Hurriyet, Turkey
March 5 2010
Gül comes forth
Friday, March 5, 2010
MURAT YETKÄ°N
On the evening of March 3, the British Ambassador to Ankara, David
Reddaway, hosted a dinner for the new chairman of the International
Crisis Group, or ICG, Louise Arbour, at his house.
U.S. Ambassador to Ankara James Jeffrey, Turkish President Abdullah
Gül and Gül’s Foreign Policy Chief Adviser Ambassador Hüseyin Diriöz
were among the guests.
Diriöz and Jeffrey began to talk even before the dinner started. After
that, Jeffrey grabbed his cell phone and called somebody. He came back
and informed Diriöz. This time, Diriöz stepped away to make a phone
call which ended relatively quickly.
At the dinner, Arbour asked questions of the guests in order to
understand the dynamics of Turkey’s role in the crises recently taking
place in the Balkans and the Middle East. One of the guests pointed
out two diplomats at the table who were going back and forth for phone
conversations and who were talking to each other following every call:
that another crisis may have been resolved before the very eyes of all
the guests.
Diriöz and Jeffrey were trying to set up a phone call between Gül and
U.S. President Barack Obama.
The topic of the dinner was the Genocide Bill that was to be voted on
(the other day) in the U.S. House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs
Committee.
Information that the new Turkish Ambassador to Washington, Namık Tan,
has conveyed to Ankara was not pleasant. Therefore, Gül decided to get
involved in the issue at the highest level.
After one last call Diriöz apologized to Reddaway and left the dinner.
Obama comes to the picture
An hour later, sources from the presidential office confirmed that Gül
talked with Obama on the phone.
Gül told Obama that if the bill is passed, Turkey-U.S. relations which
range from Afghanistan to Iraq, from Bosnia to Lebanon and Iran would
be harmed. Besides, the rapprochement achieved through the approval of
protocols between Armenia and Turkey could be dropped from the agenda
for an indefinite period of time.
On the morning of Thursday in the U.S., before the voting session
started, Obama sent a letter to Congressmen, asking for a refusal of
the bill on account of the fact that it may harm bilateral relations
with Turkey, U.S. interests, and the rapprochement process between
Armenia and Turkey.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the chairman of the
committee to warn that U.S. interests must not be harmed by the bill.
U.S. presidents have interfered and stopped similar bills in the past,
but usually this was done at the last minute to curb a House plenary
voting if the bill was passed in the Foreign Affairs Committee. That
usually was taken care of around April. 24; until then, Ankara waited
on tenterhooks.
With the current move, Turkey bought some time, perhaps a year at
most, in order to approve the protocols in Parliament.
Gül’s interference played a critical role in Obama’s intervention on
the issue of the bill at the foreign affairs committee-level.
Baykal praises Gül
Gül has come forth through the latest developments and escalating
tension among the military, the judiciary and the government as he
tried to play mediator.
He took action to reduce the tension and this time held weekly
meetings with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an and the Chief of
General Staff Gen. Ä°lker BaÅ?buÄ? together in one session rather than
one-on-one talks.
Mr. President met with presidents of the judicial bodies and Justice
Minister Sadullah Ergin, and then invited the opposition leaders for a
meeting though such an invitation may seem risky at first.
Because the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, leader Deniz Baykal,
and the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, leader Devlet Bahçeli had
accused Gül in recent statements that he was acting like an extension
of his former party, the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP.
Both Baykal and Bahçeli responded positively to the invitation
possibly because of Gül’s recent efforts and activities. The leaders
also announced that the meetings were beneficial.
`The government broke apart everything. Now, Mr. President is trying
to fix things up’ and `he is trying to find a solution to depolarize
the society,’ commented Baykal, according to a news story by Zihni
Erdem.
We should carefully read Baykal’s praise of Gül. Mr. President has
begun to create a presidential profile of one who has increasing
influence over politics and the society.
* Mr. Murat Yetkin is the Ankara representative of the daily Radikal
in which this piece appeared Friday. It was translated into English by
the Daily News staff.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress