Exhibit 1 To Letter Of November 7, 2001 To Governor Jane Swift

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The following commentary addresses the factual inaccuracies and omissions in the three of four WHEREAS clauses of Governor Jane Swift’s Proclamation commemorating October 29, 2001 in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as "Turkish Republic Day in Massachusetts."

1. WHEREAS, October 29th, 1923, marked the founding of the Republic of Turkey by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk;

   Comment: The legacy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is a stain upon western democratic principles and American values.

   1. Ataturk established a dictatorship on October 29, 1923, not a democracy.
   2. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk led the assault against the Christians in Turkey and was responsible for his army sacking and burning Smyrna (Izmir) in 1922 and the slaughter of more than 100,000 Greeks and 30,000 Armenian civilians. (See Marjorie Housepian Dobkin's book Smyrna 1922: The Destruction of a City.)
   3. In the 1930s, Turkey under its dictator Ataturk, committed genocide against its Pontian Greek citizens.
   4. Ataturk also initiated in the 1930’s the human rights abuses against Turkey's Kurdish citizens. For the past two decades, the Turkish military has committed ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and genocide against its 12 million Kurdish minority. Since 1984, the Turkish military has killed 35,000 innocent civilian Kurds, assassinated 17,000 and destroyed 2,500 Kurdish villages, creating more than 2.5 million Kurdish refugees. (See the former French Ambassador Eric Rouleau's article in Foreign Affairs, November/December 2000, titled "Turkey's Dream of Democracy")
   5. In 1955, the Turkish government organized a pogrom of horrendous proportions against its 100,000 Greek citizens in Istanbul which resulted in the destruction of over 4,000 Greek and Armenian shops, 700 homes and severly damaged 80 Greek churches. (See New York Times; Sept. 16, 1995; p.1, col. 6). Today there are less than 3,000 Greek citizens living in Istanbul.
   6. Turkey does not allow full religious freedom for Christians, including the Ecumenical Patriarchate of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church. In 1971, Turkey illegally closed the Halki Theological School of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and it has remained closed ever since.
2. WHEREAS, Turkey has made significant contributions to United States foreign policy and has played an instrumental role in international efforts for peace, prosperity and stability;

   Comment: False.

   1. What "significant contributions?"
   2. What "instrumental role in international efforts for peace, prosperity and stability?"
      1. Turkey's actions in the region have not and do not serve the cause of stability -- for example, the occupation of Cyprus, the challenge to the legal status of and Greece's sovereignty in the Aegean and the economic blockade of Armenia.
      2. Turkey's illegal invasion of Cyprus in 1974 with the illegal use of American-supplied arms violated U.S. laws, the UN Charter, the NATO Charter and international law. Turkey's continuing illegal occupation of 37 percent of Cyprus these past 27 years with 35,000 troops and 300 tanks is a stain on the honor and credibility of the U.S. and NATO.
      3. Even though a member of the Council of Europe, Turkey has been found guilty of major violations of the European Convention on Human Rights (i.e. Loizidou Case and Interstate Application by Cyprus). The European Court of Human Rights in its decision of May 10, 2001 in the case of Cyprus v. Turkey found Turkey in violation of 14 human rights provisions of the Convention in its continuing occupation of Cyprus.
      4. Turkey is the cause of problems in the region, not the solution.
3. WHEREAS, Turkey has remained a dedicated ally of the United States through every major conflict since the Korean War;

   Comment: False.

   1. The Korean War was fought under UN auspices and a number of countries sent token forces of 5,000 troops.
   2. During the Cold War, Turkey was an unreliable ally who aided the Soviet military. Examples of Turkey's unreliability for U.S. strategic purposes include:
      1. During the 1973 Mid-East War, predating the Turkish invasion of Cyprus by one year, Turkey refused the U.S. military overflight rights to resupply Israel and granted the USSR overland military convoy rights to resupply Syria and Iraq, and military overflight permission to resupply Egypt. See E. Luttwak, The Political Uses of Sea Power 60-61 (1974). A member of the Turkish Foreign Policy Institute in Ankara wrote: "During the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, Moscow's overflights of Turkish airspace were tolerated. On the other hand, during the same Middle East conflict, Turkey refused to allow the U.S. refueling and reconnaissance facilities during the American airlift to Israel." Karaosmanoglu, "Turkey's Security and the Middle East," Foreign Affairs 157, 163 (Fall 1983).
      2. In the 1977-1978 conflict in Ethiopia, Turkey granted the Soviets military overflight rights to supply the pro-Soviet Ethiopian communists under Col. Mengistu, who eventually prevailed. C. Meyer, Facing Reality -- From World Federalism to the CIA, 276-80 (1980).
      3. Over NATO objections, Turkey allowed three Soviet aircraft carriers, the Kiev on July 18, 1976, the Minsk on Feb. 25, 1979 and the Novorosiisk on May 16, 1983, passage rights through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits into the Mediterranean in violation of the Montreux Convention of 1936. See generally Wash. Post, July 19, 1976, at A16, col. 1; New York Times, Feb. 26, 1979, at A13, col. 1. The Soviet ships posed a formidable threat to the U.S. Sixth Fleet.
      4. In 1979, Turkey refused to allow the U.S. to send 69 marines and six helicopters to American military facilities at Incirlik in Turkey for possible use in evacuating Americans from Iran. New York Times, Feb. 13, 1979, at A8, col. 3.
      5. Again, in 1979 Turkey refused to allow the U.S. request to allow U-2 intelligence flights (for Salt II verification) over Turkish airspace "unless Moscow agreed." New York Times, May 15, 1979, at A1, col. 3. This position was voiced over a period of months by Turkish officials, the opposition party and the military Chief of Staff, Gen. Kenan Evren. See id.
      6. In May, 1989, Turkey rejected and American request to inspect an advanced MIG-29 Soviet fighter plane, flown by a Soviet defector to Turkey. New York Times, May 28, 1989, at A12, col. 1.
      7. The Turkish government refused repeated American requests for the installation of antennas in Turkey concerning 11 transmitters whose broadcasts would have been directed primarily to the Soviet Union and its eastern European satellites. The initiative by the United States Department of State sought to improve reception of programs broadcast by Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, and the Voice of America.
      8. Turkey further damaged NATO by vetoing NATO's effort to put military bases on various Greek islands in the Aegean for defensive purposes against the Soviet navy.
   3. Turkey did not join the U.S.-led Coalition in the Persian Gulf War.
   4. In 1973, Turkey lifted unilaterally the ban on the cultivation of opium and is a major trafficker of drugs to the U.S.
   5. The proclamation drafted by Turkish Americans conveniently omits Turkey’s role in the first 50 years of the 20th Century. It includes:
      1. Turkey fought against the U.S. in World War I.
      2. In World War II, Turkey broke its agreements with Britain, France and Greece and proclaimed "neutrality" during which she aided Nazi Germany by providing Hitler with chromium needed for the production of armaments. This chromium aid to Hitler prolonged World War II by seven months. (See Albert Speer Inside the Third Reich.)

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