Editor’s Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports.
 The flag of Turkey |
Even before he moves into the Oval Office, Barack Obama may be on a collision course with a country that carries great weight in Middle East negotiations, has considerable influence throughout Central Asia and is close to Russia, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
That country is Turkey, which also has taken initiatives to mediate indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel.
In recent weeks, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan also has offered to be a mediator between the incoming Obama administration and Iran.
“We are the only capital that is trusted by both sides,” Erdogan said. “We are the ideal negotiator.”
In addition, Turkey is in a strategic location as an energy corridor for oil and natural gas pipelines from Azerbaijan to the West.
While Turkey appears to be a position to help with some of Obama’s biggest upcoming foreign policy challenges, the relationship may be off to a rocky start, because Obama has described as “genocide” the deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.
In a May letter to the Armenian National Committee of America, then-Sen. Barack Obama wrote, “I share your view that the United States must recognize the events of 1915 to 1923, carried out by the Ottoman Empire, as genocide. …We must recognize this tragic reality.”
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The Republic of Turkey, which succeeded the Ottoman Empire, does not accept the word “genocide” to describe events at that time.
The issue isn’t new. In October 2007, Congress prepared to take a vote on a resolution that would have officially recognized as genocide the 1915 event.
The Bush administration, however, opposed such a vote due to the potential of damaging relations with Turkey, a NATO ally.
The Turkish government reacted strongly against the prospect of passage of such a resolution.
It threatened to cut off critical supplie routes through Turkey for the U.S. war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also threatened to close the strategic U.S. air base at Incirlik.
While the resolution would not have been binding on U.S. foreign policy, it could have damaged an already seriously strained relationship with Turkey.
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Let’s curb the kangaroo court of anonymous sources
Tim Graham