Battle Over History

[Yervant1]

Battle Over History

 

On Sunday, Feb. 28, 2010 one of the worlds most respected and watched current affairs program, 60 Minutes (CBS TV Network), will air a segment on the Armenian Genocide. Bob Simon and Peter Balakian traveled all the way to Deir Elzor to visit the Armenian Auschwitz and shed light on the untold stories of the victims of the first Genocide of the 20th century.

 

To watch a preview visit http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6244537n&tag=api

[MosJan]

 

Coverage of Consequence: Top American TV news magazine to present segment on Armenian Genocide

http://www.armenianow.com/sites/default/files/img/imagecache/600x400/60mins_0.jpg

 

 

The most respected investigative news television program in the United States plans a segment on the Armenian Genocide.

 

“60 Minutes” – known for decades for its reportage and occasionally controversial programming – will include a segment on the Genocide entitled “Battle Over History” during its weekly broadcast on the CBS network, Sunday at 7 p.m. EST (4 a.m. Monday in Yerevan). The popular news presentation has an audience of some 14.3 million viewers.

 

The program – typically including three segments of 20 minutes each – is to feature best-selling author and Armenian Genocide scholar Peter Balakian (author of popular books “Black Dog of Fate” and “The “Burning Tigress” and board member of the Armenian National Institute). The airing of the program comes just four days before the March 4 vote of a US Congressional committee on House Resolution 252, a document calling for the United States to officially recognize the Genocide.

 

A preview (streaming) of the program is available at http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6244537n.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[24avril1915]

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6244537n&tag=contentMain;contentBody

[Aratta-Kingdom]

IF TURKS HAD NOT DENIED THE GENOCIDE, CBS WOULDN’T HAVE AIRED THIS SHOW

 

By Harut Sassounian, Publisher, The California Courier

 

Turks have only themselves to blame for their unhappiness with the airing of a revealing program on the Armenian Genocide by CBS on February 28.

 

Were it not for the Turkish government’s constant denials and distortions, the Armenian Genocide could have become a forgotten episode in world history. Yet, because Turks refuse to face their crimes and persist in concocting outrageous lies, fair-minded people everywhere take various measures to set the record straight, as CBS did in "60 Minutes" last Sunday. As long as Turks continue their refusal to acknowledge the truth, they will suffer the indignation of being called mass murderers and genocide deniers by the international community -- an deserved punishment for committing such heinous crimes, and then covering them up! The Triumvirate of executioners of the Armenian nation -- Talaat, Enver, and Jemal -- could have never imagined that millions of people around the world, a century later, would still remember the dastardly crimes they committed in 1915?

 

It was noteworthy that several days before CBS aired this program, Turkish organizations were already urging their members to write to the network’s executives to complain about the segment on the Armenian Genocide, even though they had no clue about its content! The well-known Armenian saying, "kogh sirde togh," aptly describes this bizarre Turkish behavior. Loosely translated, this expression characterizes "a thief afraid of being exposed." With a guilty conscience, Turks constantly fear of being blamed for committing genocide and loudly proclaim their innocence, long before anyone accuses them of perpetrating such a crime.

 

The 12-minute segment on the Armenian Genocide totally debunked the Turkish myth of innocence in a most dramatic fashion. CBS correspondent Bob Simon along with Prof. Peter Balakian traveled all the way to Deir Zor, Syria -- "the Armenian Auschwitz" -- where they uncovered bone fragments of Armenian victims, by simply scratching the surface of the desert sand with their fingertips.

 

The shocking images must have left an indelible mark on the minds of millions of viewers. Fast talking Turkish denialists could not wipe away what the audience saw with their own eyes! No one could believe former Turkish Ambassador Nabi Sensoy’s deceptive words, that Armenians were not killed but simply deported. When pressed by Bob Simon, Sensoy first dismissed the significance of the unearthed bones, and then tried to couch his falsehoods in an aura of respectability by stating that UN’s definition of genocide required the element of "intent." He finally admitted that many Armenians "perished," but that was not the Turks’ intent. How could 1.5 million men, women, and children, rounded up from all corners of the Ottoman Empire, vanish into thin air? Turkey’s Ambassador to Washington, who was unceremoniously dismissed from his post after that interview, conveniently forgot to mention another clause of the UN definition of genocide: "Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction." It is regrettable that CBS provided a national platform to this genocide denialist -- something it would never do when airing a program on the Holocaust. Would CBS put on the air a Nazi or a Holocaust denier to present "the other side of the story?"

