Europeans Criticize Turkey Over Threats to Media Freedoms - NYTimes.com

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By STEPHEN CASTLE and SEBNEM ARSU

BRUSSELS — European officials gave Turkey new warnings on Wednesday over threats to freedom of expression in the country as part of an annual progress report on its efforts to join the European Union.

The European enlargement commissioner, Olli Rehn, in particular criticized the Turkish tax ministry’s recent move to impose a fine of 5.7 billion liras — roughly $3.9 billion — on the country’s biggest media conglomerate, Dogan Yayin, whose affiliates and ownership have been critical of the governing party. The government reiterated on Wednesday that the issue was purely a tax matter, but Mr. Rehn argued that it seemed politically motivated.

“If a tax fine is worth the annual turnover of the company,” he said, “it is quite a strong sanction, and it may not only be a fiscal sanction but also it feels like a political sanction.”

Mr. Rehn also criticized efforts to take legal action against journalists and writers, including the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk. And the report listed Turkey’s refusal to open its ports to vessels from Cyprus, a European government that Turkey does not recognize because of a longstanding territorial dispute over the island, as a continuing factor hurting Turkey’s efforts to join.

In general, the progress report, composed by the European Commission and including assessments of seven Balkan nations also seeking to join the European Union, did not close the door on Turkish membership. It praised several developments over the past year, including government efforts to end decades of hostilities with Armenia and open borders, and to ease tensions with the Kurdish minority in Turkey.

The Turkish minister in charge of negotiations with Europe, Egemen Bagis, called the reports a balanced document and said that the detailed nature of the criticism was a good sign for Turkey.

“The precise approach in the comments show that Turkey has entered an advanced phase in negotiations,” he said. “It tells us to keep up the good work, and continue with reforms, a message that we will be following in future.”

Still, the public criticism underlined the fragility of Turkey’s efforts to join. France’s and Germany’s outspoken opposition to full membership for Turkey have raised doubts both in Europe and within Turkey itself that a deal can be reached any time soon.

Sinan Ulgen, chairman of the Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies, an Istanbul-based research group, said that the European Commission appeared to be putting a positive gloss on the talks to try to keep the process alive.

“There has been a conscious effort on the part of the commission to appear a bit more positive than the situation warrants,” he said, “in view of the fact that there is a lot of opposition in Europe about Turkish accession.”

Mr. Ulgen added that France’s opposition, in particular, has given “the impression in Turkey that no matter what we do we will never get to the E.U.”

Stephen Castle reported from Brussels, and Sebnem Arsu from Bursa, Turkey.

Exercise Called Off After Turkey Excludes Israel - NYTimes.com

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By SEBNEM ARSU and ISABEL KERSHNER

ISTANBUL — A multinational air force exercise that was supposed to take place in Turkey has been postponed indefinitely after the Turks asked Israel not to participate, officials said Sunday, in a sign of the strained relations between the two allies.

The 11-day exercise, which takes place every few years, was supposed to start on Monday.

A statement on the Turkish military’s Web site said that the exercise would take place on a national level, but that international participation had been canceled after “international negotiations conducted by the Turkish Foreign Ministry.” Military officials declined to elaborate.

A Foreign Ministry official, who requested anonymity because of the delicacy of the matter, said the international exercise was postponed for technical, not political, reasons.

But another government official, who also spoke anonymously, said, “We can say that Turkey has reservations against the participation of Israel.”

The Israeli military said the exercise had been postponed “as a result of Turkey’s decision to change the list of participating countries, thus excluding Israel.”

Israel and Turkey have long been strategic allies with strong military ties. Last year, Turkey mediated indirect negotiations between Israel and Syria, and this summer Turkey and Israel carried out a joint naval exercise.

But diplomatic relations between the two nations have eroded, particularly since Israel’s three-week military offensive in Gaza last winter, in which hundreds of Palestinian civilians died. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey accused Israel of “savagery” and crimes against humanity. Israel said it was acting in self-defense to halt Palestinian rocket fire.

Separately, Mr. Erdogan said Sunday that Armenia must withdraw from the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, a day after Turkey signed an accord with Armenia to normalize relations after decades of enmity.

Sebnem Arsu reported from Istanbul, and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem.

VOA News - After Accord Signing, Turkey Presses Armenia on Nagorno-Karabakh

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Turkey's prime minister says Armenia needs to withdraw its troops from a breakway enclave in Azerbaijan before Turkey will open its border with Armenia.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan linked the issues Sunday, one day after Turkey and Armenia signed an agreement to normalize relations after a century of hostility.

In Ankara, Mr. Erdogan said an Armenian troop pullout from Nagorno-Karabakh would ease the way for Turkey's parliament to ratify the deal on normalizing relations. Before the agreement can take effect, it must be ratified by the parliaments of both Turkey and Armenia.

Turkey shut its border with Armenia in 1993 in support of Azerbaijan, which was fighting to keep control of the Armenian-majority enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Broader differences between Turkey and Armenia stem from the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces during and after World War One.

The chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, Sunday welcomed the Turkey-Armenia accord signed Saturday. He commended the effort and political will that leaders of the two countries have invested to overcome differences.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spent several hours Saturday working to resolve a last-minute dispute over statements to be made at the signing ceremony in the Swiss city of Zurich. In the end, neither Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian nor his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu, spoke after signing the protocols to establish diplomatic ties and to reopen the border.

