Yuvakuran collects nearly all pieces on Turkey-US relations. Check out this blog for the latest… Talking to Turkey, but Islam is listening Mr. Obama and Turkey
Classy advertising magazine MediaCat has this cover for April. In my Facebook news-stream, I observe a reaction from Kemalist friends. They call for a protest against the magazine because it replaces Atatürk’s face from this classical photo in which Atatürk teaches the new alphabet to citizens…Title says "An educating leader and his constituency"
an older roundup follows:
Clinton’s visit and then Obama’s would be visit in a month are perceived as a sign for better days between these two countries. It is yet to be seen whether Mr. Obama will take Turkey to talk to Islamic World. I believe it is still early to think Turkey as the heart of Islamic World. Turkey’s new foreign policy aims at that but Turkey is still alien to most of the Islamic World. But who will represent the "Islamic World"? Saudi Arabia is moving to the leadership of Middle Eastern Arabic countries but that does not represent Islamic World itself. An Islamic World possible? There certainly a problem of representation…
Found in Girls with Guns . 1925. "Girls’ rifle team, University of Maryland." National Photo. View full size.
ISTANBUL – The use of Turkish ports for the U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq appears to be one of the most important items in the agenda of the Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton’s visit to Ankara this weekend.
What really happened in 1915?. 1915 Article in National Geographic is quite a source. The article was written by a professor at the American College for Girls in Constantinople from 1900-1909……
A German court’s visa regulation about Turkish visitors is notable….
Israeli Chief of Staff officially apologizes because of Gen. Mizrahi’s statements…
Mr. Obama will not likely to use the word "genocide", so that there is less tension between TR-US recently..
There more op-eds about Turkey’s new foreign policy attempts and more questions arise whether Turkey leaves the "Western" front or not…
and there is more of course…
As it has done on various occasions over the last three years, the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee yesterday (11 February) expressed concern about a "continuous slowdown of the reform process" in Turkey, in a resolution adopted by overwhelming majority…
Turkey’s EU process seems to have peripherialized in Turkish foreign policy but that does not mean there is no progress. There is at least some "stirring" recently. The new chief negoatiator, Egemen Bağış, whose sole duty will be the negotiation itself will certainly have an impact. There is a huge roundup here on TR’s EU process. Towards the end of the post, there is a roundup on the Davos aftermath. There are a few pieces on linking TR’s EU process to developments in the Middle East. Finally, there is the case of Atilla Olgaç, that I could not cover before. I have to agree with Hans who labelled him as "just another idiot amongst others"……
Yuvakuran below urges us to think about what might happen after April 24:
And he announced the most likely response:
New Turkish foreign policy seemed to have decided not to rely on the Jewish lobby in US that had helped prevent the becoming of this scenario before.
One likely idea might be that Turkish leaders believe Turkey has now self-confidence, that she is indispensable in Middle East. So that nothing changes.
But more likely idea is that Mr. Obama may try to bypass Turkey. His special envoy did not even visit Turkey… I do not think US or EU countries give much credit to Turkey at the moment and I am not sure if this is right or wrong but this seems to be the case. Turkey is risking her chances, she might win or not. Mr. Obama may have revolutionary ideas for domestic politics but in foreign policy he might have relied on the overall FP structure. Honestly, the best thing he could do would be not to start another war. We will see. But in the mean time, this dark scenario may happen. That is, the closure of İncirlik Base.
That seems inevitable. AKP cannot act against a sweeping nationalist reaction.
In the mean time, in these tense and but exciting times, your Erkan will be serving his military duty. Yes, it is time. I will write about it soon. I might miss some but experience some other things. We will see…
On 24th April 2009 Friday morning, it is most likely that the new US President will make an unavoidable and regrettable speech on so-called genocide, to put fuel on an 100-years old sad historical story in order to please his Armenian voters and to repay his election debt.
The day after, we may read that Incirlik Air Base is closed to all foreign access.
After every US presidential elections, Turkish Ministry of foreign affairs, Turkish armed forces, Turkish media, and Turkish intellectuals have an important task. When the winner is a democrat candidate, we should start to educate the newcomer, and his/her staff/ advisers, what they can expect, what to say, what not to say. ……………
Erdoğan in weekly satire magazine covers:
AFOE has a piece on PM Erdoğan’s talk in Brussels:Turkey and the EU: not yet a marriage of true minds
We are here in Turkey more used to Erdoğan’s style, which makes me sometimes very angry. One thing is certain: PM Erdoğan has nothing to do with diplomatic manners. He doesn’t care, he doesn’t mind. In other contexts, this makes him a popular politician. He is radically different from the previous mainstream Turkish politicians. Of course, this may not work with the politically correct EU people. This does not work with traditional Turkish elites, too. However, Erdoğan and his team are changing the very rules of the game. They may or may not accomplish this mission. I don’t know or I don’t condone the process. I am just an observer at the moment. But PM Erdoğan may be successful because of increasing erosion of values and powerful leaderships in Turkey and in the EU. I am a believer of the Enlightenment heritage but who can argue that these values are strongly held in Europe at the moment? Does Europe has a single mind, at all? Is there one politically correct way to continue?
In such a confusion of values and leaderships, Erdoğan could reply that provocative Cypriot parliamentarian in a politically correct manner. But what would that mean? Is too much political correctionism helpful at all? PM Erdoğan probably knows that he has nothing to lose anyway. The negotiations continue so slowly. His politically correct predecessors could not do better. In the mean time, Turkey is trying new leads in foreign policy which could be lucrative, in terms of energy sources, financial flows etc. It is a gamble.
In the end, we laughed at when PM Erdoğan was implying an obscene act…
Intellectuals break taboo to acknowledge genocide by Ottoman Turks
By Nicholas Birch in Istanbul
Monday, 15 December 2008
Around 200 Turkish intellectuals and academics are to apologise on the internet today for the ethnic cleansing of Armenians during the First World War, in the most public sign yet that Turkey’s most sensitive taboo is slowly melting away.
"My conscience does not accept the denial of the great catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915," the text prepared by the group reads. "I reject this injustice and … empathise with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers. I apologise to them."
[counter campaign by retired diplomats had also started (in Turkish)]
Ex-Turkish envoys slam campaign apologizing to Armenians
A group of intellectuals led by Baskın Oran, Ahmet İnsel, Cengiz Aktar and Ali Bayramoğlu prepared and opened up for signatures a text regarding the events of 1915. The body of the text, which they debated for a long time before coming to an agreement on, was as follows:
