Scott Johnson
Power Line
6/17/2010
I find this almost unbelievable, but it’s the kind of thing we’re going to have to get used to in the age of Obama. Josh Rogin reports:
The U.S. taxpayer-funded Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, led by former Congressman Lee Hamilton, is giving out its annual award for public service Thursday, and the winner is … Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu!
Davutaoglu “personifies the attributes we seek to honor at the Woodrow Wilson Center,” Hamilton said in announcing the event, adding that his “contributions have been numerous and significant.”
The Turkish foreign minister has been in the news a lot lately, such as when he said the Israeli incident aboard the Gaza flotilla “is like 9/11 for Turkey.”
He was also a key figure in the Brazilian-Turkish drive to head off new U.N. sanctions on Iran by striking an 11th-hour fuel-swap deal, an agreement the Obama administration has dismissed as inadequate and unhelpful.
Rogin rounds up some unamused comments delivered by a knowledgeable congressman:
House Foreign Affairs Middle East subcommittee chairman Gary Ackerman, D-NY, wrote to Hamilton Wednesday to express his “deep concern and dismay” over the award to Davutoglu.
“Turkey’s foreign policy under Foreign Minister Davutoglu’s leadership is rife with illegality, irresponsibility and hypocrisy,” he wrote, citing Turkey’s denial of the Armenian genocide, its occupation of northern Cyprus, Turkey’s vote against new Iran sanctions, and what Ackerman described as the ongoing “demonizing” of Israel as exhibited during the flotilla crisis…
The article continues at Power Line.
UPDATE: Claudia Rosett asks a good question: “What kind of Washington fools would honor Turkey’s foreign minister?”
