Why would Turkey wish to destroy its ownhomeland? The Boston Globe March 26, 2002 To the Editor: Theodore G. Karakostas' counterfactual polemic against Turkey is more to be marveled at for audacity than imitated ("US should press Turkey on terrorism," March 25, 2002). Greece attacked Turkey in 1920 coveting its dismembership and conquest. Its aggression was foiled by Mustafa Kemal. The best historical evidence implicates Greeks in the burning and mass slaughters at Smyrna. Why would Turkey wish to destroy its own homeland? Pursuant to the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, the vast majority of Greeks in Asia Minor were relocated to Greece and vice versa for Turks located in Greece. Greeks were not unilaterally expelled. During the Ottoman Empire, Greeks, Armenians, and Jews alike prospered under the millet system enjoying enormous autonomy then unheard of in Europe. Members of the three religious minorities occupied the highest levels of the Ottoman civil service and stood at the commanding heights of the Ottoman economy. Ataturk's secularization of Turkey, including the abolition of the Caliphate in 1924, provoked threats from extremist Muslims abroad to conduct jihad against himself. He stood boldly against the threat, and ended religious fanaticism that has torn many nations asunder. The alleged Armenian genocide remains unproven. Esteemed scholars such as William Langer, Bernard Lewis, Justin McCarthy, and Stanford Shaw dispute the genocide characterization. Israeli Foreign Minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Shimon Peres, echoes their conclusion. No Ottoman official was ever convicted of Armenian massacres by the Allied victors despite a meticulous effort by the British to discover incriminating evidence. Exemplary of the fragility of the genocide charge is the furious effort by Armenian lobby groups to purge all public school instruction of materials at variance with their genocide dogmas. Accordingly, Mr. Karakostas places censorship on the wrong foot. First-hand reports by the Washington Post and Undersecretary of State, George Ball, convict Greeks and Greek Cypriots of genocide of Turkish Cypriots in 1963-64, followed by the same villainy in 1974. Turkey's intervention in the latter year to foil the genocide was held irreproachable under the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee in a 1979 decision of the Athens Court of Appeal. Nicos Sampson, the Greek terrorist leader of the 1974 aggression, boasted to an Athens newspaper in 1981 that he would have exterminated or evicted all Turkish Cypriots from the island if Turkish forces had not arrived. In 1975, Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders arranged for a voluntary exchange of populations to further harmony and amity between the two communities. Like all nations, Turkey is not sinless. It is working assiduously to address its shortcomings with stunning legal and constitutional reforms, including 34 recent liberalizing constitutional amendments. Constructive prodding is welcome. Character assassination of the likes of Mr. Karakostas is both poisonous and counterproductive. Sincerely, Bruce Fein Adjunct scholar and general counsel Assembly of Turkish American Associations *** Law Abiding Kurdish Citizens Need No High-Wire Acts TO: Los Angeles Times March 19, 2002 Amberin Zaman's news article "Kurdish Mayors' Job Is a High-Wire Act" (Marc 18) is incomplete and misleading. It is also full of loaded remarks that simply ignore the side of the story, and thus, a great disservice to unsuspecting readers. After reading this article, one comes away with views that Kurds are being subjected to unprovoked oppressions and that these romantic "separatist Kurdish guerillas" are fighting for justice. First, those so called "guerillas" of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organization bent on carving a part of Turkey to create a Kurdistan, caused 40,000 citizens, mostly unarmed non-combatants, to be killed in a campaign of terror PKK started in 1984. It is recognized as a terrorist organization by our own State Department, as well as major European nations like United Kingdom and Germany. I dare the staff writer to call 9/11 perpetrators "guerillas". I dare the staff writer to call Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists "guerillas". Then, she will see the American public's wrath unleashed on her. It is easy to be engaged in "Turkey-bashing", as the staff writer does, with deliberate misrepresentations. "... Hundreds of the party's officials have been detained during the last year in violent police raids, and 10 of the mayors face criminal charges as they struggle to run their cities..." But why? Why doesn't the writer also include that this part advocates separation from Turkey and that their symbolism is anti-Turkish? Last time I looked, separatism in USA was not allowed either! What free democracy would allow a party that advocates, in a thinly veiled form, armed rebellion and separatism? "... Seven families in the largest Kurdish province...(for) giving their children Kurdish names..." Doesn't the staff writer know that a Kurdish father won a supreme court battle in March of 1999 and that a precedent has now been set for giving Kurdish names? Why look for solutions outside the law? Why not stick to the legal system? Why guns and killing and terrorism? ".. Turkish prosecutors charged an elementary school teacher in Diyarbakir... for putting a Kurdish-language love poem on his wedding invitation..." Sounds innocent enough? Why not, then let the legal system deal with it? If it is innocent enough, he will be acquitted. If he is calling for armed rebellion under the guise of "love poem", then he will do the time for his crime. "... The municipality's debts all have been cleared, Cin says, largely because residents who once made a habit of dodging property taxes and utility bills now pay willingly and on time..." With one damning, all encompassing, sweeping, and unfair statement like this, all the help provided by the Turkish taxpayers and the Turkish government are conveniently swept under the rug. Does the staff writer really think that any region in Turkey can grow in a vacuum, without help from the rest of the country? If yes, then she can believe the world is flat. If no, then stop deceiving the American public. What the staff writer unfairly paints as "repression" the events in Turkey, is nowadays more correctly termed "a democracy's right to defend itself", just like what the our young men and women are doing in the mountains of Afghanistan right now! Is it fair to say Turkey is wrong in fighting against Kurdish terrorists, but the US is right in fighting Al-Qaeda terrorists? Terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist! I wish the staff writer could also see this simple truth. Ergun KIRLIKOVALI California *** A wart on a pleasant face is a wart, not the entire picture TO: Letters to the Editor March 23, 2002 The Los Angeles Times To the Editor: Amberin Zaman impairs understanding of Turkish citizens of Kurdish ethnicity in a tendentious March 18, 2002 story, "Kurdish Mayors' Job Is a High-Wire Act." Kurds are over-represented in proportion to their numbers in Turkey's national assembly, ministries, judiciary, and civil service. Three have been president of Turkey. Their prosperity profile matches that of other Turkish citizens. Less than one in five cast votes for pro-Kurdish political parties in the last national elections. The Marxist-Leninist PKK is listed by the United States as a separatist terrorist organization, every bit as much as Al Qaeda, Hamas, or Hezbollah. Its leader, Abdullah Ocalan, was apprehended with the assistance of the United States and convicted of terrorism in a Turkish court in compliance with international human rights