Türkiye-Ermenistan yakınlaşma protokollerinin imzalanmasının yankıları sürerken, Washington’dan gelen “Ermeni lobisi ABD Senatosuna yeni bir sözde soykırım tasarısı sundu” haberi hayal kırıklığı yarattı.

Ancak sözkonusu tasarıyı sunan iki senatör, Robert Menendez ve John Ensign’ın politik sicilleri oldukça kirli olduğu ortaya çıktı.

ANKA

Ankara - Türkiye-Ermenistan yakınlaşma protokollerinin imzalanmasının yankıları sürerken, Washington’dan gelen “Ermeni lobisi ABD Senatosuna yeni bir sözde soykırım tasarısı sundu” haberi hayal kırıklığı yarattı. Ancak sözkonusu tasarıyı sunan iki senatör, Robert Menendez ve John Ensign’ın politik sicilleri oldukça kirli olduğu ortaya çıktı. Biri Küba kökenli, diğeri bir kumarhane kralının evlatlık oğlu olan iki senatörün 1915 olaylarına ilgisi, bilgiden çok para kazanma hırsına dayandığı iddia edildi. Tasarıyı sunan iki bariş karşıtı senatörün kamuoyuna yansıyan “skandalları” ise şöyle:

New Jersey senatörü Robert Menendez

New Jersey eyaletinde Türklerin de yoğun olarak yaşadığı Hudson ilçesinden politikaya atılan ve şu anda ABD’deki en güçlü Demokrat Parti mensuplarından biri olarak görülen Robert Menendez, aslen Küba kökenli. Fidel Castro’ya karşı gündeme getirdiği tasarılarla ün yapan Menendez’in Türk medyasında gündeme gelmeyen skandalları, bundan birkaç yıl önce ABD’de gazete sayfalarını süslüyordu. Menendez’in yanında çalışan Kay LiCausi isimli bir kadınla romantik ve cinsel ilişkiye girmesi ve hemen ardından da LiCausi’nin politikadaki gücünü (Menendez’i) kullanarak yüzbinlerce dolar para kazandığı iddiaları, ABD’de halen konuşulan politik bir skandal. 1998 yılında 26 yaşında bir üniversite mezunu olarak Menendez’in yanında işe başlayan Kay LiClausi, kısa süre içinde kariyerinin basamaklarını çok hızlı bir şekilde tırmanmaya ve ayda onbinlerce dolar para kazanmaya başladı. Lobi ihalelerini “sevgilisine” vermeye başladığı iddia edilen Senatör Menendez, hiçbir zaman LiCausi ile olan ilişkisini reddetmedi. Uzun yıllar önce eşinden boşanan Menendez’in LiCausi ile olan ilişkisinden çok, Amerikan basını ünlü politikacının şahsi gücünü kullanarak sevgilisine onbinlerce dolar para kazandırması konusuna yoğunlaştı. Detayları hiçbir zaman açıklanmayan ve aylık 20 bin doları geçen LiClausi’nin gelirinin, Ermenilerin de içinde bulunduğu lobi örgütleri tarafından karşılandığı öne sürüldü.Birçok kez mahkemeye çağrılmalarına rağmen, LiClausi ve Menendez ile lobiciler arasında yasalara aykırı bir bağ kurulamadığı için hakimler henüz karar verebilmiş değil. Ancak kamuoyunda inanılan ve Amerikan basınının açıkça ortaya koyduğu bilgilere göre, Senatör Menendez, sevgilisi LiClausi’nin yüzbinlerce dolar tutarında haksız kazanç elde etmesini sağladı. Ellerinde yasal bir kanıt olmadığı için herhangi bir soruşturma açamayan savcılar, tüm baskılara rağmen Menendez’in skandalının peşini bırakmıyor. Politik gücünü sonuna kadar kullanmasına karşın Senator Menendez, henüz aklanabilmiş degil.

