Letters to the Editor

A message for Turkey

I am continually amazed at the shameless proclamations by Turkish proponents that somehow the United States has slighted Turkey. I suppose that after hearing this tune ad nauseam, Tulin Daloglu’s column should have come as no surprise (“Trouble in Turkey,” Op-Ed, Tuesday).

Ms. Daloglu’s time and energy would be better spent exposing Turkey’s entrenched policy of dealing with its minorities — that of torture, intimidation, expulsion and murder. Turkish government officials had no problems when billions of U.S. tax dollars were spent on military equipment used by the Turkish army throughout the 1980s and ‘90s to destroy Kurdish villages.

The Turkish government has been asking for time to institute reforms for the past 150 years. Over that same period, it has persecuted its country’s minority communities, including the Greeks, Assyrians, Jews, Armenians and Kurds. The answer never seems to include initiating democratic reform; instead, violating basic human rights is the standard policy.

It has never been in the national interest of the United States to ignore the local human rights violations of its “allies.” The lessons of American deaths in Iraq and Iran should be enough proof of that.

GEORGE AGHJAYAN

Worcester, Mass.

Modern-day bootleggers

Richard W. Rahn’s excellent article, “Why do we regulate?” (Commentary, Thursday) convincingly lays out the reasons why we don’t need to regulate. So why do we? A look at a little noticed provision of the highway bill passed last week provides insight into that question.

Buried in subtitle C of that bill, the Transportation Equity Act, is the “Specific Vehicle Safety-related Rulings” section, which mandates new regulations requiring advanced auto-safety features in new vehicles.

Supported by a coalition of safety advocates and auto parts manufacturers, this feature of the bill illustrates perfectly Bruce Yandle’s “bootlegger and Baptist” theory of why we regulate.

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