Turkish Forum

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  • Turkey Recalls Envoy After Sweden Recognizes Armenian ‘Genocide’

    Turkey Recalls Envoy After Sweden Recognizes Armenian ‘Genocide’

    EB80A776 9E9D 4B88 8BB9 2A822D681CD4 mw270 sTurkish Ambassador to Sweden Zergun Koruturk said Swedish lawmakers ”acted thinking that they were historians rather than parliamentarians, and it’s very, very unfortunate.”

    March 12, 2010
    (RFE/RL) — Turkey has reacted angrily to a decision by Sweden’s parliament to recognize as genocide the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians by Turkish forces.

    The parliament narrowly approved the resolution on March 11 despite opposition from the government in Stockholm.

    Ankara immediately recalled its ambassador to Sweden over what it condemned as a resolution made for “political calculations.” And it said its Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was canceling a visit to the Scandinavian country planned for next week.

    Sweden’s move comes just a week after Ankara recalled its ambassador from Washington following a U.S. congressional panel’s decision to approve a similar “genocide” resolution.

    “I’m very disappointed,” said Turkey’s ambassador to Sweden, Zergun Koruturk. “Unfortunately the parliamentarians — I think they acted thinking that they were historians rather than parliamentarians, and it’s very, very unfortunate. This is going to have drastic effects on our bilateral relations and I don’t think it will be compensated in a short time.”

    Genocide Issue

    Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were killed by their Ottoman Turk rulers in 1915 in a planned campaign of extermination.

    Turkey accepts that many Armenians were killed, but it rejects the term “genocide,” saying the death toll has been inflated and that many Turks were also killed during a period of civil war and unrest.

    Sweden now joins a growing list of countries recognizing the massacres as genocide, alongside Russia, France, and Switzerland among others.

    But the March 12 vote was razor-thin. It passed by a one-vote margin thanks to several lawmakers from the ruling center-right coalition who broke ranks to back the measure.

    Conservative legislator Gustav Blix and Hans Linde of the Swedish Left Party argued each side of the debate, with Blix saying: “This is not something that should be decided by parliament. It is a question for historians and not for politicians to decide on.”

    Linde responded that “If the victims are not acknowledged and get their sufferings proved true, this trauma may go on for generations.”

    Complicating Normalization?

    Some worry that the vote could complicate not just bilateral relations between Turkey and Sweden — which has been a firm backer of Ankara’s long-standing bid to join the European Union.

    Sweden’s foreign minister, Carl Bildt, said it would have a knock-on effect on the halting process now under way to normalize ties between Turkey and Armenia.

    “I’m very concerned, I am worried about the consequences,” Bildt said. “I got a report from Turkey that the opposition now wants the normalization of the contacts between Armenia and Turkey to stop. I think this politicizing of history risks making reconciliation more difficult.”

    Ankara has also made similar warnings. In the latest, an official in Turkey’s ruling party said before Sweden’s vote that Ankara was extremely unlikely at this point to ratify its fence-mending protocols with Armenia.

    Suat Kiniklioglu, deputy chairman of the Justice and Development Party, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that Turkish ratification had been made “more difficult” by the U.S. resolution.

    But Swedish lawmaker Goran Lennmarker, told RFE/RL that he believed the reconciliation process would not be jeopardized, “irrespective of what happened” in Sweden or the United States.

    Lennmarker is chairman of the Swedish parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and the special representative of the OSCE’s Parliamentary Assembly for Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory disputed by Armenia and Azerbaijan and site of a war in the 1990s.

    “There should be ratification in the [parliament] of Turkey of the agreement as soon as possible, they don’t’ have to wait for anything else, not least a solution on Nagorno-Karabakh,” Lennmarker said.

    RFE/RL’s Armenian Service contributed to this report. With agency reports

     
    https://www.rferl.org/a/Turkey_Recalls_Envoy_After_Sweden_Recognizes_Armenian_Genocide/1981705.html
  • Türk hackerlar Pentagon’u hackledi

    Türk hackerlar Pentagon’u hackledi

    Ayyıldız Team adlı Türk hackerlar, ABD Temsilciler Meclisi Dış İlişkiler Komitesi’nde Ermeni tasarısının onaylanmasının ardından Pentagon’a karşı sanal savaş başlattı

    Amerikan Savunma Bakanlığı’nın resmi internet sitesine karşı Türk hackerlar sanal savaş başlattı. Ayyıldız Tim tarafından hacklenen siteye 8 saattir erişim sağlanamazken, daha sonra Amerikan’ın önde gelen devlet ve şirket siteleri peş peşe hacklenmeye başlandı. Ayyıldız Org, hacklenen sitelere tasarıyı kınama yazısı ile birlikte Mehter Marşı eşliğinde video görüntüleri ekledi.

    ayyildiz


  • Turkish PM Erdogan: “We Might Not Return Our Ambassador to Washington”

    Turkish PM Erdogan: “We Might Not Return Our Ambassador to Washington”

    untitledSince the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed the so-called Armenian “genocide” bill, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that Turkey would not return its Ambassador to the United States, Namik Tan, until it obtained a clear position from the U.S. administration.