There is strong opposition to the deal in both countries.

Armenians want the massacres between 1915 and 1923 recognized as genocide, and many countries have done so. Turkey strongly rejects the genocide claim. It says the Armenian death toll is inflated and that many Turks also were killed during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

The agreement calls for a joint commission of independent historians to examine the genocide question. Some experts say the commission would be a concession to Turkey as it would revisit an issue Armenia says has already been confirmed.

Armenia, Turkey Reach Accord - washingtonpost.com

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Swiss Broker New Diplomatic Ties

By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 11, 2009

ZURICH, Switzerland, Oct. 10 -- Armenia and Turkey signed a landmark agreement Saturday to establish diplomatic ties, after a dramatic last-minute intervention by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to keep the event from falling apart.

The accord, aimed at ending a century of hostility stemming from Ottoman Era massacres, was brokered by the Swiss over the past two years, with the help of French, Russian and U.S. officials. Clinton had been in frequent contact with the two sides in recent months to help seal the deal.

But just as she arrived at the University of Zurich for the signing at about 5 p.m. Saturday, Clinton heard that the Armenian side was objecting to a Turkish statement prepared for the ceremony, officials said. Clinton's motorcade made a U-turn and raced back to the hotel, where a U.S. diplomat was talking to the Armenians.

In the hotel parking lot, Clinton sat in her black BMW sedan in a soft rain for about an hour, talking on one phone to the Armenian foreign minister and on another to the Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu. Finally, she went into the hotel to invite the Armenian foreign minister, Edward Nalbandian, to drive with her to the university, where his Turkish counterpart was waiting.

Once there, further hours of negotiating ensued with a broader group of international diplomats, including Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, before the documents were signed. In an apparent compromise, neither the Turks nor the Armenians made a statement at the ceremony.

The drama was a sign of the enduring suspicion between the two countries and of the difficulties that could lie ahead as their parliaments decide whether to ratify them.

Muslim Turkey and Christian Armenia have had bitter relations since a wave of bloodshed starting in 1915 left hundreds of thousands of ethnic Armenians dead.

Many historians call the killings genocide, but Turkey strongly rejects that label, saying people died in forced relocations and fighting.

If ratified, the accord could have implications well beyond Turkey and Armenia. It may ease tensions in other parts of southeastern Europe and provide new opportunities for oil pipelines to the West, U.S. officials said.

Clinton said that as the hours of negotiations ticked on, she repeatedly urged the participants to look at the bigger picture.

"There were several times when I said to all of the parties involved, that 'This is too important. This has to be seen through. You've gone too far. All of the work that has gone into the protocols should not be walked away from,' " she told reporters traveling with her.

The Armenian-Turkish dispute has echoed far beyond the region, prompting battles in Washington between the White House and lawmakers pushing to recognize the killings as genocide.

Both Republican and Democratic presidents have resisted such resolutions, worried that they would damage U.S. relations with Turkey, a NATO member that has provided critical support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The two protocols signed Saturday would establish diplomatic relations, open the border between Turkey and Armenia that was closed in 1993 and establish committees to work on economic affairs, the environment and other bilateral issues.

The protocols do not explicitly mention the genocide controversy, which would go to a committee of historical experts for study.

Clinton declined to characterize the last-minute objections to the statements planned for the signing ceremony.

The rapprochement between the countries is so sensitive that officials were unsure until almost the last minute whether the Armenians would even show up in Zurich for the ceremony.

Clinton did not add the stop to her official itinerary until Thursday. A day earlier, Obama called Armenian President Serge Sarkisian to "commend him for his courageous leadership" on the issue, according to a White House statement -- yet another gentle push.

Clinton has made 29 calls to the parties involved this year in her efforts to promote a settlement.

The Armenian president has faced angry protests in his own country and from Armenian communities in France and Lebanon over the plan to normalize relations.

The politically powerful Armenian-American community, which Obama courted during his campaign, appeared split over Saturday's accord.

"If Turkey normalizes relations with Armenia and ends its blockade of that landlocked country, it would be a very positive step for the region," said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a leading supporter of Armenian genocide resolutions in Congress, in a statement.

He added, however, "Turkey must not be allowed to rewrite the history of the Armenian Genocide as a price of diplomatic relations."

The Armenian National Committee of America blasted the accord, saying, "The Obama administration's attempts to force Armenia into one-sided concessions is short-sighted and will, in the long term, create more problems than it serves."

In pursuing the accord, Turkey won a commitment from Washington to step up its efforts to settle the dispute over the breakaway territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave in the Azerbaijan, officials said. Azerbaijan is an ally of Turkey's.

About 30,000 people have been killed in fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Turkey Sidesteps Obstacle to Armenia Pact - WSJ.com

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By MARC CHAMPION in Istanbul and NICHOLAS BIRCH in Kars, Turkey

Turkey has dropped a key condition to signing an agreement Saturday that would reopen its border with Armenia and establish diplomatic relations between the two nations, which have been divided for generations by a dispute over genocide.

"The agreement will be signed on Oct. 10," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told The Wall Street Journal -- provided, he said, that Armenia doesn't ask for changes to the text.

