"US Ambassador to Turkey Quits "-- Turkey Daily News

This story was reported in several Turkish papers, but I could not find it reported in the US. Could be big news.


US Ambassador to Turkey Quits
20-03-2005

The US Ambassador to Turkey Eric Edelman resigned yesterday from his post in Ankara and also from the U.S. foreign service. The resignation comes at a time when anti-American sentiment is on the rise in Turkey.


Edelman said that it was a personal decision to resign and that it had nothing to do with the present "coolness" in relations between Turkey and the U.S.

Edelman had been criticized recently due to comments that he made, referring to Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer's planned April-trip to Syria, which were seen as an interfering hand in Turkish affairs.

It is not clear if Edelman will continue a career in the public service or private sector.

http://turkeydailynews.com/?c=45&a=1216

in a place where you're not welcome.

Edelman is NOT a GOP toady. He is a CAREER CIVIL SERVANT, he was Ambassador to Finland under Clinton. He has a LONG government career:

...he served as Executive Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State. From June 1994 to June 1996, Mr. Edelman was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy Prague, Czech Republic. From April 1993 to July 1993, he served as Deputy to Strobe Talbott, who was then Ambassador-at-Large and Special Adviser to the Secretary of State on the New lndependent States. Mr. Edelman's areas of responsibility were defense, security and space issues.

Mr. Edelman served as Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Soviet and East European Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) from April 1990 to April 1993. From April 1989 to March 1990, he was Special Assistant (European Affairs) to Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Robert M. Kimmitt.

Mr. Edelman served at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow 1987-89 where he was head of the external political section. He had responsibility for Soviet policies in the Third World in the Office of Soviet Affairs at the Department of State from 1984 to 1986.

Previously, Mr. Edelman served as Special Assistant to Secretary of State George P. Shultz, 1982-84; a staff officer on the Secretariat Staff, 1982; a watch officer in the State Department Operations Center 1981-82; and a member of the U.S. Middle East Delegation to the West Bank/Gaza Autonomy Talks, 1980-81.
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:30HEhmHch3MJ:www.usembassy.fi/servlet/PageServer%3FPage%3Dusmissio/edelman.html+eric+edelman&hl=en

Here's the BIG QUESTION--WHAT HAPPENED LATELY??? Why, gee, Edelmen just got a NEW BOSS. She wears storm trooper boots. There's definitely a connection.

This deserves some serious discussion. I am going to hit the nominate for greatest button. I think it is worth it!

Especially since he not only gave up his post, but left the foreign service entirely. And on short notice apparently. We need to know more, especially with the situation in Kirkuk growing more volatile by the day.

traitor, George something, Rummey said that if Turkey had allowed the US troops to access through its country to get troops into Iraq when we initially invaded, there would have been less insurgency. He said that the Baaths and people that favored SH fled to Turkey and were able to gather there.

Its all Turkey's fault that the insurgency has been so successful. :shrug:

:eyes:

....and as for Rummy, don't believe him. The reason for the breakdown had less to do with the Department of DEFENSE than STATE. Or other agencies...who the hell knows!

There was a huge stink about that "invasion" evolution, because the Turks insisted on massing troops on the border, "just in case." One really cannot blame them for wanting to do this.

Of course, with the Iraqi Kurds feeling their oats in Kirkuk, that may not have been the best scenario (Turkomans nearby), so the US said NO to the border troops, and the Turks said NO (in retaliation) to providing staging facilities. Truth is, there was plenty of "plausible deniability" going on despite all this posturing WRT use of Turkish bases...no matter who says what two years later.

And when you factor in the interesting element that the US AMBASSADOR TO TURKEY has JUST RESIGNED you have to WONDER what the HELL is going on in Turkey! It probably SHOULD be covered in the media, but hell, it would cut into the Michael Jackson trial, and the hounding of the newly acquitted Rober Blake! Can't have that! The nation NEEDS its SLEAZE!

Ain't it sad!

(Edited for clarity, hopefully, and to eliminate the obvious!)

Why would a career foreign service officer resign so abruptly? Either he got caught in a compromising sexual situation, or he discovered something so rotten that he had no choice but to resign.

Whatever, it's GOTTA be something interesting. He didn't just get tired one day and say, "Eh, enough!"

Wish I knew someone at the embassy!

strategically and economically for the US/military-industrial complex. Lots of things going on behind the scenes there:
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/030905Stanton/030905stanton.html

Dick and Rummy sure get around.

