Category: Main Issues

  • Taste of Anti-Armenian Policies

    Taste of Anti-Armenian Policies

    By Appo Jabarian

    Executive Publisher / Managing Editor

    USA Armenian Life Magazine

    Friday,  March 6, 2009

    The London Times published on Feb. 28 a news report covering an unprecedented legal and political development in Turkey. Serdar Kaya, a Turkish father, a doctor by profession, is suing the Turkish Education Ministry for forcing his 11-year-old daughter to watch a “racist” and “disturbing” film denying that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenians in 1915 with graphic allegations of Armenian “atrocities against Turks.”

    “My daughter was very disturbed and frightened by the documentary and kept asking me if the Armenians had cut us up,” said Dr. Kaya who is suing the ministry and the child’s school for “inciting racial hatred.”

    “There are many mass graves, bones and skulls in the DVD. They have interviewed old granddads who inspire confidence and compassion. When they say things like ‘They cut off his head’ and ‘they used it instead of firewood’, that is bound to stay with the children,” Serdar Degirmencioglu, a psychologist, told the Armenian newspaper Agos when news first broke that the documentary was being shown to primary school children – including ethnic Armenians in Turkey.

    “You go and kill more than a million Armenians, wipe the traces of Armenians from Anatolia, grab their property, and then show children videos about ‘What the Armenians did to us’ … We are cutting these children off from the rest of the world,” said Ahmet Altan, editor of the independent newspaper Taraf. Altan is one of Turkey’s brightest writers. He has published several novels and essays which brought him fame and independence.

    Back in 2001, speaking of Turkey’s shaky foundation as a state, Altan said to The Middle East magazine that “‘three corporations are betraying their vocation: the journalists, the historians and the men of law’. If they did not behave the way they did, Turkey would be in a different situation. Why the historians? ‘The State is founded on an initial lie: We are told lies on the foundation of the Republic, on Mustafa Kemal, on the Turks, the Kurds, the Armenians. It is forbidden in Turkey to debate on these matters.’ And what about the journalists? ‘They lied too much, and they continue,’ answered Altan. ‘I have been in this job for 27 years, I started from the bottom and climbed to the top. I can say that the Turkish press is coward: it comes out to hide the truth.’ And what about the men of law? ‘The judges and the lawyers should have rebelled and told the people the truth: the Turkish law is full of articles which go against the international law. The Turkish law considers the man as an enemy’ concluded Altan.”

    The Education Ministry alleges that it has stopped the distribution of the documentary, Sari Gelin (Blonde Bride), named after an Armenian folk song. But it has apparently not recalled it and critics say that it remains part of the curriculum.

    This is the same DVD that caused Turkey an embarrassing international defeat and fiasco back in June 2005. An initial insertion of 500,000 of the same Turkish DVD’s in TIME Europe was financed by Ankara Chamber of Commerce. Later, the TIME editors acknowledged that they were duped into thinking that the Turkish DVD was intended to promote tourism in Turkey. But it turned out to be a propaganda ploy to deny the facts of the Armenian Genocide. In February 2007 TIME was compelled to spend the monies received from Turkey to correct its mistakes. TIME Europe apologized to Armenians and paid to duplicate and insert 550,000 DVD’s of “The Armenian Genocide” documentary produced by a French company. TIME affixed these DVD’s on a full-page announcement, all, courtesy of TIME Magazine.

    Do you remember then Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul being shocked to see the TIME DVD on his flight? In March 2007 Harut Sassounian, The Publisher of The California Courier, wrote: “Several Turkish newspapers reported on Feb. 26 (2007) that Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was shocked when he saw an Armenian Genocide DVD in a copy of the TIME magazine on his plane. Gul and members of his delegation were returning to Turkey on February 11, after spending several days in Washington, D.C., lobbying against the pending Congressional Resolution on the Armenian Genocide. On their Lufthansa Airline flight, they discovered that the TIME magazine issue handed to them included a DVD as well as a full-page announcement on the Armenian Genocide. Gul was reportedly very upset that Armenians were carrying out propaganda activities even on his plane. He said he would conduct an investigation.”

    And now, at last, Ankara is subjected to a far-reaching legal action by an ethnic Turkish father against his own government’s denialist propaganda at home. Turkey’s militarist policy of brainwashing its schoolchildren to the point of racist paranoia has finally backfired on the Turkish “Deep State.”

    After many decades of attempting to force a gag rule on the Armenian Genocide issue in foreign capitals, Turkey is finally getting a taste of its own poisonous anti-Armenian policies.

