| April 24th, 2009, Washington, DC -Capital Vanguard Committee formed by Turkish American leaders in Washington, DC honored victims of Armenian terrorism and the 1.1 Million Ottoman Turks, Muslims and Jews who perished in Eastern Anatolia during the Armenian Revolt 1885-1919 and Russian invasion in 1915. Organized by the Turkish American Leaders, 48 hours of vigil took place in front of Turkish Embassy, Washington DC starting on Thursday, April 23rd at 8:00 am. On Friday, April 24th 2009, Along with the Turkish American leaders, Turkish and Azerbaijani Americans, American friends and Turkish Students from the local universities, over 100 people gathered in front of the Turkish Embassy to remember victims of Armenian political violence. The Armenian Van Revolt of March 1915 saw the deaths of over 60,000 Muslims and the extermination of its Jewish population in a span of thirty days, as the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) “cleansed” the land of all non-Armenian elements, and handed the Van Province over to the invading Russians. The Van Revolt was the last in a long series of Armenian Revolts from 1885 that caused the deaths and forced migration of over 600,000 Ottoman Muslims and Jews in eastern Anatolia. The Van Revolt caused the Ottoman security-based arrest of ARF leaders throughout the Ottoman Empire and security-based relocation of Armenian civilians from the eastern war zones. |
Category: Armenian Question
“The great Turk is governing in peace twenty nations from different religions. Turks have taught to Christians how to be moderate in peace and gentle in victory.”Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary
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Capital Vanguard Committee Remembers the Victims of Armenian Political Violence
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Armenia and Turkey: “A Door Opens, Slowly”
Hugh Pope in Transitions Online
28 April 2009
Transitions Online
These two old enemies should not get sidetracked as they look for a way to come to terms.
After nearly a century of conflict and animosity, Turkey and Armenia are now close to a breakthrough. An agreement on the table would establish diplomatic relations, open the border, and set up a bilateral commission that will include an element to address the traumatic history of the two peoples. This is a historic opportunity for normalization that the leaders of both countries should seize.
The stalemated Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh may yet impede progress, a situation that both sides should do their best to avoid. Plans to establish diplomatic relations between Turkey and Armenia have already been on hold since 1993, when ethnic Armenian forces captured most of the Armenian-majority enclave of Azerbaijan and advanced into a large surrounding area of Azerbaijan. To show solidarity with its ethnic and linguistic cousins in Baku, Ankara closed a railway line that was then the only transport link between Turkey and Armenia. Ever since, Ankara’s condition for improving bilateral relations has been based on Armenian troop withdrawals from occupied territory in Azerbaijan.
Baku is nervous this condition may be lifted and says it may respond by restricting Turkey’s participation in the expansion of Azerbaijani energy exports and selling natural gas to Russia instead. But Azerbaijan ought to reconsider its position: bilateral détente between Turkey and Armenia could ease Yerevan’s fears of encirclement and help Baku recover its lost territory better than this current stalemate, from which nobody has gained anything for the past 16 years.
On its side, Armenia should be aware that, even if Turkey compromises by delinking the opening of the border from Nagorno-Karabakh withdrawals, any further normalization will be unsustainable if there is no progress in its disputes with Azerbaijan. Armenia and Azerbaijan should in any case adopt the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Minsk Group’s basic principles for settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which include the eventual withdrawal of Armenian forces from territories ringing Nagorno-Karabakh, the return of residents displaced during the fighting, and a referendum to determine the enclave’s status.
A TORTURED HISTORY
A positive trend in Turkey-Armenia relations, including a firm and public Armenian acceptance of Turkey’s territorial integrity, will also do much to encourage Turkey to be more open in its approach to the politicized debate over whether to call destruction of much of the Ottoman Armenian population in 1915 a genocide, as more than 20 countries have already done.
Decades of Turkish denial of Ottoman large-scale massacres and forced displacement of Armenians has changed in the past decade thanks to the efforts of Turkey’s intellectual elite. Continuing to prepare public opinion for truth and reconciliation is important. Universities in Turkey and Armenia should be encouraged to pursue broader research, preferably with third-party scholars, to agree on a common set of facts and archival resources. Both sides again should modernize history books and remove all prejudice from them.
This will help build on the progressively intense official dialogue, vigorous activity in civil society, and evolution in public opinion that have already transformed the Turkey-Armenia relationship. Turks’ and Armenians’ once uncompromising, bipolar views of history are significantly converging, showing that the deep traumas can be healed. This advance in bilateral relations demonstrates that a desire for reconciliation can overcome old enmities and closed borders. New trends are also apparent among the Armenian diaspora, where hardliners dominate the narrative, and the process has the support of outside powers such as the United States, the European Union, and Russia.
For Turkey, there are many other benefits to opening the Armenian border. Eastern Turkish towns are looking forward to trading directly with Armenian counterparts, and to welcoming a new generation of Armenian tourists to the many Armenian heritage sites in eastern Turkey. Turkey’s image in Europe will improve and give it better arguments when it comes to the painful issue of genocide recognition resolutions in the United States and elsewhere. For Armenia, the benefits are considerable as well. Its railroads and electricity networks will have profitable new partners, trade routes will become less vulnerable, and, strategically, Yerevan will have to worry less about a threat from Turkey.
Despite its risks and possible pitfalls, the prospects for normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations are better than they have been for decades. Most importantly, both sides see the advantages of this process. If borders are opened and trade restarts, all will gain – chiefly Armenia and Turkey but potentially Azerbaijan as well – in terms of economic strength and national security. For healthy progress on overcoming historic divisions, the focus needs to be on joint work in the present and the future.
Hugh Pope is the Turkey/Cyprus project director of the International Crisis Group.
Transitions Online
Source: www.crisisgroup.org
[Hugh Pope is author of “Turkey Unveiled: A History of Modern Turkey,” and also “Sons of the Conquerors: The Rise of the Turkic World” -HD]
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“We Are All Armenians”
Hugh Pope in The Wall Street Journal
27 April 2009
The Wall Street Journal
Obama was right not to jeopardize reconciliation between Ankara and Yerevan.
President Barack Obama trod a fine moral line this month between his past campaign promises to use the word genocide to describe the World War I massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and his present opportunity to nurture normalization between Armenia and Turkey. But his compromise was no capitulation to the realpolitik of U.S.-Turkish strategic interests, as some Armenians may suspect and some Turks may hope. It is actually a challenge to both parties to move beyond the stalemates of history.
The opportunity could hardly be better. After a decade of civil society outreach and growing official engagement, Armenia and Turkey jointly announced on Wednesday a Swiss-mediated deal to establish diplomatic relations and open borders. The two sides will also set up a bilateral commission to study what Armenians commemorate each April 24 as the beginning of a genocide against their people by the Ottoman Turks in 1915, and what Turkey says were forced relocations, uprisings and massacres during the chaos of World War I.
Before implementing the deal, however, Turkey is now seeking an Armenian commitment to withdraw from territory in Azerbaijan that ethnic Armenian forces occupied in the 1992-94 Nagorno-Karabakh war. But Ankara would be ill-advised to hold up rapprochement with Yerevan because of protests from its ally, Azerbaijan. In fact, normalizing relations with Armenia is the best way for Turkey to help its ethnic and linguistic Azerbaijani cousins. It would make Armenia feel more secure, making it perhaps also more open to a compromise over Nagorno-Karabakh.
The border closure these past 16 years has done nothing to force a settlement over the contested region. The fragility of the 1994 cease-fire truce suggests that a new way forward is imperative. Armenian normalization with Turkey will not be sustainable in the long run, though, unless Yerevan and Baku agree to the ongoing international Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, leading to Armenian troop withdrawals.
It is this complex situation that explains Mr. Obama’s diplomatic language. In this year’s April 24 memorial statement, the U.S. president chose not to use the word “genocide” to describe the events of 1915. The Turks resent this term partly because they want their view of the events to be taken into account and partly because the term genocide has potential legal implications involving possible demands for reparations and compensation. The Swiss-brokered deal will include an Armenian recognition of Turkey’s borders, banishing the shadow of long-lingering territorial claims.