    On March 4, the Committee passed the bill on Armenian allegations regarding the incidents of 1915 in a vote of 23-22. After passing this resolution, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that it might be some time before Namik Tan returns to Washington. Prime Minister Erdogan also implied that Namik Tan would stay in Ankara for a while unless certain steps are taken.

    After receiving the “King Faisal International Prize for Service to Islam” at a ceremony held in Riyadh on Wednesday, Erdogan made statements to journalists on various topics. He said that the Committee’s approval of the draft is quite upsetting to Turkey and that the Committee’s attitude while adopting the draft was improper.

    Erdogan believes that the U.S. will not sacrifice its strategic partnership with Turkey for the sake of simple political calculations. He said that the attitude of the U.S. in the next period would be quite important for Turkey. Erdogan said, “We will assess the situation with a long-term perspective. We will not send our ambassador back if we do not see the consequences clearly.”

    Wednesday, 10 March 2010

    By Diyar Guldogan, JTW

  • THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: A CASE OF SELECTIVE MEMORY

    THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: A CASE OF SELECTIVE MEMORY

    Dmitry Babich

    RIA Novosti
    15:44 09/03/2010
    Moscow

    A resolution on the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire, passed
    by the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Relations, has raised a real
    storm in international diplomacy.

    Feverish diplomatic activity and apparent hesitations of the
    U.S. administration are a clear sign that Turkey’s foreign policy
    influence has grown.

    The committee’s resolution is non-binding and it is not clear if it
    will be placed before the whole house, but Turkey has already recalled
    its ambassador to Ankara for consultations, while U.S. Secretary of
    State Hillary Clinton, according to The New York Times, has asked
    the Congress not to take up this delicate matter now.

    When, in 1915, 1.5 million Armenians “disappeared” as a result of the
    action undertaken by the Young Turks’ government, Turkey and Armenia
    froze all contacts with each other. It was only last year that signs
    of thawing first became manifest, and in the fall of 2009 the sides
    agreed to establish diplomatic relations. This was viewed as a success
    for the Turkish leadership, both the prime minister and the president.

    Will now a final “thaw” be postponed again?

    That is not likely, although Turkish politicians are certain to take
    advantage of the situation to improve their standing.

    It is very likely that the current scandal will only boost the prestige
    of Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Not so long ago,
    he was the first politician in Turkish history to challenge the
    military, saying he uncovered a military plot initially scheduled
    for 2003. Before that, Erdogan made out a successful case for the
    Palestinians as Muslim brothers, harshly criticizing Israel for
    its Gaza Strip operation. During the U.S. Iraqi campaign, Turkey
    never allowed American troops to pass through its territory, forcing
    Washington to invade Iraq only from the south.

    Now the ambiguous position the U.S. has maintained for years on the
    Armenian genocide, which helped Washington to draw Turkey into NATO,
    is beginning to backfire against U.S. interests. This is a good
    lesson for all, and it is not limited to the events of 1915. There
    are other examples. The Western mass media are still keeping silent
    about anti-Armenian violence in Baku in 1989-1990. Most reports
    mention only that Soviet troops were introduced into the city.

    The reason for such selective memory in American and West European
    media is understandable: it is simple to place the blame on Moscow,
    forgetting all about previous events. At that moment, the troops
    sent by Moscow saved the lives of thousands of Armenians and other
    “Russian speakers” in Baku. Even many Russian media find the subject
    of the violence in Baku unpopular and almost forbidden. Some say this
    could lose Russia advertising contracts and lead to conflicts with
    influential people.

    “I do not know what has to be done to get the mass media throughout
    the world to highlight those events,” says political analyst Andronik
    Migranyan, a member of Russia’s Public Chamber. “Will Armenia itself
    have to carry out PR campaigns to make things change?”

    The point is that the events of 1915 and those of the 1980s in Armenia
    and Azerbaijan do not concern only Armenians; they concern everyone.

    The anti-Armenian violence in Baku came after an inhumane expulsion
    of Azerbaijanians from Nagorny Karabakh, followed by the Khodzhala
    tragedy that shocked the world. People must remember everything,
    because destruction of human life cannot be forgotten or remembered
    selectively. Otherwise, diplomatic embarrassments like the present
    U.S.-Turkish spat may become regular.

    The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s and do not
    necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.

