BY APPO JABARIAN
Executive Publisher / Managing Editor
USA Armenian Life Magazine (English-language print edition)
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In late June, Turkish Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ally, chairman of the Turkish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and Sen. Robert Menendez’s false accuser Akif Cagatay Kэlэc visited the United States heading a commission of Turkish emissaries in order to rescue Turkey’s deteriorating public image as a pariah and a major international sponsor of terrorism.
On Jun 21, Turkish Daily Sabah reported that “Ankara will be clear and open in the upcoming talks with the U.S. in which security and Turkey’s unity will be discussed, Mr. Kэlэc stated.”
Certain diplomatic sources in Washington DC noted that Mr. Kilic’s U.S. ‘mission’ “potentially entails delivery of veiled Turkish threats to the United States boasting that “Turkey can flood Europe and the United States with millions of refugees including thousands of embedded ISIS terrorists.’”
Many allies of Sen. Menendez have been in the forefront of the U.S. federal government’s efforts to investigate the terrorist organizations of which Mr. Kilic is a suspected secret supporter and/or possibly an enabler. During the past decade, the Erdogan government has been heavily linked to ISIS and other terrorist organizations. By default, many Turkish government officials are some type of secret allies or facilitators of ISIS and other terrorist groups. During Fall of 2020, Turkey has actively recruited thousands of terrorists from Turkish-occupied northern Syria and Pakistan and dispatched them to various parts of the world including Libya and the Armenian Republic of Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh.
In a January 9, 2021 investigative article in Nordic Monitor, Abdullah Bozkurt published secret documents which revealed that Kэlэc, who is also vice president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), had past links to a one-time al-Qaeda financier from Saudi Arabia. According to the document Kэlэc, a former aide to President Erdogan, was identified as having developed a relationship with Yasin al-Qadi, listed as an al-Qaeda financier on both the US Treasury and UN lists for many years; his son Muaz al-Qadi (Kadioglu). The document, which was stamped “secret,” detailed an intercepted communication of Kilic with al-Qadi’s son. The two sounded very friendly on the phone according to a readout from the transcript. (SECRET DOCUMENTS HERE: https://nordicmonitor.com/2020/02/pace-vice-chairman-is-linked-to-one-time-al-qaeda-financier-saudi-national/ )
Nordic Monitor noted that after working closely with Erdogan for years, Kilic ran for parliament in 2011 on Erdogan’s party ticket. He was appointed in December 2013 as minister of youth and sports. In Sept. 2016 Kilic was involved in a major scandal with German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW), which conducted an interview with him for its flagship political talk show, “Conflict Zone.” The reporter, Michel Friedman, asked Kilic questions about a failed military coup on July 15, 2016, mass purges and arrests that began in the aftermath of the abortive putsch, the situation of the Turkish press and the place of Turkish women in society. When the DW team was preparing to leave the ministry building after the interview, the minister’s press advisor came and told the team that they could not air the interview. When the team refused to agree, ministry officials told them they would not be able to leave the building without handing over the video footage of the interview, after which they seized it. DW General Director Peter Limbourg strongly condemned Turkish authorities for their confiscation of the video footage of the interview with the Turkish minister. Kilic was removed from his ministry position in a cabinet reshuffle in 2017.
When in Washington, DC, Mr. Kilic attempted to meet Sen. Menendez. However, his requests were rejected.
Kilic threw a temper tantrum claiming that “It is significant that even a dialogue is not sought here, or at least that a request for an appointment was not answered.” An American diplomat rebutted Mr. Kilic: “Why an honorable U.S. Senator would meet with a secret accomplice to various terrorist organizations?” The overwhelming majority of Americans oppose any kind of negotiations with terrorists. So why should Mr. Kilic be an exception!
Kilic is accused of being a top supporters of ISIS/Al-Qaeda; a proponent of a series of war crimes perpetrated by his Turkish, Azerbaijani and ISIS terrorist allies during the 44-day terrorist aggression against Armenians in Artsakh/Nagorno Karabakh in Fall 2020.
According to Turkish Anadolu Agency, while on an official visit to Baku along with a delegation of Turkish lawmakers in March, Mr. Kilic was reported as boasting “We showed the whole world in the 44-day war that those who want to fight with us must be prepared to fight two states together.” Mr. Kilic conveniently omitted ISIS terrorists.
