The spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians said Monday that Turkey’s new constitution should grant equal rights to minorities in the country and safeguard religious freedoms.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I met with members of a parliamentary subcommittee seeking an all-party consensus in drawing up a new constitution, which will replace the one ratified in 1982 while Turkey was under military rule. The subcommittee is meeting with non-governmental organizations and representatives of minority groups for input on the drafting of the new laws.

Mostly Muslim Turkey, which is seeking to join the European Union, has small Christian and Jewish communities. The EU has made improved rights for the religious groups a condition for membership.

Turkey’s existing constitution guarantees religious freedom, but when it comes to minority religions the country has long been criticized for restricting the training of clergy and the ownership of places of worship, and for interfering with the selection of church leaders. It also has recognized Bartholomew I as the leader of the local church in Turkey, but not as ecumenical patriarch of all Orthodox Christians.

For decades, Turkey has mostly ignored demands of the Patriarchate, mainly due to mistrust stemming from a rivalry with Greece. However, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has pledged to address the problems of religious minorities and said he hopes the new constitution will correct democratic shortfalls.

Bartholomew sounded optimistic about the new constitution.

“Unfortunately there have been injustices toward minorities until now,” Bartholomew said. “These are slowly being corrected and changed. A new Turkey is being born.”

Bartholomew told reporters he favors a constitution that promotes equal rights and religious freedoms, including the reopening of a Greek Orthodox seminary that trained generations of patriarchs.

“We asked for equality,” Bartholomew said after the meeting. “In education, we asked that the seminary be reopened. We asked for freedom of religion and conscious, for freedom of worship.”

Bartholomew, who is based in Istanbul, is the spiritual leader of hundreds of millions of Orthodox Christians worldwide.

An 18-page report presented to the subcommittee also demands government funds for minority schools and places of worship, Bartholomew said.

“Until now there has been no state aid for any churches or minority schools,” Bartholomew said. “If we are talking of equality, this equality should be present in all fields.”

The subcommittee on Monday also heard the demands of Turkey’s tiny Assyrian Christian community.

A community leader, Kuryalos Ergun, said the Assyrians — one of the world’s oldest Christian communities — want religious minorities to be represented in a government agency that regulates mosques and imams in Turkey, and want minority clergy to be paid and employed by the state the same way imams are.

The Orthodox Christians want their Halki Theological School reopened in Turkey. Located, on Heybeliada Island, near Istanbul, it stopped admitting new students in 1971 under a Turkish law that put religious and military training under state control. The school closed its doors in 1985, when its last students graduated.

The patriarch has long complained that Halki’s closure has prevented raising new leaders for the church, and that Turkish laws that require a patriarch to be a Turkish citizen make it difficult for the nation’s dwindling Greek community of several thousand to produce candidates.

In 2010, the government granted Turkish citizenship to more than a dozen senior clerics from North and South America as well as Hong Kong, to help address the issue.

In August, the government agreed to return hundreds of properties that were confiscated from Christian and Jewish minorities over the past 75 years.

Turns out the little girl attends a state school and her turkey
and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice did not
meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the
Carolina Journal.

“The Division of Child Development and Early Education at the
Department of Health and Human Services requires all lunches served
in pre-kindergarten programs — including in-home day care centers —
to meet USDA guidelines,” the Journal reports. “That means lunches
must consist of one serving of meat, one serving of milk, one
serving of grain, and two servings of fruit or vegetables…”

Even lunches brought from home must meet this requirement and if
they don’t, the childcare provider must give the student additional
food.

In the case of this little girl, her packed lunch was
supplemented with the school lunch that included chicken
nuggets—and she ended up eating only three chicken nuggets that
day. What’s more, the preschooler returned home with a note telling
her parents that they owed $1.25 to pay for school lunch.

“She came home with her whole sandwich I had packed, because she
chose to eat the nuggets on the lunch tray, because they put it in
front of her,” the mother, who asked to remain unnamed, told the
Journal. “You’re telling a 4-year-old. ‘oh. your lunch isn’t
right,’ and she’s thinking there’s something wrong with her
food.”

The Journal reached out to the school district and it sounds
like the situation might have been a big mistake. State officials
were doing inspections that day and the girl’s lunch was probably
pulled due to the potato chips.