... if only because there have been a couple of comments about Turkey from both Edelman and Rumsfeld of late that might have really ticked off the Turks--Rumsfeld, in essence, saying that the size of the insurgency was Turkey's fault for not letting US troops cross its border in the north, and Edelman lecturing the Turkish President about his proposed trip to Syria.

One editorial in the Turkish press described Edelman as behaving as if he were "colonial governor of Turkey," not the US ambassador.

it's possible that Rice demanded he play hardball with the Turks and he didn't like it (he does have some background in Turkey, since his parents emigrated from Russia to Turkey).

He may be career Foreign Service, but with this background, I would guess he's really a spook:

"A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Ambassador Edelman has served as Principal Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs since January 2001. From 1998 until 2001, he served as Ambassador to Finland. Prior to this, he served with distinction as the Senior Policy Advisor and Executive Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State and as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. His previous assignments overseas include service from 1994 until 1996, as Deputy Chief of Mission in Prague and from 1987 until 1989 as Political Officer in Moscow with the Afghanistan/Middle East brief. He began his career as a member of the West Bank/Gaza autonomy talks delegation, continued to work Middle East issues as Special Assistant to Secretary George Schultz and held the Afghanistan/Middle East portfolio on the Soviet Desk. Ambassador Edelman earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from Yale University."

Now, as I recall, Sibel Edmonds mentioned often that some of the documents she insisted showed considerable corruption in government involved a large Turkish-American group, which she hasn't named. The largest, I think, is the ATAA (Assembly of Turkish-American Associations). Edelman is quite friendly with them, but I suppose that would be expected of an ambassador.

Not sure what to think of this. Maybe we'll hear more during the week.

Cheers.

You brought up some very salient points. It could well be that Edelman has his hands in the ATAA pie, and was fired (resign or be fired) by the dominatrix, but on the other hand, it could well be, given that he might well be one of "those" guys, that either he's totally blown, his agency has disagreements with the dominatrix and they've told him to get out of there, or he just can't deal with the new boss on a personal level.

Oh, to have a pal in the embassy! That place has got to be a beehive of discussion right about now...

Perhaps the replacement might give us a clue. Amazing we're reduced to playing Soviet-like speculation whenever a government official leaves a job!

An article from last week's Al Jazeera:

Strain showing in US-Turkey ties
By Jonathan Gorvett in Ankara

Friday 04 March 2005, 8:42 Makka Time, 5:42 GMT

Relations between Washington and Ankara have not looked this bad in years: A global survey shows Turks are the most distrusting of the US, a best-selling novel in Turkey tells of war between the two and US newspapers have slammed Turkey for its anti-Americanism.

A BBC poll between November 2004 and January 2005 registered 82% of Turks against US President George Bush's policies - the highest figure in the world. At the same time, a Turkish paper accused Americans of being genetically predisposed towards killing people, while a leading businessman and former mayor of Izmir likened the US to Nazi Germany.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal's Robert Pollock described the atmosphere in Ankara as "poisonous" and likened public debate over US policy to the propaganda produced by Nazi chief Joseph Goebbels.

Yet for all this sound and fury, Turkey and the US remain in many ways the closest of allies, with interests closely intertwined in defence, trade and political matters.

<snip>

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BB350BA5-CAAE-4EED-A677-6B51F4D139EA.htm

...some inflammatory language from Al J, but look who they are QUOTING--the Wall Street Jornal's Robert Pollack!

The minute anyone bring Goebbels into the discussion you have to figure that there is a problem brewing, BIG TIME. Usually we are able to cure these little imbroglios with Turkey with a chunk of Foreign Military Sales, but the question is, will that work this time?

When we killed a bunch of their senior military leaders accidentally with a missle during an exercise, they were REALLY pissed. But they seem even MORE pissed now. You have to wonder where their diplomacy will take them in future. We sure as hell can't afford to shovel much more their way, what with the bills we are running up in Iraq!

Yet for all this sound and fury, Poland and the Soviet Union remain in many ways the closest of allies, with interests closely intertwined in defence, trade and political matters...

A few more details.


KurdistanObserver.com

U.S. Ambassador To Turkey Resigns

LOUIS MEIXLER
Associated Press
Mar 18, 2005


ANKARA, Turkey - The U.S. ambassador to Turkey has submitted his resignation after less than two years on the job, the State Department confirmed Friday, a decision that comes amid tensions between the two countries over the war in Iraq.

U.S. Ambassador Eric Edelman plans to resign from the Foreign Service this summer for personal reasons, said Adam Ereli, a spokesman for the State Department. Ereli said the ambassador "is leaving Turkey on positive, friendly, cooperative terms," and the spokesman declined to comment on Turkish reports that the ambassador would take a position in the Pentagon.