 

Of course, it is not possible to cover all facets of the Armenian Genocide in 12 minutes. The segment on "60 Minutes" could have been even more devastating to the Turks, had the producers of been a bit more diligent in their investigation. For example, it is not true that "no U.S. President has ever uttered the word genocide." It is well known that Pres. Reagan, in his Presidential Proclamation of April 22, 1981, made reference to the Armenian Genocide.

 

Bob Simon also stated that Turkish-instigated political pressure blocked the passage of a congressional resolution on the Armenian Genocide in 2007. What he neglected to mention were the two resolutions that were adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1975 and 1984. When Simon asked the Turkish envoy why eight former U.S. Secretaries of State had rallied behind Turkey to kill the 2007 resolution, Amb. Sensoy responded by pointing to Turkey’s importance to the United States. He was implying that geopolitical considerations far outweighed the loss of 1.5 million lives!

 

Finally, Bob Simon wrongly asserted that the Armenia-Turkey Protocols contained a clause calling for the formation of a historical commission "to rule on whether a genocide took place." Although this clause is vaguely worded, it does not call for the establishment for such a fact-finding commission.

 

Regardless of these errors, millions of Americans who watched the program must have come away with the clear understanding that in 1915 the Turks had engaged in "race extermination," as U.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau had reported to the State Department.

 

In order to counter the negative Turkish comments inundating CBS, readers are urged to send e-mails thanking "60 Minutes" for its enlightening program that effectively fights genocide denial. To view the TV program and send a comment, please click on: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6253043n.

 

We also thank Prof. Balakian for his eloquent explanations and for accompanying the CBS crew to the Syrian desert.

 

 

[Yervant1]

Robert Fisk: Someone remembers this atrocity at last - to Obama's dismay

 

 

Saturday, 6 March 2010

Independent/uk

 

George W Bush spinelessly caved in to the Turkish generals. And now

our favourite Nobel prize winner - another brave president who

promised to acknowledge the Armenian genocide if he was elected and

then declined to do so - went whinging and whining to the House

Foreign Affairs Committee in Washington and pleaded with them not to

tell the truth about the savage rape and murder of 1.5 million

Armenian civilians by the Turks in 1915. Good for the committee that

it did not give in. But it will do no good.

 

Sure, the Turkish ambassador has been recalled from Washington in a

huff. But equally certain is that there will be no vote on the

genocide by the full House of Representatives. And if there is,

there'll never be a vote in the Senate. Obama will help see to that.

The man who wanted change doesn't want change on the little matter of

a genocide that led directly to the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews.

 

The events in Washington prove a few things. The Armenian American

community have a more powerful and wealthier lobby than ever before.

More seriously - for the Turks - is that this year Turkey did not have

the Israeli lobby behind it. In the past, Israel, which disgracefully

claims that the Armenian Holocaust was not a genocide, has supported

its close ally Turkey. But this year, Israel and Turkey have fallen

out and the Israelis are still miffed at Turkey's condemnation of the

bloodbath in Gaza.

 

The Turks sent their generals to bully Bush last time round. This

time, the Turkish Foreign Minister warned that "Turkish-US ties are

going through a very important phase in which they need strategic

co-operation at the highest level in their history." The message is

simple. Acknowledge the genocide, and the US will lose its airbases in

Turkey and the Turkish roads its military convoys use into Iraq.

 

The fact, unfortunately, is that these roads are the very highways

down which the Armenians were sent on their death marches in 1915.

That's not mentioned, of course. Our faithful Turkish ally might even

pack up its support for the US in Afghanistan, where they are helping

fight "Obama's war". But Robert Gates is still in Washington to remind

congressmen what he said last year; that America needed "those roads

and so on". Well, let's just hope the American troops don't halt their

convoys and dig in the fields around those roads in the coming years.

The skeletons are still there in their tens of thousands.

 

One wonders what would happen if Germany suddenly decided that the

Nazi Holocaust was not a genocide. Would Chancellor Merkel get away

with it? Would Obama lobby that Germany should be allowed to get away

with such an obscenity? Perhaps it's worth remembering that in 1939,

Hitler asked his generals - before setting off into Poland to murder

the millions of Jews in eastern Europe - a simple question: "Who now

remembers the Armenians?" Well, Hitler got the answer he would have

wanted from Obama this week.

[Yervant1]

TURKEY NEEDS TO COME TO TERMS WITH ITS PAST: LOS ANGELES TIMES

 

Tert.am

14:50 ~U 09.03.10

 

Turkey needs to come to grips with its bloody past so it can move

forward in its relations with Armenia and the US, reads a March 8

editorial in the Los Angeles Times.