“With a turkey sandwich, that covers your protein, your grain,
and if it had cheese on it, that’s the dairy,” Jani Kozlowski, the
fiscal and statutory policy manager for the division, told the
Journal. “It sounds like the lunch itself would’ve met all of the
standard.”

Mistake or not, this story highlights the USDA’s restrictive
rules around school lunches. Where I live in San Francisco, many
parents complain about their children’s public school lunches. The
hot entrees are assembled at a kitchen in Illinois by Preferred
Meal Systems and then put on trucks headed for California. Kids
often don’t eat their food and a lot of it ends up in the trash.
I’ve heard many parents say, “Why can’t schools just give kids a
turkey sandwich and an apple?” The problem is that this wouldn’t
meet the USDA guidelines.

© 2012 Mywesttexas.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Netanyahu’s visit follows a succession of reciprocal visits by senior officials from both countries and several low-level agreements. Israeli President Shimon Peres had talks with Greek Cypriot leader Dimitris Christofias during a key visit to the island last November, discussing gas finds in the eastern Mediterranean, a discovery that has sparked a crisis between Turkey and Greek Cyprus.

Turkey opposes exploratory drilling being conducted by US company Noble Energy off Cyprus’ south coast, saying it ignores the rights of Turkish Cypriots. Ankara sent warships last year to escort a research vessel looking for gas deposits in the area, raising the possibility of a naval confrontation.

Israel, which also conducts drilling off its coast, has strained relations with Turkey as well. Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador and suspended military agreements after a UN panel, investigating a deadly May 31, 2010, raid on an international aid flotilla headed for Gaza, said in its report that Israel’s blockade of Gaza was legal.

Greek Cyprus on Wednesday accused neighboring Turkey of using “bullying behavior” in some of its harshest criticism yet of its old foe, locked in a decades-old standoff over the division of the island and recent natural gas finds.

Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis told Israeli Army Radio in an interview on the eve of the visit by Netanyahu that Turkey had held numerous and “provocative” military exercises in the eastern Mediterranean over the past few months. The island of Cyprus is split between the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC), recognized by Turkey, and Greek Cyprus, which represents an internationally recognized government. There are reunification talks going on.

After the Greek Cypriot drilling had begun in a southeastern offshore block, adjoining a gas field in Israeli waters reputed to be the world’s largest find of the past decade, Turkey and the KKTC signed a continental shelf delimitation agreement in September to clear the path for Turkish exploration off northern Cyprus.

Relations between Israel and Cyprus have improved considerably in the last few years, with the deterioration of Turkish-Israeli relations.

“There is no doubt that the loss of Turkey pushed Israel in the direction of Greece and Cyprus,” said Alon Liel, a former director of Israel’s Foreign Ministry and one-time envoy to Turkey, as quoted by The Associated Press. “With Cyprus it has become more significant because of the gas.”

“They [the Turks] see Israel aiding Cyprus and in return, they will want to aid Hamas,” he said. “The Turks feel that if Israel is moving toward Cyprus they will try to strengthen Hamas” by donating money to its government.

Diplomatic sources told Today’s Zaman in regards to Netanyahu’s visit to Greek Cyprus, “Anybody is free to go anywhere.” The same sources pointed out that Israel has also been trying to establish relations with the countries of Eastern Europe and the Balkans where Turkey has strong ties.

Asked about comments in relation to ties between Hamas and Turkey, the same sources said Turkey supports internal reconciliation in Palestine, and “Turkey and Hamas are already close.”

Reports began to surface recently claiming Netanyahu will discuss the stationing of Israeli fighter jets at a Greek Cypriot airbase on his visit to the island. “If such reports prove to be accurate, the event has the potential to be a revolutionary strategic alliance,” wrote Dan Reznik, an intelligence analyst specializing in Israeli affairs at Max Security Solutions, a geo-political risk consulting firm based in the Middle East.

“However, the aforementioned discussions may in fact be purely an Israeli negotiating tactic in an effort to bridge the rift between it and its former ally Turkey,” he added.

Mehmet Hasgüler, a Turkish Cypriot and an academic focusing on Cyprus, told Today’s Zaman that Israel needs Turkey more than ever as old alliances have been destroyed in the Middle East.