Supporters of the pact -- which include the U.S. and the European Union -- say they hope the change could trigger a virtuous cycle, opening up and stabilizing a region that is increasingly important for oil and gas transit and last year saw a war between Russia and Georgia.

But in Kars, the Turkish city closest to the Armenian border, skeptics point to a concrete monument to unity between the two peoples to show why an embrace between neighbors is far from certain.

The statue of two 100-foot tall human figures, standing face to face on a hill above the city, is incomplete: A giant hand that would join the figures was never attached.

It lies abandoned on the gravel below.

The monument, built last year, is now under threat of destruction.

"Small-minded people blocked the monument and they will block the peace process too," says Naif Alibeyoglu, who had the statue built when he was mayor of Kars. His 10 years in office ended in March. "You wait and see, [the deal] will end up like my statue: a statue without hands."

Supporters of the agreement, however, have sidestepped a significant hurdle: Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan said in an interview Sunday that the signing wasn't dependent on progress at talks this week between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan over their territorial conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.

It was because of Armenia's effective occupation of the ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan that Turkey closed the border in 1993.

An earlier attempt to sign the protocol in April stalled when Mr. Erdogan said it could go forward only after the Karabakh conflict was resolved.

The parliaments of Armenia and Turkey need to ratify the protocol for it to take force, something Mr. Erdogan said he couldn't guarantee, as parliamentarians in Ankara would have a free vote in a secret ballot.

Mr. Erdogan also said the two processes -- a resolution of the Karabakh conflict and rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia -- remain linked, and that a positive outcome at this week's talks, to be held in Moldova, would help overall.

Turkish officials have continued to indicate that the border could take longer to open than the three months set out in the three-page protocol.

The Turkish leader said the only obstacle to signing the deal Saturday would come if Armenia seeks to alter the text.

"This is perhaps the most important point -- that Armenia should not allow its policies to be taken hostage by the Armenian diaspora," Mr. Erdogan said. Much of Armenia's large diaspora opposes the protocol.

A spokesman for Armenian President Serge Sarkisian declined to comment on whether Armenia would seek changes to the protocol.

He said the government would soon make a statement on "steps" concerning the protocol.

Mr. Sarkisian has spent the week on a multination tour to explain his position to diaspora groups, some of which have protested the pact.

Opponents say it will be used by Turkey to reduce international pressure on it to recognize as genocide the 1915 slaughter of up to 1.5 million ethnic Armenians in what was then the Ottoman Empire.

The protocol would recognize the current frontier between Turkey and Armenia, and would set up a joint commission to review issues of history, likely to include the 1915 massacres. Turkey says they were collateral deaths during what amounted to civil war during World War I.

Mr. Alibeyoglu, the former Kars mayor, worked hard to improve relations between his city -- a former Armenian capital that changed hands and populations several times over centuries -- and its natural hinterland, the Caucasus.

He invited Armenian, Azeri and Georgian artists to festivals, signed sister-city agreements with cities across the region and, in 2004, gathered 50,000 signatures for a petition demanding the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border.

Kars would stand to benefit from the ability to trade across a border 25 miles away by train and truck.

But some 20% of the city's population are ethnic Azerbaijanis, who consider opening the border while Armenia remains in control of a fifth of Azerbaijan's territory a betrayal.

Sculptor Mehmet Aksoy says he abandoned his plan to run water down the statues to pool as tears, because nationalists complained these would be tears of Armenian rejoicing at reclaiming territory.

Indeed, one complaint of nationalist opponents of the protocol in Armenia is that the treaty's recognition of current borders would prevent any future claim to the swathe of Eastern Turkey that Armenia won in a 1920 treaty, only to lose it again in the 1921 Treaty of Kars between Russia and Turkey.

"Why is one figure standing with its head bowed, as if ashamed?" asks Oktay Aktas, an ethnic Azeri and local head of the Nationalist Action Party, or MHP, who wants the statue torn down. "Turkey has nothing to be ashamed of."

In fact, the two figures stand ramrod straight.

On the other side of the border, Armenian nationalists have taken to the streets to protest the pact with Turkey.

Turkey and Armenia are "like two neighbors who do not know each other," says Mr. Alibeyoglu, who in 2004 organized a petition to open the border. "Is he a terrorist? A mafioso? We needed to break the ice."

Nationalists applied to Turkey's Commission for Monuments to get construction of the monument stopped, on the basis that a viewing platform was built without permission.

In November, the commission ordered that it be demolished.

The monument's fate awaits a decision from the central government in Ankara.

Turkey's Shift to a More Open Economy - BusinessWeek

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Applying for EU membership has sped up reforms, and that has helped the country weather the current crisis

By Stanley Reed

Turkey cannot escape the ravages of the global recession. But this time it may avoid the pains that often afflict this promising country in a downturn. For the Turks, a recession usually goes like this: A wild boom triggers high inflation, the currency collapses, and the poorly managed banking sector, hooked on speculative trading and foreign debt, has a near-death experience. Turkey has a well-educated workforce, proximity to Europe, and a shrewd management class. But financial fragility, including a meltdown that sparked riots in 2001, has kept it from entering the first rank of emerging market economies.