Instead, President Obama chose the Armenian term for the atrocities, “Mets Yeghern,” meaning “Great Man-Made Catastrophe.” The U.S. Congress, where a resolution to recognize the Armenian genocide was introduced on March 17, may want to follow the president’s lead and avoid confrontation in order to give the current Turkey-Armenia normalization process a chance.
Armenians have a point when they argue that the past decade of international resolutions and statements recognizing the Armenian genocide have forced Turkey to end its blanket denial of Ottoman wrongdoing. But such outside pressures have got no closer to making Turkey accept the term genocide itself, especially when the bills before Congress and other parliaments are clearly the result of domestic political calculations rather than high-minded deliberation.
On the Armenian question, many Turks, including government officials now publicly express regret over the loss of Armenian life. After more than eight decades of silence, when any open discussion of what happened in 1915 was considered taboo, the Turkish public is digesting an onrush of new facts and opinions about those past events.
The past decade has seen much convergence between Turks and Armenians in understanding the history of 1915 as academic exchanges have grown and information become widely available. A 2005 conference on the Armenian issue by the front ranks of the Turkish intelligentsia demonstrated that the country’s academic and cultural elite wants to do away with the old nationalist defensiveness. In the east of Turkey, efforts have begun to preserve the surviving Armenian heritage. Far from worsening Turkish-Armenian relations, the murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink in 2007 by a shadowy nationalist gang triggered a march of 100,000 people in Istanbul carrying signs saying “We Are All Armenians.”
Opinion polls show two-thirds of Turks supported President Abdullah Gül’s decision in September to accept his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian’s invitation for a World Cup qualifier soccer match and to become the first Turkish head of state to visit Armenia. Then in December, 200 leading Turkish intellectuals began a signature campaign to apologize for what they called the “Great Catastrophe” of the Armenians. Nearly 30,000 people have signed it so far.
Overall, Turkey’s efforts with Armenia also fit into decade-long efforts to improve ties with other neighboring countries. Ankara has successfully normalized its once tense relations with Syria, Greece and Iraqi Kurdistan. Ankara also tried its best to bring about a reconciliation between Turkish and Greek Cypriots.
New trends are visible in Armenia too. As pride and security in the new Armenian statehood grows, genocide recognition no longer overrides all other national interests. Issues such as the need for more economic opportunities, a broader-based regional strategy and an open Turkish border that can be a direct gateway to the West are taking center stage. Armenians increasingly spend their vacation in Turkish resorts.
Change is also evident in the diaspora, which outnumbers the population in Armenia and has a strong influence on Yerevan. The Armenian community in France led an international campaign, joined by Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan and more than 100 public intellectuals, to say “Thank You” for the Turkish apology efforts. Armenian-French intellectuals are increasingly seeking to reconnect with their heritage by cultivating their links to Turkey and Turks and visiting Istanbul.
As President Obama has recognized, it is this trend of convergence that offers the best chance in decades to open the borders between these two states, moving beyond nearly a century in which Turks and Armenians have been held hostage to frozen conflicts, nationalist confrontation and the ghosts of the past.
Hugh Pope, author of “Turkey Unveiled: A History of Modern Turkey,” is the Istanbul representative of International Crisis Group.
The Wall Street Journal
Source: www.crisisgroup.org
[Hugh Pope is also author of “Sons of the Conquerors: The Rise of the Turkic World” -HD]
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Azeri diaspora to counter Armenian-American influence
AZERBAIJAN: DIASPORA ORGANIZATION TRIES TO COUNTER ARMENIAN-AMERICAN INFLUENCE IN WASHINGTON
Jessica Powley Hayden 5/08/09A new front has opened in the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict and it is centered in Washington, DC. Frustrated by the effectiveness of Armenian-American advocacy groups to shape debates in the United States, Baku is now looking to its diaspora for a little public-relations support.
Last year, a group of Azeri-Americans founded the US-Azeri Network (USAN), which advertises itself as a grassroots advocacy organization. The new, Washington, DC-based group hopes to connect Azeri-American voters to promote a pro-Azerbaijan agenda in the United States.