The rupture with Turkey and the toppling of Egypt’s longtime leader Hosni Mubarak made Israel more vulnerable in a region already hostile to the country. “Israel pretends to look for other alliances thinking that Turkey will be cornered, but this tactic will not work,” he also said. “However, Turkey should seriously evaluate the situation if Israel demands an air base from Greek Cyprus.”

Last month, two agreements were signed between Israeli and Greek Cypriot defense ministers, covering intelligence-sharing and air and sea collaboration. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Community in Cyprus announced a demonstration on Thursday afternoon in Nicosia to protest Netanyahu’s presence.

Greek Cyprus, a traditional ally of Arab countries and a strong supporter of Palestinian statehood, was considered one of Israel’s fiercest critics in Europe, but geopolitical developments have brought the two closer together.

In 2008, bilateral trade reached nearly 600 million euros, making Israel the fifth largest exporter to Cyprus. According to the Cyprus Mail, The Israel Project (TIP), a non-profit organization, reported that bilateral trade between the two climbed to 910 million euros in 2011.

Aziz Yildirim, head of the celebrated Fenerbahce soccer team, and the others have been charged in the scandal allegedly involving 19 league matches last season.

Fenerbahce, the champion of the Turkish league, was barred from the Champions League — the biggest, most lucrative international soccer tournament — because of its involvement in the match-fixing scandal. The team could be stripped of its domestic title, tossed out of the top flight and forced to play in a lower soccer league, penalties that could cost the club millions.

Match-fixing scandals last year tarnished leagues in Turkey, Italy, Israel, Finland and Greece even though UEFA, the governing body for European soccer, spent millions to monitor betting and investigate cases in which players and referees were allegedly bribed.

“The government might collapse, (chronic) inflation might go down but Fenerbahce can never be relegated!” Fenerbahce fans shouted outside the courthouse in Silivri, a town near Istanbul.

The head of Turkey’s soccer federation and two of his deputies resigned last month following a controversy on how to deal with the teams that have been implicated in the scandal. The court case involves officials or players from at least eight Turkish clubs.

Yildirim, who has denied any wrongdoing, is accused of match-fixing and establishing a crime ring, according to the indictment, which includes records of wiretapped conversations between the suspects who allegedly exchanged encoded messages.

He faces a maximum of 72 years in prison if found guilty. Prosecutors accuse Yildirim of attempting to manipulate 13 league games, mostly in the second half of the season, to edge Fenerbahce past then-leader Trabzonspor in the league standings.

Fenerbahce went unbeaten through the second half of the season and beat Trabzonspor to the title only on goal difference. Officials with Trabzonspor, which replaced Fenerbahce in the Champions League, have also been implicated.

The indictment accused some suspects of bribing rival team’s players to play badly, or not play at all, and coercing referees to make favorable decisions.

In one case, Yildirim is accused of ordering his aides to pay 100,000 euros ($134,000) to Istanbul Buyuksehir Belediyespor player Ibrahim Akin ahead of a match in May.

“I’ll jump off the bridge if they can prove it,” Yildirim told reporters during a break in the trial, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Yildirim, who has led Fenerbahce since 1998, is also accused of getting federation officials to arrange “favorable” referees for his team’s games and of promising transfers, money or luxury cars to players from rival teams.

Among the games Yildirim is alleged to have rigged was a crucial final league game between Fenerbahce and Sivasspor that ended in a 4-3 win for Fenerbahce and helped it clinch the title. Fenerbahce officials are alleged to have offered Sivasspor officials and players money to lose the game.

Yildirim defended himself by saying he had met with a Sivasspor official merely to discuss the allocation of tickets, according to the indictment.

Former Giresunspor President Olgun Peker is also charged, described as the main ringleader in another match-fixing scheme. Peker is accused of fixing matches to help prevent his team from being relegated from Turkey’s second league to a lower level, as well as using threats and extortion. He faces a maximum 115 years in prison.

Fenerbahce risks having its name tarnished like Italian club Juventus, which was stripped of its 2005 and 2006 Italian league titles and sent down to play in a lower league.

Former Fenerbahce forward Emmanuel Emenike of Nigeria, who was detained and released without charge in July, is among 14 players charged over alleged match-fixing attempts. Emenike left Turkey following his release and joined Spartak Moscow without playing a game for Fenerbahce. He is on trial in absentia.

