PRI's The World » 10/21/2009

Entire program – October 21, 2009

The World — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:23:33 +0000

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Today on The World: Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf on US-Pakistani relations and the battle against extremists in Pakistan; Also, reaction to the Catholic Church’s move to open its doors to disaffected Anglicans; Balkan folk music made in Brooklyn.

Interview with Pervez Musharraf

The World — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:22:20 +0000

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The former president of Pakistan was America’s ally in fighting Muslim extremism. Many in Washington said he did too little. Many Pakistanis said he bowed to western pressure. Now, as Pakistani troops battle militants along the Afghan border, he talks with Marco Werman about the delicate balance of leading Pakistan. (Photo: Catherine Murphy)

Web extra: Marco asked Musharraf about his stay in the US:
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Musharraf profile
Musharraf’s facebook page

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: Afghanistan’s neighbor, Pakistan, is in the middle of a major military offensive against the Taliban. The Pakistani army is trying to take control of the militant stronghold of South Waziristan along the Afghan border. Army officials say 16 soldiers have died so far while more than 100 militants have been killed. Pakistan’s former president, General Pervez Musharraf is visiting the US right now and came to our studio. I asked him if the offensive in South Waziristan is the solution to Pakistan’s problems with the Taliban.

PERVEZ MUSHARRAF: It’s not the solution but it’s one part of the solution. I’ve always said that solution lies in a triple directional strategy – military, political, and socio-economic. So the military part is being executed well after having dealt with Swat and [INDISCERNIBLE] they’ve now gone to South Waziristan. So I think it’s good – the using of concentrated force in a peace [INDISCERNIBLE] objective.

WERMAN: And do you think the operation Swat was effective?

MUSHARRAF: Yes I think it was successful.

WERMAN: But recently there were 40 killed in a suicide attack and so it raises the issue, it’s one thing to take a region; it’s another thing to hold it.

MUSHARRAF: Well even if you hold it that doesn’t mean that you can guarantee that no suicide attack will take place. I know that the law enforcement agency, the army’s opening a [INDISCERNIBLE] there. It will be there. So it will be held. But that doesn’t mean that no bullet will be fired by any terrorist. Because if a person is there to carry out a suicide attack it’s really very difficult to avoid it.

WERMAN: There’s been a slow steady drumbeat of Afghan officials along with NATO accusing Pakistan of not doing enough to stem the movement of militants sympathetic to al-Qaeda and the Taliban across the border into Afghanistan. Why has this offensive in South Waziristan taken so long and why didn’t you engage in an equally forceful offensive in the same area?

MUSHARRAF: It was I who moved the two divisions in North and South Waziristan back and I think immediately up to [INDISCERNIBLE]. Who has been catching all these al-Qaeda people? Who did that? It was in my time. Hundreds of them have been caught. So how do you say that we hadn’t operated? They are there since long and they have been operating there.

WERMAN: So why, again, why the need for another offensive? Why this upsurge in violence?

MUSHARRAF: Yeah it’s because all these eight years there has been an upsurge of Taliban activity. A Taliban who were finished after 9/11. They had an upsurge in Afghanistan. [PH] Mula Omar and all his [INDISCERNIBLE] are reestablished in Afghanistan in the same region from where they dominated or they controlled 90 percent of Afghanistan. So after 2004 – 05 there was an upsurge. We saw the downward trend in al-Qaeda because of Pakistan’s actions and an upward trend, swing, in the Taliban support. And therefore now the situation is al-Qaeda is down. Who did this? Obviously Pakistan forces operating in Pakistan, in [INDISCERNIBLE] and mountains. But the Taliban upsurge has come about in Afghanistan and that has a great impact in Pakistan because there are now Pakistani Taliban in South and North Waziristan much stronger links with across the border and they are acting. So this is now a different ballgame all together.

WERMAN: Now as a former military leader – I mean you were a military leader who came to power in a coup. You stepped down as head of the army in 2007. You recognized at the time the merit of a civilian government in Pakistan. Now in Afghanistan yesterday a runoff election was announced to take place on November 7^th. What is at stake for Pakistan with this vote in Afghanistan?

MUSHARRAF: Well I don’t think it directly affects Pakistan.

WERMAN: You don’t?

