Subslug: Column by Sedat Sertoglu: "Behind the Scenes"

[FBIS Translated Text]: What happened? How did it happen? Why did Clinton send a letter at the very last minute to the Chairman [sic] [Speaker]of the House of Representatives Dennis Hastert? Who was the mastermind behind this plan?

Let us go back a bit. Let us open up our files and share with you what we have found out

We are back in Washington and we are having intensive talks with the Jewish lobby groups. AIPAC, Jinsa, Bnai Brith, and ADI. AJC are a little distant. They ask us what is going on. The message we try to give them is: "The acceptance of the resolution will have a strongly negative effect [not only] on Turkish-American strategic relations, but also on Turkish-Israeli strategic relations."

The Jewish lobby in Turkey had been flooding the House of Representatives and the US administration with messages asking for the resolution to be halted. The Muslim, Jewish, and Armenian citizens of Turkey were doing all they could along with all of the State's official bodies .Our Ambassador in Washington, working with his shamefully tiny nine-person team, was making a superhuman effort. Turkish associations in this country, for instance the ATAA and others, were very active.

The US administration did what it could, albeit a little late in the day.

As for the situation in Washington, the Jewish lobby threw all its weight into the job just before the weekend. And very openly at that.

The chairman of AIPEC met with Hastert and "explained all the concerns in plain English" and put pressure on Hastert. Then he said, "By playing this game, you may well gain a few more Armenian votes, but have you stopped to consider how many Jewish votes you will lose by this?"

Alarm bells started sounding in Hastert's head. But the aim still had not been achieved.
News that Hastert had tried to find a way out of this situation was heard at this time. He had made a promise to the Armenians. He had to get out of this tight spot he was in without harming himself.
Finally, he said, "If President Clinton sends me a letter informing me of the situation, I will not go ahead with this vote..."

That the Chairman of the House of Representatives was looking for an escape option was finally clear for all to see. Another Jew had come down from Chicago and put the squeeze on Hastert because they had financed the Republicans to the tune of $10 million or more.
So who stepped in so that this message would reach Clinton and Hastert would be given his final warning? Who was this person?

While all this was happening and everyone was waiting with baited breath, Clinton was in Egypt and very busy. He was trying to prevent a possible war in the Middle East.

Time was fast running out. It was just at this time that the telephone of a certain individual in Israel rang. The caller was a Jewish Turk calling from Istanbul. He explained in very clear terms to the Israeli on the other end of the phone exactly what the situation was and what the consequences were likely to be. He said it was imperative that he intervene. The esteemed Israeli on the other end of the telephone, on hearing this, said, "I put a great deal of effort into bringing about peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Do not worry, I will do everything I can to prevent my work going down the drain..."
The person speaking was Shimon Peres. He immediately made a plan and intervened.

The situation was relayed to President Clinton. Clinton wrote a letter to Hastert that Wednesday and sent it to him. In the meantime, Hastert was informed of the viewpoints of Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Shelton and of Secretaries of State and Defense Albright and Cohen. The Chairman of the House of Representatives abandoned putting the resolution to the vote. According to the plan, he was saving his hide. He would now be able to tell the Armenians, "I did the best I could. I got it past the commissions [sic] [committees]. I got it put on the agenda. But in the end, President Clinton's letter said this was as far as it goes. There was nothing I could do in the face of this letter." The nonsense carried out to win a seat in California had been brought to an end... A tale of real lobbying for you [to digest]. Was it a victory? We think not. The real business is only just beginning...
Last-minute news: Despite the incredible support given to Turkey by Israel over the Armenian resolution, it was a mistake for Turkey to vote for Israel at the United Nations. We could have at least abstained or not taken part in the vote...

Istanbul Sabah (Ankara edition)
Oct. 23, 2000

Anti-Turkish Campaign Over Genocide Seen, Diplomatic Mobilization in US Urged

Subslug: From the "View of the World" column by Sukru Elekdag:
"Evaluation of the Situation"

[FBIS Translated Text] The basic reason for the withdrawal of the "Armenian genocide" resolution from the US House of Representatives was no doubt the blowing of the winds of war in the Middle East. The situation in the Middle East after the Sharm Al-Shaykh summit, rather than settling down, was further inflamed. The Arab world took a tougher stand against the United States and Israel. It was taken into consideration that the balances in the Middle East would be upset and that this would pave the way for developments that would threaten the interests of the United States and Israel in the broader strategic area. This gave President Clinton the opportunity and justification to write the influential letter to the Speaker of the House. Actually, this determination shown by President Clinton stems from a coincidence that he could not be a candidate for president [for a third term] due to constitutional restrictions on his election this time. If Clinton could have been a candidate, then we might have had a completely different situation. In that case, in spite of all of President Clinton's good intentions, it could not be expected for him to confront the Armenian lobby as well as the Greek and Greek Cypriot lobby, to put up an energetic and determined fight in favor of Turkey.

In this connection, let us state that the Armenian and the Greek and Greek Cypriot lobbies are working together and are focused on the target of separating Turkey from the United States. Once again, the Greek and Greek Cypriot lobby mobilized all its resources, with great enthusiasm, for the acceptance of the resolution in the US House of Representatives.