Emenike, who was playing for Karabukspor at the time, was reportedly promised a transfer to Fenerbahce in return for not playing in a match against the team — an allegation Karabukspor has denied. The club said Emenike was injured a week before the game and has a doctor’s certificate to prove it.

Emenike faces maximum three years in prison if convicted.

In December, Turkey’s Parliament approved a sharp reduction in prison terms for match-fixing and hooliganism, a move that led to lighter sentences for any suspects found guilty in this scandal. Lawmakers overrode a veto by President Abdullah Gul, who had argued that the amendments gave “the impression of a special arrangement” for the suspects, including Yildirim.

Match-fixing can generate enormous profits and often involves crime syndicates. FIFA, the world soccer body, estimates that fixers make between $5 billion and $15 billion in profits each year from manipulating matches across all sports, which attract $500 billion in wagers with legal and unlicensed operators.

Match-fixing scandals were also reported last year in Africa and Asia.

____

Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara and Graham Dunbar in Geneva contributed.

Davutoğlu announced last week that Turkey is considering delivering humanitarian aid to the people of Syria under the provisions of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, located in Geneva.

Davutoğlu told reporters in Washington that Turkey is preparing to mobilize alternative UN mechanisms following a veto by Russia and China at the UN Security Council. In this context Davutoğlu appealed to the UN’s top human rights body on Friday to send humanitarian aid to the Syrian people.

Russia and China recently vetoed a UN Security Council resolution aimed at ending Syria’s bloodshed, despite international outrage over the devastating bombardment of the city of Homs by Assad’s forces.

Turkey’s appeal to the UN Human Rights Commission was submitted through Valerie Amos, the UN’s undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, as well as various diplomatic channels in New York. Highlighting what he said was a “very serious human tragedy” in the cities of Homs and Zabadani, which have been subjected to heavy shelling and artillery fire for months, Davutoğlu said Turkey is determined to make the UN system work.

The Syrian military has stepped up its siege of Homs, where hundreds have reportedly been killed over the past week.

The Turkish foreign minister had a phone conversation with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Washington on Saturday to discuss the deteriorating situation in Syria. He expressed concern over the violence there, warning of the worsening situation in Turkey’s southern neighbor. He briefed Ban on Turkey’s diplomatic initiatives regarding the developments in Syria.

He also exchanged views about ongoing developments in the wake of the UN Security Council vote on Syria that was vetoed by Russia and China, adding that Turkey would launch an initiative to establish an international conference on Syria, to be announced this week. Ban thanked Turkey for the assistance given to Syrian refugees fleeing violence in Syria who have taken shelter in Turkey’s Hatay province. Davutoğlu and Ban reportedly agreed that the violence and killings in Syria must end immediately.

Assad’s crackdown has killed well over 5,400 people since the uprising began in March, according to UN estimates. Davutoğlu estimated that at least 7,000 have been killed as a result of the brutal military response to ongoing protests and clashes with Syrian soldiers who defected.

The regime’s crackdown on dissent has left it almost completely isolated internationally — except for key support from Russia and China, which delivered a double veto to block a UN resolution calling on Assad to leave power.

Davutoğlu said in an interview with Reuters last week that Turkey is ready to host the international conference. “We definitely want to have this meeting in our region, showing the regional concerns, sensitivities and solidarity, as well as regional ownership of the issue, maybe in Turkey, maybe in another country,” Davutoğlu said.

Turkey worked closely with the Arab League to help formulate the proposed UN Security Council resolution on Syria that was vetoed by Russia and China last Saturday.     

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who described the veto as a “fiasco,” also telephoned Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last Wednesday to discuss the results of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s meeting with Assad in Damascus a day earlier.

During his heavy schedule in Washington, Davutoğlu also spoke by telephone with his Italian and Indonesian counterparts and delivered speeches at Turkish-American associations.

Davutoğlu urges unity between Turks in US

At a reception hosted by the Turkish American Association (TAA) on Saturday, Davutoğlu urged the Turkish community in the US to remain unified and display solidarity, saying that unity between Turks living abroad is important.

Noting that there is no obstacle that Turkey cannot overcome, he strongly criticized some circles who he said see “Turkey’s rising power with jealousy.” He added, “We will send them a powerful message.”

Davutoğlu also said he is proud to see Turks living all around the world and that Turkey’s biggest strength is its human power.

