Less than nine months into his four-year term of office, President Barack Obama's record is already one of abandoned promises, sidelined issues and lack of action. PolitiFact, a political accountability project run by Florida's St Petersburg Times, has formulated an "Obamameter" gauge that registers seven broken promises, a dozen stalled initiatives and 117 pet projects still "in the works". Here is the top 10 list of most glaring examples of Mr Obama falling short in key areas he trumpeted during his campaign. 1.PROMISE BROKEN. Mr Obama said he would "not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days". But the "sunlight before signing" promise has already fallen by the wayside with Mr Obama signing three major bills without public scrutiny. 2.PROMISE BROKEN. Mr Obama repeatedly said he would negotiate health care reform in televised sessions broadcast on C-SPAN, the public service network. Instead, he his approach has been no different from his predecessors, holding talks behind closed doors at the White House and Congress. 3.PROMISE BROKEN. Mr Obama solemnly pledged that "no political appointees in an Obama-Biden administration will be permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years". In practice, Mr Obama has granted several waivers to this rule, allowing lobbyists to serve in the top reaches of his administration. 4.PROMISE BROKEN. Mr Obama said he would end income tax for the elderly making less than $50,000 per year, thereby eliminating taxes for seven million of them. This has not been part of his economic stimulus bill, his first budget outline or any legislation proposed by the White House. 5.PROMISE STALLED. On taking office, Mr Obama announced with great fanfare that the Guantanamo Bay prison camp would be closed within a year of his inauguration on January 20th. Defence officials now concede that this self-imposed deadline will not be met. 6.PROMISE SIDELINED. Mr Obama promised to end the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that prohibits openly gay personnel from serving in the United States armed forces. Despite reiterating the pledge this weekend, Mr Obama shows no signs of taking concrete action on the issue. 7.PROMISE BROKEN. Mr Obama said that in 2009 and 2010 "existing businesses will receive a $3,000 refundable tax credit for each additional full-time employee hired". Democrats on Capitol Hill opposed this and Mr Obama has quietly abandoned the proposal, omitting it from his list of requirements for draft legislation. 8.PROMISE BROKEN. During the campaign, Mr Obama promised that "as President I will recognise the Armenian genocide" carried out by the Ottoman Empire after 1915. Once in office, he travelled to Turkey and made no mention of genocide. In a statement in April on the memorial day for the genocide he spoke of the "heavy weight" of history and the "terrible events " of the period but failed the use the g-word. 9.PROMISE SIDELINED. As a candidate, Mr Obama highlighted his support for abortion rights, stating he would back this up "by passing the Freedom of Choice Act as president". At a press conference marking his first 100 days, Mr Obama said this was "not my highest legislative priority" and that it was important to "focus on those areas that we can agree on". 10. PROMISE SIDELINED. Mr Obama promised to end warrantless wiretaps on the domestic communications of Americans and to "update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to provide greater oversight and accountability". So far, he has taken no action.
Cyprus announced on Tuesday it had canceled the National Guard exercise "Nikiforos", following a decision by Turkey to scrap its joint manoeuvres with the breakaway Turkish Cypriot north. Turkey announced earlier Tuesday that it had decided not to carry out the annual military exercise "Toros" in northern Cyprus to offer a more favorable climate for the ongoing negotiations aimed at reunifying the divided island. The announcement prompted a quick response from the Greek Cypriot side. Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said that, although the government had not been informed formally yet about the "Toros" cancellation, it was only natural that "Nikoforos" would be canceled as well. It was Cyprus President and Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias who had suggested a mutual cancellation of military exercises when he met UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New Yorklast month, Stefanou said. Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey militarily intervened and occupied the north of the island following a coup by a group of Greek officers. Turkey maintains a military presence in the self-proclaimed "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," which remains a key issue in the talks between the leaders of the two communities in Cyprus.
Chief of the Serbian Army General Staff general Miloje Miletic and Cypriot Minister of Defense Kostas Papakostas had talks in Cyprus on the possibilities of developing the bilateral military cooperation, communicated the Serbian Army. Miletic is on the official visit to Cyprus from October 11 to 14, with the goal of improving the cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries. He talked to Commander of the Cyprus National Guard Petros Tsalikidis had talks yesterday on the cooperation between their countries and current political-security situation in the region, reds the communiqué.
Turkey's foreign minister said yesterday that his government cancelled a planned joint military exercise with Israel in protest against that country's offensive on Gaza ten months ago. The Nato air exercises with Israel were due to begin today in Turkey's Anatolian region, but days earlier Ankara told the Israeli military it was no longer invited to attend. The US and Italy subsequently opted not to take part either and the war games were called off. The Turkish foreign ministry issue a statement saying the decision was not political. However, when asked about the issue, the foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, told CNN : "We hope the situation in Gaza will be improved, that the situation will be back to the diplomatic track. And that will create a new atmosphere in Turkish-Israeli relations as well. But in the existing situation, of course, we are criticising this approach, [the] Israeli approach." The Israeli media noted that while Erdogan's government had long made its displeasure clear, what was new about Israel's exclusion from this week's "Anatolian Eagle" exercises was the role of the Turkish military, which had been closer to Israel than the civilian government. The Israeli cabinet had an emergency meeting over the weekend to discuss the damage to Israel's most important military relationship in the region. "It may be that the reality has changed and the strategic ties that we thought existed have simply ended," a senior Israeli official told Haaretz newspaper. Israeli defence officials told the Jerusalem Post they were rethinking arms sales to Turkey and would end support for Turkey in its efforts to stop the US Congress voting to declare the mass killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks a genocide. Possibly in anticipation of an diplomatic backlash, the Turkish foreign ministry statement yesterday urged Israel to exert "good sense in its approach and statements."
