The results of the comment period for the proposed MoUs between the U.S. and the Republics of Turkey and Tunisia are in. In total, almost 99 usable electronic public commentswere received and posted on the Regulations.gov website:
https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=DOS-2019-0043

This is not great, but not terrible either. A lot from both sides voiced their concerns over several different, but equally important, issues. Two important organizations, forinstance, namely the American Hellenic Institute (AHI) and the Committee for Cultural Policy and Global Heritage Alliance were not thrilled with the Turkish request (to say thevery least), and based a part of their strong opposition to the proposed MoU on the grounds of denying large American populations of Armenians, Greeks, and other peoples who hadonce called the land of modern Turkey their home, antiquities that their very ancestors had made and/or owned. We know from history that some of the same people were forciblydispossessed of them too, in the last two centuries. As for the Tunisian request, the latter organization (CCP & GHA) echoed my own comment on Tunisia's puzzling dearth ofevidence of illicit material residing in the U.S. Read their request over again. It is amazing in a lackluster way. For some of these reasons alone, it would be good to show oursupport for both organizations, which brings us to my next point.

In my previous post, I had forgotten to mention that "the Cultural Property Advisory Committee will hold an open session on January 21, 2020," in which the public isinvited to participate (either in person or electronically by Zoom). More information on how to attend can be found on the website here:
https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=DOS-2019-0043-0001

Also, interested parties can download a PDF copy of the following issue of the Federal Register which appears to contain much of the same information:
https://www.regulations.gov/contentStreamer?documentId=DOS-2019-0043-0001&contentType=pdf

: if anyone wishes to speak at the meeting, they must be registered " via email (culprop@state.gov) inorder to be assigned a slot" no later than January 14.

Because of the questionable nature of both MoUs, especially in light of current world events and even the Cyprus question, it is actually more uncertain this time whichdirection the upcoming CPAC meeting will take.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
RESTRICTIVE TURKEY, TUNISIA AGREEMENTS PENDING (https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n01a27.html)