Nevada Senatörü John Ensign
Türkiye’ye karşı Ermeni lobisinin en çok güvendiği politikacılardan biri olan Cumhuriyetçi Parti Nevada Senatörü John Ensign’ın geçmişi de hiç temiz değil.Ünlü kumarhane şehri Las Vegas’ın da içinde bulunduğu Nevada eyaletinde yaşayan bir kumarhane kralının evlatlığı olan Ensign, bu yaz iki yıl önce yanında çalışan Cindy Hampton isimli bir bayanla cinsel ilişkiye girdiğini itiraf etti. Evli ve üç çocuk babası olan John Ensign’ın seks skandalını daha da kötü yapan olay, cinsel ilişkiye girdiği çalışanının kocası Douglas Hampton’un da senatörle birlikte çalışıyor olmasıydı. Çalışanıyla cinsel ilişkiye girdiğini bir basın toplantısıyla itiraf eden Ensign “Geçen sene bir ilişkiye girdim. Evlilik sözleşmeme ihanet ettim” ifadesini kullanırken, Amerikan basını Nevada senatörünün ilişkiye girdiği bayana verdiği “sus payı”nı da gündeme taşıdı.

İddialara göre, Cindy Hampton’un aylık maaşı senatörle ilişkiye girmeye başladıktan sonra 1385 dolardan 2771 dolara çıkarıldı. Seçim kampanyasından da maaş alan bayan Hampton’un buradaki aylık maaşı da 500 dolardan 1000 dolara yükseltildi. Bu arada Ensign-Hampton ilişkisi devam ederken, bay Douglas Hampton senatörün yanındaki işinden ayrıldı ve Ensign tarafından seçim kampanyasına yüklü miktarda maddi bağışta bulunan bir şirkette işe yerleştirildi.

İlişkisini itiraf ettikten sonra Hampton çiftini kendisine karşı şantaj yapmakla suçlayan Ensign’a en sert cevap yine Hampton’lardan geldi. Aile, senatöre karşı özel bir avukat tutarak eski patronlarını “seks istismarı ve seks istismarına dayalı ayırımcılık” suçuyla mahkemeye vereceklerini açıkladı. Skandal şimdilik donmuş durumda. Douglas Hampton, Temmuz ayında yaptığı açıklamada Senatör Ensign’in eşine işten ayrılması karşılığında 25 bin dolar tazminat ödediğini söylerken, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Washington’da Sorumluluk ve Etik için Vatandaşlar) isimli temiz toplum örgütü, “Senatör Ensign’ın bu tür bir ödemeyi vergi dairesine bildirmediğini ve bunun da cezası en az beş yıl hapis olan bir suç olduğunu” duyurdu.

John Ensign, Monica Lewinsky skandalı sırasında devrin ABD Başkanı Bill Clinton’ın ya istifa etmesi ya da görevden alınması için en çok çaba harcayan politikacılarından biriydi. 13 Temmuz 2004 tarihinde Senato’da evliliğin önemi üzerine konuşan Nevada Senatörü John Ensign, Ermeni yalanlarına ek olarak tutucu Hristiyanların politikadaki sözcülerinden biri olarak görülüyor.

(AU Federal Government does not endorse South Wales Parliament’s Genocide decision – said Ambassador Peter Doyle on May 8th, on Press release)

Bilindiği gibi Güney Avustralya Parlamentosu, Rum ve Ermeni lobilerinin ortak gayretleri sonucunda, Ermeni soykırımını (Avustrala Elçiliğimizin yoğun çalışmalarına rağmen, politik rantlar nedeniyle) kabul etmişti.