That agenda is a point-by-point refutation of policies sought by the Armenian-American advocacy groups: increased aid to Azerbaijan; decreased aid to Armenia; the elimination of humanitarian aid to the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh; the immediate withdrawal of Armenian forces from Karabakh; and recognition of massacres perpetrated against Azerbaijanis by ethnic Armenians in 1918, marked in Azerbaijan as the “Day of the Azerbaijani Genocide.”
USAN casts itself in the role of the underdog. “[Azeri-Americans] see that political activism can go a long way… [W]e can achieve a lot and ’compete’ with the big boys like the Armenian diaspora and its lobby,” commented USAN Executive Director Adil Baguirov.
It will be an uphill challenge. If garnering aid from the United States were a competition, Armenia would clearly be winning. From 1992 to 2007, Armenia received almost $2 billion worth of assistance from the United States ($1,745,930), while Azerbaijan came away with about a billion less: $743,400,000.
In addition to lobbying for limits on aid to Azerbaijan, Armenia has invested substantial resources into lobbying US legislators and the president to recognize as genocide the Ottoman Turks’ slaughter of an estimated 1.5 million ethnic Armenians in 1915.
Armenian advocacy and lobby groups also have a long history of promoting Armenian policies among American lawmakers. Armenian political action committees (PACs) contributed nearly $200,000 to various races across the US in the 2008 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission documents.
Rough estimates put the size of the Armenian-American population at nearly 1 million.
Azeri-Americans are less organized, young, far fewer in estimated number (some 400,000, according to USAN), and have not had as much success in getting their agenda before US policymakers.
In meetings on Capitol Hill last summer, Azerbaijani parliamentarians were told: “Look, Armenians are my constituents and I am accountable to them,” recounted Petro Morgos who runs the parliamentary program at DAI (Development Alternatives, Inc.), an international civil-society development organization, and attended the meetings.
USAN believes that American politicians are not getting the whole story. In addressing the American public, USAN’s Baguirov states that his organization covers what it terms “crimes against humanity and genocidal acts perpetrated by Armenians against Azerbaijani, Turkish, Kurdish, Jewish, and other civilians in the Caucasus and East Anatolia since the 19th century, culminating more recently with the Khojaly Massacre in 1992.”
Hundreds of Azerbaijani civilians were killed – according to Baku, by Armenian forces – trying to escape from the village of Khojaly in Karabakh during the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the territory. The Armenian government blames Azerbaijani forces for their deaths.
Azerbaijan’s emphasis on informing foreigners about alleged acts of Armenian aggression can also be seen in Baku. In April, Fazil Mustafa, a member of the Milli Majlis, proposed creating a genocide museum in Baku, emphasizing its value in educating foreign guests. A museum already exists in Yerevan that chronicles the events of 1915.
The recent push to energize Azeri-Americans to promote Azerbaijan’s interests appears to be the result of frustration within Azerbaijan itself. In 2006, President Ilham Aliyev accused Armenian-American groups in the United States for distorting Azerbaijani history. Aliyev, at the time, suggested that Azerbaijan would cultivate its own diaspora.
Since Aliyev’s speech, an Azerbaijani consulate has been opened in Los Angeles. Consul General Elin Suleymanov explained that Los Angeles was chosen in part because of the large Armenian Diaspora located in California. “We wanted Azerbaijan’s voice to be heard on the West Coast and for public opinion not to be shaped by the Armenian side alone,” he told EurasiaNet.
Another diaspora-based organization, the Azerbaijan-American Council, was opened in California in 2006 with the “primary purpose of facilitating active integration of Azerbaijani-Americans into U.S. public life and strengthening Azerbaijani-American identity.”
Suleymanov, however, cautions that focusing too heavily on “narrow ethnicity-based ideology” is counterproductive to achieving peace in the region. “Unfortunately, some in the Armenian community still focus on the past and see our region in simplified, confrontational terms,” he said.
“I think focusing on the future, not that past – without, of course, either forgetting or ignoring the latter – is the best way forward for our part of the world,” Suleymanov said.
USAN’s public relations campaign to bring attention to the past, though, is beginning to pay dividends. Several members of the US House of Representatives have made official remarks in the Congressional Record commemorating the Khojaly massacre. Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons released a proclamation recognizing March 31 as “Azerbaijani Remembrance Day.”
