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FRANCE SACRIFICING FREE THOUGHT FOR ARMENIAN VOTES
TDN editorial by Yusuf KANLI
Turkish Daily News
Oct 9 2006
The French must see that they will not only lose Turkey, but at
the same time they will as well be sacrificing free thought just
to appease and get votes of a small Armenian minority in the coming
presidential elections
Neither with nationalistic slogans and declaring the issue a taboo
nor with imposing economic and cultural sanctions against countries
helping out Armenians to rewrite history with political statements
and parliamentary resolutions can we overcome the mounting pressure
demanding this country to acknowledge the 1915-1917 killings of the
Armenian population of this land as a "genocide.
"We can say that the French, Dutch, Danish or other European nations
lending support to the Armenian "genocide" claims are nothing but
an effort to find a way of forgetting their own "contributions" to
the suffering of not only the Armenians but other ethnic communities
of the dissolving Ottoman Empire, as well as how they collaborated
with Nazi Germany to butcher the Jews, Gypsies and other "unwanted"
peoples, or how they mercilessly staged an act of genocide in Algeria
and elsewhere as they were forced out of their colonies and in a
way to "cleanse the blood on their own hands" by demonstrating how
sensitive they are now on the issue of what might have happened to
the Armenians in the first quarter of last century.
We may as well try to provide an explanation that Russians were
attacking our territory, Armenians were collaborating with the enemy,
their forced resettlement had become an absolute necessity for national
defense, there was a civil war and perhaps more Turks (and Kurds) than
Armenians perished because of the prevailing conditions of the time, as
well as from epidemics and such. Still, we cannot say nothing happened
to the Ottoman Armenian population and all the claims are just fiction.
I was talking with a survivor of the 1915-17 events in Yerevan in
2001. He was a man in his early 90s. That is he was a young boy at
the time all those troubles were being staged on our land. "We fought
a war with the Turks. We lost it, they won it. We killed and got
killed. Today, we either decide to bury this in history and continue
the fight that we lost on the battle field, or look to creating a
common future together," he had said stressing that he hoped to "see"
one day before he dies his home city Erzurum once again.
His advice, though very precious for me, unfortunately cannot become
reality until the Armenian claims are resolved through a detailed
research into the issue by historians and both the Armenians and Turks
acknowledge their share in the massive suffering that was lived by our
peoples during those years. The suggestion of Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdoðan, thus, for the creation of a committee of scientists
from Turkey, Armenia and other states, which will work under the
auspices of the U.N., has to be considered very seriously.
The Turkish prime minister has as well declared that Turkey would
accept and abide with whatever the outcome of that commission's work
would be.
Though "genocide" terminology only became part of international
law in 1952 and it cannot be applied retrospectively, the Erdoðan
was clear in his declaration that Turkey would accept whatever the
conclusion of the commission of historians would be. While this
must have been taken by Armenia as a historic opportunity to bring
clarification to what indeed happened in the first quarter of the
last century and bring an end to this hostility, which indeed has
been more harmful to landlocked Armenia than Turkey, unfortunately
the Yerevan administration has turned this golden opportunity down
with the back of its hand. Why? Because of the support they receive
to their unsubstantiated claims from politicians in France, Holland
and elsewhere who have been trying to win votes of the local Armenian
minorities buy paying lip service to their emotional allegations.
Legislating laws describing the 1915-17 events as "genocide" are
nothing but trying to rewrite history with political considerations.
It's nothing new, Adolf Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union had
attempted to do the same thing as well. Rewriting history to serve
their political aims did not help either. It will not serve anyone
today either. However, what is more dangerous and indeed threatening is
the restrictions wanted to be imposed on freedom of expression with the
pretext of acting in solidarity with the Armenians. Criminalization of
"genocide denial" risking five years in prison and a hefty fine, or
forcing candidates to withdraw their candidacy or succumb to the claims
cannot and should not be considered as signs of a promising future
for Europe that we believe is founded on free thought and reason.
The impact of the cancellation of lucrative gigantic Turkish contracts
will perhaps hurt French and Dutch companies. But, will France arrest
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, or thousands of Turks who
might pour into France after the Thursday vote to declare publicly
their opposition to criminalization of genocide denial?
The French must see that they will not lose only Turkey, but at
the same time they will as well be sacrificing free thought just
to appease and get votes of a small Armenian minority in the coming
presidential elections.
