Turkish Genocide

[#juan]

Turkey pulls envoys to Canada, France
Last Updated Mon, 08 May 2006 10:27:51 EDT
CBC News

Turkey has recalled its ambassadors to Canada and France to protest moves by the governments of those two countries to describe the mass killings of Armenians 90 years ago as genocide.



The diplomatic move, expected to last "for a short time for consultations over the latest developments about the baseless allegations of Armenian genocide," was announced Monday.

The envoy to Ottawa, Aydemir Erman, is already back in Ankara, a Turkish government official told CBC News.

* FROM APRIL 22, 2004: Turkey denounces Armenian genocide vote in Commons

Countries around the world have been putting pressure on Turkey's government to acknowledge what happened between 1915 and 1923, when an estimated 1.5 million Armenians died.

Armenians have insisted their people were systematically killed during and after the First World War as the Ottoman Empire tried to quell the population in eastern Turkey.

Turkish rulers have long insisted that the death count was much lower, and that the deaths were the result of an uprising by Armenian militants as opposed to a government eradication campaign.

On April 21, Prime Minister Stephen Harper repeated his support for past House of Commons and Senate votes that the deaths should be recognized as genocide.

"I and my party supported those resolutions and continue to recognize them today," Harper said.

For its part, France is considering draft legislation that would make it illegal to deny the Armenian deaths were a result of genocide.

French politicians have already voted to recognize the killings as genocide.

The international campaign to press Turkey to acknowledge what happened nine decades ago comes as the country seeks entry to the European Union.

Among other things, Turkey must agree to abide by European Union standards when it comes to human rights and justice – areas in which its government continues to attract criticism.

Anybody familiar with this story? I have read some pretty gory stories about this event. Armanians have been telling this story for years, and the Turks have recently been denying it. Comments?

 

[I think not]

http://www.armenian-genocide.org/

 

[sanch]

The Armenian charges of genocide against the Turkish government should be very familiar to Canadians I would think. There were a number of attacks in Ottawa by a group calling itself the Armenian Secret Army.

http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-71-2157-13129-10/on_this_day/conflict_war/twt

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980DE7DB1339F933A25757C0A964948260

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Yeah, I've heard that story too, many years ago, and often encountered references to it. It was my mother who told me originally, while explaining to my youthful curiosity the origins of some odd-sounding names among my father's professional colleagues. They were Armenians, the descendants of refugees from the Ottoman Turks' "ethnic cleansing." I was under the impression that it was pretty much common knowledge, a well-established historical fact. Winston Churchill referred to it as a holocaust, long before The Holocaust, and he'd have been in a position to know.

And of course it's not hard to imagine reasons why the Turkish government would want to deny it. Nobody wants to get tarred with that kind of thing.

 

[#juan]

There is one thing.

The Turks are pushing to be admitted into the European Union. The Europeans want Turkey to own up to the genocide. Part of the problem is that this is the same government that has been denying that there ever was any genocide. It's going to take some masterful diplomacy to get around this one.

 

[HonestAbe]

Turkey is a confused country. After an ex-greek-girlfriend of mine told me about what is commonly refered to as the Turkish Holocaust, I spent a good amount of time researching it. It wasn't just the Armenians who the Turks wanted to get rid of, but Greeks, Kurds, and anyone else who wasn't Turkish. The Holocaust includes many other "Racial Cleansing" attempts that date back to the end of the first millenia.

Another thing about Turkey, is that they are very discriminatory towards women. I read that 60% of women in the country are sexually assaulted each year. Turkey has problems that are more serious than the Turkish Holocaust. However, I have heard that the reason no one knows about it, is because they spend a lot of money trying to cover the Holocaust up.

 

[tay]

And on and on it goes.............


Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its far-right allies at the Turkish Parliament agreed to pass a resolution submitted Friday that would ban the use of the word 'Kurdistan' by lawmakers in Parliament.

In the draft resolution on parliamentary procedure written by the AKP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), lawmakers saying phrases such as "Kurdistan provinces," "the capital of Kurdistan Amed" would be fined.

Amed is an ancient name for the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, often used by Kurdish nationalist political groups including the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Turkey's second-largest opposition block in Parliament.

