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  • ASBAREZ Online [08-04-2005]

    ASBAREZ ONLINE
    TOP STORIES
    08/04/2005
    TO ACCESS PREVIOUS ASBAREZ ONLINE EDITIONS PLEASE VISIT OUR
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    1) Turkey under Media Scrutiny for Attacks on US Genocide Resolution
    2) Turkey, France Clash over Cyprus as EU Talks Loom
    3) Secretary Rice Promises Increased US Effort in Karabagh Conflict
    4) Two Reported Dead in Turkey Blast

    1) Turkey under Media Scrutiny for Attacks on US Genocide Resolution

    Major Story in Vanity Fair, Report by Public Citizen Allege Unethical Conduct
    by the Turkish Government and its Allies

    WASHINGTON, DC (ANCA)--A major news magazine and a leading citizens~R group
    this week focused public attention on the unethical conduct of powerful
    opponents of legislation recognizing the Armenian genocide.
    In its September issue, Vanity Fair published a 10-page story on FBI
    whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, who was fired after ~Sshe accused a colleague of
    covering up illicit activity involving Turkish nationals.~T According to the
    article by contributing editor David Rose, Edmonds claims FBI wiretaps reveal
    that the Turkish government and its allies boasted of bribing--with as much as
    $500,000--the Speaker of the House of Representatives as part of an alleged
    deal to stop consideration of the Armenian Genocide Resolution.
    The article cites accounts by Edmonds regarding FBI wiretaps of the Turkish
    Embassy and Turkish groups such as the American Turkish Council (ATC) and the
    Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), including, ~Srepeated
    references to Hastert~Rs flip-flop in the fall of 2000, over an issue which
    remains of intense concern to the Turkish government, the continuing campaign
    to have Congress designate the killings of Armenians in Turkey between 1915
    and
    1923 a genocide.~T
    Rose is careful to point out that ~Sthere is no evidence that any payment was
    ever made to Hastert or his campaign.~T According to the article, ~SHastert~Rs
    spokesman says the Congressman withdrew the genocide resolution only
    because of
    the approach from [President] Clinton, ~Qand to insinuate anything else just
    doesn~Rt make any sense.~R He adds that Hastert has no affiliation with the ATC
    or other groups reportedly mentioned in the wiretaps.~R~T The full article
    can be
    read in the September issue of Vanity Fair.
    In a separate development, CongressWatch, an arm of Public Citizen, recently
    released a 49-page report raising ethical concerns about lobbying by former
    Members of Congress. The report includes a 12-page case study of the
    Livingston
    Group~Rs lobbying efforts for the Turkish Government. The report details the
    efforts by Livingston Group founder, former House Appropriations Chairman Bob
    Livingston, to secure a ~S$1 billion supplemental appropriation for
    Turkey~Edespite that country~Rs refusal to allow US troops to use its soil as a
    staging area for the Iraq invasion. He also helped kill an amendment that
    would
    have formally recognized the Armenian genocide that occurred between 1915 and
    1923. Turkey has always opposed this recognition.~T The Livingston Group has
    received over $9 million in payments from Turkey. The entire report can be
    read
    at: www.lobbyinginfo.org/documents/RevolveDoor.pdf
    ~SThese behind-the-scenes accounts reveal a pattern of patently unethical and
    possibly even illegal conduct by the Turkish government and its allies in
    their
    efforts to oppose the Armenian Genocide Resolution,~T said Aram Hamparian, the
    executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America. ~SFacing
    growing bipartisan Congressional support for this legislation, these interests
    are resorting to increasingly desperate means to avoid the international
    isolation that Turkey will face following US recognition of the Armenian
    Genocide.~T
    In the months leading up the publication of these documents, the ANCA
    provided
    both Vanity Fair and Public Citizen with background materials, interviews, and
    first-hand accounts regarding Congressional efforts to recognize the Armenian
    genocide.


    2) Turkey, France Clash over Cyprus as EU Talks Loom

    ANKARA (Reuters/Bloomberg)--Turkey and France clashed on August 4 over whether
    Ankara should recognize Cyprus, a European Union member, before it begins its
    own EU entry talks on October 3.
    Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey could not accept any new conditions
    for opening the talks and that he was upset by comments from France that
    Ankara
    must first accept the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government.
    "It is out of the question for us to discuss or consider any new conditions
    with regards to October 3," Erdogan told reporters in televised comments.
    "We are saddened by the statements of the French prime minister and of
    President (Jacques) Chirac," he added.
    Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said on August 2 it was "inconceivable"
    that Turkey start talks with the EU without recognizing one of its 25 member
    states, though he did not say if Paris would deploy its veto.
    Chirac has not publicly commented on Turkey's EU talks this week, but the
    French daily Le Figaro, quoting unnamed ministers, reported that the president
    told a cabinet meeting he agreed with his prime minister.
    Chirac's office declined to comment on the report. Chirac has traditionally
    backed Turkey's EU bid but now faces growing opposition among French voters to
    admitting the large, relatively poor, mainly Muslim country into the wealthy
    bloc.