MUSHARRAF: It does affect Afghanistan.

WERMAN: But what affects Afghanistan, affects Pakistan ultimately.

MUSHARRAF: Well yes indirectly, indirectly. I think one would require if we are to win in Afghanistan we have to have a credible, legitimate government in Afghanistan. And that is not the case. But Pakistan’s interest is in a legitimate, acceptable government to all the ethnic minorities of Afghanistan for the sake of Afghanistan because if we can have better peace in Afghanistan it will be of advantage to Pakistan certainly.

WERMAN: You’ve been quite critical of President Hamid Karzai. What happens, in your opinion, to the region if he is president again? If he wins this runoff election.

MUSHARRAF: Well I think I’ve been critical, yes, because of certain observations that I had in his criticizing Pakistan, in his supporting elements who are instrumental in carrying out terrorism in Baltistan. So there are certain things that I disagree with him. These were my observations and my accusations against him. So I used to criticize him on that. The other thing is that he used to throw the entire blame on Pakistan – that whatever is happening in Afghanistan is because of Pakistan. And I think the world must understand that this is absolutely the opposite. Whatever is happening in Pakistan is because of Afghanistan. The same [INDISCERNIBLE], the same Taliban, resurgence of that force in Afghanistan.

WERMAN: But in fact it’s very hard to say where these militants are coming from. They could be coming form Pakistan as well as Afghansitan. So both countries are in fact … .

MUSHARRAF: No they are coming … . No actually there’s no doubt at all. Absolutely. I have no doubt at all. Taliban under [INDISCERNIBLE] control 90% of Afghanistan. There is support to them in Pakistan. There are safe havens in Pakistan. And there are Taliban elements of Pakistan also. But if anyone thinks that they are all coming from Pakistan this is what the misperception that exists in Untied States and this misperception is fanned by people like President Karzai unfortunately. And this is misleading the world.

WERMAN: Pervez Musharraf, former president of Pakistan. Thank you very much for your time.

MUSHARRAF: Thank you.

WERMAN: Hear more about Pervez Musharraf’s current US visit and about his plans for a return to Pakistan at our website. You’ll also find a link to the former Pakistani leader’s newly launched Facebook page. It’s all at The World dot org.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

Boston terrorism arrest

The World — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:21:32 +0000

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A man has been charged with terrorism-related offenses that include plotting to kill people in an American shopping mall, the US Justice Department says. Tarek Mehanna, 27, was held in Sudbury, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, and charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. He is also accused of conspiring to kill people overseas and of seeking terrorist training in the Middle East. At least two other co-conspirators were involved, officials said. The World’s Matthew Bell reports.

BBC coverage
US Justice Department

MARCO WERMAN: There was a reminder today that terrorism is not just a threat outside the United States. Federal authorities announced the arrest of a 27-year-old man at his parents’ home in a Boston suburb. The man is accused of plotting to carry out a terrorist attack on US soil. The World’s Matthew Bell has details.

MATTHEW BELL: An FBI search warrant details the government’s case against 27-year-old Tarek Mehanna of Sudbury, Massachusetts. It says Mehanna has been talking about and planning violent jihad for years going back to before the attacks of September 11^th. It says he traveled to Yemen in 2004 to take part in terrorist training and then he lied about the trip to the FBI in 2006. The most chilling allegation from the government says in 2003 Mehanna and several other men planned to kill people at a shopping mall here in the US. Justice Department spokesman Michael Loucks announced the arrest of Mehanna today in Boston. Loucks said Mehanna and his co-conspirators tried to get automatic weapons from a reputed gang member named Daniel Maldonado.

MICHAEL LOUCKS: They had discussions as I said regarding how to do it; whether to do it from multiple entrances; what to do when emergency responders arrive. And one of them took the step to go to Maldonado to try to utilize his, what they believed to be his gang contacts to obtain automatic weapons. It ended, so far as alleged, when Maldonado indicated all he could obtain for them were handguns. And then that member of the group reported back to the rest of them that they couldn’t obtain automatic weapons and they determined it was no feasible to go forward.

BELL: Government documents say the evidence against Mehanna includes testimony from at least two of his former co-conspirators along with taped telephone conversations. If the allegations and the FBI search warrant are true, Mehanna appears to be someone who was radicalized some years ago but not very successful in carrying out his violent plans.

