TRUMP | Has He Revoked Pardons for Obama's Turkeys?

President Obama pardoning a turkey.

Reports are circulating on social media that President Trump has issued an Executive Order to revoke all turkey pardons granted by former President Obama and immediately execute the turkeys.

It is, of course, too late for Trump to execute the earlier turkeys (there were reportedly 16 in all over Obama's eight years) who have gone on by now to Turkey Heaven.

The average life of a turkey is only about three years; the maximum recorded longevity for a turkey is reportedly 12 years.

The reports of the Pardon Revocations are satirical, says Snopes.

Slate Picks Up Turkey Recommendation

Slate in its Blog Roundup quoted this paragraph from my HuffPost blog on the Kurdish rebels: "[T]he best hope for calming this crisis," says John Tepper Marlin at the Huffington, is "a combination of a serious effort to contain the Kurdish rebels while joining the U.S. voice with that of the EU, which has also warned Turkey against violating Iraq's territorial integrity. The grave danger is that in the frayed international environment of 2007 Turkey will sooner or later respond to its very real domestic pressures and defy western wishes on the bet that they can continue to get away with going it alone."

Turkey and the Rebel Kurds: Next Move

This blog was posted earlier today on Huffington Post

President Bush's response to the Turkish Parliament's declaration of war against the 3,000+ rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in oil-rich northern Iraq was muted because the United States needs Turkey. The Kurdish administration in oil-rich northern Iraq seems unable to control the small number of PKK separatists, while labeling in advance any Turkish forays to strike at PKK camps as a violation of Iraqi sovereignty. Such forays would immensely complicate the war in Iraq and destabilize the region.

Turkey's economic needs might give it pause. Prime Minister RecepTayyip Erdogan is as friendly a Prime Minister as the United States could hope for in a 99 percent Islamic country in the fifth year of an Iraq war that has allowed Kurdish rebels to build up in the north and to kill many Turks recently on the border. He was reelected handily this year because he has delivered strong economic growth.

When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, the Turkish Parliament refused to allow U.S. troops to drive through to Iraq - a "low point" for U.S.-Turkish relations, although Turkey allows U.S. supplies through via Incirlik Air Base. For many Turks, the low point was months later when U.S. forces - from Turkey's perspective - dissed Turkish soldiers serving with the U.S. army in northern Iraq. These events were the basis for a hugely popular Turkish movie, "Valley of the Wolves Iraq," which stirred up anti-American sentiments.

Relations looked better last year when a U.S.-Turkish shared vision was mapped out. But the over-stretched U.S. military and The Kurds in Iraq are understandably concerned about having as a guest Turkey's half-million troops, the second-largest army in NATO and the largest army in Europe? No wonder a barrel of crude oil for November delivery hit a record price today of $90.07.

What might restrain Turkey is its ongoing need for full access to American and, even more, EU markets. Turkey would dearly love to become a full member of the EU, and many in the EU would like to see Turkey join. Turkey's textiles and apparel industry, which accounts for nearly 40 percent of Turkey's exports, is being squeezed by low-cost competition from the rest of Asia and by concerns of western, especially European, buyers about labor conditions in Turkish factories. The Turkish government has contributed to the problem by raising taxes on employment to levels well above its neighbors, where wages may be as low as one-fifth of prevailing Turkish wages.

So the best hope for calming this crisis would be a combination of a serious effort to contain the Kurdish rebels while joining the U.S. voice with that of the EU, which has also warned Turkey against violating Iraq's territorial integrity. The grave danger is that in the frayed international environment of 2007 Turkey will sooner or later respond to its very real domestic pressures and defy western wishes on the bet that they can continue to get away with going it alone.

Turkey's Elections: We Have a Dog in the Fight

This appeared earlier today on Huffington Post

John Tepper Marlin
Turkey's Elections on Sunday: We Have a Dog in the Fight
Posted July 17, 2007 11:24 AM (EST)

When the Bush family and Texas friends wish to convey that they don't care much about something, they have been known to say: "I don't have a dog in that fight." There's a fight happening next Sunday in Turkey that we do have a dog in and have heard precious little about in the U.S. media. Do we need reminding that the U.S. position in Iraq and Afghanistan has been unraveling and that Turkey is a crucial Islamic ally?