Büyük Elçiliğimiz, TF tarafından da yayınlanan bir basın açıklaması ile karşı tutumunu Avustralya kamuoyuna duyurmuştu. Arkadan, Ankara Dışişleri bakanlıgı Avustralya Elçisini çağırıp, tutumunu belirtmiş ve arkasından gayet yumuşak bir ifade ile bunun Türk-Avustralya münsabetlerine getireceği zararı vurgulamıştı.
Öğrenildiğine göre, Avustralya Ankara B. elçisi (her halde hükümetinden aldığı talimat uyarınca) Avustralya Federal Hükümetinin böyle bir kararı onaylamaya veya bu konulara karışmaya niyeti olmadığını bildirdi.

Bu durumda, Rum-Ermeni lobisinin gayretleri gol olamamıştır.

Bu konuda, B. Elçiliğimizin ve Dışişleri bakanlığımızın ilgili bölümleri tebrike şayan bir diplomatik başarı sağlamışlardır.

Haberi sizlerle paylaşmaktayım.

Sukru S. Aya
ssaya@superonline.com

Mr Peter Doyle

Ambassador to Turkey
Biography

Mr Doyle is a career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Until mid- 2007, he was Deputy Head of Mission in Kuala Lumpur and prior to holding that position he was Deputy Head of Mission in Dhaka from 1997 to 2000. In Canberra, Mr Doyle has held a range of positions including Director, People Smuggling, Refugee and Immigration Section from 2001 to 2003 and Executive Officer in the Corporate Planning Section in 2001. He has also worked on South and South-East Asia issues.

Educated at the University of Queensland, Mr Doyle holds Bachelor of Law and Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degrees. Mr Doyle is married with two children.

Turkey, Armenia sign deal to resume ties
October 11, 2009 - 6:49AM
AFP
Turkey and Armenia's foreign ministers have signed pacts to establish ties, in a first step to reconciliation after nearly a century of bitterness over World War I-era massacres.
Armenian Foreign Minister Edouard Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu shook hands after signing the two protocols in a ceremony at a university in the Swiss city of Zurich on Saturday.
But the two ministers and US, Russian, French and Swiss foreign ministers immediately left the room and failed to make their scheduled statements after the signature.
"No problems, they signed," said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner afterwards.
The deals to establish diplomatic ties and regular dialogue, as well as open their common border, still have to clear the hurdle of parliamentary ratification in each country before they can take effect.
The ceremony attended by US, Russian, French and EU officials was delayed for more than three hours after "a last minute hitch" with the Armenians over the closing statements, according to a US official.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with US and Swiss diplomats in tow rushed back to a hotel to iron out the concerns expressed by Nalbandian.
A Turkish diplomatic source said the parties had decided not to make any statements to avoid the problem that had triggered the delay.
© 2009

BE FAIR MR. FISK ... your are grouching again!!!

WHat about the lost and killed Turks Mr. Fisk?

....Robert Fisk grouches again!!!


Robert Fisk: Genocide forgotten: Armenians horrified by treaty with Turkey

A new trade deal is set to gloss over the murder of 1.5 million people

Thursday, 8 October 2009 In the autumn of 1915, an Austrian engineer called Litzmayer, who was helping build the Constantinople-Baghdad railway, saw what he thought was a large Turkish army heading for Mesopotamia. But as the crowd came closer, he realised it was a huge caravan of women, moving forward under the supervision of soldiers.

The 40,000 or so women were all Armenians, separated from their men – most of whom had already had their throats cut by Turkish gendarmerie – and deported on a genocidal death march during which up to 1.5 million Armenians died.

Subjected to constant rape and beatings, some had already swallowed poison on their way from their homes in Erzerum, Serena, Sivas, Bitlis and other cities in Turkish western Armenia. "Some of them," Bishop Grigoris Balakian, one of Litzmayer's contemporaries, recorded, "had been driven to such a state that they were mere skeletons enveloped in rags, with skin that had turned leathery, burned from the sun, cold, and wind.

Many pregnant women, having become numb, had left their newborns on the side of the road as a protest against mankind and God." Every year, new evidence emerges about this mass ethnic cleansing, the first holocaust of the last century; and every year, Turkey denies that it ever committed genocide.