BRUCE HOFFMAN: He’s I think one step beyond the wannabe but not quite the full step to the full-fledged terrorist.

BELL: Bruce Hoffman is a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. He says the most worrisome thing about this arrest is that it’s just the latest in a recent string of foiled terrorist plots here in the US.

BRUCE HOFFMAN: For many years the United States thought that this problem of homegrown terrorism was a phenomena that happened somewhere else that was restricted to Europe or perhaps South Asia but that wouldn’t affect the United States for a variety of socio-economic reasons. I think what we’re finding now is that there are more of these people at least that have been radicalized and unfortunately more that have become violently inclined.

BELL: This arrest comes less than a month after the arrest of Najibullah Zazi. He received terrorist training overseas and he’s accused of plotting a bomb attack in the US. Tarek Mehanna on the other hand appears to have tried but ultimately failed to attend the terrorist training camp in Yemen. For The World I’m Matthew Bell.

Afghan run-off vote

The World — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:20:58 +0000

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Election officials in Afghanistan are scrambling to prepare for a presidential run-off vote there scheduled for November 7. A lot of questions remain about whether they can pull it off in such a short amount of time, and whether this election will be any freer of fraud than the first one back in August. The World’s Katy Clark reports.

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World. A day after Afghanistan’s president agreed to runoff, election officials are scrambling to make it happen. The runoff is scheduled for November 7^th – about two weeks away. The UN mission there has already started to replace some 200 election officials accused of corruption. It’s hoping to quite concerns that the same widespread fraud that marred the August election could happen again. The World’s Katy Clark has more.

KATY CLARK: The UN special envoy in Afghanistan, Kai Eide said today that firing the officials who were implicated in fraud in the first round of voting is an encouraging step.

KAI EIDE: If we also reduce the number of polling centers and remove some of those that we know that fraud took place then I think we are in a bit better position than we were. But let us not be under any illusions. We cannot make any dramatic changes in the course of two weeks.

CLARK: But scheduling the election any later would also be problematic. Fall snow is expected to render much of the north of the country inaccessible by early November. A resurge in Taliban could also discourage many voters who risked their lives to go to the poles in August from pushing their luck a second time. During the first round of voting insurgents staged dozens of attacks that left 26 people dead. Presidential challenger Abdullah Abdullah says stronger measures are needed this time around to prevent both fraud and voter intimidation.

ABDULLAH ABDULLAH: When the people of Afghanistan participate in the elections, and hopefully in bigger numbers, they are taking a risk in some parts of the country. And they should be confident that that risk is worthwhile taking once again.

CLARK: Incumbent president, Hamid Karzai, has pledged to provide maximum security for the November 7^th election. Karzai only agreed to a second round of voting after a UN-led fraud inquiry tossed out enough of his first round votes to deny him the 50% majority. Glenn Cowan, of the US-based firm Democracy International will lead a team of international election observers in Afghanistan during the runoff. There will be fewer observers on the ground this time around. But Cowan says they’ll be better prepared to spot ballot stuffing and other irregularities.

GLENN COWAN: We know precisely where to look because we know the exact polling centers in the first round at which this occurred. We also know the level of the fraud that was committed and the variety and types. So there’s a lot of forewarning.

CLARK: But in the end few expect this election to be anywhere near perfect by western democratic standards. Cowan says that’s okay.

COWAN: Nevertheless there is a certain irreducible standard that has to be met before credibility is granted to leaders. And that credibility really has to come from the Afghan voters themselves.

CLARK: They have to believe their vote counts and that the person who’s declared the winner actually won. But former Afghan presidential hopeful, Ashraf Ghani, says the key to legitimacy is not going to be the election itself but what comes next.

AHRAF GHANI: To what extent corruption, mismanagement is addressed, what steps do we take towards restoring Afghan sovereignty; how will detention facilities be handled; and most significantly how will jobs be created for a population where 70% of the population’s under 30.

CLARK: For The World this is Katy Clark.

Black Sea Hotel

The World — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:19:48 +0000

Black Sea Hotel is made up of four young professional American women in Brooklyn.