 

An estimated 1.5 million ethnic Armenians were massacred in the final

throes of the Ottoman empire. That blood bath, carried out by the Turks

between 1915 and 1918, was genocide, and should be called by that name.

 

In approving a nonbinding resolution to make this the official

US position, Chair Howard L. Berman and other members of the House

Foreign Affairs Committee were responding to constituent demands that

the United States take a moral stand.

 

Now, Congress and the Obama administration must decide whether such a

symbolic act also serves the strategic interests of the United States.

 

For the moment, just like presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton

before him, Barack Obama appears to be saying no.

 

It is important for the United States to stand for historical truth on

the Armenian slaughter. Even more important is that Turks themselves

come to terms with their brutal history. From Germany to South Africa

to Argentina, there are many examples of countries that have confronted

their violent pasts honestly.

 

Instead, Turkey recalled its ambassador for consultations after the

23-22 House committee vote, saying the resolution offends the country's

honour and warning of negative consequences for US-Turkish relations,

as well as for the ratification of agreements to normalize ties with

the Republic of Armenia. A more productive approach would be for the

Turks and Armenians to adopt the protocols hammered out last year to

establish diplomatic relations and reopen their shared border.

 

The US vote must not become a pretext for further stalling.

 

During the 2008 campaign, Obama was unequivocal in his support for

labeling the killings a genocide. As president, however, he has the

unenviable task of weighing that position against the need for Turkey's

support in Afghanistan, in stabilizing Iraq and for United Nations

sanctions against Iran. Turkey is the only Muslim country in NATO,

and it currently sits on the UN Security Council.

 

We understand that any US administration must nurture the vital

strategic alliance with Turkey. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham

Clinton, who coaxed Turkey and Armenia into signing the protocols last

year, noted that the agreement established a commission to examine

their bloody history and argued that "it is not for any other country

to determine how two countries resolve matters between them." That's

true, but we also understand Armenian fears that such a commission

could whitewash history.

 

The goal is Turkish and Armenian reconciliation, putting to rest the

ghosts of the past. That is in the US interest as well as that of

both peoples. For it to happen, the onus is on Turkey to acknowledge

the Armenian Genocide.

[Yervant1]

Can't wait to see that,

 

"There will be adequate steps [taken]," said Erdogan.

 

 

 

 

US HOUSE DECISION WON'T GO UNANSWERED: ERDOGAN

 

Tert.am

13:57 ~U 09.03.10

 

Turkey will take retaliate against the passing of Armenian Genocide

Resolution 252 by the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs

Committee, siad Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the

airport prior to leaving for Saudia Arabia, reports Turkish news

agency Ankara.

 

"At this time there is no roadmap or anything else on this issue...

 

however, undoubtedly, that step won't remain without a response. There

will be adequate steps [taken]," said Erdogan.

[Arpa]

Oh yes! I should have saved that program on Discovery?History Channel? When a circular disc, reminiscent of the Rosetta Stone, with clear an distinct Armenian script was unearthed, that even I could readand the furkish furk-archeologist looking straight into the camera said -“Oh yes, it is written in an exotically extinct language that has not yet been deciphered.” Only if those savages had native scripts of their own, between Arabic, Farsi and Latin??

Also see stories of how the azerboobs are teaching the Armenian Language in furkish universities.

Will they also teach us how to spell “azerkakjan” and “turdey”?

turkahayeren, stambolahayeren, baku-hayeren, Stepanakert Hayeren,Yerevan and beirut-hayeren, glendale-hayeren or russahayeren?

Yes, of course, I wish those azergagas would teach some of us how to speak and write "proper Armenian", not furkahayeren, not russhayeren....like me an Johannes speak. Not gogma,gagma and gagstrma etc.!! When did "yalanchi" to mean liar/սուտ/lie/ստախօս become an Armenian word? Of course, we know who the master "LIARS" are.

Azerbaijan specialists to teach Armenian to Turks

Azg, Armenia

March 5 2010

AZERBAIJANI SPECIALISTS TO TEACH ARMENIAN TO TURKS

By Hasmik Harutyunyan

In one of the universities of Turkey's Nevsehir province the

preparatory works of opening of an Armenian language and Armenological

faculty come to an end.

 

According to the university's professor Mehmed Metin Hulagu, the

faculty will serve as a bridge in relations of the two countries. He

noted that people should know the language of their neighboring

country, with which they have relations. That is why Armenian language

will be taught at the university. According to him, specialists from

Azerbaijan are going to teach Armenian to Turks, as the number of

Armenian language specialists in Turkey is small, while they are many

in Azerbaijan.

