ROJ TV: Something rotten in Denmark?s deal for NATO job?
ROJ TV: Something rotten in Denmark?s deal for NATO job?
Tuesday, December 7, 2010 ? SAMUEL DOVERI VESTERBYE -ISTANBUL ? Hürriyet
Daily News
Demonstrators gather to protest against police seizure of money from the
Kurdish television station Roj TV, broadcasting from Denmark, with
banners, top right, reading ?Enough is Enough? in Copenhagen in October.
Allegations of horse-trading between Turkey and Denmark over the April
appointment of a new NATO chief have prompted a media storm in the
Nordic country, where lawmakers are now asking if something is rotten in
Copenhagen.
A U.S. diplomatic cable sent from Ankara in January 2010, and released
last week by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, suggests that Turkish
diplomats were expecting the Danish-based Kurdish channel Roj TV to be
closed down as part of a deal to ensure Turkey?s support for Danish
politician Anders Fogh Rasmussen?s bid to become NATO secretary-general.
According to Holger K. Nielsen, a Danish parliamentarian from the
Socialist People?s Party, it appears as if Turkey was promised the
closure of the controversial television station, which the Turkish
government accuses of being tied to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers?
Party, or PKK. Last week, several Danish opposition parliamentarians
described the alleged incident as a ?dirty horse-trading agreement.?
?It doesn?t surprise me at all. He?s [Fogh Rassmussen?s] been playing a
double game, using all means to obtain his objective,? Nielsen said last
week.
Lars Lykke Rasmussen, Denmark?s current prime minister, rejected the
claim that Denmark promised to close Roj TV in exchange for Turkish
support for Fogh Rasmussen?s appointment. But speculation continues to
swirl about the allegations.
?This is an extremely serious case and if the government accepted a deal
with Turkey and actively pushed for a case against Roj TV, then we are
talking about constitutional breaches of Denmark?s tripartite
divisions,? said Frank Eaen from the Enhedslisten Party.
Danish authorities sequestered Roj TV?s properties and bank accounts in
October, only to be forced to unfreeze bank accounts containing 327,000
kroner ($58,500) as a result of ruling Monday by Copenhagen city courts
that the confiscation was illegal. The judge said freezing the accounts
violated European laws protecting freedom of expression, said Bjoern
Elmquist, the station?s lawyer.
?For me personally, I have to admit that it has raised suspicion, but if
Roj TV is acquitted of charges linking them to the PKK, it will look
even more embarrassing for certain people,? said Oslem Sara Cekic, a
Danish parliament member on the foreign affairs committee. Danish
investigations carried out in 2005, 2007, and 2008 have all rejected
allegations about the station?s PKK ties.
?If these allegations [about a deal between Turkey and Denmark] turn out
to be true, it would not only be embarrassing, but equally frightening
that it has become possible to pressure a democratic country to this
extent,? Cekic told the Daily News.
Large Danish newspapers, including Politiken and Information, ran
headlines suggesting not only that a deal had been made between Turkey
and Denmark, but also that Fogh Rasmussen had no authority to fulfill
his end of the bargain.
?If really true, it is added embarrassment that Fogh Rasmussen indulged
in a deal that he could not possibly uphold, because he simply lacked
the authority to do so,? Nielsen told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic
Review.
Turkey had objected to the candidacy of Rasmussen over his inaction as
Danish prime minister over the ?cartoon crisis? in 2005, saying his
insensitivity about the caricatures depicting the Prophet Mohammed would
be would be counterproductive as NATO conducts operations in Muslim
countries like Afghanistan. Unable to gather support for its arguments
from other NATO members, Turkey retracted its opposition. Rasmussen?s
appointment was announced in April 2009.
Turkey has never confirmed or denied that a deal was made, but the
Turkish press at the time widely reported allegations that a deal had
been brokered by U.S. President Barack Obama based on promises that Roj
TV would be closed and a Turkish official would be appointed as an
assistant to the secretary-general.
WikiLeaks sparks suspicion and public debate
The cable from Ankara discusses a 2010 meeting between U.S.
Undersecretary Nicholas Burns and his Turkish counterpart Feridun
Sinirlio?lu and quotes Tacan ?ldem, Turkey?s Representative to NATO, who
was also present at the meeting, complaining that Belgium and Denmark
were reluctant to suppress PKK-affiliated groups active in their
countries. The PKK has been listed as a terrorist organization by
Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
?Tacan ?ldem added that as part of the 2009 POTUS [President of the
United States]-brokered appointment of Anders Fogh Rasmussen as NATO
Secretary-General, Denmark had promised to clarify its legal
requirements prerequisite to acceding to Turkey?s request for the
closure of Roj TV, a PKK mouthpiece. This still needed to be done, ?ldem
said,? the cable read.
In another section of the cable, Feridun Sinirlio?lu notes the deal had
included an understanding that a qualified Turk would be considered for
assistant secretary-general of NATO. ?Instead, he said, a German of
uncompelling merit was selected. ?We suspect a deal between Rasmussen
and Merkel,?? the cable quotes the Turkish diplomat as saying,
Ambassador Hüseyin Diriöz was selected as an assistant secretary-general
a few months following the meeting between Burns and Sinirlio?lu,
fueling suspicions that a deal had been made between Turkey and Denmark.