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For most Americans, Bulgarian folk singing means one thing — and one group: Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares. The world-famous choir features about 20 women, singing intricate arrangements of traditional folk melodies. Well, in Brooklyn, New York, The World’s Alex Gallafent met a different choir doing it their way. (Photos: Alex Gallafent)

Each singer contributes arrangements and compositions.

Mixed reactions to Pope’s plan for Anglican conversions

The World — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:46:19 +0000

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The World’s Jane Little reports on mixed reactions today to the Vatican’s sudden announcement yesterday that it was making it easier for Anglicans to convert to the Roman Catholic faith.

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. Mixed reaction today to the Vatican’s overture to disgruntled Anglicans. Yesterday the Vatican announced it was making easier for Anglicans to convert to Catholicism. The move is aimed at dissident Anglicans or Episcopal perishes in the US and around the world. The World’s religion editor, Jane Little, reports.

JANE LITTLE: This morning’s front page headline in The Times of London read “Papal gambit stuns church. Thousands of priests worldwide expected to make switch.” That’s what the Vatican may hope. It’s creating a new conversion structure to make it easier for Anglicans uncomfortable with openly gay and female clerics to move over in entire perishes or even diocese. They would become Catholics in name, answerable to the Pope, but could keep their own spiritual liturgical traditions. The Chief Vatican Theologian Cardinal William Levada also said married priests would be welcome.

WILLIAM LEVADA: The church I think has also shown a generosity to allow those married ministers in the Anglican Church who want to enter the Catholic Church the dispensation for them to continue in ministry and to be ordained Catholic priests as married men.

LITTLE: But those married priests who do switch their allegiance to the Vatican can’t go on to become Catholic bishops. Some traditionalists within the Anglican Communion welcome the development as a decisive move, a relief after the arguments and uncertainty that have racked the global family of churches since Gene Robinson became the communion’s first openly gay bishop in New Hampshire in 2003. Recent Church of England plans to ordain women as bishops, as already happens in the American Episcopal Church, have caused further splits. The Reverend Dr. Giles Fraser of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, and himself on the liberal wing, also welcomed the Vatican’s move.

GILES FRASER: The way I read it is it’s just a gracious offer by the Holy See to accommodate those people within the Anglican Church who are you know really dissatisfied with the way things are going particularly of women bishops. And just to give them a home.

LITTLE: But others have called it predatory and cynical – aimed at capitalizing on the divisions within Anglicanism. Dr. Christina Rees heads Women and the Church, a lobby group in favor of women bishops.

CHRISTINA REES: I’m a bit sour about it because the timing is interesting. Right now currently the Church of England is preparing legislation for women bishops and this very generous offer comes. So I think the timing is perhaps more cynical than what they’ve done.

LITTLE: Meanwhile the embattled Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, has been putting a brave face on it appearing at a hastily convened press conference to say that this was not an act of aggression. But the Vatican’s move is a serious blow to him and his attempts to prevent a schism within Anglicanism. Whether there will be mass defections however remains to be seen. That said this is part of Pope Benedict’s obvious desire to create a strong traditionalist church and the new churches within a church would sit along side similar structures to re-embrace Catholic groups that broke away. But it may well come at a cost. It’s hard to imagine that this will improve attempts at Christian unity or the welcome the Pope may receive when he visits England next year. For The World this is Jane Little.

Burka debate stirs Canada’s Muslims

The World — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:43:35 +0000

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There’s a religious debate taking place in Canada. Some Muslims there say they want the country to set some limits on freedom of religion.The Muslim Canadian Congress is lobbying to ban burkas or any other kind of Islamic face covering. Anita Elash reports from Toronto.

MARCO WERMAN: Another type of religious debate is taking place in Canada. Some Muslims there say they want the country to set some limits on freedom of religion. The Muslim Canadian Congress is lobbying to ban burkas or any other kind of Islamic face covering. Anita Elash reports from Toronto.