standards. Incitement to secession is a crime under Turkish law, as it is under American law, as the U.S. Civil War dramatically testified. Secession from Turkey is the North Star for extremist political groups. It speaks volumes on that score that Ms. Zaman fails to quote Mayor Emrullah Cin professing complete loyalty to the Republic of Turkey and its secular, democratic dispensation. The European Court of Human Rights has upheld the right of Turkey to ban anti-constitutional parties. The Government of Turkey has poured billions into the southeast where many Kurds reside to stimulate an economic boom, spending $7 for every $1 collected in taxes. A substantial enlargement of Kurdish political and cultural space has flowered in recent years, and enjoys the wholesale backing of Turkey's leadership circles. More than a score of landmark liberalizing constitutional amendments have been ratified. Shortcomings still remain, and should be attended with alacrity. But a wart on a pleasant face is a wart, not the entire picture as Mr. Zaman insinuates. Sincerely, Bruce Fein Adjunct scholar and general counsel Assembly of Turkish American Associations *** Cypriot Greeks, Turks have equal political status TO: The Washington Times March 29, 2002 The March 20 story, "Compromise for Cyprus?" while giving powerful insight into a complex and difficult issue, nevertheless contains certain misconceptions and misleading cliches that require a response. For instance, the concept of majority and minority politics is not applicable in the particular case of Cyprus, where there have always been two sides and two peoples who, regardless of their relative size, have equal political status. The agreements of 1960 gave the two parties forming the then-binational republic "co-founder partner" status, while the secretary-general of the United Nations, in a relevant report to the Security Council (S/21183), described the relationship between them as "not one of majority and minority" but of two political equals. Similarly, it is wrong and misleading to call the legal and justified Turkish intervention after the Greek coup d'etat of July 1974 an "invasion." This timely intervention saved the Turkish Cypriots from total extermination and prevented the complete takeover of the island by Greece, hence the destruction of the independence of Cyprus. It is significant to note that the U.N. organization has always used the neutral terminology of "intervention" in its official documents. As far as European Union involvement in the Cyprus dispute is concerned, it is unfortunate that it may have already done its damage to prospects for a settlement by signaling to the Greek Cypriot side that it could achieve membership without first reaching a settlement. This leaves the other side with hardly any incentive to reach a fair compromise with the Turkish Cypriots on equal terms. Any further involvement on the part of the EU, therefore, should only be aimed at correcting this wrong, by freezing the unilateral and unlawful application of the Greek Cypriot side until a viable and just settlement is reached on the island. OSMAN ERTUG Representative Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Washington *** Other Half of The Story... Monday, March 25, 2002 TO: George W. Bush President of the United States Dear President Bush, I am told that you are receiving much correspondence asking you to commemorate the "Armenian Genocide." While I think it is appropriate to honor the Armenians who are respectable citizens of America and the world, and it is appropriate to address the desire to address global issues of genocide, I believe the current effort to legislate history is inappropriate. As you may know, many Turks were massacred by Armenians during the period during and after World War I. The Turks, who were identified with the crumbling Ottoman empire, were, for a period, defenseless. Some Armenians took advantage of the situation, with French and Russian support, to seek revenge for atrocities committed 20 years earlier (under the repressive Sultan Abdul Hamid) and to try to carve out their own nation state at the expense of people of other ethnic groups living there. My mother-in-law's father, Dadas Ulus Karadag, witnessed the massacre of most of the unarmed Turkish inhabitants of his village of Haci Halil, near Kars, by Armenians, when he was a small child. Armenian partisans attacked the village one day and took Dadas' older brother, Ali, who was soon to be married, and the other young men; they were never seen again. The Armenian partisans then proceeded to sexually abuse the Turkish women. Finally, they locked the remaining inhabitants into one house, which they set on fire. Dadas, his mother, Ali's fiancée, and a few others escaped the burning house and survived. A friend, Saime Serim Aydogu tells of the massacre of her relatives in Oltu, near Erzurum. Many of the villagers were killed when Armenian partisans locked the Turk inhabitants into a single building, where the Armenians released an enraged bull, intentionally driven mad by use of medication. There is a long list of such massacres, and the estimates of the number of ethnic Turks who were killed by Armenians, Greeks, and others during this tumultuous period runs into the millions. The Turkish nationalist army regrouped and eventually attacked the Armenians. The details of the ensuing events are hotly debated, but certainly many Armenians died and many Armenian families still carry the pain of bereavement. To commemorate only the Armenian dead and not the Turkish and other dead, however, would be a travesty. It is important also to consider the modern political context. The Armenian government was responsible for massacring many Azeris and forcing many others from their homes during the recent war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenian nationalists refer to a portion of modern Turkey as "western Armenia," and apparently would like to annex it to modern Armenia. Turks have reason to be concerned about Armenian expansionism and the distortion of history to justify this aggressive attitude. I see genocide as a real and ever-present danger in our world and something with which Americans should be concerned. However, like any issue, this one can be abused. In our desire to express our concern and to set things right we need to avoid distorting the historical truth and fueling the passions which underlie cycles of revenge. Sincerely, Dan Metzel, Maryland *** We're Grateful for Turkey's Status in Middle East TO: Orange County Register Letters to the Editor Column March 28, 2002 I object to Mohiddine Akkada's statements on Turkey and the Turkish people ("Israel's hypocrisy is well known," Letters, March, 24). It is obvious Akkad does not know either Turkey or Turkish people. Yes, Turkey and Israel are the only democracies in the Middle East. Turks were lucky during the formation of the Turkish Republic under the able leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk to make many reforms. The right to vote and be elected was given to Turkish women during that time. If it weren't for Ataturk, Turkish women would be no different than many of the women in the Islamic countries. Women work very hard in most countries, including the Middle East, while most men pass their time at the local cafes. Yet not to be counted as citizens, not to be given the right to vote, not to be able to express their opinion is an outdated idea. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Only through the education of all citizens of one country, both men and women, can we go forward. The world is becoming smaller and smaller with the advancement of technology. Countries that do not give equal rights to their citizens are bound to fail. Sema Karaoglu California Ms. Karaoglu is founder of Daughters of Ataturk