In the current turmoil, to everyone's amazement, things have been different. The economy has been dealt a body blow as exports have stalled. While structural problems still exist, in both the political and regulatory spheres, the financial system has held firm even as U.S. and European banks have hovered on the brink. "This is the first recession in which we didn't have a crisis," says Murat Ulgen, chief economist at HSBC (HBC) in Istanbul. Credit goes to reforms, backed by the International Monetary Fund, that curbed inflation and forced banks to bolster their balance sheets. The increased presence of foreign banks also spurred locals to improve their game. Most important, Turkey has welcomed investment and stepped up efforts to become a real player in the global economy.

This change in attitude has raised Turkey in the eyes of multinationals. Foreign direct investment surged from $1.1 billion in 2001 to $22 billion in 2007, before dropping back to $18 billion in 2008. Even though the figure is expected to fall to $9.1 billion this year, executives seem confident Turkey will bounce back. With a population of 76 million, Turkey is an attractive consumer market, and all those youthful workers at Europe's doorstep have turned the country into a workshop for export industries such as cars, aerospace, appliances, and textiles. "We put Turkey in the same category as Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa," says Ali Faramawy, a vice-president of Microsoft International (MSFT) in Istanbul. Microsoft's software sales in Turkey are growing at 20% to 30% a year. "It's not difficult to see Microsoft Turkey doubling in size in a relatively short time," Faramawy adds.

Two things have made Turkey more of a player. The enforced discipline of applying for European Union membership has worked wonders. And Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has headed a moderately Islamist government since 2003, has pushed largely pro-business policies. Building on the ideas of Kemal Dervis, the former World Bank official who took charge of the Turkish economy during the 2001 crisis, Erdogan has slashed corporate taxes, tightened intellectual property protections, and set up an investment promotion agency. He also launched Turkey's EU negotiations. While the talks have been tortuous, they have pressured Turkey to make changes in a wide range of areas—from improving women's rights to easing protectionist policies. "The whole EU process affects business positively," says Umran Beba, Istanbul-based president of PepsiCo (PEP) for Southeast Europe.

As Turkey shifts from an inward-looking economy to a more open one, local business leaders realize they will need to remake their companies to meet increasing competition. That will require investment in technology and communications, creating a big opening for companies from IBM (IBM) to Cisco Systems (CSCO) to Google. (GOOG) Eray Yuksek, general manager for IBM in Turkey, figures that, excluding telecom, Turkish companies are spending only about $2 billion on information technology. "That's nothing, nothing" in a country with an economy of Turkey's size. "It's a huge opportunity for us," he says.

"STAGING GROUND"

Other areas of the Turkish market beckon. In 2005, General Electric (GE) spent $1.75 billion for 25% of GarantiBank. It now leads the Turkish loan market in most categories and is reporting 3.5% nonperforming loans, below Turkey's industry average of 4.5%. GE's now 21% share is worth $3.4 billion. The company has a venture that makes aircraft engine components, and it's opening a facility to supply locomotives for Europe.

Turkey's trump card is its location. You can sense that Turkey, and especially Istanbul, is at a crossroads by spending an evening at one of the ancient city's exquisite restaurants along the Bosporus, the glowing ribbon of water that separates Asia and Europe. The country is not just close to Europe but also to the former Soviet Union and the Middle East. The area from the Balkans to Kazakhstan has the potential to be fast-growing for years to come. Ferdinando Beccalli-Falco, Brussels-based CEO of GE International, sees Turkey as a "staging ground" for penetrating the region. Yesim Toduk, founder of Istanbul executive search firm Amrop International, says she spends much of her time finding Turks to work for companies in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.

Investment flows from the East as well. The United Arab Emirates-based Oger Telecom, controlled by Lebanon's Hariri family, owns 55% of Turk Telekom, the fixed-line operator. Kuwaiti Finance House, an Islamic bank, has set up Kuveyt Turk to pursue Islamic banking. Investment firms that mainly channel Gulf money, including Dubai-based Abraaj Capital, which owns a Turkish hospital chain, are active in the country. Middle Eastern investment has soared to a cumulative $6.3 billion since 2004.

This year, though, both multinational and Turkish companies had a rough time. Aynur Bektas, the owner of Hey Tekstil, a textile concern with 4,000 employees, coped by ramping up production 25%, trimming prices, and doubling her customer base. Turkey's textile industry has been slammed, but her sales are up 10%. "Others were not so well prepared," she says.

When export demand slumped, Turkish consumers took up some of the slack. The government introduced a Buy Turkish program, including tax incentives, to encourage Turks to open their wallets. That benefited Arcelik, a unit of Koc Group, Turkey's largest conglomerate. The company churns out 12,000 washing machines a day in a factory in the sunbaked industrial town of Cayirova, an hour's drive from Istanbul. In January and February, output fell to 60% of capacity as demand for washers plummeted in Europe. "Those were the worst months. Now it's coming back," says production manager Alp Karahasanoglu. Production is up 20% since February, and he is planning for expansion. The plant will make about 2.3 million machines this year, but that will grow to 4 million units as export markets recover, he predicts.

Recovery will take time. The Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development predicts growth of 2.6% in 2010, after a 5.9% plunge in gross domestic product this year. Still, the Istanbul Stock Exchange is up 77% this year, and the lira has climbed 23% against the dollar since March.