[PRAYER]

ANITA ELASH: Friday afternoon at the Umar Bin Khatap Mosque in downtown Toronto. About 100 people have gathered in the basement of a grey brick building on a street that’s filled with shops selling halal pizza and East African sweets. The men are kneeling at the front of the hall. The women are at the back hidden behind black office partitions. Most are wearing multi-colored shawls, floor-length skirts, and headscarves that cover their hair. But some are fully covered revealing only their eyes. Salehah al Shehri came here from Saudi Arabia two months ago. Outside the mosque I tell her that some people in Canada want to ban what she’s wearing – the niqab – which covers her face and reveals only her eyes. She says she doesn’t speak English very well so her husband translates.

SALEHAH AL SHEHRI: [SPEAKING ARABIC]

HUSBAND TRANSLATING: She said I’m so sorry to hear this because what we hear that this is a country of freedom. If she’s not doing something bad to the people around her, so why she’s not right to have her freedom.

ELASH: The niqab and the very similar burka are still rarely seen in Canada. But the Muslim population is growing fast and so is the number of women covering their face. And some Muslims are arguing that those women are hurting Canadian society and themselves.

TAREK FATAH: They cannot use religion to hide their identity. This is an insult to my faith, to my community … .

ELASH: Tarek Fatah is the founder of the Canadian Muslim Congress. His group has long opposed face coverings for Muslim women. So when the influential Islamic scholar Sheikh Mohammed Tantawi said the burka should be banned in Egypt the CMC called on the Canadian parliament to ban it in public places here. Fatah says the practice is a threat to public safety. Several banks have been robbed by men wearing burkas. And he says it’s a threat to women’s rights in a democracy.

FATAH: Anyone who propagates this has one objective – to make sure that the women in their family become unemployable and therefore dependent on them and therefore pose no economic, social, or political threat to their power structure within the family or the community.

ELASH: Fatah says he’s concerned the growing number of women who do cover their face is a sign that Canadian Muslims are becoming more radical. The Muslim population here is diverse and well educated. But some experts say that many Muslims feel disenfranchised by discrimination and high unemployment and may be easy targets for radical leaders looking for new recruits. Even so constitutional law expert David Schneiderman says Canada has strong human rights laws and an official policy of multiculturalism. So there’s little chance it would ever ban the burka.

DAVID SCHEIDERMAN: I think the guiding principle here is that governments are expected to accommodate rather than ban forms of religious expression. And governments are expected to abide by those human rights commitments and probably no government wants to be seen to be trampling on charter rights and freedoms.

[PRAYER]

ELASH: Back at the Umar Bin Khatap mosque one young woman says that calls to ban the burka might actually encourage the radicalization opponents are worried about. Samiya Muselem is 18 and wears only a black hijab that frames her olive-skinned face. But she supports the right of other to veil.

SAMIYA MUSELEM: It really angers me and it makes me like question the society like how far are you going to go? And when you do that kind of stuff to people they think that you’re breaking them down but little do you know you’re making them more stronger because they’re going to hold onto it more better instead of like vice versa – taking it off.

ELASH: She adds that many of her young friends have recently donned the burka to let people know they’re Muslim and proud of it. For The World I’m Anita Elash in Toronto.

Israel under pressure over Gaza conduct

The World — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:41:58 +0000

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Linda Gradstein reports that Israel is under increasing pressure to open a formal investigation of its own conduct during last year’s conflict in Gaza.

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH Boston. A UN report accusing Israel of war crimes continues to reverberate. This week Israel’s deputy prime minister called for an independent inquiry into Israel’s conduct in Gaza last winter. Israel is under increasing pressure to launch its own investigation after the UN Human Rights Council adopted the report by Judge Richard Goldstone. The report accuses both Israel and Hamas of war crimes in Gaza but it mostly focuses on Israel’s actions. Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem.

LINDA GRADSTEIN: In an interview published today in the Ha’aretz newspaper Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor said one of the best ways Israel can defend itself in the international arena is by investigating itself. He said even if the Goldstone Report is biased, as many here have charged, Israel should investigate the reports claims that in some cases Israel targeted Palestinian civilians. Last week the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva adopted the war crimes report. The report says both Israel and Hamas must launch independent investigations within six months or the matter will be referred to the International Criminal Court and that court could issue arrest warrants. Yesterday in the Israeli Security Cabinet, Defense Minister Ehud Barak cut off all discussion on establishing an independent commission. Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev says the army has already opened more than 100 investigations and 20 have been referred to the military police. He says opening an independent investigation would be giving in to the UN.