Now a similar change is happening in the United States . In stead of a scientific revolution, this time the change is caused by an information revolution. This revolution is lifting the United States well above everyone's heads. Already the American military is undoubtedly the strongest in the World. The American economy is also the strongest in the World. We have about 5 % unemployment while the strongest country in Europe, Germany, has almost double that amount.. This American superiority is not caused by Europe's incompetence, but because of its choice,. Europe is governed by many socialist governments for which the perks of labor are very important. They want to live a soft life, they want to work much less than 40 hours a week. Of course they are trying to follow America's advances in information technology, but they are following it from a distance. When people have a safe and guaranteed life, they normally are not straining themselves to work hard and to produce much. In United States it is believed that a little uncertainty is good for everybody, because then people work harder and produce more. This difference between the U.S. and EU is increasing by the year. Soon Europe will be a second rate continent.

My readers know that I do not think Turkey should want to become a member of the EU. Turkey, too is governed by socialists who are eager to get Turkey into the socialist Europe. During the time of President Clinton, the U.S. has been pressuring the EU to accept Turkey as a member.. I do not think that Turkey will ever be accepted, mostly because of cultural differences. .Kamuran Zeren in Hurriyet (March 18) reports about a poll published by Pervanche Berez, member of the European Parliament, in which 74 % of Europeans voted against admitting Turkey as an EU member. Turkey was "the most unwanted state" . Europe has been doing something real dishonest: It has been getting Turkey to do anything it wanted by simply threatening it with refusing to accept it as a member, knowing real well that it will never accept it anyway.

Just recently a Turkish General , General Tuncer Kilinc, Secretary General of the National Security Council, said that Turkey should look for fresh alternatives to Europe, "which looks negatively on Turkey's national interests". He then added that in case the door to Europe is closed, Turkey could cooperate with Russia and Iran. This statement rattled the pens of most newspaper columnists and even irritated The Economist of London.

Actually there were three issues: ( 1) The fact that a General was making such a statement that is clearly against government policy , (2) The need for planning for an alternative to the EU, and (3) General Kilinc's suggested partners.

The fact that a general was making such a statement was obviously quite odd for a true European democracy, and the Economist deplored it. But Turkey is not a true European democracy. Turkish civilian politicians have proven time and time again that they were so incompetent and corrupt, that the much better educated military felt obligated to "guide them" from time to time. A Turkish Commander, in the book of Kinzer (Crescent and Star) says that the politicians are so ignorant, that the Turkish people would never forgive the Military, if it obeyed to them.. Thus, few people were surprised in Turkey that a general has spoken again.

The need for planning for an alternative to the EU membership was an obvious thought for a general. The military has the duty to plan for any eventuality. So he assumed that the civilians should also have as much sense. If I can guess from 6000 miles away that there is a strong likelihood that Europe will never admit Turkey, we should not be surprised that a Turkish general has also felt the same way, Only the general's suggested choice of future partners did not make any sense. Some people thought that he could not have meant it seriously, or he wanted just to shock the people and induce them to take the subject seriously.. Well he certainly has a lot of people wondering and thinking On March 12, 2002 Mehmet Yilmaz in Milliyet wrote an article titled "Is America opposed to [Turkey's] EU membership?" He was referring to a speech of a Turkish Associate Professor at Georgetown University, who said that Turkey has become very important now for the United States. that would prefer to deal closely with an independent Turkey, than with a EU member Turkey. Turkey may not be able to have today's close relationships with the U.S. and with Israel if it became a member of EU. Thus, the U.S. may no longer be pushing Europe to accept Turkey. This story is not based on any official statement, it is just sound reasoning by a young man.