The Nevada proclamation sparked a firestorm in the Armenian-American community, which objected to the proclamation’s definition of Azerbaijan as including Nagorno-Karabakh. “The Armenian-American community throughout the state of Nevada is shocked that Governor Gibbons was so easily misled and manipulated by foreign interest groups representing the governments of Azerbaijan and Turkey and their high-priced lobbyists,” stated Razmik Ablo, spokesman for the Armenian National Committee.
The “high-priced lobbyist” tag is one that is commonly used against USAN. But Baguirov claims his organization has a “very modest operating budget which is fully raised from our grassroots.” He declined to give an exact figure. Combined with its sister organization, the US Turkic Network, USAN claims it has 15,000 members.
While Baguirov is optimistic that USAN’s influence over American policy will increase with time, it concedes that, as a numbers game, diaspora Armenians will continue to exert greater influence in American politics. “Obviously, we are the David in this story, but we are very content with what we were able to achieve in such a short time-span,” Baguirov said.
Editor’s Note: Jessica Powley Hayden is a freelance reporter based in Baku.
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Recommendations for the Armenian Diaspora
Bruce Fein
The Huffington Post Posted May 8, 2009
The ongoing high-level efforts between Turkey and Armenia to normalize relations, including establishing diplomatic relations and opening the land border between the two countries, have received President Obama’s imprimatur during his recent visit to Turkey.
While the negotiated resolution of any conflict is a desirable goal, the Turkish government would be wise to weigh the public’s expectations of this dialogue with existing realities, which will affect the immediate and long-term outcome of bilateral developments between the two countries and Turkey’s relations with the United States and Azerbaijan.
First, there is a dichotomy of interests among the Armenian stakeholders in this dialogue. The interests of the Armenian Diaspora, even different Diaspora organizations, the American political establishment and Armenia are divergent. The increasingly boisterous voices in the Armenian Diaspora which object to the Armenian government’s engagement with Turkey; the dismissal of the bilateral process by U.S. lawmakers who carry the Armenian lobby’s torch in Congress; as well as the full blown campaign by all Armenian advocacy and lobby groups in furthering their legislative, educational, political and public affairs agenda in the U.S.and elsewhere, are proof of this divergence.
On the other hand, the Turkish community abroad, particularly in the U.S., has by and large voiced support of the Turkish government’s dual approach that manifests itself in engaging in diplomatic efforts to normalize relations with Armenia on the one hand, and in committing to accept the findings of an impartial international commission that will address the contested period of Armenian-Ottoman history and the “genocide” question, on the other.
However, supporting the process does not mean turning a blind eye to competing Turkish interests and other realities. There are wide-spread concerns among Turks and others that Turkey will lose much and gain little from the entente it labors upon with Armenia. Without a doubt, the most significant loss Turkey may endure from this process, particularly from opening its land border with Armenia, could be estranging its natural strategic ally, Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has shown significant reaction to Turkey’s perceived “de-linking” of the continuing Armenian occupation from its negotiations with Armenia.
Those in support of normalizing relations with Armenia frequently allude to the potential spillover effect this will have on a peaceful solution to the Karabakh conflict and also stem the “genocide” campaigns by the Armenian Diaspora. However, others argue that the economic effect of a closed land border with Turkey is the only incentive for Armenia to engage in a meaningful dialogue with Azerbaijan on lifting its occupation. Some Azeri analysts argue that removing this sanction may deprive Armenia of any incentive for peace and leave Azerbaijan with no option but a new war.
The Turkish-Armenian dialogue is known to have been advocated by successive U.S. administrations as a way to “pacify” the Armenian lobby and to weaken the incessant congressional efforts for U.S. recognition of the “Armenian genocide,” a development that would most certainly damage U.S.-Turkey relations.
However, pursuing this advice without addressing the underpinnings of the global Armenian campaign against Turkey will most certainly result in great disappointment for Turkey.