--Boundary_(ID_+iIOvTm0Smy8zOQ5pMSUBg) --
TDN editorial by Yusuf KANLI
Turkish Daily News
Oct 9 2006
The French must see that they will not only lose Turkey, but at
the same time they will as well be sacrificing free thought just
to appease and get votes of a small Armenian minority in the coming
presidential elections
Neither with nationalistic slogans and declaring the issue a taboo
nor with imposing economic and cultural sanctions against countries
helping out Armenians to rewrite history with political statements
and parliamentary resolutions can we overcome the mounting pressure
demanding this country to acknowledge the 1915-1917 killings of the
Armenian population of this land as a "genocide.
"We can say that the French, Dutch, Danish or other European nations
lending support to the Armenian "genocide" claims are nothing but
an effort to find a way of forgetting their own "contributions" to
the suffering of not only the Armenians but other ethnic communities
of the dissolving Ottoman Empire, as well as how they collaborated
with Nazi Germany to butcher the Jews, Gypsies and other "unwanted"
peoples, or how they mercilessly staged an act of genocide in Algeria
and elsewhere as they were forced out of their colonies and in a
way to "cleanse the blood on their own hands" by demonstrating how
sensitive they are now on the issue of what might have happened to
the Armenians in the first quarter of last century.
We may as well try to provide an explanation that Russians were
attacking our territory, Armenians were collaborating with the enemy,
their forced resettlement had become an absolute necessity for national
defense, there was a civil war and perhaps more Turks (and Kurds) than
Armenians perished because of the prevailing conditions of the time, as
well as from epidemics and such. Still, we cannot say nothing happened
to the Ottoman Armenian population and all the claims are just fiction.
I was talking with a survivor of the 1915-17 events in Yerevan in
2001. He was a man in his early 90s. That is he was a young boy at
the time all those troubles were being staged on our land. "We fought
a war with the Turks. We lost it, they won it. We killed and got
killed. Today, we either decide to bury this in history and continue
the fight that we lost on the battle field, or look to creating a
common future together," he had said stressing that he hoped to "see"
one day before he dies his home city Erzurum once again.
His advice, though very precious for me, unfortunately cannot become
reality until the Armenian claims are resolved through a detailed
research into the issue by historians and both the Armenians and Turks
acknowledge their share in the massive suffering that was lived by our
peoples during those years. The suggestion of Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdoðan, thus, for the creation of a committee of scientists
from Turkey, Armenia and other states, which will work under the
auspices of the U.N., has to be considered very seriously.
The Turkish prime minister has as well declared that Turkey would
accept and abide with whatever the outcome of that commission's work
would be.
Though "genocide" terminology only became part of international
law in 1952 and it cannot be applied retrospectively, the Erdoðan
was clear in his declaration that Turkey would accept whatever the
conclusion of the commission of historians would be. While this
must have been taken by Armenia as a historic opportunity to bring
clarification to what indeed happened in the first quarter of the
last century and bring an end to this hostility, which indeed has
been more harmful to landlocked Armenia than Turkey, unfortunately
the Yerevan administration has turned this golden opportunity down
with the back of its hand. Why? Because of the support they receive
to their unsubstantiated claims from politicians in France, Holland
and elsewhere who have been trying to win votes of the local Armenian
minorities buy paying lip service to their emotional allegations.
Legislating laws describing the 1915-17 events as "genocide" are
nothing but trying to rewrite history with political considerations.
It's nothing new, Adolf Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union had
attempted to do the same thing as well. Rewriting history to serve
their political aims did not help either. It will not serve anyone
today either. However, what is more dangerous and indeed threatening is
the restrictions wanted to be imposed on freedom of expression with the
pretext of acting in solidarity with the Armenians. Criminalization of
"genocide denial" risking five years in prison and a hefty fine, or
forcing candidates to withdraw their candidacy or succumb to the claims
cannot and should not be considered as signs of a promising future
for Europe that we believe is founded on free thought and reason.
The impact of the cancellation of lucrative gigantic Turkish contracts
will perhaps hurt French and Dutch companies. But, will France arrest
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, or thousands of Turks who
might pour into France after the Thursday vote to declare publicly
their opposition to criminalization of genocide denial?
The French must see that they will not lose only Turkey, but at
the same time they will as well be sacrificing free thought just
to appease and get votes of a small Armenian minority in the coming
presidential elections.
--Boundary_(ID_+iIOvTm0Smy8zOQ5pMSUBg) --