The European Commission's annual report on Turkey's progress toward EU membership urged Ankara to step up economic and political reforms and highlighted the country’s shortcomings, the daily Hürriyet reported on its Web site. Despite progress, Turkey still has a long road ahead regarding freedom of the press and expression, the draft said. The tax fine on the DMG was an example of a worrisome factor. “The high fines imposed by the revenue authorities potentially undermine the economic viability of the group and therefore affect freedom of the press in practice. There is a need to uphold the principles of proportionality and of fairness in these tax-related procedures," the Web site read. Meanwhile, the law for protecting the reputation of the Turkish Republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was also mentioned among the laws that limit freedom of expression. The draft said the laws in Turkey do not grant enough assurance for the freedom of expression and, therefore, judges and prosecutors prefer restrictive interpretations. Legal cases and convictions based on Article 318, which states that “discouraging the public from doing military duty” is a crime, as well as the law on the Turkish alphabet were also mentioned in the draft. Despite the recent changes, Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code counted as a limiting factor for freedom of expression since investigations and cases based on this article are still ongoing. The draft also outlined delicate matters for the Turkish public, including the Kurdish problem, minority rights, the role of the military and the legacy of Atatürk. According to the draft, Ankara's progress toward EU membership had been labeled as slow, due to a number of reasons, including its conflict with EU member Greek Cyprus, the status of northern Turkish Cyprus and the reluctance of some countries to admit Turkey as a member. "Turkey has made no progress on normalizing bilateral relations with Cyprus," the report said.
EU candidate country Macedonia has removed a controversial encyclopaedia from libraries after the manual triggered furious reactions from EU members Greece and Bulgaria as well as neighbouring Kosovo and Albania. The reason behind the removal was strong pressure from the US and the UK, diplomats told EurActiv. Following angry reactions, including the burning of the Macedonian flag in Kosovo, the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Art (MANU) recently decided to remove its recently published two-volume, 1,671-page work, the 'Macedonian Encyclopaedia'. The work has managed to offend most of Macedonia's neighbours. Greece, which is pressing Macedonia to change its name because it coincides with that of the northernmost Greek province, considers that Skopje is misappropriating large chunks of its ancient history. Similarly, Bulgaria considers that Macedonia is cherry-picking heroes and glorious episodes from its 19th and early 20th century struggle against Ottoman domination. But those most offended this time were the Kosovars and the ethnic Albanian population of Macedonia itself, as MANU refers to ethnic Albanians as "settlers" who came to the country in the 16th century and to Albanians as 'Shiptari' or 'Planinci', which has derogatory connotations. The Albanians are widely recognised as the descendants of ancient Illiryan tribes, who settled in those lands in approximately 1,000 BC. The authors also claim that the ethnic Albanian movement in Macedonia, the National Liberation Army, was trained by US and British special forces in 2001, and that ethnic Albanian leader Ali Ahmeti, now leader of the Democratic Union for the Integration of Macedonia, is suspected of war crimes. Bulgarian and Greek leaders kept a low profile, but according to diplomats, the encyclopaedia has infuriated both Athens and Sofia. The Bulgarian Embassy in Skopje issued a statement saying that the content of the Macedonian Encyclopedia had the single purpose of collecting political dividends. "It is unacceptable for a country aspirant for NATO and EU membership to resort to terminology typical for the ideology of the Cold War era," the statement says.
An Armenian Catholic bishop from Egypt, Krikor-Okosdinos Coussa of Alexandria, has called on Turkey to accept that the World War I killings of many hundreds of thousands of Armenian Christians were genocide. Successive Turkish governments have refused to do so, arguing atrocities took place on both sides, and that Muslims also died. "In 1915, the Ottomans ... killed the Armenian people in Greater Armenia and Lesser Armenia (Turkey). One and a half million people perished during this genocide," Coussa told a synod of African bishops taking place in Rome. The killings drove the Armenians from Turkey to the Middle East and throughout the world, he noted. "The leaders of the Armenian State and the heads of the Armenian Churches (Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical) are performing an act of public pardon towards the Turks. "We do so while appealing to the Turks to recognise the genocide, to pay homage to the martyrs and to grant Armenians their civil, political and religious rights," Coussa said. In an apparent reference to a landmark agreement signed last weekend between Turkey and Armenia normalising ties and ending a century of hostility, Coussa stated: "The path of reconciliation between the two States has begun." Many Armenians have protested the accord, saying it does not fully address the 1915 killings. The agreement calls for a joint commission of independent historians to study the genocide issue.