    =======================================\

    Dmitry Babich
    Dmitry Babich graduated from the Journalism Department of Moscow State University. From 1990-1996, he worked as a correspondent and senior parliament correspondent in Komsomolskaya Pravda, which was at the time a respected Russian daily newspaper with a circulation of up to 20 million. He the covered politics for the TV-6 television channel for three years before becoming head of the international department of the weekly newspaper Moscow News. While he was working at Moscow News, Dima won a prize from ITAR-TASS for developing Russian-Ukrainian information exchange following a series of reports from Ukraine. He joined Russia Profile as a staff writer at the beginning of 2004.

    ======REPONCE FROM ERGUN KIRLIKOVALI ===============================

    ergunk

    Re:  “ The Armenian Genocide: A Case Of Selective Memory”,  By Dmitry Babich, RIA Novosti, Moscow, 9 March 2010, (produced below for your convenience – the undersigned thanks www.TurkishForum.com.tr for bringing this anti-Turkish, anti-Azeri, andti-Muslim artcile to my atention, giving me a chance to respond.)

    THE BOGUS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: A CASE OF SELECTIVE MEMORY

    Dear Editor,

    So this is what Journalism Department of Moscow State University produces:  cockeyed look at world events to promote Russian interests at all costs.  Here is a writer who will shamelessly complain about selective memory while “practicing” it.

    Did you read any lines about Azeris killed by Armenians above?

    Did you see any remorse about Khodjaly exterminations of Azeris (genocide?) by Armenian thugs using Russian advisors and weapons?

    Any word about the mass killings of Azeris in Karabagh by Armenian soldiers and paramilitaries under the command of Russian “advisors”  using Russian tanks?

    Azeris were killed by Armenians toting Russian Mosins in 1893 and Russian Kalashnikovs in 1993?  Both under the leadership of Russian “advisors”.  What has changed in the hundred years, other than the model of the murder weapon?

    How about Armenian aggression in the seven rayons (provinces) surrounding Karabagh?  Why is he silent about that?  Isn’t that pure aggression and persecution?

    Most dramatic of all, perhaps, is the embarrassing silence of the Russian writer (and I use the term loosely) about the million or so Azeri refugees bracing, made homeless by the Armenian thugs toting Russian rifles, bracing for the 18th scorching summer after 17th freezing winter endured in leaky tents with little food or medicine.  Is this how a Russian “journalist” sees events?  Through the prism of selective memory?

    Just like those biased promoters of a bogus genocide who will…

    a) remember Morgenthau’s falsified reports but not Bristol’s or Hubbard’s eyewitness reports;

    b) remember the long-discredited lie of 1.5 million dead Armenians, but not the Paris Peace Conference report dated 29 March 1919 declaring the number “…more than 200,000…” from which the current lie had originated;

    c)  remember the Armenian dead (about 200,00 according to Paris Peace Conference of 1919) but not more than 524,000 Muslim, mostly Turkish dead;

    d) remember 24 April as the start of a fake genocide, but not the fact that 24 April was nothing more than the Ottoman Guantanamo when the known Armenian terrorists, insurgents, and spies and their suspected accomplices, were arrested for questioning, some of whom were later released;

    e) remember Turkish retaliations but not the Armenian revolts that started them, the biggest one of all being the Van rebellion of April 1915 which was the 9/11 of the Ottoman Empire when Armenian killed more than 40,000 of thei Muslim neighbors and turned the city over to the invading Russian armies;

    f)  remember Dink, but not Arikan, and 70 other the Armenians killed since 1973;

    g)  remember Armenia Tereset (temporary resettlement of 1915) but not the facts that Armenians backstabbed their own country at a time when the motherland was under brutal foreign invasion in the West (Dardanelles by the French, and Anzacs, in the East (by Russians and Armenians), in the South (by the British in Sinai, Palestine, and Mesopotamia);

    h)  remember Armenians who were resettled because of their treasonous activities and revolts but not the Crimean Tatars (Turks) who were deported in cattle wagons to Kazakhstan, or Meshketian Turks to Uzbekiastan, or Koreans or Ukranians or Chechens or tens of millions of others  to  distant deserts and barren plains of Central Asia and icy regios of Siberia, who met worse tragic end, if such a thing is possible,  at the hands of their brutal Russian handlers… and many more (too long to list here)

    i)  remember to quote the Armenian commentator Andronik today but not the Armenian terrorist Andranik of last century who ruthlessly murdered many non-combatant, unarmed Muslims, mostly Turks, after torturing them in unspeakable manners;  or those other Armenian terrorists like Dro, Aram, and thousands of others who were trained and supported by the Russians all along the way;

    Russians are the last people on earth to talk about selective memory or persecution of defenseless ethnic people.