If it is true, it will be tremendously in the interest of Turkey, as I perceive it. Right now, if by a miracle the Europeans would want to accept Turkey as a EU-member, Turkey will find out that it caught a train that is second class, just like the Ottoman Empire after 18th Century. If Turkey is really important for the U.S., It should be accepted into a common market with North America, such as NAFTA. Senator Moynihan had proposed it. Turkey would be much better off being in economic association with the U.S. and Israel than with a Europe that would accept it quite unwillingly. Turkey would be much better off associating with a superpower that is the fastest advancing first-class society.

Turkey is really lucky to get a second chance to escape from the false promise of Europe. In spite of the ideological attraction of the socialist prime minister to a socialist Europe, after all, Turkey might save herself from a second-class future and might forge a closer association with the superpower America and assure itself a better than second-class future.

Turkey and the European Union:Heading for a Break?
By Seda Ciftci, Research Assistant,Turkey Project, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), March 08 -It has long been clear that 2002 will be a crucial year in determining Turkey's relationship with the European Union (EU), and the current indications are far from favorable. By the end of the year, the EU will almost certainly proceed with the accession of 10 applicant countries, while Bulgaria and Romania as well as Turkey itself will be asked to wait. It also seems highly probable that the EU will not be able to give a precise date for the start of accession talks with Turkey. Having resumed serious pursuit of the goal of entry into the EU since the Helsinki Summit of 1999, Turkey seems to be heading instead toward the kind of disappointment that will prompt a review of its goal of integration with Western Europe.

Ankara has certainly demonstrated an impressive commitment recently to move forward with structural and political reforms in accordance with the Copenhagen Criteria specified by the EU as an essential precondition for the opening of membership negotiations. However, skeptical Turks claim that the EU has been "moving the goal posts" by pressuring Turkey to make additional constitutional changes with respect, in particular, to the rights of ethnic minorities and the abolition of the death penalty. After emerging successfully from a very difficult and costly 15-year war with the PKK which ended with the capture of its leader Abdullah Ocalan, Turkey's influential military establishment and nationalist politicians have been reluctant to sanction further movement on these issues, which touch on Turkey's long-standing concerns on the integrity of the state. They are equally disturbed by the EU's willingness to admit the Greek Cypriots in South Cyprus in the name of the entire island, even without a settlement, in the next wave of EU enlargement in 2004.

REFORMING FOR ACCESSION AND GROWING TENSIONS
2002 certainly began with a new spirit of optimism on the EU as well as the economy. Towards the end of last year, Turkey had taken steps to tackle long-standing difficulties bedeviling relations with the EU over European Security and Defense Policy and Cyprus. The EU summit at Laeken in December 2001 had encouraged Turkish hopes of finally beginning accession talks with the EU. Accordingly, Ankara quickened its democratic reforms aimed at bringing its national legislation closer to European democratic criteria. In early February, the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) approved a "mini-democratization" package of reforms covering freedom of expression and thought, while pursuing a deadline for achieving all short-term commitments by the end of March. Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz of the Motherland Party (MP), who has overall responsibility for coordination of the EU effort in the government, reiterated Turkey's "hope to start negotiations with the EU in 2003 and join to the bloc in 2007." However, the EU continued to resist Turkish demands for a pledge on a specific date for Turkey's accession negotiations and to argue that Turkey's reform steps were not sufficient to satisfy the Copenhagen Criteria. Guenter Verheugen, the EU Commissioner responsible for enlargement, visited Ankara on February 14 and stated that, although the reforms were an improvement in "the Turkish context," they were "inadequate from a European perspective." He said, "We expect that the next steps will address issues [that] were not addressed in areas like death penalty and education." Emphasizing the need for "full implementation" of the political criteria, Verheugen said that "the negotiation process and the timing are completely related [to] the progress seen in the country."

Research for "Turkey-EU agenda 2002," carried out by the Turkish-European Foundation in February, confirmed that 68 percent of the Turkish public supported the goal of EU entry. Clearly the majority of Turkish citizens see the EU as the solution to the country's grave economic problems as well as the culmination of its national mission to modernize and Westernize. The coalition government headed by Bulent Ecevit of the Democratic Left Party (DLP) has publicly been reaffirming its commitment to the same goal even as the strains prompted by the EU issue brought to the surface deep divisions in its ranks. In fact, the government increasingly began to give the impression of being pulled in different directions by Yilmaz and the MP and Deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahceli and his Nationalist Action Party (NAP).

While Yilmaz went so far as to say, "In opposing the EU, no one should try to hide behind the military," Bahceli has been bitterly critical of the idea of trying to get entry into the EU "at any cost." The two coalition partners have been at loggerheads, in particular, over the controversial issue of the abolition of the death penalty, which Bahceli claims is designed to prevent the implementation of the death sentence against Ocalan.