“Neither our natural resources nor accumulated capital have been obtained by exploiting other nations. We have only one thing. Our biggest strength lies in our human resources: Very well educated, young, dynamic, powerful, human resources who, most importantly, are attached to the nation and history of the country.”

Turkey and Iran, regional heavyweights and heirs to imperial pasts, expanded trade in the past decade and papered over their traditional rivalry with diplomacy and rhetoric. Now these neighbors have staked out opposing positions in Syria, where outside players seek to sway an outcome to the bloodshed that could, in turn, alter power balances in the Middle East.

Iranian-Turkish tension could grow if regional efforts to end the violence intensify as expected after Russia and China vetoed a U.N. resolution calling for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Ankara wants him to leave, while Tehran supports him. At the same time, they want to preserve warm ties that mask fundamentally different tactics and visions.

Turkey’s willingness to clash over Syria is likely to be tempered by reliance on Iran for one-third of its oil supplies, as well as natural gas, that have helped to power its impressive economic engine. The Turks have also sought to make mediation a centerpiece of foreign policy, and that includes hopes for a diplomatic solution to the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.

Turkey, NATO’s biggest Muslim member, hosts the Syrian opposition and has compared Assad, a former ally, to Slobodan Milosevic, the ousted Serbian leader whose war crimes trial was interrupted by his death. Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, is in the United States this week to coordinate efforts to isolate the Syrian regime.

Even before the protests in Syria, Turkish economic investments and other involvement there countered Iranian influence, said Savas Genc, an associate professor of international relations at Istanbul’s Fatih University. Now with the region in turmoil, the two sides will struggle to maintain their “constrained friendship,” he wrote in an email.

“The competition between Iran and Turkey is going to be much harder than before,” Genc said.

Iran and Syria have remained staunch friends, united in hostility toward the United States and Israel, and support for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, as well as the Hamas group in Gaza. On Wednesday, an Iranian official said in Damascus that Iran strongly supports the Syrian government, and rejects killing by any side as well as “foreign interference” that he alleged was organized by the United States and Israel.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahiyan, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for Middle East and African affairs, dismissed allegations that members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard force were fighting alongside Syrian troops.

“Iran is itself committed not to interfere in Syria’s affairs, and is at the same time, rendering political, moral and economic support to Syria,” he said.

Some Turkish officials have downplayed hints of discord with Iran, but Bulent Arinc, Turkey’s deputy foreign minister, exposed the frustration.

In a meeting with ruling party members last weekend, Arinc accused Iran, a theocracy born of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, of betraying religious principles in what he described as its silence on Syria’s attempts to crush the uprising.

“Oh, the Islamic Republic of Iran! You carry the word ‘Islamic’ in your name, and I don’t know how worthy you are (of that name), but did you utter a single sentence about the last two days’ events in Syria?” he said.

The comment, cited by Turkey’s Anadolu news agency, coincided with a surge in attacks by Syrian forces on the city of Homs. Arinc leveled similar charges against Iraq and Lebanon, and said sarcastically: “What joy that only Turkey felt this pain.”

Turkey has deviated from Western positions, notably in its recent split with former ally Israel, and in opposing sanctions against Iran over suspicions that it is developing nuclear weapons, a charge that the Iranians deny. Trade between Iran and Turkey reached $15 billion last year, and officials on both sides have said they are aiming for twice that volume by 2015.

Yet maneuvers over Syria threaten to develop into a proxy contest for clout in a region convulsed since last year by uprisings against authoritarian regimes.

ISTANBUL—Turkey said Wednesday that it was seeking to form an international grouping on Syria “as soon as possible” to coordinate policy between regional players and world powers after a United Nations Security Council resolution to pressure President Bashar al-Assad was vetoed by China and Russia.

Speaking in an interview with Turkish television channel NTV, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Ankara “could not stand by and leave Syria to its own destiny,” stressing that the new grouping of states should meet promptly in Turkey or another country in the region to try to resolve the Syria conflict.

“We are determined to establish a broad-based forum to promote international understanding with all countries concerned,” the foreign minister said.

Ankara-led efforts to form an international platform to coordinate Syria policies are reminiscent of the “Libya Contact Group”—an informal group of countries that met several times, including in Istanbul, to harmonize policy during the Libyan uprising against Moammar Gadhafi. Mr. Davutoglu said that in recent days he had laid the groundwork for such a meeting, discussing Syria with his opposite members in Italy, Iran and Qatar.