MARK REGEV: The issue here is what will make the Human Rights Council happy. And I think the bottom line is nothing. We’re talking about a council that has a systematic and consistent anti-Israel bias where countries with atrocious human rights records; countries that give no freedoms whatsoever to their own people use the council as a vehicle just to bash Israel.

GRADSTEIN: But calls are growing in Israel for an independent investigation. Uri Dromi is a former director of the Government Press Office.

URI DROMI: I think cooperating with external investigation is important but more important is running a credible, vigorous, internal independent investigation in the first place. That would have made the Goldstone Report either redundant or at least marginal.

GRADSTEIN: Israel did not cooperate with Judge Goldstone during his investigation, claiming it was biased from the start. Goldstone, who describes himself as a Jew who has supported Israel and its people all of his life, has faced scathing criticism here since the release of his report last month. In an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post this week, Goldstone struck back at his critics saying quote Israel missed a golden opportunity to actually have a fair hearing from a UN-sponsored inquiry. He also said he was surprised and shocked by the destruction and misery he saw in Gaza. Uri Dromi thinks that Goldstone’s Report should not equate Palestinian gunmen firing rockets at Israeli civilians with Israeli soldiers who entered Gaza to stop the rocket fire. But at the same time he says, Goldstone’s conclusions make many Israeli’s uncomfortable.

DROMI: Goldstone hits at the core of the Israeli ethos and that is that we don’t shoot at civilians intentionally. Excessive force – maybe. Stuff happens – maybe. Fog of war; you start a battle and you don’t know how it develops. I give you an example from the air force. I come from the air force and I can tell you that there’s no country in the world where air force is going out of its way to differentiate between the villain and the innocent.

GRADSTEIN: The US Envoy to the United Nations Susan Rice who was visiting Jerusalem today told Israeli President Shimon Peres that the US will stand by Israel in its fight against the Goldstone report. China also said it will oppose bringing the report to a discussion in the UN Security Council. For The World I’m Linda Gradstein in Jerusalem.

Troubles brew between Turkey and Israel

The World — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:36:53 +0000

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Turkey is one of the few Muslim countries with whom Israel has had good relations, but ever since Turkey criticized Israel’s war in Gaza earlier this year, relations have deteriorated. The World’s Aaron Schachter reports.

MARCO WERMAN: There was another more tangible sign of the strong US-Israeli friendship. Today the two allies began a major joint air defense exercise in Israel. For the next two weeks the American and Israeli militaries will simulate defense against a massive coordinated missile attack. But another Israeli ally – Turkey – recently cancelled its joint military exercise with Israel. And as The World’s Aaron Schachter reports it was just another example of strained Turkish-Israeli relations.

AARON SCHACHTER: The mostly Muslim Turkey and mostly Jewish Israel may not seem like natural allies but they’ve been regional partners since 1949 – just after Israel was created. It hasn’t been an entirely loving relationship but the two have always seemed to work out their differences like relatives. But some now wonder whether Turkey’s current government, headed by the AKP party – or A-K-P – is finally turning its back on family. Soner Chagaptay directs the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

SONER CHAGAPTAY: I think we have two AKPs. I call them AKP 1.0, AKP 2.0.

SCHACHTER: Chagaptay says AKP 1.0 was the kinder, gentler Islamist party that got itself elected to parliament twice – the second time in a landslide. It pursued a pro-American, pragmatic foreign policy and a reformed-minded domestic one.

CHAGAPTAY: That’s the party of the past. This fallout with Israel, the withering away of Turkey’s rightful European Union reforms, all of this tells us that we’re now dealing with AKP 2.0.

SCHACHTER: Chagaptay says the AKP is trying to invigorate its voter base in advance of the 2011 elections by reverting to its old anti-secular, anti-western, and anti-Semitic attitudes. Hence last week’s snub of the Israeli military and a series that’s now on state-owned Turkish television lambasting Israel for its behavior in Gaza. But political science professor Ilter Turan of Istanbul Bilgi University says hang on. There are perfectly legitimate reasons for a shift in the AKP strategy. Turkey is pursuing what it calls a friends-to-everyone foreign policy. But in reality it can’t maintain close ties with all countries at once.

