21 11 2008 - PRESSION TURQUE SUR BARACK OBAMA

Faruk Logoglu, former Ambassador of Turkey to the United States sent a letter to U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, Hurriyet daily reports. The letter reads: "I urge you, Mr. President, to pay attention to the following issues to ensure that our partnership remains strong, constructive
and mutually beneficial. I realize that on all these points the Turkish side must take the appropriate reciprocating steps.
1. Our relationship is a special one. It is the only formal alliance of the U.S. with a Muslim country in NATO. Common values, shared ideals and compatible national interests form its solid foundation. They are both democracies.
2. Today our relations are stable and relatively warm. Recovery in the aftermath of the March 1, 2003, vote in the Turkish Parliament was not easy. The halting of the Armenian resolutions in Congress last year and the belated cooperation against PKK terrorists in
Iraq provided breathing space. You now have the opportunity to put our ties on a progressive track.
6. Surveys consistently indicate a very unfavorable opinion of the
U.S. in Turkey. This underlines the need to implement a broad public diplomacy strategy to win the hearts of the Turkish public. That should be one of the tasks of your Administration.

7. The efforts of the Armenian and other anti-Turkish lobbies to take our relationship hostage hould be rendered harmless. You need to convince the Turkish public that you are being fair and not giving in to the demands of special interest groups, especially when those demands are at least questionable.
8. Two concrete issues regarding Turkey that will be brought to your attention in the early days of your Presidency will be the Armenian resolutions in the Congress and American help in the fight against the PKK that is based in Iraq. They literally constitute the red buttons in the control deck of our relations. Any resolution in Congress supporting Armenian claims would do
substantial, if not irreparable, damage to your standing in Turkey and upset the entire chemistry of our relationship. Moreover, it would not help resolve the problem and reverse the positive trends now in the making between Turkey and Armenia. Instead, you should encourage the recent positive trends between the two neighboring states in the direction of dialogue and conciliation."
Turkey and Armenia to discuss 1915 incidents in Istanbul meetingTurkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan will discuss Armenian claims regarding the incidents of 1915 at a meeting with his Armenian counterpart next week, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
Babacan will hold talks with Eduard Nalbandian in Istanbul on Nov. 24, ministry spokesman Burak Ozugergin told Bloomberg News on Thursday.
"Everything is on the table," Ozugergin said. "We are not precluding anything. The two leaders will take up bilateral issues, including the 1915 events and perhaps regional issues that could include relations with Azerbaijan."Armenia, with the backing of the diaspora, claims up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in 1915.Turkey rejects the claims saying that 300,000 Armenians, along with at least as many Turks, died in civil strife that emerged when Armenians took up arms, backed by Russia, for independence in eastern Anatolia.
The initiative follows a visit by Turkish President Abdullah Gul to Armenia two months ago, the first such trip by a Turkish head of state. The 1915 incidents were not discussed during the visit, Gul said at the time.
There is no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey, as Armenia presses the international community to admit the so-called "genocide" claims instead of accepting Turkey's call to investigate the allegations, and Armenia's aggression against Azerbaijan.
Turkey has offered to form a joint commission to investigate what has really happened in 1915 and opened up all official archives, but Armenia is dragging its feet in accepting the offer.

Turkey is also embroiled in a dispute with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in protest of Armenia's invasion of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory.

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