Mr. Davutoglu didn’t explicitly state whether Russia and China would take part in the grouping, but he stressed that Turkey wanted the group to be “as wide as possible.” Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was scheduled to discuss Syria with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev by telephone later on Wednesday, the minister added.

Mr. Davutoglu spoke ahead of flying to Washington to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for a previously scheduled bilateral meeting that is now expected to focus on the Syrian crisis.

Ankara’s proposal came as Syrian troops bombed residential neighborhoods in the central city of Homs Wednesday for the fifth-straight day, killing scores of people in what activists say is the regime’s final push to retake areas controlled by the rebels. The army’s push came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Damascus that Mr. Assad had “heard” his message of the need to step up efforts to end the violence.

Analysts said that a new grouping could provide a platform outside the U.N. to boost diplomatic pressure on Damascus following the Security Council’s failure to secure a tougher resolution on Saturday. With Syrian forces still bombarding opposition-held areas of several cities, discussions this week between Mr. Davutoglu and Mrs. Clinton would likely shift toward the efficacy and logistical challenges of humanitarian intervention, analysts said.

“The urgency of the situation is pretty obvious … and the humanitarian conditions on the ground are making it more difficult to just talk. We are now faced with the perennial dilemma: Are we going to intervene on moral grounds? This will be the line of discussion in Washington this week,” said Soli Ozel, a professor of International Relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Hass University.

Mr. Davutoglu declined to discuss whether the government was considering a military-backed humanitarian intervention to help quell the violence.

Ankara has previously floated the idea of setting up a “buffer zone” inside Syrian territory if fighting prompted refugees to flee toward Turkish territory, compromising national security. Turkey’s government has stressed it wouldn’t take such a step without U.N. backing.

Prime Minister Erdogan on Tuesday had suggested that Turkey would seek to spearhead a new diplomatic push to end the bloodshed in neighboring Syria, stressing that, “Turkey continues to use all avenues of diplomacy. We are making preparations on a new diplomatic initiative … It is impossible to accept that the cruel have been given license to kill.”

Mr. Erdogan told lawmakers from his ruling AK party in Ankara that the Assad regime would be held to account for its actions and stressed that Turkey would continue to work with the Arab League to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

Turkey’s government, an erstwhile of ally of Mr. Assad, reacted furiously after Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a U.N. attempt to end 11 months of violence, amid fears that the revolt against the Syrian regime is degenerating into civil war.

Demonstrators gathered at Syrian diplomatic missions in Ankara and Istanbul, where protesters attempting to break into the Syrian consulate were dispersed by police firing tear gas. Turkish cabinet ministers fanned out across the airwaves to decry the veto.

Ankara and Damascus were close regional allies until this summer, when Turkish officials said President Assad’s refusal to end a bloody crackdown against opponents forced a shift. Ankara in November joined the Arab League in imposing sanctions on regime officials.

Ankara has repeatedly warned that Syria’s complex ethnic and sectarian mix could disintegrate, plunging the nation into chaos and potentially forcing neighboring nations to intervene.

Turkey has for months sheltered several thousand Syrian refugees, including members of the rebel Syrian Free Army. The opposition Syrian National Council in December opened an office in Istanbul.

Write to Joe Parkinson at joe.parkinson@dowjones.com

The Turkish currency depreciated 0.8 percent at 1.7668 per
dollar, paring this year’s gain to 7 percent at 11:26 a.m. in
Istanbul. The decline today is the biggest since Dec. 28. Yields (BENCH)
on the benchmark two-year bond fell nine basis points, or 0.09
percentage point, to 9.38 percent, a Turk Ekonomi Bankasi index
of the securities showed.

Euro-area finance chiefs told Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos an increase in the 130 billion-euro ($170 billion) aid
package wasn’t forthcoming if they fail to extend spending cuts.
The Greek leaders are due to meet again today at about midday to
work on the detail of an agreement after setting a framework for
bank recapitalizations, ensuring the viability of pension funds
and for measures to reduce wage and non-wage costs to boost
competitiveness.

“A lot of people expected a deal would be reached by this
weekend and these expectations have been battered again,” Thu Lan Nguyen, a currency strategist at Commerzbank AG, said in e-
mailed comments. “The risk appetite is waning which is weighing
on the lira.”

