Genocidal Turkey Wants Hillary For Their Dirty Work

( Article Below Is Reproduced for Educational Purposes)
Hillary wins White House
(In dreams of Turkish officials)
Thursday, January 17, 2008

Clinton team's experience with Turkey is seen as a plus, while Obama
is viewed as unpredictable
Ümit Enginsoy
WASHINGTON - Turkish Daily News

While Turkey's state policy formally avoids a posture close to any of the U.S. presidential hopefuls, Turkish diplomats and other high-level officials generally favor leading candidate Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton over her chief rival Senator Barack Obama in the race to capture the Democratic Party's ticket for the November elections.

"Turkey absolutely has no position regarding the presidential election, which is wholly an internal matter of the United States. But privately individuals have their own views," said one diplomat. In private remarks, these diplomats and officials believe that a Clinton presidency will reflect the key characteristics of the eight-year term of former President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton's husband, arguably the highest point in U.S.-Turkish relations over the past four decades.

They tend to view Obama as an unpredictable and inexperienced politician on foreign policy, surrounded by some advisers hostile to Turkey.

Obama, an African-American politician, who has emerged in his campaign as a figure for change, comes from a minority, a situation which they fear may attempt to transform U.S. foreign policy in ways that may hurt Turkey, if he is elected president.

Obama's foreign policy advisers include figures such as Samantha Power, an academic on "genocide," who is known for her extremely unfavorable views on Turkey. His key congressional backers include Adam Schiff from California, chief sponsor of an Armenian genocide resolution pending in the House of Representatives.

Clinton's top advisers, on the other hand, are mostly senior officials from Bill Clinton's term, including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger and NATO's former Supreme Commander Wesley Clarke, who know Turkey and its sensitivities very well.
Armenian matters

Those Turkish officials favoring Clinton believe that under her presidency Ankara is unlikely to encounter bad surprises. On Turkish-Armenian matters, both Clinton and Obama have backed some initiatives calling for U.S. recognition of World War I-era killings of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire as genocide. Clinton is among 32 cosponsors of a genocide resolution pending in
the 100-seat Senate, but Obama is not. However, three years ago he signed a letter to President George W. Bush calling for the recognition of the "Armenian genocide."

But despite her cosponsorship in the dormant Senate legislation, Clinton was criticized by the Armenian National Committee of America, an influential U.S. Armenian group, for "voicing reservations" in October about the adoption of the latest House resolution onArmenian genocide claims.

Some analysts say concerns by many Turkish officials over Obama's
potential presidency are baseless.

"Before the 1992 elections, then President Turgut Özal was close to then President George H.W. Bush, and was openly backing Bush. The Turks then had similar worries about Clinton," said Bulent Aliriza, director of Turkey Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank here. "But the Turkish-U.S. relationship flourished to anunprecedented degree during the Clinton presidency. The same may happen with Obama."
Republican front

Also Marc Grossman, a former under secretary of state for political affairs and a former U.S. ambassador to Ankara, and Mark Parris, a former ambassador to Ankara, both said separately that regardless of who is elected the next U.S. president, he or she will appreciate Turkey's importance for Washington and act accordingly.

Turkish officials seem to have no remarkable problems with any of the outstanding Republican candidates, including Senator John McCain,
Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romneyand Rudy Giuliani.

When Giuliani was New York's mayor he backed a number of Armenian efforts, but this was considered normal due to his status as top official of a mega city with many Armenian residents. McCain, Huckabee and Romney are not close to Armenian groups.

When pressed, some Turkish diplomats will privately say that McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam and one of the most experienced U.S. politicians on national security and foreign policy matters, will be the best option for Turkey.

Still many Turkish officials have reservations over a Republican victory in the face of the party's hard-line policies in the Middle East symbolized by Bush's decision to invade Iraq, which they say has hit Turkey hard.


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