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The Star Phoenix (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan)
June 18, 2011 Saturday
Final Edition
Harper urged not to ignore Turkey; Mediterranean country is becoming
economic tiger
BY: Peter O'Neil, Postmedia News
When Prime Minister Stephen Harper decided to visit Greece following
the G8 summit last month in France the furrowed-eyebrow reaction from
some analysts was: "What about Turkey?"
Greece, with just under 11 million people, is staggering under a debt
so vast it is barely able to assert its own sovereignty, let alone
exert regional influence. Its trade with Canada is tiny and shrinking.
Neighbouring Turkey, which Harper has never visited since taking
office in 2006, has a booming economy, has more than seven times the
population (78.8 million), and is an increasingly important western
ally and regional power broker in the Middle East and North Africa.
"We should be paying closer attention to Turkey, which is the
Mediterranean's economic tiger and the region's only Muslim
democracy," said Fen Hampson, director of Carleton University's Norman
Paterson School of International Affairs.
"Turkey has a key stabilizing role to play in the Middle East and
North African region. Its GDP is fast approaching the $1 trillion
mark."
There are also business interests who would like to see Canada's
rapidly growing trade relationship with Turkey flourish even more,
particularly those seeking major government contracts, said Gar
Knutson, an Ottawa lobbyist and former Liberal MP who sits on the
board of the Canadian-Turkish Business Council.
"I think the prime minister at some point should go to Turkey. They're
an important NATO ally; it's a quickly growing economy. We have lots
of interests there," Knutson said.
Harper's aides have told the media that Canada has important
historical and people-topeople ties with Greece, and there has been a
long-standing invitation to Harper from Prime Minister George
Papandreou.
Politics is another factor, since the Conservatives have long wooed
the large Greek diaspora in Canada.
But Turkey, say Harper's aides, is one of the countries the prime
minister wants to visit.
"We did our best in a minority government situation to travel to as
many countries as possible," spokesman Andrew MacDougall said in an
email this week.
"Of course, we haven't had the opportunity to visit all the countries
we would like to visit, including Turkey. We look forward to doing so
at some point in the future."
But the idea of a Harper visit to Turkey is fraught with domestic and
foreign policy sensitivities due to decisions dating back to Harper's
time as official Opposition leader.
During that period he embraced the politically active
Armenian-Canadian community's claim that atrocities committed against
their community in Ottoman Turkey starting in 1915 constituted
genocide.
Plenty of politicians around the world have responded to the Armenian
lobby effort, resulting in some 20 legislatures in various countries
passing motions recognizing that genocide took place. Among them was
the Canadian Senate, in 2002, and the House of Commons two years
later.
But, according to Turkey, Canada's Conservative government is the only
one in the world to officially embrace the genocide narrative as
official government policy.
Turkey objected furiously in 2006 when Harper formally stated the new
policy, but some diplomats said a thaw had started to develop prior to
the 2011 election campaign.
In April of 2010, for instance, Harper issued no statement to the
general public to mark the anniversary of the tragedy. And recent
highlevel visits include a 2009 trip to Turkey by Lawrence Cannon,
then minister of foreign affairs, and another last year by Defence
Minister Peter MacKay.
Furthermore, Export Development Canada has just announced the opening
of a regional office in Istanbul to help Canadian exporters break into
the relatively thriving regional market, and there have been
preliminary talks on possible free trade negotiations.
But then Harper issued an election campaign statement on the genocide,
almost identical to the 2006 declaration, that got almost no
mainstream media coverage in Canada but deeply angered Turkey.
Harper's "wrong and unfair" judgment was based on "one-sided
information" that came after a number of initiatives to improve
relations, said an April 27 statement from the Turkish foreign
ministry.
The government's position was also "based on narrow political
calculations" and "dealt a blow to these efforts," the statement
declared.
While one senior Turkish foreign affairs official in Ankara told
Postmedia News this week that Harper would be welcome, another former
senior Turkish diplomat familiar with Canada said he doubted his
country would agree to set out the welcome mat for a foreign leader
who would likely inflame nationalist sentiment.
Hampson said Harper should try to find a way to mend relations.
"Turkey is far too important a country to shun or ignore or make
hostage to our own domestic politics."
