Interviewee: Ahmet Davutoglu, Ambassador, Chief Advisor to Turkey's Prime Minister Interviewer: Greg Bruno September 19, 2008 Council on Foreign Relations
Ahmet Davutoglu, the chief foreign policy aide to Turkey's Prime Minister, says he fears recent optimism on Iraq in the United States overlooks significant, dangerous problems which remain unresolved. In an interview in Ankara with CFR.org and other visiting American journalists, Davutoglu said that ethnic and religious differences among Iraq's leadership are bound to flare again. He also said Turkey, due to the importance of trade with Russia, cannot afford to adopt a policy of isolating Moscow or its other neighbors.
The foreign policy agenda that you've laid out may be reaching a fork in the road, in terms of economic relations with Russia. Might Turkey have to choose one over the other, either the East or West?
No, we have already chosen our place. We don't have such a question of identity. Turkey's a member of NATO. Turkey's a candidate for EU. Therefore, in our foreign policy orientation, our place is clear. But, the difference is how to deal with these questions. For example, Turkish-Russian relations: Turkey is a member of NATO. Turkey is a candidate for EU [membership]-part of Western bloc, there is no doubt about it. But you can't say that Turkish-Russian relations can be like Danish-Russian relations, or Norwegian-Russian relations, or Canada-Russian relations. ... Any other European country can follow certain isolationist policies against Russia. Can Turkey do this? I ask you to understand the geographical conditions of Turkey. In principle, we are against isolation. We were against the isolation of Syria. We were against the isolation of Iraq, because isolation creates economic stagnation. Isolation creates a barrier.
'This is no longer about the future of a tiny far-away country but about the nature of the world order in the 21st century'
By Rob Parsons, former BBC Moscow correspondent
THERE NEEDS TO BE CLARITY ABOUT one thing: the South Ossetian war has nothing to do with Russian support for the rights of ethnic minorities in Georgia. It has nothing to do either with keeping the peace or the issues of self-determination and territorial integrity. This is about hubris, anger and resentment. Georgia is paying the price for its pro-Western foreign policy and its insistence on the right to choose its own friends.
Putin's pretext for Russia's actions - and one has to assume he is still the man taking the key decisions - was that Georgian forces had killed Russian peacekeepers and Russian citizens during an operation launched on Thursday night to reassert Georgian control over South Ossetia. It made no difference to Moscow that those Russian citizens were South Ossetians issued with Russian passports over the past 10 years in defiance of the Georgian government's frequently stated objections.
It took five years, the deaths of 4,100 US soldiers, and the wounding of 30,000 more to make Iraq safe for Exxon. It is the inescapable open question since the reasons given by President Bush for the invasion and occupation did not exist, neither the weapons of mass destruction nor Saddam Hussein’s ties to Al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The New York Times reported last week that several Western oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Shell, Total, BP, and Chevron, are about to sign no-bid contracts with the Iraqi government. Western oil had a significant stake in Iraqi oil for much of the last century until the government nationalized the industry in 1972. The Associated Press quoted Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Fadel Gheit as saying he believed the contracts were a first step toward production-sharing agreements. “These companies are in it for the money, not to make friends,” Gheit said.
Thousands of people held a silent rally on Saturday in İstanbul to protest recent coup attempts by the military through several institutions that have resorted to anti-democratic practices.
More than 20,000 people gathered in İstanbul's historical Tünel neighborhood at 5 p.m. on Saturday to raise their voices against anti-democratic initiatives. The rally, which came in the wake of a ruling by the Constitutional Court that annulled constitutional amendments that would have lifted a long-standing ban on the Muslim headscarf on university campuses, was planned in cooperation with such nongovernmental organizations as the Young Civilians, Küresel Eylem Grubu (Global Action Group), the Association of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed Peoples (MAZLUM-DER), Irkçılığa ve Milliyetçiliğe Dur De (Say Stop to Racism and Nationalism), Lambda -- a gay rights association -- and the Movement for Political Horizons (SUH).
by Lewis Seiler and Dan Hamburg In short, we are living in an on-going state of emergency whose exact limits are unknown, on the basis of a controversial deep event — 9/11 — that is still largely a mystery. - UC Professor Emeritus Peter Dale Scott
Unhindered by a neutered Congress and a compliant Court, President Bush has six months remaining to pursue his agenda of expanding the war in the Middle East and ensuring the continuation of the Global War on Terror (GWOT) beyond his tenure in office.
The current administration has taken unto itself unprecedented, nearly hegemonic powers since the events of 9/11. On that day, George W. Bush issued his “Declaration of Emergency by Reason of Certain Terrorist Attacks” under the authority of the National Emergencies Act. This declaration, which can be rescinded by joint resolution of Congress, has instead been extended six times. In 2007, the declaration was strengthened with the issuance of National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD-51) which gave the president the authority to do whatever he deems necessary in a vaguely defined “catastrophic emergency” including everything from canceling elections to suspending the Constitution to launching a nuclear attack.
Ahmet Davutoglu, the chief foreign policy aide to Turkey's Prime Minister, says he fears recent optimism on Iraq in the United States overlooks significant, dangerous problems which remain unresolved. In an interview in Ankara with CFR.org and other visiting American journalists, Davutoglu said that ethnic and religious differences among Iraq's leadership are bound to flare again. He also said Turkey, due to the importance of trade with Russia, cannot afford to adopt a policy of isolating Moscow or its other neighbors.
Putin's pretext for Russia's actions - and one has to assume he is still the man taking the key decisions - was that Georgian forces had killed Russian peacekeepers and Russian citizens during an operation launched on Thursday night to reassert Georgian control over South Ossetia. It made no difference to Moscow that those Russian citizens were South Ossetians issued with Russian passports over the past 10 years in defiance of the Georgian government's frequently stated objections.
The New York Times reported last week that several Western oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Shell, Total, BP, and Chevron, are about to sign no-bid contracts with the Iraqi government. Western oil had a significant stake in Iraqi oil for much of the last century until the government nationalized the industry in 1972. The Associated Press quoted Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Fadel Gheit as saying he believed the contracts were a first step toward production-sharing agreements. “These companies are in it for the money, not to make friends,” Gheit said.
More than 20,000 people gathered in İstanbul's historical Tünel neighborhood at 5 p.m. on Saturday to raise their voices against anti-democratic initiatives. The rally, which came in the wake of a ruling by the Constitutional Court that annulled constitutional amendments that would have lifted a long-standing ban on the Muslim headscarf on university campuses, was planned in cooperation with such nongovernmental organizations as the Young Civilians, Küresel Eylem Grubu (Global Action Group), the Association of Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed Peoples (MAZLUM-DER), Irkçılığa ve Milliyetçiliğe Dur De (Say Stop to Racism and Nationalism), Lambda -- a gay rights association -- and the Movement for Political Horizons (SUH). 
The current administration has taken unto itself unprecedented, nearly hegemonic powers since the events of 9/11. On that day, George W. Bush issued his “Declaration of Emergency by Reason of Certain Terrorist Attacks” under the authority of the National Emergencies Act. This declaration, which can be rescinded by joint resolution of Congress, has instead been extended six times. In 2007, the declaration was strengthened with the issuance of National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD-51) which gave the president the authority to do whatever he deems necessary in a vaguely defined “catastrophic emergency” including everything from canceling elections to suspending the Constitution to launching a nuclear attack.