The tensions within the government and the Turkish political system were aggravated by a scandal on February 10, relating to the unlawful acquisition and publication of hundreds of e-mail messages of Karen Fogg, the EU Representative in Turkey. The leaking of the messages, which revealed the scope and details of Fogg's efforts to nudge and cajole the Turkish political establishment towards satisfying the EU demands, further galvanized those opposed to the process. Addressing his NAP colleagues on March 2, Bahceli said, "If some businessmen, politicians, and media circles

had lobbied for the interest of Turkey in the EU as they had lobbied for the EU administration in Turkey, our relations with the EU would have been in a much more advanced stage than at present." Claiming that there was a well-concerted campaign by a pro-EU lobby in Turkey and EU officials, Bahceli continued, the "debates on our Cyprus cause and the democratic reforms packages were brought to the forefront through campaigns [that] were highly interesting and disturbing." Following angry denunciations by EU officials and a formal demarche to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, an investigation was duly launched to identify "the hackers" while the Turkish General Staff and the Turkish intelligence service denied any involvement in the incident. Nevertheless, the pro-EU editor in chief of Turkey's leading newspaper Hurriyet, claimed that the leaking of Fogg's e-mails came from anti-EU elements "within the state."

THE CYPRUS CRUNCH
For some time it seemed likely that the intensifying debate on the EU issue in Turkey would come to a head on the Cyprus issue. In fact, prior to the resumption of talks in January between the Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktas and Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Klerides, Turkey and the EU were on an apparent collision course over Cyprus. Turkey had made clear that it would proceed with "political integration" with the Turkish Cypriots if only the Greek Cypriots were admitted to the EU. Greece had threatened to use its veto power to block the entire EU enlargement if the absence of a settlement prevented Greek Cypriot accession. For its part, the EU said that, although it desired a settlement and hoped that the prospect of imminent entry to the EU would encourage reconciliation, the absence of a solution would not prevent accession by the Greek Cypriots. While talks have been taking place in Cyprus between the two sides, the positions of the parties have not changed. The EU officials have continued to warn Turkey against blocking Greek Cypriot accession without a settlement and to argue that "annexing" Northern Cyprus in response would only obstruct Turkey's own chances of eventually joining the EU. Soon after Verheugen reiterated the EU position during his visit to Ankara, the current president of the European Council, Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar of Spain, visited Cyprus where he underlined the determination of the EU to proceed to its decision on Cyprus' accession "irrespective of the progress or outcome of the talks." In fact, the Cyprus problem has been eluding a solution for decades and the two sides are still far from an agreement on such critical issues as power sharing, refugees, and territory. With the Greek Cypriot side assured of accession even if there is no settlement, it unfortunately seems all too likely that the EU and Turkey will find themselves having to call each other's "bluff" on Cyprus with all the unavoidable negative consequences for their relationship before the end of 2002.

GROWING DIVERGENCE
In any case, the apparent malaise in the EU-Turkish relationship extends far beyond Cyprus. On March 4, Turkish Foreign Minister Ismail Cem warned during a Turkish TV interview focusing on the EU, " If things continue in this fashion, all the efforts would go down the drain, and the country would hit the wall in the end." However, it is far from clear how Cem, or even his leader in the DLP, Prime Minister Ecevit, will reverse the slide in relations. Just three days later, General Tuncer Kilinc, the Secretary General of the National Security Council, said that the efforts to join the EU "were doomed to fail." Commenting that Turkey had "not seen the slightest assistance from the EU and the EU has a negative view on the problems that concern Turkey," Kilinc said that Turkey needed new allies and that it would be "useful if Turkey engages in a search that would involve Russia and Iran" while taking care not to disregard the United States. Although Ecevit responded by saying that Kilinc's comments reflected only his personal views and that "relations with the EU are progressing smoothly," Kilinc's words underlined the growing opposition in the Turkish political/military establishment. It is worth recalling that a few weeks earlier, on February 15, the normally taciturn Turkish Chief of Staff, General Huseyin Kivrikoglu had publicly denounced the willingness of EU countries to tolerate the presence of terrorist organizations opposed to Turkey on their territory and claimed that since the creation of the Turkish Republic, Western Europe had wanted to weaken Turkey. Given the airing of such grave Turkish suspicions, which were previously latent, it is difficult to see the EU-Turkish relationship getting back on track easily and it may be wise for both sides to use the remaining months of 2002 to seek ways to limit the likely damage. It may also be time for the United States, which has been supporting Turkish integration into the EU, to clarify its position to both Ankara and Brussels.

EU’s "Colonial Governor" in Turkey
By Hasan Unsal, Spectator, March 30, 2002-For some years, chilly-voiced, trouser-suited Scandinavian ladies have been stepping off the plane at Ankara airport to tell the Turks, in that irritating accent, what they have been getting wrong: minority rights, rights all round, ombudsmen in case of trouble - on and on it goes. There is a gruesome and salutary lesson for those priggish Swedes who berate the Turks for not being quite as enthusiastic about multicultural rights as the Scandinavians are. A Kurdish girl had gone off with a Swede whom she intended to marry. Her father tracked her down and killed her.

'My God, Kessler, it's 3.06 a.m. You should have gone home minutes ago.'

