OBAMA/BIDEN AND TURKEY
By Gene Rossides
Hellenic News of America
newsid=9767&lang=US
Feb 25 2009
PA
The recent anti-Israel and anti-Semitic outburst by Turkey’s Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his attack on Israel and Israeli
President Simon Peres at the World Economic Forum in Davos,
Switzerland, calls for a thorough review by the Obama/Biden
administration of U.S.-Turkey relations.
At Davos, Erdogan engaged in a verbal assault on Perez regarding
Israel’s response to Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israel and then
walked out of the meeting. On his return to Turkey he was greeted
enthusiastically. Turkish elections are scheduled for the end of March.
Erdogan’s theatrics demonstrate vividly that U.S. and Turkish views on
important matters do not coincide and that Turkey is an unreliable
ally. Turkey’s apologists in the State Department, the NSC and
elsewhere should take note.
Turkey–a disloyal ally
In past administrations officials would refer to Turkey as "our
long-time loyal ally" during the Cold War and thereafter. Such
comments, routinely made were and are blatantly false and misleading. I
have documented that during the Cold War decades Turkey on several
occasions, actively aided the Soviet Union’s military to the detriment
of U.S. interests. Examples include:
During the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, Moscow’s overflights of
Turkish airspace were tolerated while Turkey refused to allow the
U.S. refueling and reconnaissance facilities during the American
airlift to Israel.
In the 1977-78 conflict in Ethiopia, Turkey granted the Soviets
military overflight rights to supply the pro-Soviet Ethiopian
communists under Colonel Mengistu, who eventually prevailed.
Over U.S. and NATO objections, Turkey allowed three Soviet aircraft
carriers, the Kiev on July 18, 1976, the Minsk on February 25,
1979 and the Novorosiisk on May 16, 1983, passage rights through
the Bosphorous and Dardanelles Straits into the Mediterranean in
violation of the Montreux Convention of 1936. The Soviet ships posed
a formidable threat to the U.S. Sixth Fleet.
Dr. Ted Galen Carpenter
Dr. Ted Galen Carpenter, Vice president for defense and foreign policy
studies at the respected CATO Institute stated it clearly when he said:
"The conventional wisdom in American foreign policy circles regarding
Turkey asserts a number of propositions:
First, that Turkey has been a loyal ally of the United States since
the earliest days of the Cold War and remains a loyal ally.
Second, that Turkey is a force for stability in the Middle East and
Central Asia in addition to its role within NATO and European affairs.
Third, that Turkey is basically a Western secular country.
Fourth, Turkey is a good candidate that should be admitted to the
European Union in the near future.
I’m going to argue that every one of those assumptions is either
partially false or totally false.
First, is Turkey a loyal ally of the United States? Well if that was
ever true, it’s not true any longer. It is certainly not true with
regard to the Iraq mission in 2003.
Second, is Turkey a force for stability in the Middle East? I don’t
think that has ever been true. You have fairly obvious things like the
invasion of Cyprus in 1974… the ongoing claims to Greek territory
in the Aegean and the provocative overflights by Turkish planes….the
economic blockade of Armenia.
Third, is Turkey a Westernized, secular country? If anything the
trend appears to be in the opposite direction under the guidance of
the governing Justice and Development Party.
Fourth, is Turkey a good candidate that should be admitted to the EU in
the near future? Turkey shows signs of becoming an increasingly bizarre
and intolerant cauldron of populist nationalism. It’s difficult to
reconcile that Turkey with a worthy candidate for admission to the
European Union…To be very polite about it, Turkey’s bid to join
the E.U. is decidedly premature…."
"Extortion in the name of alliance"
On March 1, 2003, Turkey’s parliament voted not to allow the
U.S. to use Incerlik Air Force base and Turkish territory to open a
second front against the Saddam Hussein dictatorship. The U.S. had
irresponsibly offered 26 billion dollars to Turkey to allow use of its
territory to open a second front. Turkey’s prime minister then asked
for $6 billion more to change the vote! A U.S. Treasury Department
negotiator called it "extortion in the name of alliance." The
U.S. refused and the U.S. 4th mechanized division which had been on
ships in the Eastern Mediterranean had to be sent to Kuwait to enter
Iraq from the south.