ILTER TURAN: When you’re trying to develop good relations with all your neighbors and your relations with one non-contiguous neighbor causes lots of problems with others and becomes some part of an impediment to your relations then you make adjustments.

SCHACHTER: Turan says those adjustments are just practicalities. Israeli Edward Rettig can see that. Rettig who heads the Jerusalem branch of the American Jewish Committee agrees that after the Gaza conflict last January Turks might want to downplay their relationship with Israel.

EDWARD RETTIG: Their interest, if you look around Turkey, is to have decent relations for example with the Armenians and with the Azeris; with the Iranians and with the Europeans and the Americans. So in terms of Israel their goal would probably be to have reasonable relations with Israel and with the Palestinians and the Arab world.

SCHACHTER: The world reasonable is key. Israelis are upset not so much over Turkey’s decision to cancel joint military maneuvers. They see that as an obvious protest of the war in Gaza just like the Turkish prime minister’s outburst at Israel’s president in Davos last winter. What galls Israelis is that TV series running now on state-run Turkish television, TRT. The first episode depicted Israeli soldiers as cold-blooded baby killers. Edward Rettig says the TV series went too far.

RETTIG: When you have demonizing portrayals that are baseless. I mean there’s actually no accusation that an Israeli soldier actually shot a baby in cold blood. So you have a mythology that’s bigoted being projected on a state-owned television that could not broadcast this stuff if it didn’t have a wink from the government at the very least.

SCHACHTER: The Turkish government claims the show was not produced on its say-so but TRT did cut some scenes of conflict between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians from the second episode of the series which aired last night. And this week a new Turkish ambassador touched down in Tel Aviv suggesting, as one Israeli analyst put it, Turkey doesn’t want to push the envelope too far. For The World I’m Aaron Schahcter, Istanbul.

Geo Quiz

The World — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:34:57 +0000

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Geo answer

The World — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:33:52 +0000

OK let’s pay a quick visit to that immigrant neighborhood in Berlin we asked you about in today’s Geo Quiz.

The answer is Kreuzberg.

I recently took a trip to Berlin and I was wandering around the streets in Kreuzberg and there was a man playing an accordian on the banks of the (Landwehrkanal) canal and he spoke to me in Italian as he was smoking. He said his name was Brother Bobbie.

He put down his cigarette, picked up his accordian which was black and white with red pearl finish , and began to play a polka which was actually a song called Buona Sera he told us in Italian. He was born in Romania so he was playing it polka style!

Abbie Fentress Swanson sent us an audio postcard of Brother Bobbie in Kreuzberg, a neighborhood in the German capital.

Listen!
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Berlin accordians (A. Fentress Swanson)

Petition starts against Blair candidacy

The World — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:31:33 +0000

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Members of the European parliament have launched a campaign to stop Tony Blair from running for president of the European Union. The post will be created if the EU ratifies the Lisbon Treaty. Anchor Marco Werman finds out more from Washington Post reporter, Anne Applebaum.

MARCO WERMAN: Germany’s not just a site of our Geo quiz. It’s also an influential member of the European Union. Right now the European Parliament is debating who might head the EU if it finally gets a president. The role would be created once the Lisbon Treaty is approved by all member states. To help us size up the candidates and the office we called Anne Applebaum. She’s a columnist for the Washington Post and Slate. She says lots of folks want the job but it’s not clear what the EU is looking for.

ANNE APPLEBAUM: They’re not looking for somebody [INDISCERNIBLE]. In fact, one of the oddities of it is that it isn’t yet clear what the requirements of the job are and what kind of person they’re looking to find you know. Is the president of the EU supposed to be you know somebody who’s going to just make everybody get along and be a kind of conciliator or is he going to be somebody who you know is going to put forward a very strong view of the world and so on? It’s not clear yet.

WERMAN: And will they be elected by a European-wide vote or will the parliament, the European Parliament, elect them?

APPLEBAUM: Oh I think they’re going to be chosen by the other, by the heads of state.

WERMAN: I see.

APPLEBAUM: Nobody would let you know the European Parliament choose something so important.

WERMAN: Tony Blair’s name keeps coming up. He certainly has personality. Is he the right one for the job? I mean when I think you know sort of brand Europe, I don’t really think Tony Blair. He’s sort of more brand UK.

