TCA Issue Papers

US Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the bomb attacks in Reyhanli, a town located in southern Turkey, on the border with Syria. Secretary Kerry stated: "The United States condemns today's car bombings and we stand with our ally, Turkey. This awful news strikes an especially personal note for all of us given how closely we work in partnership with Turkey, and how many times Turkey's been a vital interlocutor at the center of my work as Secretary of State these last three months. read more

Participating in a conference on the Southern Caucasus held in Istanbul last week, Armenia’s National Congress faction Secretary Aram Manukyan told reporters that Armenia has been left out of regional projects due to the policies of its own government. read more

Every year on April 25, Turks, Australians and New Zealanders join together to commemorate ANZAC Day. On this day 98 years ago, with the Allies at their side, the newly formed Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACS) landed on the Gallipoli peninsula to invade the Ottoman Empire’s capitol, modern-day Istanbul, and take control of a precious WWI supply route to Russia. As support for the war waned, the British came to Australia with a propaganda machine aimed at encouraging young Australian men to sign-up to fight in this war on a foreign land half a world away. Over the next nine months, the Turks fought a bloody battle against the ANZACs, and while the Ottoman army ultimately prevailed, both sides suffered great hardships and heavy casualties. read more

The Turkish Coalition of America expresses its deep disappointment in President Obama's repeat of the same one-sided and historically inaccurate pronouncement as he does on every April 24th to appease certain hateful, single-issue Armenian groups. TCA will again send a package of books and documents to the White House in the hope that they will be read and that the office of the Presidency is not used again for such dissemination of half-truths. read more

On April 23, 1920 the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) was inaugurated in Ankara. It was the first step toward the creation of the Republic of Turkey, the roots of which were laid during the Turkish National War of Liberation led by Mustafa Kemal- later to be given the name Atatürk (father of Turks). read more

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan on Friday for the 2010 Israeli commando raid on Mavi Marmara, a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid ship, that killed 9 Turkish citizens, including a young Turkish-American. With Turkey and Israel being two of Washington's closest allies in the region, President Barack Obama facilitated the call between Netanyahu and Erdogan and said: “The United States deeply values our close partnerships with both Turkey and Israel, and we attach great importance to the restoration of positive relations between them in order to advance regional peace and security." read more

The Turkish Coalition of America’s 16th Congressional Delegation completed its visit to Turkey on February 24th. Since 2009 TCA has taken more than 155 members of Congress and senior staffers to Turkey and surrounding countries. read more

The TCA commemorates the twenty-first anniversary of the Khojaly massacre, which occurred on February 25-26, 1992 in the town of Khojaly located in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of this tragedy, approximately 2,000 innocent Azerbaijani civilians were deliberately killed and taken hostage by Armenian armed forces in what is known to be the worst atrocity of modern times in the South Caucasus region. read more

In an effort to alleviate the suffering of thousands of Iraq’s displaced Chaldean Christians who found refuge in Turkey, the Turkish Coalition of America (TCA) awarded a grant of $100,000 to the Chaldean Federation of America (CFA). The final funds of the grant were dispersed recently through an aid program administered by the Chaldean-Assyrian Association (KADER) in Turkey. Reflecting on this humanitarian aid grant, leading members of the Chaldean American community expressed their gratitude to the TCA for the hand extended by Turkish Americans to displaced Iraqi Chaldeans. read more

On January 27, 1973, Turkish Consul General to Los Angeles Mehmet Baydar and Vice Consul Bahadir Demir were killed by an Armenian terrorist named Kourken Yanikian at the Baltimore Hotel in Santa Barbara. Yanikian was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment only to be released by California Governor George Deukmejian, of Armenian descent, after serving less than 11 years in prison. When Yanikian died shortly after his release, several hundred Armenian Americans attended his funeral and a memorial grave was built in his honor. The Armenian community’s embrace of this brutal act set the stage for a wave of terrorism that would last for over two decades. read more

Greek ultra-nationalists, brandishing Greek flags, broke through a police barrier and reached the official vehicle of the Turkish Consul General to Komotini, Ilhan Sener, who was visiting the Mayor of Kavala, Kostas Simichis. read more

On 17 December, the U.S. District Court for Washington D.C. held that Syria was vicariously liable for the 1991 kidnapping of a group of American biblical archeologists by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The PKK is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department, Turkey and the European Union. read more

TCA would like to pay tribute to Dave Brubeck, American jazz pianist and composer who passed away on December 5. Dave Brubeck's recordings and distinctive sound constantly won over listeners throughout his successful career. What makes Dave Brubeck intriguing to the world of jazz is his musical style, inspired by a U.S. State Department tour he and his band took to Eurasia in 1958. read more

Greece was ranked as having the most corrupt public sector of all 27 EU countries according to Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index. Data was gathered from 176 countries worldwide to score them on how corrupt their public sectors are seen to be. read more