One factor affecting investor confidence in the economy is the Prime Minister himself. Some Turks worry about the Islamist roots of his Justice & Development Party. The fear among secularists is that Erdogan wants to turn Turkey into a version of Saudi Arabia, forcing women to stay at home and banning alcohol. If that is his goal, Erdogan has a long way to go in Istanbul. While some women wear head scarves, plenty don't. And at night the alleyways of central Istanbul are crowded with tables of young people quaffing mugs of Efes beer.

Critics also complain that Erdogan has slowed the pace of reform. And investors were shocked when the government recently fined Dogan Yayin, Turkey's largest media group, $2.5 billion for back taxes and penalties. The company's publications have criticized Erdogan in the past. Another cause for anxiety: taxes. The tax regime hits some industries, such as telecom, harder than others, while half of wage earners aren't legally registered and don't pay taxes. That puts multinationals that play by the rules at a disadvantage to local rivals. "The tax system is a disaster," says A. Rahsan Cebe, managing partner of Cushman & Wakefield in Turkey and chairman of the lobby group American Business Forum in the country. Some businesspeople also think Erdogan should negotiate a new loan with the IMF, which would stabilize long-term finances.

Still, most observers are betting that moderation will prevail and Turkey will stay on a reform path. Adem Dogan, a 27-year-old Istanbul plumber, sees a bright future. He has expanded his business by spending $400 a month to advertise on Google. Says Dogan: "Before we had 100 customers, now we have 2,500."

With Merve Kara in Istanbul

Turkey and Armenia to Establish Diplomatic Ties - NYTimes.com

By SEBNEM ARSU

ISTANBUL — Turkey and Armenia, whose century of hostilities constitutes one of the world’s most enduring and acrimonious international rivalries, have agreed to establish diplomatic relations, the two countries announced Monday.

In a breakthrough that came after a year of tiny steps across a still-sealed border and furtive bilateral talks in Switzerland, the foreign ministries of the two countries said that they would begin talks aimed at producing a formal agreement.

The joint statement said they had agreed “to start political negotiations” but did not touch on when or how some of their more intractable disputes would be addressed, starting with the killing of more than a million Armenians by the Ottoman Turk government from 1915 to 1918, which the Turkish government has denied was genocide.

The two countries have never had diplomatic relations, and their border has been closed since 1993, when Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet republics, went to war over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. At the border, soldiers of Turkey, a NATO country, face Russian ones, called in by Armenia, across a mini-Iron Curtain.

Turkey supported Azerbaijan in the dispute, but Russia’s military action in Georgia last year shifted the security calculus in the region. After the war in Georgia, Turkey sought to improve ties with its neighbors in the Caucasus, and Armenia elected a new government interested in reciprocating.

Both countries hope an eventual opening of the border will benefit their struggling economies. Currently, there are limited charter flights between the countries but no real trade.

For Turkey, better relations with Armenia could improve its chances for admission to the European Union, where the genocide issue remains one of the main obstacles, and remove a bone of contention over the same issue with the United States, which has a large Armenian community.

The Swiss-mediated talks began last year, keeping a low profile to avoid exciting nationalist antagonism in both countries. Armenia’s insistence that border and trade relations be normalized before any discussion of genocide began helped push the most contentious issue to the back burner.

Last September, President Abdullah Gul of Turkey attended a Turkey-Armenia soccer match in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, the first visit by a Turkish leader in the two nations’ history.

The symbolic gesture, dubbed soccer diplomacy, was widely opposed in both countries, where bitter ethnic enmity commands large majorities.

The central dispute is the genocide, about which there is little dispute among historians. Turkey has resisted the label, arguing that the Armenians were killed in warfare.

The next round of talks is scheduled to last six weeks, ending about the time of a World Cup match between Turkey and Armenia in Istanbul. President Serge Sargsyan of Armenia is invited to attend.

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Greece: Halt Crackdown, Arrests of Migrants

July 27, 2009

Greek authorities are arresting large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers in the country's cities and islands and moving many of them to the north, raising fears of illegal expulsions to Turkey, Human Rights Watch said today.

Human Rights Watch received reports from a credible source that, in mid-July 2009, police transferred a group of Arabic-speaking people from Chios Island to the Evros border region, where they were secretly forced to cross the border into Turkey. On July 23, local human rights activists prevented authorities from transferring 63 migrants from Lesvos Island to the north by blocking access to the ferry. On July 25, the police took most of them to Athens under heavy police escort.

"These operations and transfers are very worrying," said Bill Frelick, refugee policy director at Human Rights Watch. "We fear that people are being prevented from seeking asylum, that children arriving alone are not being protected, and that migrants are kept in unacceptable detention conditions and possibly even being secretly expelled to Turkey."

In another recent episode, in a large-scale police operation from July 16 to 18, police in Athens surrounded what appeared to be several hundred migrants and locked them inside an abandoned courthouse. The police arrested anyone who left the building. It is feared that some of them may have needed protection and did not have a chance to file a claim for asylum, the police prevented Human Rights Watch from speaking to the people held inside, and Human Rights Watch does not know the whereabouts of those who were arrested when they tried to leave.

In a November 2008 report, "Stuck in a Revolving Door: Iraqis and Other Asylum Seekers and Migrants at the Greece/Turkey Entrance to the European Union," Human Rights Watch documented how Greek authorities have systematically expelled migrants illegally across the Greece-Turkey border, in violation of many international legal obligations. These "pushbacks" typically occur at night from detention facilities in the northern part of the country, close to the Turkish border, and they involve considerable logistical preparation. Human Rights Watch at that time interviewed 41 asylum seekers and refugees - all privately and confidentially - in various locations in both Greece and Turkey, who gave consistent accounts of Greek authorities taking them to the Evros River at night and then forcing them across.