APPLEBAUM: Yes well that’s going to be one of the objections to him. Another problem that he might have is that by the time this all happens, or anyway very soon after it happens, it’s possible that the conservatives will be in power in England and they’re not going to be very pleased with having the former Labour Prime Minister of many years be the president of Europe. So there are a lot of questions about Tony Blair. But you know you can say that about almost anybody. I mean any French person you chose; any Italian person you chose, you know would be coming out of French or Italian politics and so they are more likely to be … . You know they’re going to somehow represent their country. So therefore it has to be somebody who you know while keeping their whatever skills it was that brought them to power in Italy or France is also somehow able to speak for Europe.

WERMAN: Isn’t there something to be said though for having somebody of a large personality take that position?

APPLEBAUM: There are actually two positions. There’s president of Europe and then there’s a kind of foreign minister of Europe. And at least one of those people has to be somebody with a big personality and has to be somebody with some kind of name recognition in the US or in China or even in Europe so that Europe has a larger voice in the world. I mean Europe is the biggest economy in the world now if you count you know all the members of the European Union alone. Yet it has very, very little voice and very little influence on world policy – whether economic policy or foreign policy. And without somebody who’s a kind of spokesman you know for the group, they’re going to remain without influence. So it’s absolutely crucial.

WERMAN: What would the president of Europe actually do? And would they be more of a figure head or would they actually kind of make policy?

APPLEBAUM: Again it’s not clear yet. The way these things happen in Europe is they evolve over time. And you know what the president of Europe would do is probably you know consult with people. He wouldn’t probably be able to you know make up his own policy and go off on a limb but he’ll have to consult with other people but it seems like whoever it is could very influential just by his title and just by the function. I mean president of Europe sounds good right? I mean you can imagine a summit with the president of the United States and the president of Europe and the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and that would be an important summit.

WERMAN: As you wrote in your piece in Slate, Henry Kissinger is remembered for saying there’s no phone number to call when America wants to talk to Europe. If the EU does get a president and a phone number in the book in the short term does suddenly the EU count?

APPLEBAUM: That is almost literally the idea. I mean the idea is that there be somebody you can call up if you want to talk to Europe. And beyond that the job is almost totally undefined. And that’s you know, it’s either the beauty of it or it’s you know the potential disaster of it. I mean the temptation in Europe is always going to be to choose somebody actually rather weak and unimpressive because then everybody else can run rings around him. That’s happened many times in recent selections of European leaders. So the real test of whether Europe wants to be, you know wants to have a louder voice, and wants to you know have a greater role in international politics, is going to be if they can choose somebody who isn’t somebody who has views of his own is able to create coalitions and is able to make arguments. You know then it would be an important change.

WERMAN: Anne Applebaum, columnist for the Washington Post and for Slate. Her most recent book is Gulag: A History. Thank you very much indeed.

APPLEBAUM: Thank you.

Turkish neighborhood

The World — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:25:35 +0000

Things Turkish figure in our Geo Quiz today. We’re looking for a neighborhood in Berlin where you might come across a Turkish marketplace:

Berlin's Turkish Market (A. Fentress Swanson)

“Walking thru the market you can get anything from diamond studded jeans to grape leaves for Turkish dalmadas. You can hear merchants haggling to try to get people to buy their feta cheese or olives and you don’t hear much German while you’re there its only Turkish.”

Turkish Dolmadas

So if you want to find your way to this Turkish market to buy a a pair of those designer jeans, you’re going to want to know the name of the neighborhood.

It’s right next to the Landwehrkanal that runs parallel to Berlin’s Spree river.

Geo Answer:
Ok, let’s pay a quick visit to that immigrant neighborhood in Berlin we asked you about in today’s Geo Quiz.

Photo: Lienhard Schulz

The answer is Kreuzberg. Abbie Fentress Swanson sent us this audio postcard:

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Abbie Fentress Swanson took that snapshot of Brother Bobbie in Kreuzberg. A neighborhood in the German capital.

Global Hit

The World — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:20:01 +0000

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The World’s Alex Gallafent profiles Black Sea Hotel, a four member choir from Brooklyn, New York. It’s members are American women. But they sing folk music from the Balkans.