    **********************************************************************

    —————-  YORUM BY SUKRUNSERVER AYA —————-

    Turkey Gets Taste of its

    Poisonous Anti-Armenian Policies

    By Appo Jabarian

    Executive Publisher / Managing Editor READER’S REPLY COMMENTS!

    USA Armenian Life Magazine

    Friday,  March 6, 2009

    The London Times published on Feb. 28 a news report covering an unprecedented legal and political development in Turkey. Serdar Kaya, a Turkish father, a doctor by profession, is suing the Turkish Education Ministry for forcing his 11-year-old daughter to watch a “racist” and “disturbing” film denying that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenians in 1915 with graphic allegations of Armenian “atrocities against Turks.”

    What kind of explanation or Armenian reaction can you show for the Armenian schools boys girls in the same age dressed in soldier uniforms being taught how to kill Turks?

    https://armenians-1915.blogspot.com/2007/04/1637-media-scanner-readers-letters-to.html Can you give me a reciprocal objection from any Armenian? Can you ?

    “My daughter was very disturbed and frightened by the documentary and kept asking me if the Armenians had cut us up,” said Dr. Kaya who is suing the ministry and the child’s school for “inciting racial hatred.”

    “There are many mass graves, bones and skulls in the DVD. They have interviewed old granddads who inspire confidence and compassion. When they say things like ‘They cut off his head’ and ‘they used it instead of firewood’, that is bound to stay with the children,” Serdar Degirmencioglu, a psychologist, told the Armenian newspaper Agos when news first broke that the documentary was being shown to primary school children – including ethnic Armenians in Turkey.

    “You go and kill more than a million Armenians, wipe the traces of Armenians from Anatolia, grab their property, and then show children videos about ‘What the Armenians did to us’ … We are cutting these children off from the rest of the world,” said Ahmet Altan, editor of the independent newspaper Taraf. Altan is one of Turkey’s brightest writers. He has published several novels and essays which brought him fame and independence.

    Rather than depending on what Messrs. Altan “blow” without reading even Armenian historians, why don’t you elaborate on what your own Armenian historians have written in black and white, on your revolutionary, treason, killings and similar barbarities? Before you address the public, read Akaby Nassibian, A.A. Lalaian, Garekin Pastermadjian, Hovannes Katchaznuni, your memorandum to Paris Conference in 1919, bylaws of ARF etc?

    You can reach my book plus many genuine documents at below link! Or were the old heroes or Armenian book writers also “denialist” or “paid agents” because what they wrote contradicts your claims?

    Back in 2001, speaking of Turkey’s shaky foundation as a state, Altan said to The Middle East magazine that “’three corporations are betraying their vocation: the journalists, the historians and the men of law’. If they did not behave the way they did, Turkey would be in a different situation. Why the historians? ‘The State is founded on an initial lie: We are told lies on the foundation of the Republic, on Mustafa Kemal, on the Turks, the Kurds, the Armenians. It is forbidden in Turkey to debate on these matters.’ And what about the journalists? ‘They lied too much, and they continue,’ answered Altan. ‘I have been in this job for 27 years, I started from the bottom and climbed to the top. I can say that the Turkish press is coward: it comes out to hide the truth.’ And what about the men of law? ‘The judges and the lawyers should have rebelled and told the people the truth: the Turkish law is full of articles which go against the international law. The Turkish law considers the man as an enemy’ concluded Altan.”

    Mr. Altan is a shallow writer or big mouth, abusing the liberty he has been given by attacking his countrymen and, propagating slanders or lies or words that he has “never proved to be scholarly valid and true”.

    The Education Ministry alleges that it has stopped the distribution of the documentary, Sari Gelin (Blonde Bride), named after an Armenian folk song. But it has apparently not recalled it and critics say that it remains part of the curriculum.

    This is the same DVD that caused Turkey an embarrassing international defeat and fiasco back in June 2005. An initial insertion of 500,000 of the same Turkish DVD’s in TIME Europe was financed by Ankara Chamber of Commerce. Later, the TIME editors acknowledged that they were duped into thinking that the Turkish DVD was intended to promote tourism in Turkey. But it turned out to be a propaganda ploy to deny the facts of the Armenian Genocide. In February 2007 TIME was compelled to spend the monies received from Turkey to correct its mistakes. TIME Europe apologized to Armenians and paid to duplicate and insert 550,000 DVD’s of “The Armenian Genocide” documentary produced by a French company. TIME affixed these DVD’s on a full-page announcement, all, courtesy of TIME Magazine.

