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MasterCard Endures Turks' Wrath For Genocide Reference

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  • MasterCard Endures Turks' Wrath For Genocide Reference

    MASTERCARD ENDURES TURKS' WRATH FOR GENOCIDE REFERENCE

    Asbarez
    Wednesday, December 8th, 2010
    LOS ANGELES

    The US Consulate General in Istanbul was forced to mediate when in
    2005 Turkish authorities accused MasterCard of "Insulting Turkishness"
    after the credit giant published a visitor's guide to Istanbul, in
    which it made references to Kurdish aspirations for independence and
    the Armenian Genocide, newly-published State Department cables leaked
    by WikiLeaks revealed.

    MasterCard, which was a corporate sponsor of the UEFA Champions
    League Cup Final between Istanbul and Liverpool, published a 290-page
    "Lonely Planet" guide on the host city and distributed it to visiting
    athletes and fans. In the guide, the author, an Istanbul-based
    British journalist depicted Istanbul as a city with an "Eastern"
    mentality and made references to the Kurds and Armenians. It's offices
    received death threats and protests and, as a result, forced to close
    to protect its employees.

    "The breezy narrative noted that 'Ataturk banned any expression of
    Kurdishness in an attempt at assimilation,' adding that major battles
    and atrocities followed in the 1920s and 1930s, with the deaths of
    more than 30,000 coming since 1984," reported the cable written by
    David Arnett, the then US Consul General in Istanbul.

    "On the equally sensitive Armenian issue, the guide noted that
    while most Armenians had remained loyal to the Ottoman Empire,
    some had rebelled," explained Arnett in his cable, adding that the
    so-called rebellion "set off a powerful anti-Armenian backlash and the
    'widespread massacre of innocent Armenians in Istanbul and elsewhere.'

    On June 5, 2005, the Hurriyet Daily News reported that "MasterCard
    Europe's CEO Alexander Labak sent a letter of apology to the Turkish
    Ministry of Culture and Tourism over the guide, which the company
    claims was mostly written by the Lonely Planet UK."

    "Given the sensitivities that exist here, inclusion of any material
    on topics such as Turkey's minority policy or the Armenian tragedy
    in a sporting guide was in retrospect a serious mistake. The harsh,
    instinctive reaction, however, shows the heightened sensitivities
    and hair-trigger nature of public discourse here since the December
    17th EU decision [Asbaerz: The 2004 decision by the European Council
    decision to begin talks of Turkey's membership in EU]. Post RSO has
    reached out to Mastercard, which is an active member of the OSAC
    Advisory Council, to ensure that they are satisfied with the police
    response they have received and to provide assistance if needed.

    Ironically, MasterCard announced on Monday that it would no longer
    process payments to WikiLeaks and on Wednesday its Web site was
    attacked by "Operation Payback," a group that supports and protests
    the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.




    From: A. Papazian
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