This week, NATO agreed to deploy Patriot anti-missile batteries along the Turkish-Syrian border, providing a measure of security for Turkey in the event of an airborne attack from its neighbor. The Alliance took the decision amid reports that Damascus may be preparing to use chemical weapons as President Bashar al-Assad continues to fights rebels seeking to oust him. read more

Tiny Cyprus, like many countries in Southern Europe, has needed bailouts tokeep its economy afloat during the eurocrisis. More often than not, however, it has turned to Moscow rather than Brussels for the cash, raising concerns about whether one of the European Union's more recent members is more oriented toward East or West. Russia gave Cyprus a $3.1 billion loan in 2011 and, as of this writing, is considering ponying up another $6.2 billion, equivalent to morethan one-third of the country's entire economy. read more

The US should pursue closer partnerships with four powerful democracies — Brazil, India, Indonesia and Turkey, according to a report released on November 27 by the German Marshall Fund of the US (GMF) and the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). read more

The below letter was sent to President Barack H. Obama by G.Lincoln McCurdy, TCA President on November 27, 2012.

Dear Mr. President:
When you visited Turkey on your first bilateral trip as President in 2009, you remarked that “Turkey and the United States must stand together – and work together – to overcome the challenges of our time.
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“In recent months, Greece’s economic woes have continued their downward spiral, coupled with an alarming rise in violence and political extremism, and the rhetoric has now spread into Greek diaspora communities in the United States. read more

The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) passed a resolution on October 27, calling on the U.S. Congress to pass legislation that encourages and facilitates tribal trade with Turkey and other World Trade Organization (WTO) countries. read more

On October 29, 1923, the newly recognized Turkish parliament proclaimed the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, formally marking the end of the Ottoman Empire. On the same day, Mustafa Kemal, who led the Turkish National War of Liberation and was later named Atatürk (father of Turks), was unanimously elected as the first president of the Republic.

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Today TCA observes the 100th Anniversary of the start of the first Balkan War, which broke out on October 8, 1912. The war and those that followed caused immense suffering for all of the people of the Balkans. However, the tragedies suffered by the region’s Ottoman Muslims remain a story largely untold. read more

A new study identified present-day Turkey as the homeland of the Indo-European language family. The international research team, led by Quentin Atkinson, at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, used computational methods to analyze words from more than 100 ancient and contemporary languages, as well as geographical and historical data. By doing so, the scientists say they have pinned down the origin, about 8,000 years ago, of the largest global language to Anatolia, present-day Turkey. read more

The TCA Commemorates the Korean War Armistice signed on July 27th 1953. During this war U.S. and Turkish forces fought side by side under U.N. command, along with other allied nations, to save South Korea from the threat of North Korean occupation. The Turkish armed forces were the only brigade-sized U.N. unit permanently attached to a U.S. division throughout the war. read more

TCA celebrates the 89th anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne, which recognized the boundaries of the modern state of Turkey. This international treaty was signed on July 24, 1923 and shortly thereafter, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed on October 29. read more

Today marks the 38th anniversary of the Turkish peace operation on Cyprus on July 20, 1974 to protect the lives and liberty of the island’s Turkish community. The dispute over Cyprus did not begin in 1974. The independent Republic of Cyprus was born in 1960 as a partnership state based on the political equality of the co-founding Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot peoples. It had a Greek Cypriot president and a Turkish Cypriot vice-president, each with veto powers to ensure political equality at the executive level. read more

Turkey has opened its borders to an estimated 40,000 Syrian refugees fleeing the brutal crackdown in Syria by Bashar Al-Assad’s regime, according to Turkey’s disaster relief agency. Syrian refugees have since been sheltered in nine tent cities and a container camp established by Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD). read more

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz underlined the need of restoring ties between Turkey and Israel during a speech delivered at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Tuesday. Expressing that Turkey is on its way to becoming a superpower in the region, Mofaz called on both nations to set their differences aside and work towards mending their strategic relationship. read more

President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met last Tuesday at the G-20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, to discuss regional developments and bilateral relations with a focus on Syria and Iraq. read more

On Wednesday, Israel’s state comptroller, the government’s watchdog, issued a report sharply criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his handling of a 2010 military raid on a Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla. The raid, which took place in international waters, led to the death of eight Turkish citizens and a Turkish American youth aboard Mavi Marmara- the lead flotilla vessel. read more

The Senate Foreign Affairs Committee of Spain rejected a draft bill characterizing the Ottoman Armenian tragedy of World War I as genocide. The Senate Committee rejected the bill by 36 to three votes. It was proposed by two deputies from Amaiur, a left-wing Basque nationalist coalition. read more

For over a century, from 1763 onwards, the peoples of Circassian lands situated in the north-western Caucasus defended their homelands against Russian expansion. The Circassian people, who by and large adopted Islam in the eighteenth century, were almost entirely affected by the terrible destruction of their communities and the forced displacement from their historic homeland during the last decades of the Tsarist regime. Russian General Yevdokimov was tasked to execute this policy of forced displacement as of 1860 with newly formed mobile columns of riflemen and Cossack cavalry. read more