The lira slumped 18 percent in the biggest decline
worldwide and yields soared 390 basis points last year as a
widening current-account deficit and worries about the European
debt crisis and Middle East revolts shook investor confidence in
Turkey.

Turkey’s currency has strengthened this year on account of
a tighter monetary policy. The lira was bid higher in January
after the U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said
interest rates will remain exceptionally low for a longer period
and hinted at the third round of quantitative easing.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Selcuk Gokoluk in Istanbul at
sgokoluk@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Gavin Serkin at
gserkin@bloomberg.net

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Saturday, 4 February 2012

A Turkish diplomatic source said Turkey does not want any trouble in the region as arguments on military threats against Iran were raised by Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believed there was strong likelihood Israel would strike Irans nuclear installations this spring, the Washington Post said Jan. 2 in an editorial. When asked about the opinion piece by reporters travelling with him to a NATO meeting in Brussels, Panetta brushed it aside.
Im not going to comment on that. David Ignatius can write what he will but with regards with what I think and what I view, I consider that to be an area that belongs to me and nobody else, he said. Israel indicated theyre considering this [a strike], weve indicated our concerns, he added.

President Barack Obama and Panetta were said to have cautioned the Israelis that the U.S. opposes an attack, believing that it would derail an increasingly successful international economic sanctions program and other non-military efforts to stop Iran from crossing the threshold, he said. But the White House hasnt yet decided precisely how the United States would respond if the Israelis do attack. Iran insisted its nuclear project was peaceful and has threatened retaliation over the fresh sanctions, including possibly disrupting shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Britains Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg told the House Magazine, a weekly British political journal, on Jan. 2 he had concerns there could be a military conflict with Iran over its disputed nuclear program, refusing to say whether Britain would participate in such a clash. Of course I worry that there will be a military conflict and that certain countries might seek to take matters into their own hands, Clegg was quoted as saying.

As a close neighbor Turkey was uncomfortable with the recent developments. Regarding mounting military threats against Iran over its controversial nuclear program, a Turkish diplomatic source told Hrriyet Daily News, We dont want any trouble in the region. We tell this on every occasion. We are against any military action wherever it comes from, the source said.

The source said Turkey is also calling on Iran to solve the problem through negotiations. It is not necessarily to be held in Istanbul. If they want they are welcomed. The only thing we want is a solution through dialogue. Recently, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akhbar Salehi said Istanbul would be the likely venue of the next round of nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 group.

Israelis seem serious on idea of military action. During a strategy conference in Herzliya on Jan. 2, Israeli officials asserted Iran has already produced enough enriched uranium to eventually build four rudimentary nuclear bombs and in what would be an explosive new twist was even developing missiles capable of reaching the United States.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said the world was increasingly ready to consider a military strike against Iran if economic sanctions do not halt Tehrans suspect nuclear program. Today, as opposed to in the past, there is wide world understanding that in the event that sanctions wont reach the intended result of stopping the military nuclear program, there will be need to consider action, he said.

Response from Iran

As a response to rising threat, Iran will help any nation or group that confronts the cancer Israel, the Islamic Republics Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Feb. 3. He also said in remarks delivered to worshippers at prayers in Tehran and broadcast on state TV the country would continue its controversial nuclear program and warned that any military strike by the U.S. would only make Iran stronger.

Khamenei also warned Tehran would reveal a letter which it says U.S. President Barack Obama sent to the Iranian leadership in an attempt to end the nuclear stand-off. He said it shows the Americans cannot be trusted. The White House has denied that such a letter existed.

Khamenei affirmed Iran had assisted militant groups like the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas a well-known policy, but one that Iranian leaders rarely state explicitly. We have intervened in anti-Israel matters, and it brought victory in the 33-Day War by Hezbollah against Israel in 2006, and in the 22-Day War between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip, he said.

Israels large-scale military incursion against Hamas in 2008 and 2009 in Gaza ended in a cease-fire, with Israel claiming to have inflicted heavy damage on the militant organization. The war in Lebanon ended with a U.N.-brokered truce that sent thousands of Lebanese troops and international peacekeepers into southern Lebanon to prevent another outbreak.

From now on, in any place, if any nation or any group confronts the Zionist regime, we will endorse and we will help. We have no fear expressing this, said Khamenei.