Turkey–an anti-Christian country
Turkey is an anti-Christian nation. In the twentieth century
Turkey committed genocides against its Armenian and Greek Christian
populations killing over 1.5 million Armenian Christians and 350,000
Pontian Greek Christians from 1915-1923. An exchange of populations
with Greece resulted in one million Greeks being removed from Turkey
to Greece and 400,000 Turks from Greece to Turkey.
One hundred thousand Greek Orthodox Christians were allowed to
remain in Istanbul under the agreement. However in September 1955
Turkey initiated a massive program against the Greek Christians in
Istanbul which resulted in most of them leaving Turkey. Today only
a few thousand elderly Greek Christians remain in Istanbul.
Turkey’s anti-Christian actions against the Ecumenical Patriarchate,
the world-wide head of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church, are
well-known and have been documented in many places including before
the Helsinki Commission of the U.S. Congress by Archbishop Demetrios
and others.
Turkey’s U.S. lobbyists/foreign agents
Turkey has relied for decades on U.S. lobbyists particularly former
members of Congress, as paid foreign agents of Turkey registered
with the Department of Justice. Currently former Democratic Majority
Leader Dick Gephardt and former Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey
are paid U.S. foreign agents for Turkey. They are paid over a million
dollars each.
In accordance with the Obama/Biden campaign statements on lobbyists,
the Obama/Biden administration should refuse to see, talk or deal
with Gephardt, Armey or their colleagues in any way.
Obama/Biden national security team needs to critically review and
revise the U.S. policy of appeasement towards Turkey
In October 2008 the Obama/Biden campaign issued a disappointing
campaign statement regarding Turkey which reads as if it had been
written by Turkey’s lobbyists. See
Prime Minister Erdogan’s actions these past few years culminating in
his anti Israel and anti -Semitic actions at the Davos World Economic
Forum call for an end to the present appeasement policy towards Turkey.
The Turkish military and the Turkish political leaders are responsible
for Turkey’s aggression and occupation in Cyprus, for Turkey’s threats
in the Aegean, for threats against the Ecumenical Patriarchate and
for the horrendous treatment of it’s Kurdish minority.
The U.S. in its own interests should call for:
1.the withdrawal of the aggressor’s military forces on Cyprus; the
demilitarization of Cyprus and return of the 180,000 illegal settlers
in Cyprus in violation of the Geneva Convention;
2.autonomy for the 20% Kurdish minority–between 15 and 20 million
Kurds;
3.the immediate return to the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church of the
several thousand properties illegally take from it and the immediate
opening of the Halki Theological School illegally closed in 1971.
4.a halt to Turkey’s provocations in the Aegean Sea; and
5.the Congress to pass a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide
and the Pontian Genocide and compensation for the victims.
The need to use diplomatic, economic and political pressure including
sanctions and the withdrawal of benefits if Turkey does not cooperate
To get Turkey to act as a responsible member of the international
community will require more than words. Unless the Obama/Biden
administration is willing to apply adequate diplomatic, economic
and political pressure on Turkey to cooperate, there is little hope
of progress. The pressure should include sanctions, withdrawal of
benefits and no high level visits to Turkey or from Turkey until
there is specific progress on the several issues with Turkey.
Dr. Carpenter urged the following in his remarks on July 16, 2008,
commemorating the 34th year of Turkey’s aggression and occupation
in Cyprus:
"Now what specifically should Washington do? First of all, there should
be a very blunt statement from the highest level…to Ankara that a
close relationship between Turkey and the United States is impossible
without major Turkish concessions on the Cyprus issue. Without that, we
can have only an arms’ length correct and rather frosty relationship.
Second, U.S. leaders should make it clear that the United States will
do nothing to encourage the European Union to proceed with Turkey’s
desire for membership unless and until Ankara’s policy regarding
Cyprus undergoes a radical, constructive change."
President Obama has spoken eloquently regarding the application of
the rule of law and human rights in international affairs. Call on
him to demonstrate his sincerity by ending the decades of appeasement
of Turkey and by applying the rule of law to Turkey.
Gene Rossides, founder of the American Hellenic Institute and former
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