 

"The Azerbaijani specialists have already given their consent, and

undoubtedly, the faculty will open in 2010", Hulagu said.

Edited March 9, 2010 by Arpa

[Zartonk]

Oh yes! I should have saved that program on Discovery?History Channel? When a circular disc, reminiscent of the Rosetta Stone, with clear an distinct Armenian script was unearthed, that even I could readand the furkish furk-archeologist looking straight into the camera said -“Oh yes, it is written in an exotically extinct language that has not yet been deciphered.” Only if those savages had native scripts of their own, between Arabic, Farsi and Latin??

 

Don't you know they have just discovered a 10,000 year old tablet with a "Old Turkish alaphabet"? Turns out the Sumerians were stealing Turkish cültüre.

[Yervant1]

TIME FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA, MSM, TO TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

by Pamela Geller

 

Big Journalism

http://bigjournalism.com/pgeller/2010/03/10/time-for-president-obama-msm-to-tell-the-truth-about-the-armenian-genocide/

March 10 2010

 

Another stunning rebuke to Barack Obama: Armenian American groups

have for decades sought Congressional recognition as genocide of the

murder of just under two million Armenian Christians by the Islamic

Ottoman Empire. Last week, they cleared an important hurdle in getting

this recognition: the House Foreign Affairs Committee, over Obama's

opposition, approved a resolution calling the Turkish mass murder of

the Armenians a genocide.

 

The Islamic supremacists haven't infiltrated as deeply as they

thought. As long as Turkey was secular, we pretended it wasn't

genocide. And now Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who

once said that "there is no moderate or immoderate Islam, Islam is

Islam and that's it," is taking on the secular military in Turkey.

 

Traditionally, the secular army kept Turkey a "moderate" secular

Muslim country, but with the election of the devout Muslim Erdogan,

Turkish secularism is on the ropes. And now that Turkey is returning

to the dark side, we don't have to lie for jihadis anymore.

 

The Turks were furious over the Foreign Affairs Committee vote,

and withdrew their ambassador to the U.S. Turkish President Abdullah

Gul issued a veiled threat: "Turkey will not be responsible for the

negative results that this event may lead to."

 

Turkey threatens...what? Another genocide?

 

This should be interesting. Obviously the Muslim world thinks it

can bully the U.S. President. Let's watch and see if Obama heeds the

decent and humane call from the American people, or heeds Islam.

 

Unfortunately, the answer is already clear. The committee's vote is

difficult for the Islamophilic Obama. He campaigned on the promise that

he would officially recognize the Turkish mass murders of Armenians as

a genocide. As with so many of his other promises, Obama lied and has

backtracked since he became President, as Secretary of State Hillary

Rodham Clinton admitted Thursday: "Circumstances have changed in very

significant ways," she said. And she said that the Obama Administration

would oppose the resolution as it goes to Congress:

 

We do not believe that the full Congress will or should act upon that

resolution and we have made that clear to all the parties involved.

 

Change you can't believe in.

 

And my, isn't Turkey very thin-skinned and sensitive, considering

its propensity for genocide? The Turks should be busying themselves

apologizing and making amends, as Germany did after World War II. But

no. Instead the non-Muslim world is still stepping and fetching and

covering up for over a millennium of jihad wars, land expropriations,

enslavements, and humiliations of the conquered non-Muslim populations

on three continents -- and genocide.

 

Abdullah Gul also said:

 

We are determined to normalise Turkish-Armenian ties but we are

against this being secured through the intervention of third parties

and through pressure.

 

This is rich. How can you normalize relations when you mass murdered

close to two million of the Armenian people and won't admit it, or

express regret and apologize? It was a genocide, and the covering up

of Islamic genocides must end.

 

Let us not forget the other Christian minorities who were massacred

in the same way and for the same reason. Approximately 250,000

Assyrian-Chaldeans were massacred, as well as 250,000 Greeks.

 

Countless others were forced to convert to Islam, especially young

girls. Another thing we should remember about this period is that

Greece itself was occupied by the Ottoman empire for centuries,

as well as Bulgaria and so on, and the non-Muslim populations in all

those countries were terrorized for centuries. These nations were only

freed because of World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman empire.

 

This is a history we must not forget.

 

Above all, we must not forget that the Nazis were inspired by the

Armenian genocide.