Another northern lady has run into problems with Turkey. Karen Fogg is the European Commission's representative to Turkey. She is not a bad sort at all - good at French and German, travelling without pomposity. Her predecessor Michael Lake (an old Guardian man) was much respected, and had friends everywhere. He was wise and knew that a diplomat should be even-handed, whatever his private sympathies. Ms Fogg has been rather more focused. She set out to cultivate the Euro-Turks and the minorities.

The Euro-Turks are, by definition, well-educated, well-travelled and well-versed in English. They go to, say, Munich, and gasp with admiration: if only we were like that. Some of them even spent years in exile after the military coup of 1980. They were once communist, but have learnt, as ex-communists have done elsewhere, that 'Europe' is quite a good home for them.

There is obviously a crypto-communist European agenda: the destruction of the nation-state. To achieve this, you deal in minorities, in regions, and you talk the language of rights in order to destabilise working, historic nations. Everyone knew that this was Karen Fogg's agenda - even her parties were directed at minorities; some of them, frankly, imaginary. She made some powerful enemies.

Her e-mails have somehow become public knowledge. A left-wing journal, Aydinlik, published some of them (the magazine was going to publish the rest, but was prevented by an injunction). It seems clear that Ms Fogg's understanding of her ambassadorial status did not include impartiality. For instance, in an e-mail to an English Euro-friend she says that she has organised for the Turkish President's 'knuckles to be rapped'. There have been breakfast news programmes on television containing orchestrated attacks on him by journalists in Ms Fogg's orbit. The President's crime was, apparently, to have stood up for his country's interests. Other e-mails show that she is paying said journalists for articles submitted or for conferences attended. She is on very close terms with

'Sweetheart', the best-known anti-Establishment Turkish journalist.

In many of the emails, Ms Fogg is outspoken on the subject of President Denktas of Northern Cyprus, whom she dislikes. She organises closed-circle meetings of her friends at a famous fish restaurant in Istanbul's Kumkapi district, and she regards attendance at these gatherings as a distinction, to be conferred only upon deserving Euro-Turks. It seems from her emails that she is the supply-centre for the Kurdish newspapers: people apply to her for grants, and Euro-money is obviously being spent - through Brussels rather than directly from the Ankara office - on this purpose.

Kurdish newspapers would not actually work without a Euro-subsidy, for the simple reason that no one buys them. Proprietors are trying to make money, not by publishing a readable newspaper in a language that people know, but by parading hard-luck stories in Brussels. They regard Ms Fogg as a useful postbox. All in all, it is clear enough that Euro-money is going to enemies of the Turkish state.

To appreciate the potential enormity of all this, imagine that a major foreign embassy in Britain was encouraging the IRA, Scottish nationalism, Charter 88, Haringey Battered Wives and the campaign to force the euro on to Britain in place of the pound. There would be a row, and the ambassador would almost certainly be declared non grata.

The ambassador of a very important country was rather appalled, off the record, but it is not an ambassador's business to show such a degree of partiality in a foreign land. It is, at the least, quite silly, and the outcome has been curious. One of the top generals made an extraordinary speech, saying that Turkey's future lies with Russia and Iran, not with a treacherous Europe. The chief of the general staff has publicly complained, saying that the European Union has been supporting terrorist organisations against Turkey.

It is not a happy story: Ms Fogg has achieved absolutely the opposite of what she meant to do. The disclosure of her e-mails explains that the one-sided Euro-propaganda, pursued in the form of psychological warfare against the Turkish establishment for some years, has been a premeditated affair, and Ms Fogg has been at the centre of it.

Of course, the Europeans have made themselves pretty unpopular. Officially, they have been pressing offensive causes. Take Cyprus. A quarter-century ago, the Turkish army intervened to stop the local Turks from being massacred by the local Greeks. An independent North Cyprus Turkish Republic, led by the redoubtable Rauf Denktas, was established. The Greek population fled. It was, at the time, important for Greece to remain in NATO, so the British and the Americans made a fuss about what the Turks had done (though the Turks' intervention had been strictly in accordance with treaty rights dating back to 1960 and the independence of Cyprus).

In the 1970s, the United Nations passed resolutions against Turkey. Sanctions were imposed on North Cyprus, which cannot easily attract tourists (it is, incidentally, the last unpolluted bit of the Mediterranean) and is poorer than the Greek South, the government of which is still recognised, absurdly, as the government of the whole island. You could not possibly put Cyprus back together, unless the Turkish population were to be ethnically cleansed. But 'Europe' works in a strange way, and there is a powerful, astutely organised Greek lobby. It has managed to assert that Cyprus, en bloc, should join 'Europe', and the Greeks have threatened to veto any of the far more important extensions - Poland, for instance - unless Cyprus, in effect as a Greek place, is admitted. This whole programme is almost grotesquely unreal, and it could create enormous problems.

Suppose that Southern Cyprus is indeed admitted; that a European army patrols its border. There will be a Turkish army on the other side of it, and the possibility of a real eruption, which the sillier Greeks might even provoke (as has happened in the past). Does Europe really want to be facing a Turkish army across a border in the eastern Mediterranean? To make this somehow acceptable to the Turks, the proposal is that they should abandon Cyprus in return for some sort of association with Europe. Some, though not many, Turks will go along with this: bankers dreaming of a bonanza of foreign investment; journalists fantasising about becoming Swedo-Germans; anti-Muslims thinking that at last the imams will just shut up; imams, thinking that the state will stop trying to shut them up. It is fantasy-land - an imaginary Turkey in pursuit of an imaginary Europe. Ms Fogg's emails show, none the less, that this fantasy dictates the Europeans' agenda. She has arrived like a sort of colonial governor with her little retinue of intellectual coolies.