To summarize, the withdrawal of the resolution is due to a crisis that could escalate in the Middle East and the presence of a president in the White House who is not a candidate for the presidency this time. From this, it is a rather sad and scary conclusion that the strategic cooperation between Turkey and the United States, which constitutes the most important dimension of Turkey's foreign policy, was saved from being broken off, thanks to these two coincidences. In the meantime, the hostile lobbies are already giving out signals that they would start at the first opportunity the fight to pass the resolution.
Turkey should act with the awareness of these facts and should give priority to the following measures so as not to be confronted with such a situation again. Firstly, Turkey should set out concretely that it has no fear of facing its history and, with this objective, it should start a project aimed at setting out the historical facts as a scientific research process.
The outline of this project, which would be taken up as a civilian initiative outside of the governments, and which aims to reveal the facts related to the debatable period of Turkish-Armenian history, by combing through the archives of Turkey and Armenia, in addition to the archives of other countries that could shed light on the subject, was explained in an article published in Milliyet last week (18 October 2000, Intellectual View).
Thanks to this project to be carried out with completely scientific honesty, history should cease to be a burden for Turkey and should be removed from being used as political material against Turkey.

The hostile lobbies, in the intensive propaganda that they have launched against Turkey throughout the United States, have aimed at legislative bodies of the states, administrations, media organizations, nongovernmental organizations and educational institutions. The "Armenian genocide" resolutions have been passed in legislative bodies of 24 states and the fact that this subject has been included in the school curricula in these states should give an idea about the effectiveness of these activities. From this aspect, it is important that Turkey's four Consulate Generals in the United States be mobilized in a manner that sways public opinion in favor of Turkey, besides their consular duties, and that will counter anti-Turkish activities effectively. They should also be given an opportunity to benefit from the local lobbying companies. Furthermore, new Consulate Generals should be opened, which would function according to the approach mentioned above, in this country that has the dimensions of a continent. Presently, there is a great need for this in Miami and Boston.
Baki Ilkin, Turkey's Ambassador in Washington DC, and the staff of the Embassy have successfully passed a test in this final struggle in the US Congress. However, it would be useful to urgently reinforce the Embassy with the personnel needed.
Another topic is the Institute of Turkish Studies, which was established in Washington DC at the beginning of the 1980s and that carried out extremely useful and effective cultural promotional activity directed at the academic circles and universities. The Institute should be saved from the idleness it has experienced in the past ten years and brought to a condition of being capable of fulfilling its functions.
Some 69 American scientists signed the declaration refuting the Armenian genocide claims, a declaration produced with the efforts of this Institute. It is obvious how useful this organization was in supporting the activities of the Turkish Embassy at that time.
This time the Institute made no contribution to the struggles at the US Congress. This organization, which is no longer useful, should be abolished and a "think tank" on Turkey should be established in Washington with the considerable financial resources of this Institute.
The objective of this think tank should be to conduct research and publish on the subjects of interest to Turkey and the United States in the fields of foreign policy, defense, culture and economy.
Our silent heroes in the United States, led by the Assembly of the Turkish-American Associations, the useful activities of which I have followed closely, and the Federation of Turkish-American Associations and the Turkish Forum, have demonstrated a self-sacrificing effort worthy of all kinds of praise in the struggle against this [Armenian genocide] resolution.

Istanbul Milliyet (Ankara edition)
Oct. 23, 2000

Turkey Plans To Lobby for Removing Armenian Resolutions From World Agenda

Subslug: Report by Metehan Demir: "The Armenian Alarm in Ankara"

[FBIS Translated Text] Ankara set off an alarm when it was heard that the so-called Armenian genocide resolution, which was withdrawn at the last moment in the US House of Representatives, could appear on the agenda once again after April [2001]. In the messages sent in the past two days from the Turkish Embassy in Washington DC and intelligence sources to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it was indicated that the politicians, under the leadership of Dennis Hastert, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, promised the Armenians that they would put the resolution on the agenda in the new legislative period, after the November elections.
In this framework, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will hold a series of urgent meetings with the related units of the State as of this week. They will send teams to the United States to explain Turkey's theses and its earnestness on this subject. The officials in Ankara have also rolled up their sleeves for opening the archives of the State in a more professional manner to the historians. At the end of the month, a plan will be discussed in detail at the MGK [National Security Council] meeting in an attempt to remove the subject of the Armenian resolution from the agenda of the world with successful lobbying initiatives.

Istanbul Hurriyet (Ankara edition)
Oct. 23, 2000

Special Protection for Archives

ANKARA, Oct. 30 - A two-day round table meeting hosted by Turkish Prime Ministry on the topic "The Condition and Protection of Pre- and Post-War Archives, Their Restoration and Documentation" is over. The participants, Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Greece, Slovenia and UNESCO, have issued an 11-article statement as a recommendation to governments. The meeting also recommended that any country holding Ottoman archives and records take steps to exchange copies of archive documents and means of research.