 

The Turks used primitive gas chambers and developed other murderous

templates that were later adopted by the Nazis. Hitler was inspired

by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, who was an officer

of the Ottoman empire who participated in the Armenian genocide,

and who during World War II met with Hitler and frequently with

high Nazi officials. During the Nuremberg Trials in July 1946, Adolf

Eichmann's assistant, Dieter Wisliczeny, testified that Mufti was a

central figure in the planning of the genocide of the Jews:

 

The Grand Mufti has repeatedly suggested to the Nazi authorities -

including Hitler, von Ribbentrop and Himmler - the extermination

of European Jewry. ... The Mufti was one of the initiators of the

systematic extermination of European Jewry and had been a collaborator

and adviser of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of this plan... He

was one of Eichmann's best friends and had constantly incited him to

accelerate the extermination measures.

 

Covering for Islam's acts of genocide encourages more Islamic

genocide. Think Sudan. Congress should recognize the Armenian

genocide for what it was, and call on the Turks to stop covering up

and take responsibility for what they did. Barack Obama should do

the same thing.

 

And the media should finally tell the truth.

[Yervant1]

Genocide

06.03.2010

Ahmet Altan

 

You can find the Turkish version at:

http://www.taraf.com.tr/makale/10325.htm

 

 

Everyone is in front of their tv, watching in excitement as if it's a

national football game. What is going on? A commission of the US

Congress is voting on the `Armenian Genocide' resolution. We lose the

`game' 23-22 as a result of various lobbying activities.

 

And all hell breaks loose.

 

Comments, discussions, spewing fury at the US , questions of `will the

Incirlik base be closed down?' directed at the minister of foreign

affairs. Amongst all this hoolabaloo, my favorite comment comes from a

speaker who denounces this decision: ` Turkey is no longer a country

that can easily be humiliated.'

 

When a commission of the US Congress votes for `genocide', we are

`humiliated'. Do you know what humiliation is?

 

Humiliation is millions of people holding their breaths for the

outcome of a few votes in somebody else's parliament. That is

humiliation.

 

Humiliation is to find the result of that commission's vote of vital

importance, to feel defeated because of the vote of one

man. Humiliation is the conviction that the whole of one's national

identity depends on the decision of one commission=3B humiliation is

to have to wait the outcome of a vote in some other country's

parliament, biting one's fingernails.

 

Turkey is not humiliated because that commission approved that

resolution with a difference of one vote. Turkey is humiliated because

it itself cannot shed light on its own history, has to delegate this

matter into other hands, is frightened like hell from its own past,

has to squirm like mad in order to cover up truths.

 

The real issue is this:

 

Why is the `Armenian Genocide' a matter of discussion in American,

French and Swiss parliaments and not in the parliament of the Turkish

Republic ? Why can we, ourselves, not discuss a matter that we deem so

vital that we perceive the difference of one vote as a source of

humiliation?

 

If you cannot discuss your own problems, you deserve to be

humiliated. If you keep silent in a matter that you find so important,

you deserve to be humiliated. If you try to shut others up, you are

humiliated even more. The whole world interprets the killing of so

manyArmenians, -a number we cannot even estimate properly- as

`genocide'.

 

Genocide is a legal term. The massacre carried out by the Unionist

largely conforms to the description of that legal term. For Turks and

Armenians, the word `genocide' has become an obession. The Turks

insist that `it never was genocide' and the Armenians call anyone who

says it was not genocide `liars'.

 

Both sides spend millions of dollars to convince the world that their

viewpoint is the valid viewpoint. It is almost as if their mutual

efforts have created a `genocide sector'. Why then, can we not speak

about this incident in detail?

 

How many hundreds of thousands of Armenians did the Unionists kill?

Why? We claim `Armenians attacked us, that's why we killed

them'. Fine, but the `attacking' Armenian gangs were on the Eastern

border, what crime did hundreds of thousands of Armenians living

elsewhere in Anatolia commit, other than being Armenian?

 

Can someone be punished purely because of his ethnic origin?

 

What do you call punishing someone not because they `committed a

crime' but because they `belong to the same ethnic group as someone

who you say committed a crime'?

 

This is murder. And to tell the truth, hundreds of thousands of

murders targeting the same ethnic group does fall into the category of

`genocide'. Unionists committed heinous murders=3B the cruelty they

subjected Armenians to is beyond imagination. Why are we trying to

cover up this horrible crime, why are we trying to defend the

murderers, to disguise their crimes, why are we squirming to keep

truth buried, even at the risk of being humiliated?

 

The history of every society is tainted with crime and blood. We

cannot undo what has been done but we can show the courage to face the

truths, to discuss the reality. We can give up trying to silence the

world out of concern for incriminating the founders of the republic.

 

We can ask questions.

