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  • Canada-Turkey Spat Won't Affect NATO Operation

    CANADA-TURKEY SPAT WON'T AFFECT NATO OPERATION

    Embassy, Canada
    Canada's Foreign Policy Newsweekly
    May 17 2006

    Last week's diplomatic storm over Stephen Harper's use of the term
    'genocide' will not affect Canada's relations with the Turkish head
    of NATO's Afghan mission, but it does signal a policy shift.

    The Turkish-Canadian spat over Prime Minister Stephen Harper's comments
    recognizing the Armenian genocide two weeks ago will not spill over
    into Afghanistan where a senior Turkish diplomat presently occupies
    the position of NATO's top Civilian Representative to Afghanistan,
    according to the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa.

    Despite Ankara's withdrawal last week from NATO military exercises
    in the Canadian province of Alberta, Turkey's leading NATO role
    in Afghanistan with Canada will not be affected, says Yonet Tezel,
    Counsellor at the Turkish Embassy.

    "Our contribution is still going on and it is above our relations
    with Canada," says Mr. Tezel.

    NATO is scheduled to take over military operations from the U.S. in
    Afghanistan in the summer.

    Mr. Tezel also says Turkey is not likely to pull out its most senior
    diplomat, Hikmet Cetin, who is NATO's Civilian Representative to
    Afghanistan.

    With 825 troops, Turkey has the third largest contingent in
    Afghanistan, after Germany and Canada. Its role is considered important
    because it is also the only Muslim country with troops in Afghanistan.

    In what may signal a decrease in tensions between Canada and Turkey,
    Mr. Yonet also says Turkish Ambassador Aydemir Erman is expected to
    return to Canada this week. Turkey called its envoy to Canada back to
    Ankara for consultations on May 6 in protest of Mr. Harper's comments.

    Mr. Harper became the first Canadian prime minister to utter the word
    'genocide' in recognizing the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in
    Turkey in 1915. The statement also marks a major shift in Canadian
    foreign policy towards Turkey, which also temporarily withdrew its
    ambassador to France as a result of an impeding vote in the French
    parliament that would make it a crime to deny the that genocide was
    committed in Armenia.

    But while it withdrew its envoy from Paris, the Turkish government
    also sent a delegation to meet French legislators on the issue. It did
    not do the same thing in Canada. Mr. Tezel says the circumstances are
    totally different, hence the type of reaction to the French situation.

    "The situation is philosophically and intellectually unacceptable,"
    Mr. Tezel says of France's decision to make it a crime to deny that
    genocide was committed in Armenia.

    Kim Nossal, Professor and Head of Political Studies at Queen's
    University in Kingston, says Mr. Harper's decision acknowledging
    that genocide was committed against Armenians was likely made to
    send a message that the Tory government is different from the former
    minority government.

    "[Mr. Harper] wanted to signal that his government is different from
    the Liberal government, which actually talked a lot about human rights,
    but did nothing," says Mr. Nossal.

    "It was a clear and conscious set of reasoning on this," he says.

    "All you have to do is think about the Liberals and Darfur and you
    can ask 'Where were you then?'"

    [email protected]

    http://www.embassyma g.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2 006/may/17/turkey/
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