Canada-Turkey Spat Won't Affect NATO Operation
May 17th, 2006
Embassy
By Brian Adeba
Last week's diplomatic storm over Stephen Harper's use of the term 'genocide' will not affect Canada's relations with the Turkish head of NATO's Afghan mission, but it does signal a policy shift.
The Turkish-Canadian spat over Prime Minister Stephen Harper's comments recognizing the Armenian genocide two weeks ago will not spill over into Afghanistan where a senior Turkish diplomat presently occupies the position of NATO's top Civilian Representative to Afghanistan, according to the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa.
Despite Ankara's withdrawal last week from NATO military exercises in the Canadian province of Alberta, Turkey's leading NATO role in Afghanistan with Canada will not be affected, says Yonet Tezel, Counsellor at the Turkish Embassy.
"Our contribution is still going on and it is above our relations with Canada," says Mr. Tezel.
NATO is scheduled to take over military operations from the U.S. in Afghanistan in the summer.
Mr. Tezel also says Turkey is not likely to pull out its most senior diplomat, Hikmet Cetin, who is NATO's Civilian Representative to Afghanistan.
With 825 troops, Turkey has the third largest contingent in Afghanistan, after Germany and Canada. Its role is considered important because it is also the only Muslim country with troops in Afghanistan.
In what may signal a decrease in tensions between Canada and Turkey, Mr. Yonet also says Turkish Ambassador Aydemir Erman is expected to return to Canada this week. Turkey called its envoy to Canada back to Ankara for consultations on May 6 in protest of Mr. Harper's comments.
Mr. Harper became the first Canadian prime minister to utter the word 'genocide' in recognizing the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey in 1915. The statement also marks a major shift in Canadian foreign policy towards Turkey, which also temporarily withdrew its ambassador to France as a result of an impeding vote in the French parliament that would make it a crime to deny the that genocide was committed in Armenia.
But while it withdrew its envoy from Paris, the Turkish government also sent a delegation to meet French legislators on the issue. It did not do the same thing in Canada. Mr. Tezel says the circumstances are totally different, hence the type of reaction to the French situation.
"The situation is philosophically and intellectually unacceptable," Mr. Tezel says of France's decision to make it a crime to deny that genocide was committed in Armenia.
Kim Nossal, Professor and Head of Political Studies at Queen's University in Kingston, says Mr. Harper's decision acknowledging that genocide was committed against Armenians was likely made to send a message that the Tory government is different from the former minority government.
"[Mr. Harper] wanted to signal that his government is different from the Liberal government, which actually talked a lot about human rights, but did nothing," says Mr. Nossal.
"It was a clear and conscious set of reasoning on this," he says.
"All you have to do is think about the Liberals and Darfur and you can ask 'Where were you then?'"
brian@embassymag.ca
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
Embassy
By Brian Adeba
Last week's diplomatic storm over Stephen Harper's use of the term 'genocide' will not affect Canada's relations with the Turkish head of NATO's Afghan mission, but it does signal a policy shift.
The Turkish-Canadian spat over Prime Minister Stephen Harper's comments recognizing the Armenian genocide two weeks ago will not spill over into Afghanistan where a senior Turkish diplomat presently occupies the position of NATO's top Civilian Representative to Afghanistan, according to the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa.
Despite Ankara's withdrawal last week from NATO military exercises in the Canadian province of Alberta, Turkey's leading NATO role in Afghanistan with Canada will not be affected, says Yonet Tezel, Counsellor at the Turkish Embassy.
"Our contribution is still going on and it is above our relations with Canada," says Mr. Tezel.
NATO is scheduled to take over military operations from the U.S. in Afghanistan in the summer.
Mr. Tezel also says Turkey is not likely to pull out its most senior diplomat, Hikmet Cetin, who is NATO's Civilian Representative to Afghanistan.
With 825 troops, Turkey has the third largest contingent in Afghanistan, after Germany and Canada. Its role is considered important because it is also the only Muslim country with troops in Afghanistan.
In what may signal a decrease in tensions between Canada and Turkey, Mr. Yonet also says Turkish Ambassador Aydemir Erman is expected to return to Canada this week. Turkey called its envoy to Canada back to Ankara for consultations on May 6 in protest of Mr. Harper's comments.
Mr. Harper became the first Canadian prime minister to utter the word 'genocide' in recognizing the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey in 1915. The statement also marks a major shift in Canadian foreign policy towards Turkey, which also temporarily withdrew its ambassador to France as a result of an impeding vote in the French parliament that would make it a crime to deny the that genocide was committed in Armenia.
But while it withdrew its envoy from Paris, the Turkish government also sent a delegation to meet French legislators on the issue. It did not do the same thing in Canada. Mr. Tezel says the circumstances are totally different, hence the type of reaction to the French situation.
"The situation is philosophically and intellectually unacceptable," Mr. Tezel says of France's decision to make it a crime to deny that genocide was committed in Armenia.
Kim Nossal, Professor and Head of Political Studies at Queen's University in Kingston, says Mr. Harper's decision acknowledging that genocide was committed against Armenians was likely made to send a message that the Tory government is different from the former minority government.
"[Mr. Harper] wanted to signal that his government is different from the Liberal government, which actually talked a lot about human rights, but did nothing," says Mr. Nossal.
"It was a clear and conscious set of reasoning on this," he says.
"All you have to do is think about the Liberals and Darfur and you can ask 'Where were you then?'"
brian@embassymag.ca
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 6:25 AM
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