Human Rights Watch also documented how Greek authorities miscategorize unaccompanied children as adults and detain them for prolonged periods of time in conditions that could be considered inhumane and degrading. (See the December 2008 report, "Left to Survive: Systematic Failure to Protect Unaccompanied Migrant Children in Greece.")

In yet another recent incident, on July 12, police destroyed a makeshift migrant camp in Patras, on the Peloponnese peninsula. In the days before the camp was destroyed, the police reportedly arrested large numbers of migrants there, and according to credible sources, transferred an unknown number to the northern part of the country. On July 17, Human Rights Watch met with several Afghans in Patras, including 12 unaccompanied migrant children now homeless as a result of this operation, who were in hiding in abysmal conditions out of fear of being arrested.

A 24-year-old man told Human Rights Watch: "We're living like animals in the jungle ... we can't take a shower and we don't have proper food ... before I lived in the camp, but all of my things and clothes were burned. Now I have a shirt and a pair of pants, nothing else."

A 14-year-old Afghan boy who arrived in Greece one year earlier said: "The worst situation during the past year is now, in Patras - now that I'm living in this forest .... There's not enough food and we only eat bread with water."

Human Rights Watch also observed on July 17 how more than 1,000 migrants lined up all night, largely in vain, trying to file asylum applications at Athens' main police station. Greece recognizes as few as 0.05 percent of asylum seekers as refugees at their first interview and passed a law at the end of June that abolishes a meaningful appeals procedure, making it virtually impossible for anyone to obtain refugee status. It also extended the maximum length of administrative detention for migrants to 12 months - and under certain circumstances, up to 18 months - from previously 90 days.

"It appears Greece is doing everything it can to close the door on persons who seek protection in Europe, no matter how vulnerable they are," said Frelick. "The European Union must hold Greece accountable for acts contrary to international and European human rights and refugee law, and it needs to act fast, as the lives of many are at risk."

China, Uighur Groups Present Conflicting Accounts of Unrest

By Ariana Eunjung Cha
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, July 25, 2009

BEIJING -- Three weeks after the riots that left nearly 200 people dead and more than 1,700 injured in the capital of the far western Xinjiang region, the Chinese government and Uighur exile groups have been circulating dueling versions of what happened, in an emotional global propaganda war with geopolitical implications.

According to the version of events offered by China's Foreign Ministry and state media, the ethnic unrest that erupted in Urumqi on July 5 was a terrorist attack by Uighur separatists. Women in black Islamic robes stood at street corners giving orders, and at least one handed out clubs, officials said, before Muslim Uighur gangs in 50 locations throughout the city simultaneously began beating Han Chinese.

In the account being circulated by Rebiya Kadeer, a U.S.-based Uighur leader who has emerged as the community's main spokesman, Chinese security forces were responsible for the violence that night. According to Kadeer, police and paramilitary and other troops chased peaceful demonstrators, mostly young people protesting a deadly factory brawl elsewhere, into closed-off areas. Then they turned off streetlights and began shooting indiscriminately.

Clear Details Absent

Chinese authorities have allowed foreign reporters access to the area where the clashes occurred and unusual freedom to conduct interviews, and they have provided evidence verifying the brutal attacks on Han Chinese. But few details are clear, and many witnesses who might be able to answer other questions -- Who set off the initial violence? Why were the police unable to stop the attacks? -- are either in jail or dead.

"The narratives of both the Chinese government and outside observers about what happened are hobbled by the lack of independent, verifiable accounts," said Phelim Kine, a researcher with New York-based Human Rights Watch, which is calling for a U.N. investigation into the incident.

Both sides face huge obstacles in trying to convince the world of their stories.

The Chinese government, after decades of covering up and denying such incidents, has a major trust problem, many analysts say. Chinese officials have said they will release video footage of the attacks, phone records and other evidence to support their view of the events in Urumqi, but have not yet done so.

For Kadeer, a 63-year-old former business mogul from Xinjiang who was exiled in 2005 and now lives in the Washington area, observers say the main challenge is convincing people that she can give an authoritative account of events that happened in a country she has not visited in years. Uighur exile groups have declined to provide information about their sources in China, saying they fear that those people will be arrested or worse if they speak out.

Resentment has been building for years between Han Chinese, who make up 92 percent of China's population and dominate its politics and economy, and Uighurs, who once were the majority in the far west, but whose presence there has shrunk in recent decades because of migration by Han Chinese.

Although the Chinese government says its policies have improved Uighurs' educational and job opportunities, some Uighurs say its goal is to assimilate them at the expense of their language, religion and culture.

In the past, the government has linked Uighur separatism to a group known as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which it characterizes as a terrorist organization and blames for some recent attacks. Some analysts say that China exaggerates the influence of this group.

When it comes to the events of July 5, Dong Guanpeng, director of the Global Journalism Institute at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said he thinks China is being honest this time, but that doubts have been cast on the information it is releasing because Kadeer is "doing a better job than the Chinese government in public relations."