On May 18, 1944, the entire Crimean Tatar population in Crimea, was rudely awakened by Soviet soldiers, loaded on trucks, taken to the nearest train stations and brutally deported to Central Asia, the Urals and Siberia. read more

Last week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Australian counterpart, Julia Gillard met in Ankara, Turkey and agreed to work closely together to commemorate the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign. The two leaders announced that 2015 would be proclaimed the Year of Turkey in Australia and the Year of Australia in Turkey. Both countries have an established practice of paying national tributes to each other to honor the memory of the 1915 campaign, which claimed tens of thousands of lives. read more

The Supreme Court of Greece has denied the Xanthi Turkish Union to use the word “Turk” in its name despite a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The Xanthi Turkish Union was closed down in 1986 following a complaint filed by the Xanthi governor on grounds that usage of the word “Turk” was a threat to the national security of Greece. Upon exhausting all domestic legal remedies, the Xanthi Turkish Union filed a case with the ECHR, which held in 2008 that Greece had violated the right of freedom of assembly and association of the Turkish community. read more

The TCA commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the Khojaly massacre, which occurred on February 25-26, 1992 in the town of Khojaly located in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. As a result of this tragedy, approximately 2,000 innocent Azerbaijani civilians were deliberately killed and taken hostage by Armenian armed forces in what is known to be the worst atrocity of modern times in the South Caucasus region. read more

A mysterious Russian cargo ship limped into the Cypriot port of Limassol, this month, forced to seek shelter from a violent storm. Hidden on board the MS Chariot were four containers packed with 60 tonnes of ammunition for AK-47s and for rocket launchers. The shipment had come from Moscow's state arms company, Rosoboronexport; its shadowy purchaser was none other than the Syrian government. read more

It all began when crisis-stricken Greek TV channels realized that buying the glitzy tales of forbidden love, adultery, clan loyalties and betrayal from long-standing regional rival Turkey, was cheaper than filming their own. The action-packed dramas quickly came to dominate the ratings despite the fact that they are broadcast in Turkish with only subtitles in Greek and have gained a devoted following among a Greek populace disheartened by the country's biggest financial crisis in decades. read more

On January 7, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen visited Turkey for the first time, and met, also for the first time, her Turkish relatives in an Istanbul reunion organized by the Turkish Coalition of America. read more

An opening ceremony was held on December 28 at the recently renovated Vordvots Vorotman Armenian Church in Istanbul, Turkey. The ceremony was conducted by Deputy Armenian Patriarch of Turkey, Archbishop Aram Ateshyan. read more

Barring a last-minute surprise in the U.S. Senate, the well-qualified diplomat President Obama sent to serve as ambassador to Azerbaijan will have to come home in less than a month. read more

The Turkish Coalition of America strongly denounces the passage of H.Res. 306, which unfairly and hypocritically targets Turkey for alleged religious discrimination against Christian communities within its borders. read more

The Turkish economy expanded 8.2% in the third quarter, dramatically exceeding market forecasts and following an 8.8% expansion in the second quarter. Turkey’s growth was surpassed by China which scored 9.1 % in the same quarter. read more

Is the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom squinting at a transparent Turkish Muslim injustice perpetrated by a Christian Greek government? read more

On November 17, the House Committee on Natural Resources voted 27-15 to pass the Indian Tribal Trade and Investment Act, H.R. 2362, which will now be reported favorably to the House for a final vote. read more

On November 2, an international conference on Afghanistan was held in Istanbul, Turkey. Hosted by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, the Istanbul Conference was attended by leaders from the broader region and Europe, as well as senior representatives from NATO, the United Nations, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. On the eve of the conference, Turkish President Abdullah Gul hosted a trilateral meeting with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani counterpart Asif Zardari. read more

October 5, 2011, Washington, D.C. – The Turkish Coalition of America extends its congratulations to Francis Ricciardone, the current United States Ambassador to Turkey, who has been appointed to serve a full diplomatic term in Ankara. Ricciardone’s appointment was confirmed by a voice vote of the Senate on Tuesday evening. He has represented the U.S. in Turkey since January after receiving a presidential recess appointment. read more

A religious ceremony was held on September 11 at the historical Armenian Church of Akdamar in Van, Turkey. This is the second religious ceremony to be held at the church since its restoration by the Ministry of Culture of Turkey in 2007. The ceremony, led by Archbishop Aram Atesyan of the Armenian Patriarchate of Turkey, was attended by approximately 3,000 people. read more

The Turkish Coalition of America applauds the vote by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to support the continued service of Ambassador Francis Ricciardone as the United States Ambassador to Turkey. Ambassador Ricciardone has worked to strengthen one of America’s most important bilateral partnerships," said G.Lincoln McCurdy, TCA president. read more