    PRESSURE

    Maintaining pressure on Ankara, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy
    repeated Villepin's criticism on August 4.
    "Not wanting to recognize one country in the Union while wanting to join [is]
    not acceptable," Douste-Blazy told Le Monde newspaper in an interview.
    "We would like there to be an extensive discussion on this question within
    the
    EU," he added.
    Ankara recognizes only a breakaway Turkish Cypriot enclave in northern
    Cyprus.
    The island has been split along ethnic lines since Turkish troops invaded in
    1974 after a brief Greek Cypriot coup backed by the military junta then ruling
    Greece.
    France can block the start of talks--as can Cyprus--as the 25 EU states must
    approve a negotiating mandate unanimously before they can begin. Villepin said
    France would decide its position after talks among EU foreign ministers in
    September.
    Turkey cleared the last formal hurdle to the start of its entry talks last
    Friday by signing a protocol extending its customs union to new EU members
    including Cyprus.
    However, Ankara also issued a declaration making clear the signing did not
    mean a change in its stance over the island, whose Greek Cypriot government is
    viewed in Brussels as the sole legitimate authority.
    Turkey says recognition can come only after a comprehensive peace settlement
    on the Mediterranean island.
    Ankara believes it has done all it can reasonably be expected to do about
    Cyprus by backing a UN-brokered peace deal last year which Turkish Cypriots
    also endorsed in a referendum. The plan was not supported by the Greek
    Cypriots.
    Despite the latest French comments, Erdogan said he was confident Turkey
    would
    begin entry talks on schedule.
    "We will start the negotiations on October 3. We think only of the
    negotiations," Erdogan said.
    The talks are expected to last many years and Turkey is not expected to join
    the EU before 2015 at the earliest.

    NOT EUROPEAN ENOUGH

    British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the current EU term president, advocates
    Turkish membership in the EU while politicians including Germany's Christian
    Democrats and Nicolas Sarkozy, leader of Chirac's ruling party, say it is not
    European enough to join in terms of geography, history and culture.
    Turkey won a date to start the accession process with the EU after its
    parliament passed laws strengthening the nation's democracy. A latest draft
    law
    on foundations has loopholes that fail to guarantee religious freedoms for
    non-Muslims in Turkey, European Commission spokesman Amadeu Altafaj told a
    Brussels press conference.
    While the legislation doesn't pose a new barrier to the start of EU
    membership
    talks, the commission has "expressed some concerns about the implication of
    this law on the non-Muslim community," Altafaj said. Turkey has promised to
    overhaul the law when parliament reconvenes in October, he added.


    3) Secretary Rice Promises Increased US Effort in Karabagh Conflict

    WASHINGTON, DC (Combined Sources)--During his meeting with US Secretary of
    State Condoleeza Rice on Tuesday, Azerbaijan~Rs Foreign Minister Elmar
    Mammadyarov discussed the Karabagh conflict, with Rice promising to boost US
    effort to make the regulation process more effective.
    Secretary Rice stressed that the US position on Azerbaijan's territorial
    integrity is unchanged. Mammadyarov was reportedly satisfied with the talks.
    The meeting also focused on bilateral and economic cooperation. Expressing
    satisfaction with the progress of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and
    Baku-Tbilisi-Erzrum projects, Rice commended Azerbaijan's leadership in the
    implementation of such global projects.
    Mammadyarov also met with Minsk Group's US co-chair Steven Mann. The
    conversation focused on the Karabagh peace talks on the eve of an unofficial
    CIS summit in the Russian town of Kazan, where the Armenian and Azeri
    presidents are expected to meet.
    Addressing representatives of the US-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce in the
    Washington based Azerbaijan Trade and Cultural Center on Wednesday, the Azeri
    foreign minister stressed the strategic importance of the
    Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi-Baku railway for the South Caucasus. Mammadyarov noted
    that not only would the railway promote economic development in the region,
    but
    would improve direct communication between Europe and Central Asia.
    During his visit, Mammadyarov held meetings at the Pentagon and National
    Security Council, and also met with representatives of the National Democratic
    Institute, International Republican Institute, International Foundation for
    Election Systems (IFES), and non-governmental organizations. According to
    Azertag newspaper, Mammadyarov spoke of the pre-election situation in
    Azerbaijan during the round table discussion.


    4) Two Reported Dead in Turkey Blast

    ISTANBUL (CNN)--A couple leaving a wedding party was killed and five people
    were injured early Thursday when a trash bin exploded in the Pendik
    district of
    Istanbul, according to Turkey's state-run news agency Anatolia.
    The cause of the explosion, which occurred about 12:15 a.m., was not
    immediately known. No claim of responsibility had been issued early Thursday.
    The man and woman, Eda and Hatica Muslu, were getting into their car when the
    explosion occurred, according to the DAWN news network.
    Police, firefighters, and ambulance workers were at the scene, sifting
    through
    the wreckage of destroyed cars and helping the injured.
    On August 2, two explosions in trash bins wounded six people in the southern
    Turkish city of Antalya, a popular tourist resort, CNN Turk reported.
    Police said the first blast went off in a trash bin, wounding two municipal
    workers and a passerby. About five minutes later, another blast wounded two
    tourists and a resident of Antalya.
    Authorities have not explained the cause of the explosions, but bombs have
    been placed in trash cans in the past.
    Turkey has suffered a series of bomb blasts in recent months, mostly
    blamed on
    militant Kurdish separatists.
    Islamic militants and far-left radicals have also been behind bomb attacks in
    Turkey in the past, including in Istanbul.
    Five people were killed last month when a bomb struck a minibus in the
    popular
    Aegean resort of Kusadasi, an attack claimed responsible by Kurdish militants.


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