    Sincerely,   Ergün KIRLIKOVALI
    President-Elect, ATAA
    [email protected]
    9741 Irvine Center Drive
    Irvine, CA 92618-4324 , USA
    Cell: (949) 878-1186
  • Köker Presents Armenians in Turkey 100 Years Ago

    Köker Presents Armenians in Turkey 100 Years Ago


    By Editor on Mar 10, 2010

    WATERTOWN, Mass. — Turkish journalist and historian Osman Köker will present his book, Armenians in Turkey 100 Years Ago, at the Armenian Library and Museum of America (ALMA) on Wednesday, March 24 at 7:30 p.m.
    The event, which marks Köker’s first public appearance on the East Coast of the United States, is co-sponsored by ALMA, the Friends of Hrant Dink, the National Association For Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) and Project SAVE Armenian Photograph Archives. The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.
    Köker first came to international attention in 2005 when he organized the unprecedented exhibition “Sireli Yeghpayrs (My Dear Brother),” in Istanbul. Eventually seen by thousands of people, it presented photographs of Armenian life in pre-Genocide Ottoman Turkey, drawn from a large collection of postcards owned by the collector Orlando Calumeno. In the five years since then, the exhibition has also been mounted in Paris, Munich, Koln, Frankfurt and last year in Yerevan.
    Köker originally intended to write a book about Armenian life in the Ottoman Empire, but with the discovery of the postcard collection the scope of the project changed. Following the exhibition he published the massive and beautifully-produced volume 100 Yil Önce Türkiye’de Ermeniler, subsequently published in English as Armenians in Turkey 100 Years Ago, featuring hundreds of images showing where and how Armenians in the Ottoman Empire lived.
    Köker was also involved in the creation in 1996 of the Istanbul Turkish-Armenian daily Agos and Aras Publishing House, the only publishing house which publishes books in Armenian and books translated into Turkish from the Armenian.

  • France Urges Progress On Karabakh, Turkish-Armenian Ties

    France Urges Progress On Karabakh, Turkish-Armenian Ties

    A03ED15E 850E 4ED9 BD81 3BD94ABB150B w527 sFrance — President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) bids farewell to his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian at Elysee Palace in Paris, 10Mar2010

    10.03.2010
    Ruzan Kyureghian in Paris

    French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged more intensive efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and a quick implementation of the Turkish-Armenian normalization agreements during talks with his visiting Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sarkisian, on Wednesday.

    The two leaders met in Paris on the second day of Sarkisian’s official visit to France. None of them made any public statements after the meeting. Their joint news briefing scheduled beforehand was cancelled for unknown reasons.

    Official Armenian and French sources said the talks touched upon bilateral relations, the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process and the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations.

    A spokesman for Sarkozy said the French leader called for “developing the dynamic” of the ongoing work on the “basic principles” of a Karabakh settlement put forward by the U.S., Russian and French mediators co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group.

    The mediators hope that Armenia and Azerbaijan will iron out their remaining differences over the proposed framework agreement in the course of this year. Armenian leaders have indicated, however, that a breakthrough in the peace talks is still not on the horizon.

    1F4F0B61 E69D 4271 BBCE EAD0724F217D w270 s

    France — Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian reviews the presidential guard at Elysee Palace in Paris, 10Mar2010

    Sarkozy, according to his spokesman, urged the conflicting parties to reinvigorate their search for a mutually acceptable deal. “One should take the necessary steps that will lead to a lasting peace and would be beneficial not only for the two countries but the whole region,” he was cited as telling Sarkisian.

    Sarkozy was also reported to say that Armenia and Turkey should have “the courage to move forward and use this historic opportunity” to normalize their relations. The spokesman said he specifically stressed that a speedy ratification of their fence-mending “protocols” is expected not only by France but the broader international community.

    Sarkisian’s office gave no details of the two presidents’ discussions on Karabakh and Turkey, in a written statement issued later in the day. It said only that Sarkozy praised the Armenian leader’s “efforts aimed at establishing peace and stability in the region.”

    “Nicolas Sarkozy reaffirmed his country’s intention to develop relations with the Republic of Armenia in all directions and stressed that France has been and remains Armenia’s friend, always standing by its side,” read the statement. He also spoke of a “sincere sympathy towards Armenia and the Armenian people” existing France, it said.

    Sarkisian, for his part, described France as his country’s “reliable partner and ally on the international stage. “President Sarkisian noted with satisfaction that French-Armenian relations are dynamically developing in all areas,” his office said.

    The Elysee Palace spokesman said the two men discussed ways of boosting bilateral economic ties and welcomed in that regard the French telecom giant Orange’s recent entry into Armenia. He said France is not satisfied with the current volume of French-Armenian commercial contacts and hopes that they will increase in the near future.

    https://www.azatutyun.am/a/1980071.html