The “Armenian Genocide” narrative is an existential narrative for the Armenian Diaspora. It has become the glue that bonds the community across social, economic and political lines. Perpetuating this narrative and activating the community around legislative, educational, philanthropic and political endeavors has become the lifeline for Armenian Diaspora organizations, including the Armenian Church. Hatred against modern day Turks and Turkey has become an identity strengthening tool, particularly employed toward young Armenians, and examples of this hateful behavior against ordinary Turks abound.
It is in this area where Turkish analysis about the Armenian Diaspora’s state of mind, its wide-reaching agenda and impact seems to be most deficient. The benefits that Turkey expects from rapprochement with Armenia can not be achieved as long as the Armenian Diaspora’s realities are ignored. Unless Armenia and other interested parties can engage the Armenian Diaspora in this process and help bring about fundamental changes in the community, the “genocide” issue will remain at the center of their agenda. Consequently, Turkey’s outreach to Armenia will have no effect on the Armenian Diaspora and its international agenda against Turkey, including its lobbying of the U.S. Congress and the Administration.
Bringing about change in the attitudes of the Armenian Diaspora needs to focus on:
* Stopping hate: It is clear to everyone who follows the Armenian Diaspora that the pursuit of genocide recognition has turned into a campaign of hate against Turkey and modern day Turks. This hatred has been manifested in worldwide terrorism and the murder of 40 Turkish diplomats; the continuing adoration of these killers, as well as ongoing harassment and intimidation of Turkish Americans. More troubling, is the fact that hate against Turkey seems to grow among many young Armenian adults who hold more severely hateful perceptions of Turks.* Defending academic freedom and stopping intimidation and harassment of scholars: The Armenian Diaspora has successfully created an aura of intimidation in academia through their consistent vilification of scholars, who do not agree with the Armenian narrative of history. By slandering any scholar who deviates from the Armenian narrative as a “genocide denier” and attempting to deny such scholars access to academic and public platforms, the Armenian lobby is effectively stifling more research and debate on this history.
* Exposing Armenian “buy-out” of scholars: Armenian foundations and wealthy Armenian Americans are pouring money into American universities to support scholars, including Turkish ones, whose positions corroborate the Armenian narrative. The existence of “Armenian Genocide” study centers at leading U.S. universities rests on the largesse of such Armenian donations. Research in this area has effectively been turned into an Armenian funded cottage industry.
* Advocating the opening of Armenian Archives: Opening all Armenian archives to independent scholarly review will unearth the complete narrative of Ottoman-Armenian history, including the Armenian independence movement and revolt.
* Stopping foul play: Armenian Diaspora groups must be held accountable to stick to the same rules that apply to all advocacy groups. Many of them have not. The best example of such foul play is the Armenian National Committee of America, which is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for possible violations of its legal status and other U.S. laws governing lobbying.
* Exposing the futility of political lobbying: The Armenian Diaspora lobbyists have invested much stock and capital in lobbying efforts to legislate history. Turkey must unequivocally state that it is an Armenian Diaspora illusion that such third country political pressures can force Turkey to accept their narrative and issue an “apology,” opening the way for other demands by the Armenian Diaspora such as reparations or territorial claims.* Looking forward: The Armenian community can gain tremendously by looking forward and reaching out to Turkey as their heritage country. Turkey and Turkish civil society should extend a hand of friendship toward the Armenian Diaspora. Turks, by and large, hold no animosity toward Armenians and will embrace Diaspora Armenians warmly. The rich Armenian culture continues to be part of Turkey’s culture, its music, art, architecture, folklore and cuisine. These common bonds can be revived and the Armenian Diaspora, not Armenia, can herald this revival.
* Ending Armenia’s isolation: The Armenian Diaspora has played a significant role for Armenia. However, the Armenian Diaspora’s efforts cannot replace the economic and political benefits of normalizing Armenia’s relations with its neighbors, particularly Azerbaijan, and integrating the country into the economic and strategic regional framework. The Armenian Diaspora in the United States, in particular, should be the advocate of moving Armenia away from Russia and Iran and closer to Turkey and the U.S.