This happens elsewhere. In the Balkans - Albania, for instance - Europeans arrive and earnestly preach about rights. There are hundreds of NGOs. The unemployed youth of Western Europe stumble around preaching to the natives about rights for women, rights for minorities, rights for gypsies, the virtues of the D'Hondt system of proportional representation.

The Euro machine got rid of a relatively workable Albanian government, which fell because it could not control the violence that erupted when pyramid financial schemes collapsed. Albania now has, in theory, a perfect democracy. It is also quite ungovernable - a place of drug-smuggling, arms-smuggling, immigrant-smuggling. It has a phenomenally high crime-rate and widespread prostitution for every taste, including paedophilia.

The Europeans' strategy in Turkey would make the country into an enormous Albania. There are, of course, minorities in Turkey, and the country could, without too much difficulty, be divided, Stalinist-fashion, into autonomous regions and ethnic enclaves. This is fantasy, and dangerous at that. Turkey has been a force for good in an exceedingly difficult part of the world and, whatever her sins, she has proved to be an oasis of relative calm and prosperity envied by the rest of the Islamic world. It is madness for official Europeans to imagine that they know better than the natives what is best for Turkey. Another question is worth raising: what can Europe's interest possibly be in a policy aimed at weakening a country which is nowadays a big market for Western goods and a major supplier of consumer goods (you may not realise this, but 99 per cent of British televisions are Turkish-made: look for the brand-names Beko and Vestel)? In part, it comes, of course, from the structural troubles of the 'Union' - you have to placate the Greeks, even when you and they both know that they are being silly.

In part, it is humbug: the real Europeans just do not want Turkey, or Poland, or Hungary: too many problems for their cosy little world.

In part - in sinister part - it comes from the bankers. If a country is exposed to imminent membership of Europe, then an enormous amount of foreign investment flows in. John Hooper's New Spaniards is a wonderful book, which describes the effects of joining Europe: on one level, enormous boom; on another, no babies, 25 per cent unemployment, and the curious business that Madrid's parks are littered with used contraceptives because the young cannot afford anywhere to live and go on living with their parents.

It is very dangerous that, as far as Turkey's accession is concerned, the EU deals in lies. The line, echoed by the Euro-Turks, is that Turkey will join the EU should it meet the 'Copenhagen criteria': abolish the death penalty, reduce the army's role in politics, give up Cyprus, and maybe take steps for the secession of the partly Kurdish east. These things would, in effect, turn modern Turkey into a version of Palaeologus Byzantium, or, say, the Empire of Trebizond: a city-state, its rulers pushed around by unscrupulous Italians.

This would be a grotesquely silly distortion of what has been, in the main, a decent reality. But, in any event, the Europeans do not really mean it. They put endless obstacles in the way of extension of the Union, and not just to Turkey. The EU Commission recently told the Poles, the Hungarians and others in the first rank for EU enlargement that they could indeed join now, but would get no money. Otherwise, they should wait ten years. Turkey's prospects for membership are even dimmer. Its population is 40 per cent rural, and very mobile: neither the Common Agricultural Policy nor the Schengen arrangements for visa-free travel and residence would be able to cope.

On both sides, Turkey's candidacy for Europe is utter humbug. But humbug has its own cyber-life in the form of Ms Fogg's e-mails. (Hasan Unal appears regularly on Turkish television.)

Turks and Jews: A Close Friendship with a Long History
By Mehpare Gencyuz - The first time I met a Jewish person, I was in the high school in Istanbul in 1987. Rivka was my classmate. There were other Jewish students in other classes and they were exempt from the religious class of Islam. We were so jealous because they had one less class to study. Rivka was going to Israel every summer and was bringing colorful candies and chewing gums to us. She was so cool! One day, I found out that she was dating the boy I liked from the upper class. Of course I envied her but she was even cooler now since she was dating the boy that I found handsome.

One day, a cruel boy got angry with her and said your ancestors became soap. Rivka began to cry. I didn't understand why. I was so busy studying for the university exams that I didn't pay attention to the history classes. All I studied was literature and math which I needed to answer the university exam questions. But I remember so well that I was embarrassed that I didn't know anything about the holocaust.

Then I studied political science at the university and learned all about the holocaust and many other issues about the world. But I still didn't know about the sorrowful story of Jewish people during the inquisitions until I read a book named "Kiraze" in Turkish a couple of years ago. It was a novel about the story of a Spanish Sepharad Jewish family who escaped to Istanbul during the inquisitions. Ester Kira was the daughter of the family who became a good friend of Sultan Soleman the Magnificent's wife Hurrem Sultan (Known as Roxalane abroad). Kiraze is the first novel, which was written by a Turkish author, Solmaz Kamuran on this issue. Then I learned that Sultan Beyazit II dispatched the Ottoman navy to bring the Jewish people who were expelled from Spain in 1492 during the inquisitions, and they were brought safely to the Ottoman lands.

