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ANKARA: Of Sioux And Armenians

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  • ANKARA: Of Sioux And Armenians

    OF SIOUX AND ARMENIANS

    Hurriyet
    http://www.hurriyetdailynews.c om/n.php?n=yusuf-kanli-2010-03-07
    March 7 2010
    Turkey

    What if the Turkish Parliament convened and passed a decision
    recommending President Abdullah Gul make a statement on the anniversary
    of the Nov. 5, 1862, Minnesota court-martialing of 303 Santee Sioux,
    who were denied the right to defense, had no attorneys or witnesses
    and were summarily "sentenced" to death by hanging to condemn the
    brutal American genocide of the Sioux people?

    Or, what if not the day they were sentenced to death, but the
    anniversary of the Dec. 26, 1862, Abraham Lincoln-ordered hangings of
    38 Santee Sioux were decided by the Turkish Parliament to be marked
    as the "Men's Worst Brutality to Men Day"?

    With some work, many such heinous anniversary dates can be found
    if the Turkish Parliament is to serve like a history commission
    to commemorate the sad events in the history of the "white men"
    in the Americas, or the French in Algeria, or the British, Dutch,
    Portuguese, Spaniards, Germans in some corners of the world or as a
    court to condemn those nations what happened in previous centuries.

    What purpose such "creative" and "revanchist" and rather officious
    undertakings will serve other than spoiling Turkey's relations with
    those countries? Will such a move by the Turkish Parliament help
    diffuse the sorrow those tragedies created several centuries ago or
    add fresh pains to old wounds?

    The mockery at the American House of Representatives Foreign
    Relations Committee will of course have some long-term repercussions
    on Turkish-American relations not just because the committee has
    accused the Ottoman Turkey of undertaking genocide against its Armenian
    population, but more so because of the farcical attitude of committee
    chairman Howard Benson who stretched to the maximum his powers as
    committee chairman, worked like an activist and garnered a sufficient
    number of representatives to adopt the genocide draft.

    No one can deny the immense sufferings the Armenian, as well as
    the Arab, Kurdish and Turkish peoples of this land suffered in
    the dissolution period of the Ottoman Empire. No one can deny the
    atmosphere of civil war in the decaying empire between ethnic groups,
    the vandalism of armed gangs on settlements belonging to other
    ethnicities. The forced resettlement decision of the then-Ottoman
    government of the Armenian population collaborating with the enemy
    Russian forces produced some very sad unforeseen consequences producing
    immense human suffering.

    Identifying who killed more, or who was more brutal toward the others
    will not help soothe the immense pain the people of Anatolia were
    subjected to during those terrible years. Will political exploitation
    of history with one-sided and mostly unverified claims that accuse
    the Turkish nation of undertaking a genocide against the Armenian
    population of Anatolia help any cause other than scratching old
    wounds and creating fresh enmities that are definitely not conducive
    to efforts aimed normalizing relations between Ankara and Yerevan?

    Naturally, the government and the opposition in Turkey are crying of
    foul play, that Turkey is subjected to an unacceptable accusation and
    that Turkey will not bow to pressure. Listen but don't believe. That
    has been the nature of Turkish-American relations.

    Whenever the U.S. wants Turkey to deliver some services, this country
    comes under some pressure and most of the time eventually agrees to
    deliver whatever Washington demands. There are some exceptions like
    the March 1, 2003, parliamentary refusal to allow the U.S. to open
    a second front in the Iraq War through Turkish territory, but this
    country has paid the price of that refusal in many ways since then.

    Turkey's importance for the U.S. designs in Iraq, Afghanistan, or in
    the Caucasus or as regards to energy lines has not diminished but been
    enhanced. Now, Ankara will come under intense pressure to deliver in
    many areas to the U.S. so that the draft doesn't go to the House floor,
    or even if it does go there, that it isn't adopted. For example, it
    is likely that the U.S. administration will start telling tomorrow
    that it should get the protocols with Armenia approved by Parliament
    and the border gates with Armenia opened.

    Turkey should make a thorough assessment of where its interests
    indeed are. Should we scrap the Armenian protocols or go through the
    processing of the Armenian protocols, block a genocide resolution
    adopted by the House and force Washington to use its leverage on
    Yerevan to get out of Nogorno-Karabakh? Which is more rational and
    best serves Turkey's interests?
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