in Turkey is quite
happy with Gul’s visit. The leader of the oppositional
Republican People’s Party Deniz Baykal, in his speech
made during the session of the parliamentary fraction
of his party, criticized the President’s visit to the
USA. The RPP leader said that the international
meetings are very important, but it is not right to
make everyday contacts out of them. `International
visits are very encouraging, however, allowing these
visits to make the relations ordinary and cast doubt
on their main point is wrong,’ emphasized Baykal,
writes the newspaper Hurriyet.

Perhaps after all there is democracy in Turkey; one of
these days, a series of comics about the adventures of
homeless dogs having the names of Muslim-heroes has
been published in one of the most famous newspapers
`Milliyet’. It should be mentioned, that the dog is
considered an `evil’ animal in Islam. True, these were
not caricatures the Prophet Mohammed, but it was
something unacceptable either. Demonstrations are held
in front of the building of the editorial office and
religious organizations, those who are not happy with
the comics are going to have legal proceedings with
the editorial office. By the way, last year in March
the Government of Turkey was in legal proceedings with
the `Penguin’ (satirical newspaper). The newspaper had
published a caricature of the Cabinet, picturing them
as animals, and the Prime-Minister Recep Erdoghan was
pictured as a cat, which is considered a cunning
animal by the Turks. Erdoghan prosecuted the `Penguin’
for it, but lost the case. The respondents managed to
gather a number of examples of using images of animals
in political caricatures in Turkey in different
periods, but some other cases connected with political
caricatures are being investigated in Turkish courts
at present. But the best image of the current
condition of the human rights and freedom of speech is
reflected in Article 301, the amendments of which are
again canceled. It is not a mere coincidence that the
article published in the Turkish Daily News entitled
`The 301? Forget about It!’ According to the author,
everything leads to `redecoration’, to be more exact,
in the new version the term `Turkishness’ is replaced
with `the Turkish Nation’, and the `Republic’ is
replaced with `the Turkish Republic’. The EU is
actually right, since regardless the great pressure
from the USA and NATO, it still rejects Turkey into
Europe. As for George Bush, we can still understand
the reason of the statements that he makes. After the
failures in Iraq, Afghanistan, Middle Eastern
regulation, he needs at least one little victory, to
give the Republicans a small chance in the upcoming
elections in November. Yet, he is not very likely to
succeed in this, since Europe has made up its mind not
to give up for anything, as Sarkozy says.

«PanARMENIAN.Net» analytical department