 

And the first question would be `how come we never read about an

incident that involves the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people

in our history lessons?' Even this reality makes the situation

`suspicious'. If you are not brave enough to face a truth that

happened ninety-five years ago, you deserve to be humiliated. If you

struggle to hide an incident that happened a century ago and base how

seventy million people relate to the world at large on a `lie', you

deserve to be humiliated.

 

No one dares humiliate brave people who are not afraid of the

truth. If you feel humiliated, you should take a hard look at yourself

and what you hide.

[Arpa]

Let me be the first to nominate ahmet alta as president of “armenia”.

Finally someone called ahmet who is not a COWARD speaks out.

On numerous occasions I have called us Armenians as “cowards” , I will not detract. WE ARE COWARDS, Yet, when it comes to who the cowardest of cowards is… Why are hamid and mehmet are so COWARDLY to even use the G word??

Main Entry: cow·ard 

Pronunciation:

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French cuard, from cue, coe tail, from Latin cauda

Date: 13th century

: one who shows disgraceful fear or timidity

— coward adjective

Look above at the dictionary definition, where it implies that the word is derived from “cue/cauda/tail” as when the cowardly dog tucks its tail between its hind legs վախկոտ շուն/cowardly dog.

Who is the COWARD? We have admitted that we have been subjected to ottoman suppression for centuries, yet those otokaks have not admitted that they had been planning our annihilation for centuries which was finally accomplished in 1915.

COWARDS! Who is more cowardly?

This;

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DcwNcgPkAXY/0.jpg

Or this mangy furkish dog;

http://www.thelensflare.com/large/armeniangampr_44644.jpghttp://www.thelensflare.com/large/armeniangampr_44644.jpghttp://www.thelensflare.com/large/armeniangampr_44644.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/40/109933775_f7670b028a.jpg

Edited March 11, 2010 by Arpa

[Yervant1]

GENOCIDE BY ANY OTHER NAME

By Owei Lakemfa

 

Vanguard

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/03/12/genocide-by-any-other-name/

March 12 2010

Nigeria

 

TURKEY, one of America's staunchest allies in the Islamic world is

furious. Its anger is turned against the United States for a vote

on March 4, 2010 by the House, Foreign Affairs Committee which

characterised the wholesale massacre of Armenian minorities as a

"genocide".

 

So angry is Turkey that it recalled its ambassador, Namik Tan

to Ankara. It had played a similar card when in 2007 an American

Congressional Committee had characterised the massacres as genocide.

 

On that occasion, then President George W. Bush had prevented the

resolution from going to the full House when Turkey threatened

to block US access to bases used for the unjust wars in Iraq and

Afghanistan. History may repeat itself as American Secretary of

State, Hilary Clinton said the Obama administration is opposed to

the resolution.

 

Ironically, Obama had in his campaign promises pledged to

characterise the massacres as genocide. But Clinton argues that:

"The circumstances have changed in very significant ways". In truth,

the Obama administration has developed cold feet. Also, Turkey is

a member of NATO and during the Cold War, the Turks allowed their

soil to be used by America in anti-Soviet Union operations. Committee

Chairman, Howard Berman argued that the vote is in order because "at

some point, every nation must come to terms with its own history. And

that is all we ask of Turkey".

 

Due to Turkey's unrestrained anger on the use of the word genocide,

only 20 countries have picked up the courage to so describe Turkey's

1915 to1918 holocaust against an helpless Armenian populace.

 

Interestingly, 42 US states also describe those crimes against humanity

as genocide. But like those who deny the German holocaust against

the Jews, the Turks deny the terrible sins of their grand fathers

against the Armenians. Turkish President Abdullah Gul thundered:

"We condemn this resolution which accuses the Turkish nation of a

crime it has not committed".

 

The fact that Turkey lives in self- denial and blackmails countries

like America, will not wipe away its historical crimes. Armenia

was made a province of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire under Selim II

(1524-1574). The Armenians were a Christian minority who were treated

as a sub- human group. At a point, they had no right to life or

property and were excluded from governance.

 

Under Sultan Abdul Hamid (1876-1909) some 300,000 Armenians were

killed. The genocide period was, however, during the Second World

War from 1914 when the Ottoman Empire joined the central powers of

Germany, Austria and Hungary, while its neighbour, Russia sided with

the Western allies. Armenia was tucked between the two countries.

 

Given the manner the Ottoman Empire had treated the Armenians and

the fact that this race also existed across the border in Russia, the

Turks did not trust them. On April 24, 1915, Interior Minister, Talat

***** accused the Armenians of trying " to gain an administrative

autonomy" and ordered the arrest of Armenian intellectuals and

community leaders. On that day, about 250 of them were detained in

Constantinople.