On March 16th 2002, I saw the documentary, "Desperate Hours". After the movie, I had a chance to meet some American Jewish friends. They told me that they had never known how Turkey invited them during the inquisitions and WW II. It was a mutual help on both sides. Jewish people brought modern mentality, their knowledge about science, capital, and their rich culture to Turkey, while Turkey provided them a new home.

My new Jewish friends asked me why we had not publicized this mutually helpful coexistence for years. One asked me, "why did you wait for 60 years to talk about it?" My husband and I asked the same question to each other. May be, we, as a nation, were very involved with our daily problems or we come from a culture which advises the young generation "if your one hand helps someone, your other hand should not know about it" or "the more mature you get, the more you bend like a ripe wheat" or, we, as the Turkish people, expected the Turkish government to publicize these kind of things since we come from the "papa state" culture. In "papa state" cultures, ordinary people think that the state is responsible for everything, and they do everything better than the individuals so there is no need to be involved. After all, we were governed by the absolute monarchy for 600 years. There had been no room for the involvement of common people in political arena during the Ottomans. Now, with many Turkish people living abroad we learn, adapt and apply different mentalities.

Israel and Turkey are the only democratic countries in this high-tension part of the world and they have very good relations with each other. Turkey was the first Moslem country which recognized the Israeli government.

My new Jewish friend advised me to arrange a touristic tour to Turkey. I think it's a great idea. May be, we can arrange an organized guided tour for next spring with an extension to Israel if the tension eases there.

History begins in 6250 BCE in Turkey. One can see the oldest known human settlements, the first recorded international treaty, the first coin in the world or two of the seven wonders of the world, or the hometowns of Goddess Afrodite, the poet of the Odyssey Homer, the Greek philosopher Diogenes, and the father of history Herodotus, or the places where Ceaser said "veni, vidi, vici" (I saw, I came, I conquered), Alexander the Great cut the Gordian knot, or Ottoman palaces, mosques, synagogues, Byzantian cisterns, aqueducts, churches, and taste one of the largest cuisines, bargain on a silk carpet, stay in the hotel where JFK Jr. stayed for his honeymoon, see the ancient Greek open air theater where the 3 tenors gave a concert, listened to Mozart's "Abduction from the Seraglio" in the Ottoman Topkapi palace.

Turkey has much to offer to our Jewish friends like, Sardis Synagogue, (4th-2nd Centuries B. C) with 1000 persons capacity holding a magnificent structure is the most magnificent evidence of Hebrew life in Aegean Region.

According to the different sources, there were around 30 synagogues in Istanbul in the16th century. Some were founded by the Jewish immigrants who chose the Ottoman Empire as home, like the Ashkenazi Synagogue (1900) Askenazim people of Austria, with the decoration of its Ehal and Teva in wooden pagoda style with Polish influence, Ahrida Synagogue (15th century) by Jews from Ohrid, Macedonia where Teva has a similar shape to a ship's bow, to some resembles to Noah's Ship, Italian synagogue (1886) by Italian and Austrian Hebrews, Yanbol synagogue, by Jews of Yanbol, Bulgaria, from the Byzantine period, one of the two remaining ancient synagogues of the Balat area where majority of residents were Jewish, Kal Kados, Corapci Han Synagogue (1880) by Russian Jews. They are all located in Istanbul. Mayor Synagogue (15th century) was founded in Bursa by Jews from the Mayorka Island, Spain, Gerus Synagogue (14th century) by the first Jewish group who settled in Bursa.

Some other synagogues has historical locations like Bet Avraam Synagogue, located just behind the Main Train Station in Istanbul, where Orient Express used to stop, Etz Ahayim synagogue (14th century) in Ortaköy, Istanbul where people formed a model of harmony where three celestial religions performed in the mosque, synagogue and church located in a triangular area. It is the first synagogue to be constructed during the Ottoman period. An imperial decree was announced during the reign of Orhan Bey, conqueror of Bursa, and the structure of the synagogue was approved.

Haydarpasa Hemdat Israel synagogue: The name "Hemdat Israel" which means "the mercy of the sons of Israel" was inspired from the Arabic words "Hamid" and "Hemdat" written on the synagogue as the sign of gratitude for Sultan Abdülhamit II, who had surpassed the chaos let by those who were against the construction of the synagogue.

The Quincentennial Foun-dation was established in Istanbul in 1989 by a group of 113 Turkish citizens, Jews and Moslems alike, to celebrate the 500 years of peaceful living in Turkish lands by Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 and to bring the diverse and rich legacy of Turkish Jewry to a greater audience through all kinds of cultural and academic activities. (www.sephardichouse.org/quincentennial-foundation.html) Zulfaris synagogue (17th century) within the frame of the 1992 celebrations organization, the synagogue is determined to be converted into "500 Years Tranquil Life Museum" without any effect on the religious appearance of the structure.

Between 1900 to 1950, Balat, Istanbul looked like a small Jewish town. They had about ten synagogues and more than one hundred rabbis. Many Jews immigrated when the state of Israel was founded. In 1999, the EU decided to contribute 7 million Euros towards the "Project for the Rehabilitation of the Balat Quarters" which was started upon the initiative of Saadettin Tantan, the Fatih (a district of Istanbul) Mayor of the time. Kuzguncuk, Ortakoy, Haskoy were the other districts where the majority of Jewish Turks used to live.

I believe Turkish and Jewish cultures have more to offer each other. We should keep having mutual events together.