Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Nov 15 2008

ErdoÄ?an urges Obama to heed Armenia, Iraq sensitivities

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an has asked US
President-elect Barack Obama to support Turkey in its fight against
terrorism and to refrain from backing Armenian claims of genocide at
the hands of the Ottoman Empire once he takes over the post from
George W. Bush.

`I sincerely congratulate Barack Obama and his team who won the
elections. Turkey and the United States, as two allies that have very
strong relations, have been supporting each other for more than half a
century,’ the Turkish prime minister said Thursday during a speech at
New York’s Columbia University, which Obama graduated from. `Turkey is
determined to continue the close cooperation with Obama’s new US
administration. Naturally, we expect the US administration to take
into consideration our sensitivities on issues that are of vital
importance to us.’

During his campaign, Obama pledged to Armenian-American voters that he
would support the genocide claims if he were elected president. Turkey
denies genocide charges and says actions by third countries could hurt
the thawed relations between Turkey and Armenia. The two neighbors
have had no formal relationship since 1993, when Turkey severed its
ties and closed its border with the landlocked country in protest of
the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh. Ankara says normalizing
ties depends on Armenia’s withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh and ending
support for the Armenian diaspora’s efforts to win international
recognition for genocide claims.

The US Congress has twice shelved resolutions calling for recognition
of the genocide claims under pressure from the administration. The
measure is expected to be brought to Congress when Obama takes office.

ErdoÄ?an said US sensitivity over these issues is important for
the future of Turkey-US relations. He welcomed the fact that Obama had
already declared that US cooperation with Turkey regarding terrorism
will continue.

The prime minister recalled that Turkey has proposed a joint committee
of historians to study Armenian claims and said it expected Armenia to
respond positively to the offer. `Let’s allow historians to do their
job. We have opened our archives, and if the Armenians have their
archives, let them open them to the public, too,’ he said. `Let
historians study the archives and decide. And we all will respect
whatever the outcome is.’

He said he hoped the US administration would also take the Turkish
proposal into consideration while deciding on a policy over the
issue. Relations with Washington hit a snag when the Turkish
Parliament rejected a government motion in 2003 that would have
allowed military cooperation with the United States in the Iraq
war. Since then, tension grew as the US consistently turned down
Turkish requests for action against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK), which attacks Turkish targets from its bases in northern
Iraq. In November 2005, Bush vowed intelligence cooperation against
the PKK, after which the US military began to supply real-time
intelligence on movements of the PKK in northern Iraq.

In his speech, ErdoÄ?an also touched on the dispute over Iran’s
nuclear program and reiterated that Turkey opposed the proliferation
of nuclear weapons while supporting countries’ rights to acquire
nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

UN Security Council victory

In New York, ErdoÄ?an also hosted a dinner for UN
representatives to thank them for electing Turkey to the Security
Council for 2009-2010. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was among the
dignitaries attending the dinner.

Turkey was competing with Iceland and Austria for one of the two seats
reserved for the Western Europe and Others Group in the UN. It won the
vote by a wide margin in October, securing a seat in the influential
world body after almost half a century of absence. Its growing
influence in the Middle East, the Caucasus and the Balkans has boosted
support for Turkey among the UN nations, observers said.

ErdoÄ?an also addressed the UN General Assembly earlier on
Thursday at a meeting on a Saudi Arabian initiative to promote
dialogue between religions. ErdoÄ?an said the meeting was a
response in a bid to tackle `the bi-polarization in the international
community, lack of understanding and discrimination’ that he said had
reached `a threatening dimension.’

`Terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, trafficking
and organized crime have all gone global. An end should be put on
so-called `good terrorist, bad terrorist,” the prime minister said.

While in New York, ErdoÄ?an briefly met with Bush and Pakistani
President Asif Ali Zardari in UN General Assembly Hall. He also met
with Israeli President Shimon Peres.

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Nalbandian to visit Ä°stanbul next month
Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian will visit Ä°stanbul
next month to attend a meeting of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation
(BSEC), news reports said yesterday. Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said
this week that Nalbandian would soon visit Turkey to build diplomatic
contacts with Armenia, with which Turkey has no formal ties. Although
Nalbandian’s visit on Nov. 24 is for the BSEC meeting, he is expected
to meet with Babacan on the sidelines of the gathering and discuss the
normalization of ties, CNN Türk said. Armenia is the current
holder of the BSEC’s presidency. Babacan and Nalbandian had three-way
talks together with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in
September discussing the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. Earlier this month,
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hosted a summit with the Azerbaijani
and Armenian presidents in Moscow. In a speech in New York on
Thursday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an said Turkey
welcomed the Russian initiative and wanted to host a similar summit
with the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents. Ä°stanbul Today’s
Zaman

15 November 2008, Saturday
TODAY’S ZAMAN WITH WIRES Ä°STANBUL