"Of course, Rebiya's statements have won sympathy in foreign countries," Dong said. "They contain beautiful lies."

Kadeer's version of events appears to have gained traction abroad. In Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expressed solidarity with China's Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking minority group, and described the riots as "a kind of genocide." Protesters in Tokyo, Washington, Munich and Amsterdam have descended on Chinese embassies and consulates demanding a full account of what happened to Uighurs. A top Iranian cleric condemned China for "horribly" suppressing the community, and al-Qaeda's North African arm vowed to avenge Uighurs' deaths.

Zhan Jiang, a professor of journalism and mass communications at the China Youth University for Political Sciences, contends that the Chinese government inadvertently elevated Kadeer's status and gave her an audience that she does not deserve. Beijing has accused Kadeer of being the "mastermind" behind the clashes in Urumqi, accusations she denies.

"The government should haven't portrayed her as a hero by condemning her. She was unknown at first, and she is a well-known person in the world right now," Zhan said.

Gaps in Both Stories

Meanwhile, China has hit back by assigning some blame to third parties. The Communist Party's People's Daily newspaper said that the United States backed the "separatists" who launched the attacks. It also said that Kadeer's organization received funds from the National Endowment for Democracy, which in turn is funded by the U.S. Congress. Separately, the official China Daily has played up the terrorism angle, saying that the riots were meant to "help" al-Qaeda and were related to the continuing U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.

Some analysts say there are holes in both sides' narratives.

For instance, according to Kadeer's timeline of events, the violence was triggered by police who "under the cover of darkness . . . began to fire" on the protesters. But witnesses have said the rioting began about 8 p.m. Beijing time, when the sun was still up in Urumqi, 1,500 miles west of Beijing.

Chang Chungfu, a specialist in Muslim and Uighur studies at the National Chengchi University in Taiwan, said "the two parties -- the government and Kadeer -- are choosing the parts of the stories that favor their own agendas," in efforts to win foreign sympathy.

He said he considers it "unlikely that a peaceful protest turned into violence against innocent people just because of policemen cracking down," suggesting at least a measure of organization to the Uighurs' attacks on Han Chinese that night.

On the other hand, Chang said, he is skeptical of the government's assertions that Kadeer instigated the attacks because she lacks that kind of power. Furthermore, he said, "the government hasn't released detailed information of those who were killed, such as their ages and identities, so even the number of dead is in doubt."

Li Wei, a terrorism expert at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, which is affiliated with China's national security bureau, dismissed allegations by state media of involvement by outside terrorist groups. "I have not found any proof that points at linkage between the riot and other terrorism groups, including al-Qaeda," he said.

Li did say, however, that he believes Kadeer is in contact with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement.

Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based terrorism expert, blamed some of the tension on Beijing's failure to differentiate "between terrorists who attack and the political activities of separatists."

"If China is too hard on the Uighur people, then support of terrorism will grow," Gunaratna said. "The Chinese government must be hard on terrorists but soft on the Uighur people."

Researchers Liu Liu, Wang Juan and Zhang Jie contributed to this report.

Second Turkish 'Plot' Trial Opens

Fifty-six people, including two retired generals, journalists and academics, have gone on trial in Turkey accused of plotting to overthrow the government.

Prosecutors say they were members of a shadowy ultranationalist network - dubbed Ergenekon - which allegedly aimed to provoke a military coup.

The two generals, who are in their 60s, could face life in prison if convicted.

This is the second court case related to the Ergenekon case. Another 86 suspects went on trial in October.

The investigation has strained relations between the governing AK Party, which has its roots in political Islam, and the military, which considers itself the guardian of Turkey's secular constitution.

Last week, President Abdullah Gul approved a new law giving civilian courts the power to try military personnel suspected of threatening national security or having links to organised crime.

'Coup plans'

Forty-four of the defendants were present inside the courtroom at the heavily-guarded Silivri prison on the outskirts of Istanbul on Monday to hear the charges against them read out.

Gen Hursit Tolon, a former army commander, looked relaxed as he answered questions from the four-judge panel after being accused of masterminding a terrorist group and inciting armed rebellion against the government.

His co-accused, Gen Sener Eruygur, a former commander of the paramilitary gendarmerie forces, was not present because of ill-health.

According to the 1,909-page indictment, the two men "began implementing the coup plans they drew up in 2003-2004 while in office and continued their activities after they retired".

The allegations first surfaced in March 2007, when a magazine published excerpts from the purported diary of a former navy commander, which described how Gen Eruygur and several other senior officers had plotted coups but failed to secure the support of the heads of the armed forces.

After retiring, the indictment says, the two men used civil society groups to incite public opinion against the AKP-led government.

At the same time, it alleges, they helped set up Ergenekon, which is accused of being behind several violent attacks, including the bombing of a secularist newspaper in 2006 and an attack on the country's top administrative court in the same year, in which a judge died.

Targeting those key parts of the secular establishment were supposed to foment chaos and to provoke Turkey's military into launching a coup in defence of secular interests, it is alleged.

'Lie'

Other prominent suspected Ergenekon members who went on trial on Monday include two journalists who have frequently criticised the government, Mustafa Balbay and Tuncay Ozkan; two university rectors; and the head of the Ankara chamber of commerce.

All the defendants deny the charges, saying they are politically motivated and designed to undermine the AK Party's opponents.