* Believing in dialogue: The current Turkish government has long extended a hand of friendship and reconciliation toward the Armenian Diaspora and Armenia in its invitation to form an international historical commission. Turkey’s invitation and willingness to support such a comprehensive effort and to accept its findings may not remain valid forever. The Armenian Diaspora should unclench its fist and take this hand, as it is the only way for peace and reconciliation.
——————- COMMENTS AT HUFFINGTON POST ————————–
View Comments:Ahhh Seto, good try.
“As a lawyer he should be able to differentiate an investigation from indictment. ”
As well he is and can. Exactly where does the word “indictment” appear in Fein’s piece? The only one who makes reference to an “indictiment” is you. Fein’s article talks of an investigation.
Perhaps you, Seto, should work on improving your reading comprehension or your old and tired propaganda technique of setting up a straw man to knock it down.
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 10:23 AM on 05/10/2009“Armenian Americans are doing what Indian Americans, Jewish Americans or other Americans are doing ” nothing more, nothing less.”
Please tell us how many Jewish Americans, Indian Americans and other Americans have formed terrorist groups to murder Turkish diplomats and bomb Turkish businesses/economic interests in the U.S.?
And those are just a few tidbits to expose how greatly altered your view of reality is.
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 10:18 AM on 05/10/2009Seto,
Your disinformation campaign is rather amusing.
First, the Republic of Turkey was one of the first nations to recognize the newly independent Armenia, but closed the border to protest Armenia’s invasion and occupation of the sovereign nation of Azerbaycan, as well as the Armenian military’s vicious slaughter of innocent unarmed civilian Azeris (ethnic Turks) who were trying to flee in the advancing Armenian army. The border closure has devastated Armenia’s economy, not Turkey’s. Turkey and Turks have virtually nothing to gain from opening the border. However, US and western European interests will be greatly served by an open border.
The US interest in opening the border between Armenia and Turkey is motivated by the US’s desire to wrest Armenia away from “Mother Russia” so that vital pipelines conveying natural gas and oil from the central Asian plateau (former Soviet block countries with Turkic populations) can pass more cheaply and easily through Armenia and Turkey to shipping ports in the Mediterranean. Currently, planned pipelines all snake around Armenia through Georgia towards Turkey. This costs the US and western European nations who buy that gas and oil, more money.
If Armenia is pulled away from Mother Russia and the border opened, the “hope” is not only to make it cheaper and easier to transport those natural resources west, but also to diminish Russia’s influence and power over Armenia (did you know that Russian military personnel in Armenia currently outnumber Armenia’s own military? how interesting is that?).
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 10:18 AM on 05/10/2009Mr Fein is attempting to explore a rational dialogue between the Turkish and Armenian communities. What he gets in return is the same shop-worn comments and attitudes from the Armenian side. I believe Diaspora has so much invested in their side of the issue that any attempt by Turkish side will be viewed as weakness. Despite what we always hear, this isn’t simply Turkey apologizing for the events of 1915. Armenians (at least a large percentage) are making claims to a large section of Eastern Anatolia as theirs as well as other implied cash payments. Of course, societies have moved and no one today automatically has claims to a piece of land because their ancestors had it. Armenians are making a big mistake if they think they can take this to its limit (We need to immediately return this country to Native Americans). I congratulate Mr Fein for making an attempt to reach out with a well rounded argument.
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 12:02 AM on 05/10/2009I can’t understand why, after Ataturk set out to divorce Turkey from its Ottoman past, he didn’t recognize the Armenian Genocide. That would have done more than anything to move Turkey forward.
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 07:17 AM on 05/09/2009Shouldn’t Mr. Fein identify himself: Bruce Fein is the Resident Scholar for the Turkish Coalition of America. Prior to this position, Mr. Fein was also resident scholar at the Assembly of Turkish American Associations and a columnist for the Turkish Times. He has served as a consultant to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, evaluated the terms of the Annan Plan, and has appeared regularly on VOA and Turkish television to discuss current political events and their implications for Turkish-American relations.
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 11:33 PM on 05/08/2009Fourth, Mr. Fein comes forth with the misrepresentation that Armenian Diaspora groups are engaged in foul play in violation of U.S. laws and regulations. His lone substantiation in this respect is his claim that the Armenian National Committee of America is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. Now, Mr. Fein is a lawyer. As a lawyer he should be able to differentiate an investigation from indictment. The deliberate lack of knowledge is the source of his misrepresentation in the instant case. He is well advised to check the status of said investigation.
