Press Release : Federation Of Canadian Turkish Association

Press Release
CBC Radio-1 Interview with Peter Balakian
May 30, 2009
Dear CBC Ombudsman,
The following interview of Ann Maria Tremonti on behalf of GBC Radio-1 with Peter Balakian on alleged
“Armenian Genocide” ) is way beyond the
boundaries of a fair, neutral and reasonable fact finding reporting practice.
What the interviewer is doing here seems to be an extraordinary effort to making sure that every aspect of the
well known typical Armenian propaganda can be heard one more time by Canadian public through CBC. This
effort, with directing questions and reminding of the propaganda elements forgotten even by the interviewee
himself, can not be without any collaborative intentions. This is not an acceptable attitude for a public
institution which is established and maintained by tax payers’ money like myself.
First of all, regardless of who is right in this scholarly long disputed 1915 events, it is okay to let anybody to
express his/her side of the story, but without any contributing/supportive efforts, as long as other side of the
story also is being heard fairly. Unfortunately, by not following this established public media ethics rule and
integrity code, your interviewer Ann Maria and CBC has breached the public trust that has been granted. As
the representative of Turkish Canadian tax payers, we, the Federation of Canadian Turkish Associations
condemn this intentional wrongdoing, and demand an explanation from CBC management. We are also
demanding an apology from Turkish Canadians with the assurance that it will never happen again.
CBC, or any fair media for that matter, have to provide all involved parties of such disputed issues with equal
opportunities, including the Turkish side in this particular case. We are aware that CBC has consistently failed
to follow this simple fairness rule so far, and it is hard to believe this is just a coincidence.
All these worldwide orchestrated Armenian allegations that have been spread by their propaganda machine
tirelessly for decades are politically motivated with land and retribution demands (which are not a secret
anymore) for the following reasons, rather than seeking the truth and justice :
· Armenia has refused to sign a border agreement with her neighbor Turkey as of today.
· All Armenian educational materials show east of Turkey as south part of Armenia.
· Armenians at any level never have acknowledged atrocities committed by Armenian bands to Turks,
Azeri Turks, Kurds, Jewish and other Muslims of Anatolia and Caucasus during the same period, in
corporation with the great powers of time under Russian, Franch and British uniforms.
· Armenia today keeps 25% of Azerbaijan since 1992, and despite many UN resolutions to return the
occupied land and let a million Azeri refuges to get back their homes, Armenia refuses to comply.
Turkey has imposed economic embargo to Armenia since then blocking its borders with Armenia.
· In 1980s, Armenian terrorists have killed over 60 innocent people around the world including an
RCMP officer and 40 Turkish diplomats, and as of today non of these killers have been condemned by
Armenians at any level, including their churches. These killers have been protected, praised as
freedom fighters, encouraged and rewarded by Armenian lobbies, civic organizations and political
parties of Armenian state.
· Turkey has long opened Ottoman achieves for a fair review of the events by neutral historians/scholars
and promised to comply with its outcomes no matter what, and demanded all parties involved to do
same. Neither Armenians nor her former (and currently same) allies France and Russia have agreed
with the process yet!!! Armenia indicated would cooperate if and only if its genocide allegation is
accepted first, without any dispute. This is not surprise considering that Brian Ardouny of the
Armenian Assembly of America in a videotaped interview clearly clucked lately: “We don’t need to
prove the genocide historically, because it has already been accepted politically.” Thanks to the
support of opportunist politicians and fair (!) media such as CBC.
KTDF-FCTA | [email protected]
|
PO Box: 45024, 5845 Yonge Street, Willowdale, Ontario, M2M 4K3, CANADA
Press Release
CBC Radio-1 Interview with Peter Balakian
May 30, 2009
Considering the fact that there is no legitimate/legal verdict by any genocide tribunals such as International
Court of Justice or any other authorized UN bodies for the 1915 events yet, and Armenians have never
attempted to seek the arbitration of these institutions in resolving the issue (never mention about their denial of
revealing own archives to world scholars); helping these Armenian lobbies in their effort in building political
allies at Western parliaments such as Canada and US by passing motions in favor, unfairly influencing the
public opinion via supposedly neutral media such as CBC, aiming at finally to dictating their one-sided
allegations on Turks, will not contribute World peace and harmony at all. To the contrary, it will push Turkey
to take stronger defensive position against this efforts, due to a loss of trust in West’s justice and fairness.
As a Canadian tax payer of Turkish decent, I don’t believe that this is the result, we, democratic nations like
Canada, desire to reach. Especially in such times when all the World (including Canada) has been fighting a
war against global terrorism and its adverse consequences (economical/social chaos), it is unlikely that we can
prevail without our NATO ally Turkey’s support, which is sitting in the middle of world energy resources and
the largest energy distribution hub of the middle east, Caspian Sea, Near Asia and Caucasus, with the second
largest army of NATO after US. Therefore, on behalf of the Turkish Canadians, the Federation of Canadian
Turkish Assassinations is strongly against the encouragement of these Armenian lobbies to be less cooperative
in finding truth and more aggressive/abusive in misusing foreign politics by our wrong policies; and we
condemn any irresponsible acts of trusted public entities such as CBC in this regard.
We hope that CBC leadership is capable of anticipating all these facts as what they are and make sure that in
the future all its employees will act responsibly in dealing with such sensitive issues, according to the
requirements of these aforementioned realities, avoiding to take supportive positions for one side or another in
disputed matters. We all need to help retain Canada’s well known reputation of fairness/neutrality instead.
From Turkish perspective of the issue, I would like to bring to your attention, the elaboration of a March 23,
1920, letter of Col. Charles Furlong, an Army intelligence officer and U.S. Delegate to the Paris Peace
Conference: “We hear much, both truth and gross exaggeration of Turkish massacres of Armenians, but little
or nothing of the Armenian massacres of Turks. … The recent so-called Marash massacres [of Armenians]
have not been substantiated. In fact, in the minds of many who are familiar with the situation, there is a grave
question whether it was not the Turk who suffered at the hands of the Armenian and French armed contingents
which were known to be occupying that city and vicinity. … Our opportunity to gain the esteem and respect of
the Muslim world … will depend much on whether America hears Turkey’s untrammeled voice and evidence
which she has never succeeded in placing before the Court of Nations.”
Nothing seems to have changed from those days, when Christian lives were more precious than the lives of the
“others”, Turks and Muslims. If you are interested in learning more of the Turkish side of the story from the
neutral sources, please find attached the opinions of a list of non-Turkish scholars and the entities, which do
not agree with the Armenian allegations.
Until this dispute is resolved justly on the legitimate International platforms and a scholarly agreement is
established between two nations (Armenians and Turks), the third parties (governments and media such as
CBC) should only encourage them to openly discuss the matter and mediate if needed by only giving equal
chances for both side, rather than filtering one’s voice and supporting the other all the time.
Sincerely.
Dr. Mehmet Bor
A. President of Canadian Turkish Associations.
Tel: +1-647-230 9397
www.canturk.net, [email protected]
KTDF-FCTA | [email protected]
|
PO Box: 45024, 5845 Yonge Street, Willowdale, Ontario, M2M 4K3, CANADA