Turkish Leaders Address JINSA

On Wednesday, October 29, JINSA sponsored a meeting with Turkish Minister of State for Foreign Trade Relations Isen Celebi. Present at the meeting were leaders of the Jewish community in addition to representatives from major corporations doing business in Turkey. Besides meeting with JINSA, Isen Celebi, on an official visit, met with Congressional leaders and officials from the Commerce Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

On Wednesday, October 29, JINSA sponsored a meeting with Turkish Minister of State for Foreign Trade Relations Isen Celebi. Present at the meeting were leaders of the Jewish community in addition to representatives from major corporations doing business in Turkey. Besides meeting with JINSA, Isen Celebi, on an official visit, met with Congressional leaders and officials from the Commerce Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. He said, at the JINSA meeting, that the two goals of his visit are to gain support for Turkey’s economic stabilization program and to work for a quota-free trade agreement with the United States. Celebi seeks an agreement comparable to ones that the United States has with other allies in the region. He is also seeking American support for the Turkish oil and gas pipeline projects from the Caspian Sea area.

Celebi emphasized that Turkey’s future stability should be considered a vital American interest. He said Turkish prosperity and sustained economic growth will help decrease the popularity of radical Islam in the region, and could weaken the power of the Iranian regime. Success of the economic stabilization programs and the energy projects, Celebi said, will lead to closer cooperation among Turkey, Israel, and the United States.

As an ally of the United States and a friend of Israel, Turkey has not received strong enough support from the Administration or Congress, Celebi said. At JINSA, we believe that a stable and prosperous Turkey is essential for American interests in the region including stabilization, growth of economic opportunities, and the strengthening of Israel’s economy and security position.

Meeting with Rauf Denktash, President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus:

Also on October 29, JINSA, in conjunction with the American Enterprise Institute and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, co-sponsored a lunch with Rauf Denktash, President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Denktash briefed the audience on the recent U.N.-brokered meetings with his Greek Cypriot counterpart, Glafcos Cleridis. The president was pessimistic that a solution to the Cypriot divide would be found any time soon. He said Cleridis was unable to consider a binational Cypriot state and insisted on the Turkish minority existing as citizens under protection of the common law without special provisions made to protect their freedom. Denktash said such a situation existed prior to the 1974 division of the island and resulted in the Greek majority denying the Turkish minority its legal rights under law and, ultimately, in a Greek Cypriot war against the Turkish minority. By the time the Turkish Army invaded the island to protect the Turkish Cypriots, they had been driven from their homes across the island into an embattled enclave in the northeast. The situation, Denktash said, was a harbinger to Bosnia.

Denktash pointed out that Greek Cyprus has become a major base of Russian involvement in the eastern Mediterranean. Greek Cyprus was purchasing tremendous amounts of weaponry, much of it from Russia, and has signed an agreement to take delivery of the Russian SA-10 anti-aircraft missile system. Turkey has threatened to attack the missile emplacements if they are ever delivered, as the missiles’ range would cover all airspace between Turkey and Cyprus and a large swath of Turkish territory.