Mr. Fein”s so-called “recommendations” boil down to a single directive to the Armenian Diaspora. He is effectively telling the Armenians to stop exercising their rights as citizens of their respective countries. This directive is more alarming in case of the Armenian Americans. He is telling American citizens of Armenian descent to halt exercising their rights under the U.S. Constitution.
Mr. Fein should learn to accept that Armenian Americans are doing what Indian Americans, Jewish Americans or other Americans are doing ” nothing more, nothing less.
[End]
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 10:07 PM on 05/08/2009Third, Mr. Fein develops an artistic penchant to spread falsehood. He blatantly claims that the Armenian Diaspora intimidates and harasses the academia, and vilifies the scholars who do not agree with the fact of Genocide. What”s worse, he claims that the Armenian Diaspora engages in the “buy-out” of scholars to corroborate the fact of Genocide. These claims against the Armenian Diaspora are immersed in utter falsehood. Yet the same claims verily apply to the Republic of Turkey and the Turkish “associations” operating in the U.S., who have become experts in the claimed business and notoriously earned the reputation of doing their regular harassments of the academia, vilification of the scholars and “buying-out” of professors and department chairs to distort history and deny the Armenian Genocide.
[Part 5 to be followed]
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 10:06 PM on 05/08/2009Next, Mr. Fein lodges false accusations against the Armenian Diaspora claiming that it has turned the Genocide recognition into a campaign of hate against Turkey and Turks. This gentleman in the service of Turkish “associations” should familiarize himself with Armenian traditions and culture that inspire and teach the Armenian individual ” whether in Armenia or Diaspora ” love, friendship, brotherhood and peace. Not a single Armenian person sees an enemy in a Turkish person. As for Genocide recognition, it is only anchored on one principle, objective and feeling ” Justice. When in 1944 jurist Raphael Lemkin, in an effort to bring justice for the Jewish holocaust by the Nazis, coined the word “Genocide” based on the precedent of Armenian massacres, he was not motivated by hate against the Germans ” Lemkin sought justice and defined the annihilation of Armenians at the hands of the Ottomans and of European Jews at the hands of Nazis as Genocide.
[Part 4 to be followed]
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 10:06 PM on 05/08/2009First, Mr. Fein threatens that the “boisterous” Diaspora will cause the eventual failure of Turkey”s efforts to normalize relations with Armenia. According to Mr. Fein, Turkey, at the cost of damaging its strategic interests, is doing Armenia a favor by opening its borders that would save Armenia economically. Should Diaspora resume its untamed conduct, the borders will remain sealed and Armenia will be the loser. Mr. Fein, of course, unabashedly overlooks the geopolitical fact that Turkey is the one that is in dire need of Armenia in order to have access to the Southern Caucasus and beyond. This is the old Pan-Turanic strategic thinking once employed by the Ottoman Young Turks that led to the extermination of the Armenians. Now this strategic thinking is employed by the current government of Turkey under the guidance of Ahmet Davutoglu, the former foreign policy adviser and current foreign minister of Turkey.
[Part 3 to be followed]
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 10:05 PM on 05/08/2009There is a better idea – why don’t US, and all the other countries, states, legislatures, etc., that have recognized the Armenian suffering as genocide, do the same about the Turko-Muslim suffering in the same area at the same time? They should recognize the Turkic and Muslim Genocide of well over 1 million people in the same area from the Armenian invasions and massacres. Then probably the Turkish side will not object to a one-sided pro-Armenian bias by US Congress or any state legislature.
Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 05:33 PM on 05/08/2009All genocide should be recognized and the guilty countries should stop trying to sweep it under the rug. The U.S. should recognize the Armenian genocide, and Turkey should recognize the Native American genocide. Maybe if both countries do this, their relations will not suffer.
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Turkey Prioritizing its Relations with Azerbaijan
Turkey Prioritizing its Relations with Azerbaijan
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 87May 6, 2009