During a trip to the country earlier this year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reportedly instructed Edelman to do more to calm anti-Americanism in the Turkish media.

Many Turks are deeply suspicious over U.S. intentions in northern Iraq, where Kurds control an autonomous area. Turkey fears that Iraqi Kurds could push for independence, which could inspire Kurds in Turkey. Kurdish rebels have been battling the Turkish army since 1984, a fight that has left some 37,000 dead.

Edelman has drawn criticism from some Turkish newspapers, and one Turkish web site claims to have collected 5,000 signatures calling for him to be expelled from the country. He arrived in Turkey in August 2003, when relations were also tense.

In March 2003, Turkey snubbed a U.S.-request to host troops in the country to invade neighboring Iraq. Relations were further strained when the U.S. military detained a team of Turkish special forces in northern Iraq in July 2003 that were reportedly plotting to assassinate a Kurdish official in the ethnically divided city of Kirkuk.
http://home.cogeco.ca/~kurdistan6/19-3-05-us-ambassador-in-tky-resigns.htm

and we are just hearing about it now?? When did rummy make the crass Turkey comment? Was that on Thursday?

diplomat & then to have Bush win in 2000. I mean those that support Bush are still strong men and their people are screaming for democracy. And the ones who have democracies do not want to see precedent setting perpetual warship become a norm and have anti-Bush rallies the world over and threaten to throw out anyone who backing him up (Italy, Spain, perhaps england).

Bush has changed the world - Oh - boy

Like this guy is a diplomat!! I mean if he stays in the diplomatic service he will just go somewhere else that either:

1)supports Bush, is a theocracy or strong man run place & pro-democratic demonstration have started and they want to depose the Bush allie and make it democratic

or

2) is a democracy where the leader will be destroyed by its people in the next election if they follow Bush in any way.

and the diplomats job will be to support Bush whichever is the case!!

Ha ha ha ha hehe hehehehe ho ho ho hohho ha ha ha!

could it be that after his criticism of the turkish visit to syria -- the turks told him to just go fuck himself?

we play hardball to point that nobody wants to play our game -- gee, i wonder why?

Exploring why the Turks hate freedom and democracy so much. Other articles of a similar anti-Turkey vein are at the NR site.

WILL THE TURKS BE DISINCLINED TO CLASH WITH SYRIA OR IRAN? (03/21 05:46 AM)

Ýlnur Çevik, the editor-in-chief of the New Anatolian, writes what is probably one of the nicest farewells to U.S. Ambassador Eric Edelman, who will be leaving in a few months.

Deep into the column, he offers a thought on why U.S.-Turkish relations have hit bumps in the road as the Bush administration leads the push for democracy in the region:

"It was clear Edelman was more authoritative and much closer to the administration as he was coming here from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. During his tenure, American officials flocked to Turkey led by President George W. Bush. All these made positive impacts in relations and the strategic alliance between Ankara and Washington took on a new meaning.

But there are problems. The U.S. has serious reservations about Syria and Iran and wants action. Turkey on the other hand has to live with these states in some form of harmony and simply cannot accommodate Washington in a satisfactory manner. Some people in Washington understand this and try to find solutions while others inevitably want Ankara to be more forthcoming. The statements in general from Washington do not suggest any new chills in ties, but articles written by some influential writers close to “high places” do. Some Turks see this is a bad omen and predict a new period of frosty relations between Turkey and the U.S.

So Ambassador Edelman's statements are studied even more closely by those who want to write more into what exists. They knowingly or unknowingly misquote him or they simply misunderstand his statements. "


I get the feeling this is a big part of Turkish reluctance and skepticism about efforts to build a free, stable, democratic Iraq – and efforts to pressure dictators and mullahs in Syria and Iran. No matter how this turns out, they’ve still got to live with these countries as neighbors at the end of the day. Overthrowing a dictator? Fighting an insurgency? Allowing the Kurds a certain amount of autonomy under an Iraqi federalist system? Way too risky, way too complicated, way too many headaches. Turkish “founding father” Ataturk described his foreign policy in a nutshell, “Peace at home, peace in the world,” – a sense of, “you don’t mess with me, I won’t mess with you.” A grand, decades-long effort to eradicate dictatorships, spread liberty, crush terrorists around the globe and overhaul the failed states that are the breeding grounds for terrorists at the expense of great deals of blood and treasure… just isn’t their thing.

http://www.nationalreview.com/tks/tks.asp

time with his family".