Comment HuffIt

I was in Istanbul twice this year, first in a cool, gray week in February, then in a warm week in May, when on the 19th everyone was celebrating the anniversary of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's blueprint for the Turkish Republic. Huge pictures of the great Ataturk abounded, along with the country's red flags with crescent and star. While 99 percent of the 70 million Turks say they are Islamic, Ataturk's secular state is a strongly held value for many Turks and survives thanks in part to the Turkish army's taking action when the constitution has been threatened, and (far more impressively) relinquishing power when constitutional order was restored.

America's dog in the fight is Turkey's remaining a secular and democratic ally. As centrist-conservative Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stumps for his party in advance of the parliamentary elections this Sunday, July 22, the war in Iraq is an issue. Erdogan was elected in November 2002 and in March 2003 requested Turkey's unicameral Parliament to accede to a U.S. request to transport troops through Turkey to Iraq. The Parliament voted no, even though Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) won 363 of 550 votes in the previous election.

Our State Department says this vote was a "low point" for us in U.S.-Turkish relations. But for many Turks the low point was later that year, on July 4, when U.S. forces dissed the Turkish army by leading away in hoods captured Turkish soldiers and civilians for interrogation. Turkey protested, the soldiers were freed and a U.S.-Turkish commission expressed regret. But nationalist rancor lingers in Turkey as evidenced by the huge success of the anti-American movie, based on a TV series, "Valley of the Wolves Iraq." Erdogan continues providing a U.S. base for trans-shipment of three-fourths of U.S. air cargo to Iraq, has given advance clearance for military overflights, and has purged some of his own 2003 rebels. But the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has picked up support from this as well as from fears engendered by the activities of the Kurdish separatists (PKK).

Secularists, including the army, are on guard because of Erdogan's Islamist origins. But Erdogan has been pushing his party toward the center. His investment in infrastructure and his Europe-friendly policies have helped his country grow about 7.5 percent a year since he came to office, a pace that the State Department calls "one of the highest sustained rates of growth in the world." Foreign investment in Turkey is strong and so are exports. Erdogan's reforms have put him in a good position relative to mainstream Turks. The current worry is possible growth of the threat from the right.

The secularists on the left are relatively quiet because of Turkey's economic strength. One powerhouse is Turkey's textiles and apparel industry, which accounts for about 10 percent of GDP and more than one-third of Turkey's exports, generating upwards of $14 billion a year. Its two largest markets for textile exports are the EU (roughly 60 percent of total Turkish textile and apparel exports) and the United States. Turkish clothing manufacturers are organized as TCMA (a member of the International Apparel Federation) and a variety of textile and garment exporters are under the umbrella of ITKIB. Members of both organizations seek to maintain sales to Europe and America in the face of competition from Asia.

Western apparel buyers have spooked some developing countries with their search for evidence that the factories are sweatshop-free. Others respond with a positive attitude, viewing good working conditions as a competitive advantage. Turkish factories have been responding with claims that their work conditions are better than those in poorer countries like Egypt and China, and a small but significant number of them have implemented world-class working conditions, leading to their becoming certified according to the labor standard SA8000.

During my two visits to Istanbul this year, I listened to many labor and management representatives talk about these challenges. I will follow this blog with another on these interviews.

Corporate Social Responsibility

I was privileged to attend a conference on corporate social responsibility at Baruch College on Thursday. We heard from a number of corporations about what they are doing to be responsible in dealing with the environment or their workplace or with specific global problems like diabetes. My own contribution to the proceedings was a paper on "What Form of CSR Is Best for You?" in which I answer the question by looking at what happened in three companies - Tiffany, Gap Inc. and Chiquita - and three countries (Turkey, Italy and Pakistan).

The basic message of the paper is that CSR requires some kind of engine, some navigators and wheels on which to roll. It also operates within local economic and political constraints and that governments can affect the speed with which CSR is adopted. Turkey is faced with lower-cost competition and its government is not helping to solve the problem by weighting its tax mix toward payroll taxes rather than property taxes. Italy and, more recently, Pakistan have been encouraging local factories to become certified against SA8000 workplace standards by paying some of the costs of certification or giving certified factories preference in government procurement, or both.