 

Armenians in the army were disarmed and put on labour duties before

many were executed. Having uprooted the intellectuals, community

leaders and Armenians in the army, the government fell on the rest

of the populace . On May 29, 1915,it passed the "Temporary Law of

Deportation" which authorised the deportation of any one "considered

a threat to national security". Under this law, the Armenian populace

was forced from their homes and driven like herds of cattle towards

the desert of what today is Syria. Mainly on foot, the deportees

unlike cows were not provided with food, water or resting place. So

they were death marches.

 

During the marches, the Turks unleashed death squads on the Armenians

putting many to death by the sword while rape was a legal weapon. Many

were massacred or burnt right in their homes or villages while

those who survived the marches were in many cases executed, burnt or

decapitated. The remnants fled across the globe or into neighbouring

countries. Many who survived never returned to their ancestral homes.

 

The New York Times reported in August 1915 that: "The roads to the

Euphrates are sewn with corpses of exiles and those who survive are

doomed to certain death. It is a plan to exterminate the whole of

the Armenian people". Oscar S. Heizer, the American Consul at the

time reported that: "Many of the (Armenian) children were loaded into

boats and taken into sea and thrown overboard". The Italian Consul,

Giacomo Gorrini said: "I saw thousands of innocent women and children

placed in boats which were capsized in the Black Sea".

 

The then American Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgewthau,

Sr wrote in his memoirs: "When the Turkish authorities gave the orders

for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to

a whole race; they understood this well, and, in their conversations

with me, they made no attempt to conceal the fact".

 

The German Military Attache, Major General Otto Von Lossow reported

that the Turks have embarked upon the "total elimination of the

Armenians...Talaat's government wants to destroy all Armenians,

not just in Turkey but also outside Turkey".

 

Some 1.5 million Armenians were wiped out by the Turks in what became

the world's first well documented case of holocaust. The crimes were

so horrendous that there were no words strong enough to describe

them. So a law professor, Raphael Lemkin coined the word "genocide"

in 1943. Part of Turkey's reasoning is that the word did not exist

back in 1915, so it cannot be used retroactively to describe the

Armenian massacres. For this, it is ready to go to war with whoever

or whichever country adopts the word. Hence its fury against America.

 

If the world had stood against the Armenian genocide , it might have

been saved the Jewish genocide in the 1940s which claimed over six

million lives. The Germans had simply copied the Turks. Let us stand

against Turkey's fury today.

[Yervant1]

TURKEY NEEDS TO COME TO GRIPS WITH ITS BLOODY PAST

 

Daily Camera

http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_14648617

March 12 2010

Colorado

 

An estimated 1.5 million ethnic Armenians were massacred in the final

throes of the Ottoman empire. That bloodbath, carried out by the Turks

between 1915 and 1918, was genocide, and should be called by that

name. In approving a nonbinding resolution to make this the official

U.S. position, Chairman Howard L. Berman, D-Calif., and other members

of the House Foreign Affairs Committee were responding to constituent

demands that the United States take a moral stand. Now, Congress and

the Obama administration must decide whether such a symbolic act also

serves the strategic interests of the United States. For the moment,

just like Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton before him,

Barack Obama appears to be saying no.

 

It is important for the United States to stand for historical truth on

the Armenian slaughter. Even more important is that Turks themselves

come to terms with their brutal history. From Germany to South Africa

to Argentina, there are many examples of countries that have confronted

their violent pasts honestly.

 

Instead, Turkey recalled its ambassador for consultations after the

23-22 House committee vote, saying the resolution offends the country's

honor and warning of negative consequences for U.S.-Turkish relations,

as well as for the ratification of agreements to normalize ties with

the Republic of Armenia. A more productive approach would be for the

Turks and Armenians to adopt the protocols hammered out last year to

establish diplomatic relations and reopen their shared border.

 

The U.S. vote must not become a pretext for further stalling.

 

During the 2008 campaign, Obama was unequivocal in his support for

labeling the killings a genocide. As president, however, he has the

unenviable task of weighing that position against the need for Turkey's

support in Afghanistan, in stabilizing Iraq and for United Nations

sanctions against Iran. Turkey is the only Muslim country in NATO,

and it currently sits on the U.N. Security Council.

 

We understand that any U.S. administration must nurture the vital

strategic alliance with Turkey. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham

Clinton, who coaxed Turkey and Armenia into signing the protocols last

year, noted that the agreement established a commission to examine

their bloody history and argued that "it is not for any other country

to determine how two countries resolve matters between them." That's

true, but we also understand Armenian fears that such a commission

could whitewash history.

