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STUNG BY POPE'S REMARKS ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE, TURKISH MINISTER INSULTS ARGENTINA
New York Times
April 14 2015
APRIL 13, 2015
By ROBERT MACKEY
Turkish officials continued to vent their fury at Pope Francis on
Monday, one day after he called the mass killing of Armenians a century
ago "the first genocide of the 20th century," at a commemorative mass
at the Vatican.
The latest outraged response came from Volkan Bozkir, Turkey's
minister for European affairs, who significantly upped the ante on
his colleagues by suggesting that Argentines as a whole, and not
just the pope, had been brainwashed by rich and powerful Armenians
in their midst.
In remarks broadcast on national television, Mr. Bozkir began by
reminding reporters that Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in
Buenos Aires in 1936, is "an Argentine." Mr. Bozkir then hinted that
the country has a dark past of its own. "Argentina was a country that
welcomed the leading executors of the Jewish Holocaust, Nazi torturers,
with open arms," he said.
Mr. Bozkir then sought to provide an explanation for where Argentines
might have gotten the idea that the 1.5 million Armenians killed
between 1915 and 1923 in the last days of the Ottoman Empire had been
slaughtered intentionally.
"In Argentina," Mr. Bozkir asserted, "the Armenian diaspora controls
the media and business." The minister provided no evidence for his
assertion and was not asked for any. (One prominent member of the
Armenian diaspora in Argentina, Eduardo Eurnekian, is a billionaire
who did once have significant media holdings, but he sold them two
decades ago, according to Forbes.)
Argentina, which is home of the largest community of Armenians in
South America, more than 100,000, angered the Turks in 2006 by
adopting legislation that formally recognized April 24 as a day
"in commemoration of the Armenian Genocide."
Turkey's government has acknowledged that atrocities were committed
during the period but fiercely opposes the characterization that the
killing of Armenians was systematic and intentional.
"The 1915 events took place during World War I when a portion of
the Armenian population living in the Ottoman Empire sided with the
invading Russians and revolted against the empire," the Turkish news
agency Anadolu reported on Monday. "The Ottoman Empire relocated
Armenians in eastern Anatolia following the revolts and there were
Armenian casualties during the relocation process," the report
continued.
In 2002, the Argentine journalist Uki Goñi revealed in his book,
"The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Peron's Argentina," that
Juan Peron's postwar government had clandestinely helped Nazi war
criminals flee there at the end of World War II. Using documents from
European archives, Mr. Goñi showed that the Vatican, Swiss authorities
and the Red Cross had played key roles in the escape to Argentina of
Nazis including Adolf Eichmann, Dr. Josef Mengele and Klaus Barbie,
as well as dozens of French, Belgian, Italian, Croatian and Slovak
fascists, many of them Nazi collaborators.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/world/americas/stung-by-popes-remarks-on-armenian-genocide-turkish-minister-insults-argentina.html?_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/world/americas/stung-by-popes-remarks-on-armenian-genocide-turkish-minister-insults-argentina.html?_r=0
From: Baghdasarian
New York Times
April 14 2015
APRIL 13, 2015
By ROBERT MACKEY
Turkish officials continued to vent their fury at Pope Francis on
Monday, one day after he called the mass killing of Armenians a century
ago "the first genocide of the 20th century," at a commemorative mass
at the Vatican.
The latest outraged response came from Volkan Bozkir, Turkey's
minister for European affairs, who significantly upped the ante on
his colleagues by suggesting that Argentines as a whole, and not
just the pope, had been brainwashed by rich and powerful Armenians
in their midst.
In remarks broadcast on national television, Mr. Bozkir began by
reminding reporters that Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in
Buenos Aires in 1936, is "an Argentine." Mr. Bozkir then hinted that
the country has a dark past of its own. "Argentina was a country that
welcomed the leading executors of the Jewish Holocaust, Nazi torturers,
with open arms," he said.
Mr. Bozkir then sought to provide an explanation for where Argentines
might have gotten the idea that the 1.5 million Armenians killed
between 1915 and 1923 in the last days of the Ottoman Empire had been
slaughtered intentionally.
"In Argentina," Mr. Bozkir asserted, "the Armenian diaspora controls
the media and business." The minister provided no evidence for his
assertion and was not asked for any. (One prominent member of the
Armenian diaspora in Argentina, Eduardo Eurnekian, is a billionaire
who did once have significant media holdings, but he sold them two
decades ago, according to Forbes.)
Argentina, which is home of the largest community of Armenians in
South America, more than 100,000, angered the Turks in 2006 by
adopting legislation that formally recognized April 24 as a day
"in commemoration of the Armenian Genocide."
Turkey's government has acknowledged that atrocities were committed
during the period but fiercely opposes the characterization that the
killing of Armenians was systematic and intentional.
"The 1915 events took place during World War I when a portion of
the Armenian population living in the Ottoman Empire sided with the
invading Russians and revolted against the empire," the Turkish news
agency Anadolu reported on Monday. "The Ottoman Empire relocated
Armenians in eastern Anatolia following the revolts and there were
Armenian casualties during the relocation process," the report
continued.
In 2002, the Argentine journalist Uki Goñi revealed in his book,
"The Real Odessa: Smuggling the Nazis to Peron's Argentina," that
Juan Peron's postwar government had clandestinely helped Nazi war
criminals flee there at the end of World War II. Using documents from
European archives, Mr. Goñi showed that the Vatican, Swiss authorities
and the Red Cross had played key roles in the escape to Argentina of
Nazis including Adolf Eichmann, Dr. Josef Mengele and Klaus Barbie,
as well as dozens of French, Belgian, Italian, Croatian and Slovak
fascists, many of them Nazi collaborators.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/world/americas/stung-by-popes-remarks-on-armenian-genocide-turkish-minister-insults-argentina.html?_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/world/americas/stung-by-popes-remarks-on-armenian-genocide-turkish-minister-insults-argentina.html?_r=0
From: Baghdasarian