Yet on Saturday – to the horror of millions of descendants of Armenian survivors – the President of Armenia, Serg Sarkissian, plans to agree to a protocol with Turkey to re-open diplomatic relations, which should allow for new trade concessions and oil interests. And he proposes to do this without honouring his most important promise to Armenians abroad – to demand that Turkey admit it carried out the Armenian genocide in 1915.
In Beirut yesterday, outside Mr Sarkissian's hotel, thousands of Armenians protested against this trade-for-denial treaty. "We will not forget," their banners read. "Armenian history is not for sale." They called the President a traitor. "Why should our million and a half martyrs be put up for sale?" one of them asked. "And what about our Armenian lands in Turkey, the homes our grandparents left behind? Sarkissian is selling them too."

The sad truth is that the 5.7 million Armenian diaspora, scattered across Russia, the US, France, Lebanon and many other countries, are the descendants of the western Armenians who bore the brunt of Turkish Ottoman brutality in 1915.

Tiny, landlocked, modern-day Armenia – its population a mere 3.2 million, living in what was once called eastern Armenia – is poor, flaunts a dubious version of democracy and is deeply corrupt. It relies on remittances from its wealthier cousins overseas; hence Mr Sarkissian's hopeless mission to New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Beirut and Rostov-on-Don to persuade them to support the treaty, to be signed by the Armenian and Turkish Foreign Ministers in Switzerland.

The Turks have also been trumpeting a possible settlement to the territory of Nagorno-Karabagh, part of historic Armenia seized from Azerbaijan by Armenian militias almost two decades ago – not without a little ethnic cleansing by Armenians, it should be added. But it is the refusal of the Yerevan government to make Turkey's acknowledgement of the genocide a condition of talks that has infuriated the diaspora.

"The Armenian government is trying to sweeten the taste for us by suggesting that Turkish and Armenian historians sit down to decide what happened in 1915," one of the Armenians protesting in Beirut said.
"But would the Israelis maintain diplomatic relations if the German government suddenly called the Jewish Holocaust into question and suggested it all be mulled over by historians?"
Betrayal has always been in the air. Barack Obama was the third successive US President to promise Armenian electors that he would acknowledge the genocide if he won office – and then to betray them, once elected, by refusing even to use the word. Despite thunderous denunciations in the aftermath of the Armenian genocide by Lloyd George and Churchill – the first British politician to call it a holocaust – the Foreign Office also now meekly claims that the "details" of the 1915 massacres are still in question. Yet still the evidence comes in, even from this newspaper's readers. In a letter to me, an Australian, Robert Davidson, said his grandfather, John "Jock" Davidson, a First World War veteran of the Australian Light Horse, had witnessed the Armenian genocide: "He wrote of the hundreds of Armenian carcasses outside the walls of Homs. They were men, women and children and were all naked and had been left to rot or be devoured by dogs.
"The Australian Light Horsemen were appalled at the brutality done to these people. In another instance his company came upon an Armenian woman and two children in skeletal condition. She signed to them that the Turks had cut the throats of her husband and two elder children."
In his new book on Bishop Balakian, Armenian Golgotha, the historian Peter Balakian (the bishop's great-nephew) records how British soldiers who had surrendered to the Turks at Kut al-Amara in present-day Iraq and were sent on their own death march north – of 13,000 British and Indian soldiers, only 1,600 would survive – had spoken of frightful scenes of Armenian carnage near Deir ez-Zour, not far from Homs in Syria. "In those vast deserts," the Bishop said, "they had come upon piles of human bones, crushed skulls, and skeletons stretched out everywhere, and heaps of skeletons of murdered children."