Kurdistan24's Turkish language service reported that both parties reached an agreement on the 13-articles-long bill Thursday after a fortnight's work.

Uttering the Kurdish homeland's name was in contravention with the first four unalterable articles of the constitution that define the characteristics of a "unified" Turkish state.

On top of a fine, the Parliament's speaker could temporarily oust lawmakers who speak the word 'Kurdistan.'

The bill also banned terms such as "genocide" in relation to the 1915 systematic extermination and deportation of the Armenian people by the Ottoman government, or "massacre" when referring to the numerous military campaigns against the Kurds since the beginning of the 20th century.

Turkish bureaucracy and the public remain overly sensitive to the word "Kurdistan," and the tri-colored Kurdistan flag, which in some cases have readily been associated with "treason and terrorism."

Last January, HDP lawmaker Sibel Yigitalp's utterance of the word "Kurdistan" caused an uproar and a heated debate in Parliament.
There have been cases of people getting arrested for wearing Kurdistan t-shirts, activists detained for waving Kurdistan flags and students interrogated for tweeting a picture of the flag.

Notably, Turkey’s Presidency, Prime Ministry, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs websites, as well as the government-run Anadolu Agency euphemistically refer to the Kurdistan Region as “the Kurdish Regional Administration of Iraq.”

Another topic the AKP and MHP agreed on was in regard to elected MPs who refrain from reading the oath lawmakers have to take after being elected.

MPs who do not fully read the oath would not be paid their salary and would be stripped of the privileges they enjoy.
There is currently one lawmaker, Leyla Zana of the HDP in that situation.

Zana altered the phrase "the Turkish nation" to "the nation of Turkey" while taking her oath during the 2015 Parliamentary opening ceremony, adding the Kurdish slogan "Bijî Aştî," which means "long live peace."

The speaker deemed her oath null, and she has not been in Parliament since.

http://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/ad5632af-652d-4aa6-aaa8-e6531115c7a8

 

[Bar Sinister]

The Turks keep on shooting themselves in the foot regarding the EU. They desperately want in as the first Muslim EU nation, but continually throw roadblocks in their own path by electing conservative Muslims and cracking down on human rights.

 

[tay]

Turkey is truly part of the mess in the region. And how does Turkey get invited to the G20.......? Some are getting excited that ISIS may be out of Mosul but, that is just one city and just one faction in the area. And now Qatar has become enemy #1 with the USA/Saudi's because of a LNG pipeline and their lack of adherence to Whabbism.............

President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday reaffirmed Turkey's support for Qatar in its dispute with four other Arab states, saying their demands against the tiny Gulf nation were unacceptable.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt accuse Qatar of supporting terrorism and allying with regional foe Iran, charges Doha denies, and have cut diplomatic and commercial ties.

Among their demands is for Qatar to end an accord under which Turkey maintains a military base in the Gulf state.

"We remain loyal to our agreement with Qatar. If it requests us to leave, we will not stay where we are not wanted," he said through an interpreter, adding there had been no such request.

Turkey, the most powerful regional country to stand by Qatar, has sent 100 cargo planes with supplies since its neighbors cut air and sea links. It has also rushed through legislation to send more troops to the military base in Doha.

Two contingents of Turkish troops with columns of armored vehicles have arrived since the crisis erupted on June 5.

Erdogan, who was speaking ahead of the G20 leaders summit in Hamburg later this week, also took a swipe at the United States saying its arming of "terrorist" Kurdish groups would backfire and that it would be impossible for Washington to recover heavy weapons as it has promised to do so.

He also said Ankara was ready to carry out ground operations in northern Syria against Kurdish forces if it felt threatened.

Elsewhere in Syria, Erdogan said he was optimistic on the implementation of de-escalation zones that are under discussion in the Kazakh capital Astana with Russia and Iran. He said he would discuss the next steps with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the G20 summit in Germany.

Erdogan added that he hoped the Astana talks would pave the way for political negotiations under U.N. auspices in Geneva, but said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had no future in the country. Russia and Iran are both allies of Assad.

"Of course he has to leave," Erdogan said. "Those who want Assad to remain are still going after their interests in Syria."

Turkey's Erdogan says loyal to Qatar, Arab states' demands unacceptable | Reuters