 

The goal is Turkish and Armenian reconciliation, putting to rest the

ghosts of the past. That is in the U.S. interest as well as that of

both peoples. For it to happen, the onus is on Turkey to acknowledge

the Armenian genocide.

[Yervant1]

Today's Zaman, Turkey

March 14 2010

 

Turkey blames everybody but itself

 

AMANDA PAUL a.paul@todayszaman.com Columnists

 

 

If there was an award for passing the buck and blaming others, Turkey

would surely be near the top of the nominee list. It really never

ceases to amaze just how often Turkey does this. These days, US

President Barack Obama has been on the receiving end of Turkey's

wrath, with Ankara accusing Washington of having no strategic vision

and of failing to take the necessary steps to prevent the approval of

the Armenian `genocide' resolution by the US House Foreign Relations

Committee last week. I sometimes wonder who is the superpower, the US

or Turkey? In any case, between now and April 24, when Obama delivers

his annual message, Turkey will be obsessed. It is really sad that we

have to witness this scene over and over again. Turkey's criticism has

been ever harsher this year, and Ankara seems to be expecting Obama to

resolve this issue once and for all. If he does not, well, as Foreign

Minister DavutoÄ?lu has threatened, strategic ties may go adrift --

meaning that Turkey will develop even closer ties with the Russians,

Iranians, Africans, South Americans, etc., with Turkey possibly

becoming an increasingly unreliable partner for the West. With the

ambassador already recalled and State Minister Zafer Ã?aÄ?layan's visit

cancelled, Turkey is really piling on the pressure. Ã?aÄ?layan's visit

was supposed to develop further economic ties with the US under a

model partnership framework suggested by Obama. With Prime Minister

ErdoÄ?an due to visit Washington in April, what will happen next is

anybody's guess, but I would expect once we get into May the rocky sea

will calm down again.

I don't believe Obama can make the genocide issue disappear as Turkey

requests. In fact, the genocide issue is not going to go away in the

US or anywhere else, with the Swedish parliament narrowly approving a

resolution last Thursday recognizing the 1915 mass killing of

Armenians in Turkey as genocide and prompting the Turkish government

to recall its ambassador there, too, in protest. While Foreign

Minister Carl Bildt said he regretted the decision because it would

serve as another blow to Turkey's reconciliation with Armenia, the

fact is that Turkey could have moved the process forward months ago

but preferred not to. So now they blame the US, the Swedes and the

Armenians. In fact, anybody but themselves. If Turkey believed

reconciliation with Armenia would make the genocide issue go away,

then they were and are fooling themselves. As long as there is an

Armenian diaspora on this planet, they will continue to push

everywhere they can for recognition of the genocide, no matter how

many historic commissions or rapprochements there are. The genocide

issue is their life's cause.

 

In addition, the Jan. 12 ruling by the Armenian Constitutional Court

resulted in Turkey questioning whether Armenia remains committed to

their promise to ratify the two protocols for the normalization of

relations with Turkey. Perhaps Ankara would do well to take a good

look in the mirror. It is Turkey more than any other entity that is

responsible for the difficulty in the current reconciliation. Turkey

has crippled the process by insisting on a parallel process on the

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which is clearly not going to happen any

time soon. And here again Turkey blames Armenia for the lack of

progress when in fact Armenia is no more to blame than Azerbaijan.

 

Turkey is well aware that the process is in danger of failing and is

looking everywhere it can to find others to blame. Probably it would

please Ankara no end if Armenia were to announce that it was fed up

with Turkey's imposed Karabakh preconditions and withdraw its

signature from the protocols -- as they have threatened to do. This

would give Turkey the perfect scapegoat for the failure of the

process. If I were sitting in Yerevan, I would do precisely the

opposite. I would not withdraw the signature; rather, I would take the

initiative and have the protocols ratified in the Armenian parliament

as soon as possible.

 

And of course the blame game is not simply limited to this issue; it

is alive and kicking on many others, too. On Cyprus Turkey always

claims to be driving forward a solution and continues to deny any

wrongdoing in the past rather continuing to state that its role in the

Cyprus conflict was to bring peace to the island and placing the blame

elsewhere for the continued division. It is the same when it comes to

the membership negotiations with the EU. Blame for the stagnation of

the talks always lies at the feet of the EU. But this approach should

come as no big surprise given the fact that many Turks are simply

unable to accept or acknowledged that their country, and the Ottoman

Empire before it, has ever behaved in a way that was less than

perfect. They are unable to deal with the past and have trouble

acknowledging that sometimes Turkey does make mistakes. Rather they

prefer to point the finger at others.