When the foreign ministers sit down to sign their protocol in Switzerland on Saturday, they must hope that blood does not run out of their pens.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-genocide-forgotten-armenians-horrified-by-treaty-with-turkey-1799302.html



"Robert Fisk: Obama falls short on Armenian pledge ";

Tuesday, 28 April 2009

It was clever, crafty – artful, even – but it was not the truth. For in the end, Barack Obama dishonoured his promise to his American-Armenian voters to call the deliberate mass murder of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in 1915 a genocide. How grateful today's Turkish generals must be.

Genocide is what it was, of course. Mr Obama agreed in January 2008 that "the Armenian genocide is not an allegation... but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian genocide... I intend to be that President." But he was not that President on the anniversary of the start of the genocide at the weekend. Like Presidents Clinton and George Bush, he called the mass killings "great atrocities" and even tried to hedge his bets by using the Armenian phrase "Meds Yeghern" which means the same thing – it's a phrase that elderly Armenians once used about the Nazi-like slaughter – but the Armenian for genocide is "chart". And even that was missing.

Thus once more – after Hilary Clinton's pitiful response to the destruction of Palestinian homes by the Israelis (she called it "unhelpful") – Mr Obama has let down those who believed he would tell the truth about the truth. He didn't even say that Turkey was responsible for the mass slaughter and for sending hundreds of thousands of Armenian women and children on death marches into the desert. "Each year," he said, "we pause to remember the 1.5 million Armenians who were massacred or marched to their death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire." Yes, "massacred" and "marched to their death". But by whom? The genocide – the deliberate extermination of a people – had disappeared, as had the identity of the perpetrators. Mr Obama referred only to "those who tried to destroy" the Armenians.

Instead, he waffled on about "the efforts by Turkey and Armenia to normalise their bilateral relations" – a reference to the appeal of landlocked Armenia appeal to reopen its border with Turkey thanks to Swiss mediation (via another of America's favourite "road maps") – and the hope that Turkish and Armenian relations would grow stronger "as they acknowledge their common history and recognise their common humanity". But the only real improvement in relations has been an Armenian-Turkish football match.

Turkey is still demanding a commission to "investigate" the 1915 killings, a proposal the poverty-broken Armenian state opposes on the grounds (as Obama, of course, agreed before he became President) that the genocide was a fact, not a matter in dispute. It doesn't have to be "re-proved" with Turkey's permission any more that the Jewish survivors of their own genocide have to "re-prove" the crimes of the Nazis in the face of a reluctant Germany.

Armenian historian and academic Peter Balakian – speaking as he stood by a 1915 mass grave of Armenians in the Syrian desert – was quite frank. "What is creating moral outrage," he said, "is that Turkey is claimed to be trying to have a commission into what happened – when the academic world has already unanimously agreed on the historical record." So much, then, for one-and-a-half-million murdered men, women and children.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/robert-fisk-obama-falls-short-on-armenian-pledge-1675197.html

Turkey, Armenia sign historic accord

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 4 mins ago

ZURICH – Turkey and Armenia signed an accord Saturday to establish diplomatic relations after a century of enmity, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton helped the two sides clear a last-minute snag.

"It was pulled back from the brink," said a senior U.S. official

The Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers signed the agreement in the Swiss city of Zurich after a dispute over the final statements they would make. In the end, the signing took place about three hours later and there were no spoken statements.
Officials say Clinton and mediators from Switzerland intervened to help broker a solution.
The accord is expected to win ratification from both nations' parliaments and could lead to a reopening of their border, which has been closed for 16 years.

But nationalists on both sides are still seeking to derail implementation of the deal.
American officials said Clinton; the top U.S. diplomat for Europe, Philip Gordon; and Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey were engaged in furious high-stakes shuttle diplomacy with the Turkish and Armenian delegations to resolve the differences.

Diplomats said the Armenians were concerned about wording in the Turkish statement that was to be made after the signing ceremony at University of Zurich and had expressed those concerns "at the last minute" before the scheduled signing ceremony.

