George H. W. Bush was still president in 1992, Bill Clinton wasn’t sworn in until January 20, 1993.
Clinton was president elect in 1992, and started his commitment to arms transference prior to 1993.
Despite President-elect Bill Clinton’s November 1992 pledge to “review our arms sales policy and take it up with the other major sellers of the world as part of a long-term effort to reduce the proliferation of weapons of destruction in the hands of people who might use them in very destructive ways,” his administration has pursued a business-as-usual policy on arms sales which has, if anything, resulted in more aggressive government support for U.S. weapons exporting firms than they received under the Reagan and Bush administrations. Advocates of limiting arms sales based on human rights and arms control considerations have scored occasional victories, but in general the Clinton administration’s approach to arms sales has been “whatever the market will bear.” The ups and downs of U.S. arms exports in the Clinton era have had more to do with the availability of cash-paying customers than any consistent pattern of concern about the consequences of U.S. sales. This has certainly been the case with respect to Turkey, where the shelving of specific deals like a proposed 1994 sale of cluster bombs and a 1996 offer of Cobra attack helicopters have been counterbalanced by a steady flow of U.S. weaponry totaling nearly $4.9 billion during the first six years of the Clinton administration. U.S. sales to Turkey during the Clinton era have been more than four times as large as the entire value of U.S. arms transfers to Turkey during the 34 years from 1950 to 1983.
Those who have expressed concern about a “shadow embargo” on U.S. weapons transfers to Turkey can rest easy: deliveries of U.S. weaponry under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) programs - the two largest channels of U.S. arms exports, topped $1 billion for the first time ever in FY 1997 (see Table I, below). U.S. arms transfers to Turkey during the Clinton administration have averaged out to over $800 million per year, making Turkey one of the largest recipients of U.S. arms during the 1990s, ranking right below such favored clients as Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Israel, and Egypt. And despite the fact that the Clinton administration’s term of office has coincided with one of the most intense periods of Turkey’s war against the PKK, the volume of U.S. weaponry supplied to Turkey has been increasing, not diminishing over this period. Of the $10.5 billion in U.S. weaponry supplied to Turkey since the civil war in the southeast began in 1984, 47% of the shipments (measured by value) have occurred during the Clinton administration. This large and uninterrupted flow of armaments to the Turkish armed forces speaks far more loudly than the occasional State Department protest or the even rarer instances in which a system is withheld or a deal is delayed due to human rights concerns. For a description of current “deals in the works” between U.S. arms makers and the Turkish armed forces.
So it didn’t mean anything that Bush was president in 1992. Clinton started his bid to upgrade Turkey with weapons prior to his swearing in and when he could, immediately armed Turkey with weapons in tremendous amounts that the Turks could use on the Kurds, and did, killing unknown thousands.
rwood