Just like everyone else that has left or been forced out of this administration.

on all the talk shows yesterday. Blamed Turkey for not allowing us access from the north. There is something brewing. Disturbing.

Asked what the biggest mistake of the war effort had been, Rumsfeld said if "we had been successful in getting the 4th Infantry Division to come in through Turkey in the north when our forces were coming up from the south, out of Kuwait, I believe that a considerably smaller number of the Baathists and the regime elements would have escaped.

"As a result, the insurgency would have been at a lesser intensity than it is today," he said.

Turkey denied the United States permission to use the country to invade Iraq from the north.

Rumsfeld was asked that whether it would have been wiser to deploy 300,000 troops in Iraq rather than the smaller number that was used. He said that Gen. Tommy Franks, head of Central Command at the time of the invasion, "had a plan that would have gone up above that had it been necessary."

"They had forces in flow that would have been able to increase a substantial number above the ultimate 150,000 that went into Iraq."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/03/20/iraq.anniversary/index.html

in the late 60's / early 70's. This is bad news.

I recall right after the war other disturbing signs. Someone I knew who had his wife stationed there was initially telling me that he'd heard that the U.S. was going to do a *complete* pullout of Americans from bases in Turkey then, which sounded real spiteful rather than pragmatic. It bothered me a lot with my father and many other friends of mine who spent so many years there to help build a good bond between Americans and Turkey then and see it possibly being thrown all away. Later found out that though there was a lot of Americans pulled out, that this was probably overstated, or perhaps someone stopped the plans of a complete pullout before it happened.

I'd heard of when both Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz both made trips to Turkey and made a point of only going to the American bases there and purposefully didn't meet with any Turkish officials at all, as a signal of their displeasure with Turkey's non-approval of attacking from their borders.

I still wonder how Iraqis feel about Bush chanting so much about the "spread of Democracy", and hearing this administration ridicule the only Democracy in that region using it's democratic power of its people to rule against allowing the U.S. to have its way there. Not a very good example of how we treat our "democratic friends" now was it!

People who ridicule Turkey for them turning down a lot of money to let this happen probably don't take into account the *huge* cost that Turkey bore from the first Gulf War, with the uncontrolled refugee/Kurdish PPK problem on their borders that caused many years of conflict in the eastern part of Turkey with the newer "immigrants" that were more bent on fighting Turks than living there. Turkey wasn't innocent in that either, but those tensions, lack of oil through the pipeline and other drops in things like tourism is what lead to the huge drop in value of their currency and other economic problems they've been facing for years. If I were a Turk I wouldn't blame them for saying to pay me *a lot* to prevent falling into a similar abyss after this war.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

He made some really stupid comments in the last few months. First, he 'ordered' the Turkish government to stop anti-Americanism in the country. To say that it didn't help would be an understatement. Then, he 'complained' about Turks not liking America's politics to that writer in WSJ, who wrote a scathing piece and likened current Turkey to the last days of the Ottoman Empire ('Sick man of Europe, once again', if I recall correctly). That's a big no-no as well.

For a diplomat, he apparently had no tact at all, or did not care anymore. But he himself sure did damage feelings against US with his careless comments here.

She'll make everyone happy!

Did anybody else read the little comment from Rumsfailed on Yahoo news. I think it was Sunday.

RumsFool comes out and says the "Insurgency is because of Turkey". I was mesmerized by that statement. RumsFinished explained that because Turkey would not give clearance to the US to invade from the north. Iraq is now a seething cesspool and he's blaming Turkey.

RumsFathead mentioned that there were "many insurgents" which could have been killed, had we only been able to march in from the north.

"Very interesting", I thought. How convenient. Blame a botched operation on someone else.

You're right Texas, something Big is up.:smoke:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&e=11&u=/ap/20050318/ap_on_re_mi_ea/turkey_us

ANKARA, Turkey - The U.S. ambassador to Turkey has submitted his resignation after less than two years on the job, the State Department confirmed Friday, a decision that comes amid tensions between the two countries over the war in Iraq (news - web sites).

U.S. Ambassador Eric Edelman plans to resign from the Foreign Service this summer for personal reasons, said Adam Ereli, a spokesman for the State Department. Ereli said the ambassador "is leaving Turkey on positive, friendly, cooperative terms," and the spokesman declined to comment on Turkish reports that the ambassador would take a position in the Pentagon (news - web sites).

During a trip to the country earlier this year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) reportedly instructed Edelman to do more to calm anti-Americanism in the Turkish media.

...more...