About 200 people demonstrated against the trial outside the court building on Monday, many holding portraits of Ataturk, the secularist founder of modern Turkey.

"This trial is a lie. They are fabricating evidence to arrest Ataturk's followers," one protestor, Suzan Demirten, told the Associated Press.

The BBC's David O'Byrne in Istanbul says it is unclear if the presiding judge will now decide to merge the proceedings with the ongoing trial of the 86 other suspects in the Ergenekon case, who include several other senior military personnel.

What is certain, however, is that few Turks doubt that at least some truth lies behind the accusations of coup plotting by elements of the military, our correspondent says.

And equally few doubt that whatever the result of the trials, the delicate balance of power between the Turkey's political and military elites has changed irrevocably, he adds.

U.S. Agrees to Resettle Palestinians Displaced by Iraq War

By MIRIAM JORDAN

The U.S. agreed to resettle 1,350 Palestinians displaced by fighting in Iraq, marking the largest resettlement ever of Palestinian refugees in the nation.

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Associated Press

A woman walks in a compound for Palestinian refugees in Baghdad, where many Palestinians fled after the U.S. invasion of Iraq

The decision appears to signal a shift in Washington's previous position against resettling Palestinians out of concern about the potential impact on U.S. relations with Israel and the Arab world. The resettlement, which is slated to begin this fall, is likely to illicit strong reactions from people on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A State Department spokesman said the U.S. is responding to an appeal from the United Nations' refugee agency, UNHCR, which has been providing assistance to some 3,000 Palestinians stuck in three makeshift camps in the desert in the Syrian-Iraqi border region.

Middle Eastern scholars and refugee experts believe Washington felt pressured to help solve the humanitarian crisis created by the U.S.-led invasion. Some of the Palestinians have lived in the camps for more than three years.

"These particular Palestinians are a fallout from the Iraq War," said George Bisharat, a professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law, who specializes in Middle Eastern law. "The Obama administration had to take some responsibility for the consequences of the invasion."

However, resettling such a large number of Palestinians in the U.S. is a potentially volatile issue.

Many Arab countries interpreted President Barack Obama's speech in Cairo last month as an attempt to put U.S. relations with Islamic nations on a new course and dissipate the strain that characterized ties during the Bush administration. They see the offer of accepting Palestinian refugees as an early sign of a new openness.

Meanwhile, some supporters of Israel are concerned that the resettlement might alter the U.S.'s approach toward Israel.

Ziad Asali, president of the American Task Force on Palestine, a Washington advocacy group, applauded the U.S. decision, calling it "a significant step ... consistent with the new U.S. message of accommodation and finding solutions with the Muslim world."

However, Mr. Asali cautioned that it is bound to irk Palestinian and Arab leaders who interpret U.S. willingness to resettle Palestinians -- which comes with full rights such as citizenship down the road -- as "a conspiracy to liquidate the Palestinian refugee issue." With the exception of Jordan, no country in the Middle East has granted citizenship to Palestinian refugees. Many Arab countries believe that fully integrating large numbers of Palestinian refugees would undercut their demand for an independent state.

At least one pro-Israel group in the U.S. deems it a mistake to absorb the Palestinian Iraqis, who were welcomed by Saddam Hussein and regarded as loyal supporters of his regime. "We don't think that Washington should be bringing in a group of people who we know were publicly and consistently hostile to the United States and its closest ally, Israel," said Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America.

An Israeli government spokesman said that "Israel has no official position on this internal American issue."

Like other refugees, the Palestinians will be resettled across the U.S., based on where resettlement agencies partnering with the U.S. government decide housing and job opportunities are available. Refugees who have relatives in the U.S. are likely to be settled near their families.

Palestinians moved to Iraq after Arab-Israeli conflicts in 1948 and 1967, and following the Gulf War in 1991. The community grew to nearly 35,000. "Saddam Hussein made a point of using Palestinian refugees to show solidarity with the Palestinian cause," said Bill Frelick, refugee-policy director at Human Rights Watch in Washington.

The preferential treatment bred resentment among many Iraqis. After Baghdad fell to U.S.-led forces in 2003, Palestinians became a target for harassment and violence, including bombings and murder. A particular point of contention had been the government's provision of subsidized housing for Palestinians, often at the expense of mostly Shiite landlords who received little rent from the government in return.

After Mr. Hussein was deposed, many landlords evicted their Palestinian tenants, who are mainly Sunni Muslims. Driven out of Baghdad and other cities, the Palestinians tried to flee to neighboring Syria and Jordan, which already host hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees. When those countries blocked their entry, the displaced Palestinians sought refuge in camps that lack basic infrastructure and jeopardize their health and safety, said Mr. Frelick.

In October, the UNHCR issued an appeal to countries traditionally open to resettlement for urgent action after fruitless calls for help from humanitarian organizations. "It is priority that all these camps close by the end of the year because conditions are not sustainable," said Tim Irwin, a UNHCR spokesman in Washington.

The U.S. committed to absorb the largest number of Iraqi Palestinians. Sweden, the Netherlands and the U.K. also joined the effort, he said. So far, 24 Palestinian refugees have been resettled in the U.S. The remainder are expected to arrive by early 2010.

Write to Miriam Jordan at miriam.jordan@wsj.com