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CBC News Canada
Sept 21 2012
Diplomat memorial stirs controversy
CBC News
A new monument dedicated to fallen diplomats is stirring up
controversy for its Turkish connections.
The bowl-shaped sculpture of wood and metal was unveiled Thursday at
the corner of Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway and Island Park Drive.
It features more than 1,000 hand-crafted silver plates from Turkey and
it's located close to where Turkish diplomat Atilla Altikat was
assassinated 30 years ago. Altikat was shot to death while he was
stopped at a red light on the parkway.
No arrests have ever been made in the case, but an Armenian terrorist
group claimed responsibility.
The assassination was one of three attacks in the 1980s that targeted
Turkish diplomats in Ottawa.
But the head of the Armenian National Committee in Ottawa, Michael
Iskedjian, is upset about the monument.
"It's a hypocritical way of deflecting what Turkey does as a state
that abuses human rights, by focusing on one person, one act, that
happened 30 years ago," he said.
The conflict between Armenians and Turks goes back nearly 100 years to
the First World War.
An estimated 1.5 million Armenians died in what the Canadian
government and others recognize as a genocide at the hands of the
Ottoman Turks.
To this day Turkey denies the genocide, saying there was no systematic
campaign to kill Armenians.
Ozay Mehmet speaks for the Council of Turkish Canadians.
"I hope that they get over it," Mehmet said. "We as Turkish Canadians
are open and waiting and ready for reconciliation here in Canada."
Iskedjian said reconciliation will come once Turkey acknowledges the genocide.
"Only then will there be reconciliation," he said.
View the news video at
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/09/21/ottawa-diplomats-memorial-controversy.html
Sept 21 2012
Diplomat memorial stirs controversy
CBC News
A new monument dedicated to fallen diplomats is stirring up
controversy for its Turkish connections.
The bowl-shaped sculpture of wood and metal was unveiled Thursday at
the corner of Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway and Island Park Drive.
It features more than 1,000 hand-crafted silver plates from Turkey and
it's located close to where Turkish diplomat Atilla Altikat was
assassinated 30 years ago. Altikat was shot to death while he was
stopped at a red light on the parkway.
No arrests have ever been made in the case, but an Armenian terrorist
group claimed responsibility.
The assassination was one of three attacks in the 1980s that targeted
Turkish diplomats in Ottawa.
But the head of the Armenian National Committee in Ottawa, Michael
Iskedjian, is upset about the monument.
"It's a hypocritical way of deflecting what Turkey does as a state
that abuses human rights, by focusing on one person, one act, that
happened 30 years ago," he said.
The conflict between Armenians and Turks goes back nearly 100 years to
the First World War.
An estimated 1.5 million Armenians died in what the Canadian
government and others recognize as a genocide at the hands of the
Ottoman Turks.
To this day Turkey denies the genocide, saying there was no systematic
campaign to kill Armenians.
Ozay Mehmet speaks for the Council of Turkish Canadians.
"I hope that they get over it," Mehmet said. "We as Turkish Canadians
are open and waiting and ready for reconciliation here in Canada."
Iskedjian said reconciliation will come once Turkey acknowledges the genocide.
"Only then will there be reconciliation," he said.
View the news video at
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/09/21/ottawa-diplomats-memorial-controversy.html