Reportedly, Mr. Kilic hails from a Turkish family that ‘benefited’ the most from the great Armenian dispossession resulting from the Turkish-executed 1915-1923 Armenian Genocide. Hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of real and personal properties of the genocide victims were looted by several prominent Turkish families. Many of those families populate today’s high society in Turkey.
According to reliable sources, like Erdogan, Mr. Kilic is also ‘an avid supporter’ of the anti-Armenian, ultra-racist Turkish Grey Wolves terrorist organization. The Turkish Grey Wolves have been implicated in the assassination of many Armenian, Kurd, Arab and Greek intellectuals.
Last week, Kilic hurled baseless accusations against Sen. Robert Menendez (NJ) and criticized him for having an Armenian wife.
Arbitrarily disregarding Sen. Menendez’s longstanding principled approach to vital national interest and other important issues, Kilic accused Sen. Menendez saying “We know his wife is in the Armenian diaspora. It’s not right to make moves in politics based on populist and family motives that could damage relations with a country, a parliament and a nation.”
A U.S. diplomat stated to USA Armenian Life: “It’s absurd that Turkey’s emissary Kilic has expressed ‘displeasure’ that Sen. Menendez, chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has declined his request for a meeting. Mr. Menendez did the right thing.”
Contrary to Kilic’s claim, Sen. Menendez has long worked for the official recognition of the Armenian genocide. A quick study of his Capitol Hill records suggests that his position on the American Armenian issues has been unwavering, and he has been known for his principled position long before he was elected to the Senate in 2006. Menendez married his Armenian fiancйe Nadine Arslanian in 2020.
Long before he met his wife, Sen. Menendez had already sponsored many resolutions for the U.S. Executive Branch’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide. In 2009 Menendez personally introduced a Senate resolution that called on then U.S. Pres. Barack Obama to officially recognize “the systematic murder of 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923 as genocide.” In April 2019 Sen. Menendez submitted a non-binding resolution with a bipartisan group of 15 senators including then-Senator Kamala Harris, who is now vice president of the United States.
Adding to Turkish woes, last Thursday, the United States government placed Turkey on a list of countries accused of recruiting children as soldiers. Turkey’s inclusion in the list also marks the first time a NATO member is cited in the Child Soldier Prevention Act (CSPA) list, according to senior U.S. officials, reported Ahval News on July 01.
Ahval News continued: “The briefing was part of a launch event for the 644-page report, ‘Trafficking In Persons’, where the United States evaluated countries around the world. The report encompasses a period between April 1, 2020 through March 31, 2021. During the background briefing, one official said the Turkish government’s ‘tangible support’ to the Sultan Murad Division, a non-state armed group in northern Syria which has recruited and used child soldiers, paved the way for the country to be listed alongside with a dozen others.”
In another development, Turkey has just been identified as “internationally known narco-state.” Turkey’s reputation has shifted to a narco-state with recent accusations of drug trafficking from Latin America, giving leeway to those who trade in illicit substances and turning a blind eye to their affairs, former Erdogan ally and past economy minister Ali Babacan said in a party congress held in southern Antalya province on Thursday, Karar News reported.
“We fought for years to make this country a state under the rule of law, said Babacan, who resigned from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2019 to establish his Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) last year. “If this country loses its character with the rule of law, it will go down a path of becoming a narco-state.”
Turkish mafia leader Sedat Peker, as part of his tell-all videos where he makes revelations of corruption and criminal activity within the state, accused government officials of direct involvement in establishing trafficking routes for cocaine between Latin American countries and Turkey. Colombian authorities confiscated some 4.9 tons of cocaine headed to Turkey in June last year, while another shipment of cocaine travelling from Ecuador to Turkey was interrupted in Panama in May. Peker said recent operations in Turkey, where one ton of cocaine was confiscated in the southern port of Mersin, were aimed to cover up the rest of the activities.
On July 2, a Turkish citizen was arrested at Armenia’s southern Agarak border checkpoint by Armenian authorities for trying to smuggle in $11 million worth narcotics.
As anti-Turkish adverse political, economic and military developments take place on the world scene, one shouldn’t be surprised to see failed Turkish neo-Ottoman Sultan Erdogan’s allies concocting false accusations against principled political leaders such as Sen. Menendez. In reality, genocidal Turkey’s apologists are wittingly or unwittingly revealing growing Turkish paranoia over Ankara’s changing fortunes.