Commentary: Turkey not an ally that U.S. can trust

[Yervant1]

Commentary: Turkey not an ally that U.S. can trust

Posted: 7:39 p.m. Friday, April 11, 2014

Marshall D. Moushigian is an attorney and financial adviser in Fresno,
Calif., who is an activist in the Armenian community.

Commentary: Markos Kounalakis: A question of Turkey and NATO

By Marshall D. Moushigian

If we have learned anything from Markos Kounalakis' commentary last
week in The Palm Beach Post ("An unreliable leader at the NATO
tripwire," Tuesday) it is the word "prodosia," which is Greek for
"sellout." In his commentary, Kounalakis gives a detailed account of
just how fortunate we are to have such a good international neighbor
in Turkey. On a personal note, he has traveled there so many times,
and is so in love with the country, that he even held his wedding
there. One can hardly imagine what those in his community, who guard
closely the richness of their Greek history and heritage, juxtaposed
against a timeless nemesis in Turkey, must think about such a person
in their midst.

Although I am not part of his community, I do share a solidarity of
pain and purpose, rendered of tortuous memories of that same
diabolical Turkey. Invasion, occupation, plunder, murder; righteous
denial and trading partner. For years Armenians, Greeks, Kurds,
Assyrians and others have been seeking, to the extent humanly,
politically and legally possible, to wrestle their history, and
justice, from the bloody hands of the Turkish villain.

Perhaps Kounalakis doesn't share the same sense of loss, to people and
things, for his brothers and sisters, as I do for mine. Perhaps if a
much larger percentage of my population had survived the Armenian
Genocide it would not have qualified as such, thereby allowing those
in my community to move on as cavalierly as Kounalakis has.

He confesses that his voice is "often discounted" and that his name
prevents him "from writing about Turkey because it is dismissed as
biased." Further, that his ethnicity automatically labels him as
"hostile to Turkey." I have been writing truthfully, advocating for
Armenian genocide justice, for more than 20 years, and not once has a
writing been rejected because I am "biased," as my name definitely
suggests. There is a clear line between a biased, yet truthful,
position, and a lie.

The content of Kounalakis' article is derived from taking great
liberties on his own imagination. He posits that as a
"Western-aligned" country, Turkey has been "unjustly denied European
Union association" simply because it is Muslim. That is not true.
Turkey is denied because it invaded and still occupies Northern
Cyprus. Turkey is denied because it committed the first genocide of
the 20th century, a distinction it dismisses to this day in the face
of incontrovertible evidence. Turkey is denied because it blockades
landlocked Armenia. Turkey is denied because there are more
journalists in jail in Turkey than anywhere else on the planet. These
are not the traits of a "Western-aligned" country, and they are
certainly not the traits of a country for which he argues is
culturally European.

Perhaps it is the quid pro quo, pro quid, of American politics that
has placed Kounalakis in this shamefully bizarre position of being an
advocate for Turkey. Kounalakis' in-laws are some of the largest
fundraisers and supporters of the Democratic Party. In exchange for
this, Kounalakis' wife was awarded an ambassadorship to Hungary by
President Barack Obama; next in line for favors, one must wonder, if
it was a call to build some political bridges between Greece and
Turkey. Even though Obama is quite friendly to Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, there are only so many tricks he can pull. This
is where Kounalakis comes in -- a well-respected member of the Greek
community, advocating for Turkey's inclusion into all things from
which it is rightfully excluded, will certainly make Obama's job a lot
easier if Turkey is placed in a positive light.

Containing Turkey is difficult enough, even when all interested
parties work together. Turkey, despite its NATO affiliation, is a
rogue nation -- narcissistic and predatory. Reports are now surfacing
that Turkey was behind last summer's sarin gas attack in Syria, a
red-line inducing event on which Obama promised to act, and didn't,
because his administration rightly suspected Turkey. A recently leaked
conversation between Turkey's foreign minister and other high-ranking
officials confirm that Turkey has been planning on creating a cause to
enter Syria's war. And the recent attacks on the Syrian-Armenian
community of Kessab are clearly pinned on Turkey.

With the centennial of the Armenian genocide fast approaching, and
with half of Cyprus still under a Turkish flag, Kounalakis really
ought to stick to doing what he does best -- am not sure what that is,
but being a mouthpiece for Turkey is not it.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/opinion/commentary-turkey-not-an-ally-that-us-can-trust/nfXZT/