From: Baghdasarian
June 18, 2011 Saturday
Final Edition
Harper urged not to ignore Turkey; Mediterranean country is becoming
economic tiger
BY: Peter O'Neil, Postmedia News
When Prime Minister Stephen Harper decided to visit Greece following
the G8 summit last month in France the furrowed-eyebrow reaction from
some analysts was: "What about Turkey?"
Greece, with just under 11 million people, is staggering under a debt
so vast it is barely able to assert its own sovereignty, let alone
exert regional influence. Its trade with Canada is tiny and shrinking.
Neighbouring Turkey, which Harper has never visited since taking
office in 2006, has a booming economy, has more than seven times the
population (78.8 million), and is an increasingly important western
ally and regional power broker in the Middle East and North Africa.
"We should be paying closer attention to Turkey, which is the
Mediterranean's economic tiger and the region's only Muslim
democracy," said Fen Hampson, director of Carleton University's Norman
Paterson School of International Affairs.
"Turkey has a key stabilizing role to play in the Middle East and
North African region. Its GDP is fast approaching the $1 trillion
mark."
There are also business interests who would like to see Canada's
rapidly growing trade relationship with Turkey flourish even more,
particularly those seeking major government contracts, said Gar
Knutson, an Ottawa lobbyist and former Liberal MP who sits on the
board of the Canadian-Turkish Business Council.
"I think the prime minister at some point should go to Turkey. They're
an important NATO ally; it's a quickly growing economy. We have lots
of interests there," Knutson said.
Harper's aides have told the media that Canada has important
historical and people-topeople ties with Greece, and there has been a
long-standing invitation to Harper from Prime Minister George
Papandreou.
Politics is another factor, since the Conservatives have long wooed
the large Greek diaspora in Canada.
But Turkey, say Harper's aides, is one of the countries the prime
minister wants to visit.
"We did our best in a minority government situation to travel to as
many countries as possible," spokesman Andrew MacDougall said in an
email this week.
"Of course, we haven't had the opportunity to visit all the countries
we would like to visit, including Turkey. We look forward to doing so
at some point in the future."
But the idea of a Harper visit to Turkey is fraught with domestic and
foreign policy sensitivities due to decisions dating back to Harper's
time as official Opposition leader.
During that period he embraced the politically active
Armenian-Canadian community's claim that atrocities committed against
their community in Ottoman Turkey starting in 1915 constituted
genocide.
Plenty of politicians around the world have responded to the Armenian
lobby effort, resulting in some 20 legislatures in various countries
passing motions recognizing that genocide took place. Among them was
the Canadian Senate, in 2002, and the House of Commons two years
later.
But, according to Turkey, Canada's Conservative government is the only
one in the world to officially embrace the genocide narrative as
official government policy.
Turkey objected furiously in 2006 when Harper formally stated the new
policy, but some diplomats said a thaw had started to develop prior to
the 2011 election campaign.
In April of 2010, for instance, Harper issued no statement to the
general public to mark the anniversary of the tragedy. And recent
highlevel visits include a 2009 trip to Turkey by Lawrence Cannon,
then minister of foreign affairs, and another last year by Defence
Minister Peter MacKay.
Furthermore, Export Development Canada has just announced the opening
of a regional office in Istanbul to help Canadian exporters break into
the relatively thriving regional market, and there have been
preliminary talks on possible free trade negotiations.
But then Harper issued an election campaign statement on the genocide,
almost identical to the 2006 declaration, that got almost no
mainstream media coverage in Canada but deeply angered Turkey.
Harper's "wrong and unfair" judgment was based on "one-sided
information" that came after a number of initiatives to improve
relations, said an April 27 statement from the Turkish foreign
ministry.
The government's position was also "based on narrow political
calculations" and "dealt a blow to these efforts," the statement
declared.
While one senior Turkish foreign affairs official in Ankara told
Postmedia News this week that Harper would be welcome, another former
senior Turkish diplomat familiar with Canada said he doubted his
country would agree to set out the welcome mat for a foreign leader
who would likely inflame nationalist sentiment.
Hampson said Harper should try to find a way to mend relations.
"Turkey is far too important a country to shun or ignore or make
hostage to our own domestic politics."
From: Baghdasarian