Clinton had arrived at the ceremony venue after meeting separately with the Turks and Armenians at a hotel, but abruptly departed without leaving her car when the problem arose.
She returned to the hotel where she spoke by phone from the sedan in the parking lot, three times with the Armenians and four times with the Turks. At one point in the intervention, a Swiss police car, lights and siren blazing, brought a Turkish diplomat to the hotel from the university with a new draft of his country's statement.

After nearly two hours, Clinton and Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian met in person at the hotel and drove back to the university where negotiations continued. It was not clear if there would be a resolution.

In the end, the Turks and Armenians signed an accord establishing diplomatic ties in hope of reopening their border and ending a century of acrimony over their bloody past. Their parliaments are expected to ratify it, but nationalists on both sides are seeking to derail implementation of the agreement.

Protests have been particularly vociferous among the Armenian diaspora.

"The success of Turkey in pressuring Armenia into accepting these humiliating, one-sided protocols proves, sadly, that genocide pays," said Ken Hachikian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America.

Major countries, however, expressed their support for the accord, with the foreign ministers of the United States, Russia, France and the European Union in the room to watch the much-delayed signing.

"No problem, they signed," quipped French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
In Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country was showing "goodwill" to restore ties with Armenia. But he said Turkey was keen on seeing Armenian troops withdrawn from Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-occupied enclave in Azerbaijan that has been a center of regional tensions.

"We are trying to boost our relations with Armenia in a way that will cause no hard feelings for Azerbaijan," Erdogan told reporters.

Armenian President Serge Sarkisian said his country was taking "responsible decisions" in normalizing relations with Turkey, despite what he called the unhealable wounds of genocide.
The agreement calls for a panel to discuss "the historical dimension" of the killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians during World War I. The discussion is to include "an impartial scientific examination of the historical records and archives to define existing problems and formulate recommendations."

That clause is viewed as a concession to Turkey, which denies genocide, contending the toll is inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war.

"There is no alternative to the establishment of the relations with Turkey without any precondition," said Sarkisian. "It is the dictate of the time."

Clinton, Kouchner and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were among the leaders who were on hand to watch the signing as it took place.

Better ties between Turkey, a regional heavyweight, and poor, landlocked Armenia are a priority for President Barack Obama. They could help reduce tensions in the troubled Caucasus region and facilitate its growing role as a corridor for energy supplies bound for the West.
Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, thanked Turkey, which is a candidate for European Union membership.

"This is an important cooperation, no doubt, of Turkey to solve one issue that pertains to a region which is in our neighborhood," Solana told AP Television News after arriving in Zurich.
Switzerland, which mediated six weeks of talks between Turkey and Armenia to reach the accord, hosted the signing.

Necati Cetinkaya, a deputy chairman of Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party, defended the deal, saying "sincere steps that are being taken will benefit Turkey." He said Turkey is aiming to form friendly ties with all its neighbors and could benefit from trade with Armenia.

But Yilmaz Ates of the main opposition Republican People's Party said Turkey should avoid any concessions.

"If Armenia wants to repair relations ... then it should end occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh. That's it," Ates said Saturday.
About 10,000 protesters rallied Friday in Armenia's capital to oppose the signing, and a tour of Armenian communities by Sarkisian sparked protests in Lebanon and France, with demonstrators in Paris shouting "Traitor!"

On the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, Turks have close cultural and linguistic ties with Azerbaijan, which is pressing Turkey for help in recovering its land. Turkey shut its border with Armenia to protest the Armenian invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh in 1993.

Turkey wants Armenia to withdraw some troops from the enclave area to show goodwill and speed the opening of their joint border, but Armenia has yet to agree, said Omer Taspinar, Turkey project director at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

"We may end up in a kind of awkward situation where there are diplomatic relations, but the border is still closed," Taspinar said.
___
Associated Press Writers Alexander G. Higgins and Bradley S. Klapper in Zurich, Avet Demourian in Yerevan, Armenia, and Christopher Torchia in Istanbul contributed to this report. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_turkey_armenia