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Posted on 07/17/2003 4:43:42 PM PDT by Destro
SIXTEEN REASONS NOT TO GIVE AID TO TURKEY
SIXTEEN REASONS NOT TO GIVE AID TO TURKEY IN THE FY 2004 FOREIGN OPERATIONS APPROPRIATONS BILL
1. On April 12, 2003, the Congress passed the Administration’s $79 billion Iraq War Supplemental Appropriations Bill. TURKEY receives $ 1 BILLION as part of this bill, and therefore we do not need to give them another $255 million!
2. Turkey’s unreliability as a strategic ally. Turkey’s actions opposing the use of Turkish bases by U.S. troops to open a northern front against the Saddam Hussein dictatorship demonstrated its unreliability as a strategic ally. The Turkish military were key players in the “no” vote which put U.S. forces at risk. They thought we needed Turkey and that we would give Turkey more dollars, a veto on policy regarding the Iraqi Kurds and access to Iraqi oil. They miscalculated the U.S. reaction.
3. The fact that the U.S. opened a northern front and defeated Saddam Hussein without Turkey demonstrated that Turkey is of minimal values for U.S. strategic interests in the Middle East.
4. A senior administration official called Turkey’s actions “extortion in the name of alliance” (N.Y. Times, 2-20-03; A1, col.6).
5. Turkey’s continuing illegal occupation of Cyprus, now in its 29th year, with over 35,000 Turkish armed forces and 100,000 illegal colonists from Turkey.
6. It costs Turkey over $500 million annually for its illegal occupation of 37% of Cyprus. Money is fungible. Aid given to Turkey means that the U.S. taxpayer is subsidizing, in part, Turkey’s occupation forces, the illegal colonists, and the Denktash regime.
7. Turkey’s horrendous human rights violations against its citizens generally and in particular against its 20 million Kurdish minority.
8. Turkey’s illegal blockade of Armenia.
9. Giving Turkey more money would appear to be rewarding disloyalty.
10. Our huge deficit.
11. Our substantial domestic needs.
12. The facts as set forth by Eric Rouleau in Foreign Affairs (Nov./Dec. 2000; at pages 110-112) that the Turkish military has “tens of billions of dollars” in a cash fund and owns vast business enterprises including the arms production companies of Turkey.
13. The fact that Turkey owes the U.S. $5 billion.
14. The fact that Turkey’s U.S. foreign agents and publicists registered with the Department of Justice have contracts totaling $2.4 million. Since money is fungible, $2.4 million of any aid to Turkey would, in effect, go to these U.S. foreign agents from U.S. taxpayer dollars.
15. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld stated on 4-28-03 that the Incirlik Air Base in southeast Turkey is no longer needed to patrol the northern Iraq "no-fly zone" and that the U.S. has withdrawn nearly all the 50 attack and support planes from Incirlik (N.Y. Times, 4-29-03, A11, col. 6).
16. The Pentagon’s new estimate reported in the N.Y.Times (7-10-03), that military costs for Iraq would average $3.9 billion monthly (N.Y. Times, 7-11-03; A1, col.5).
American Hellenic Institute, July 16, 2003
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