    And what reciprocal action has ANCA or Diaspora or Armenia has ever exhibited, other than making too many films continuously, based on mythological allegations or grand-ma stories?

    Do you remember then Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul being shocked to see the TIME DVD on his flight? In March 2007 Harut Sassounian, The Publisher of The California Courier, wrote: “Several Turkish newspapers reported on Feb. 26 (2007) that Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was shocked when he saw an Armenian Genocide DVD in a copy of the TIME magazine on his plane. Gul and members of his delegation were returning to Turkey on February 11, after spending several days in Washington, D.C., lobbying against the pending Congressional Resolution on the Armenian Genocide. On their Lufthansa Airline flight, they discovered that the TIME magazine issue handed to them included a DVD as well as a full-page announcement on the Armenian Genocide. Gul was reportedly very upset that Armenians were carrying out propaganda activities even on his plane. He said he would conduct an investigation.”

    And now, at last, Ankara is subjected to a far-reaching legal action by an ethnic Turkish father against his own government’s denialist propaganda at home. Turkey’s militarist policy of brainwashing its schoolchildren to the point of racist paranoia has finally backfired on the Turkish “Deep State.”

    Why Ankara concerns you so much but you keep silent about the abuses and lack of freedom in Armenia?

    After many decades of attempting to force a gag rule on the Armenian Genocide issue in foreign capitals, Turkey is finally getting a taste of its own poisonous anti-Armenian policies.

    Your comments are full with venom already. There was never, any legally or even logically discussed or proven genocide, other than an excuse for your inflaming the diaspora and making continuous collections by selling grudge and hatred. That product is not endorsed, asked or supported by the Turkish Armenians living equally in Turkey, or some 50.000 illegal Armenians earning their livings in Turkey or the rest of Armenians in Armenia, who get your bragging excuses, instead of jobs, self-sufficiency and peace of mind with neighbors! You have deprived Armenia from taking part in the important projects of the area… The Protestant and Catholic Armenians do not even share their church with Gregorian Armenians of Turkey.

    March 9, 09

    Sukru S. Aya

    _____________________________________________


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  • BORDERS WITH ARMENIA CAN BE OPENED

    BORDERS WITH ARMENIA CAN BE OPENED

    TURKISH PARLIAMENTARIANS VISITING US: THE BORDERS WITH ARMENIA CAN BE OPENED AFTER NAGORNO KARABAKH CONFLICT IS SOLVED
    APA

    Members of Turkish parliament Shukru Elekdag (CHP), Murat Merjan (AKP), Nursuna Memejan (AKP) and Mithat Melen (MHP) met with experts on Turkey and journalists in the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, APA’s US bureau reports. CSIS director for Turkey Bulent Alirza chaired the discussions.

    The discussions focused on the issues causing tension between the two countries.
    Chairman of Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee Murat Merjan said during Obama’s presidency the U.S. policy aimed at holding dialogue, not creating tension. The parliamentarian said Turkey pursued multiple-vector foreign policy after the collapse of the Soviet Union and noted that it was connected with four big conflicts around the country. He said the philosophy of Turkey’s foreign policy consisted of “zero problem” item, integrating into Europe and using its political influence.
    “This political influence was seen in the Balkans, Syria and in the recent war between Georgia and Russia. Turkey is a pro-western country and bears responsibility for the ongoing processes in the region,” he said.
    Touching on the country’s policy with regard to Armenia, the parliamentarian said their aim was not only to establish relations with official Yerevan, but also to serve establishment of peace in the Caucasus.
    Parliamentarian from CHP Shukru Elekdag Turkey was concerned over the so-called Armenian genocide, PKK terrorist organization in the north of Iraq and Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Former Turkish ambassador to the U.S. said:
    “The borders with Armenia should not be opened”.
    He said it can be done after Nagorno Karabakh conflict is solved.
    MP touching upon PKK issue stated that they were supported by the Republic of North Iraq and noted that Barack Obama would not recognize developments in 1915 as genocide during his traditional message on April 24, 2009. Elekdag stated that relations between Israel and Turkey on military, economy, and tourism were at high level and both of countries are strategic partners.
    MP Mithat Melen from MHP touching upon developments in 1915 said that the problems is not linked with Armenia, but Armenian Diaspora. The poor Armenia is not interested in adoption of resolution by the US on so-called genocide. He mentioned that 80.000 Armenians worked in Istanbul. Melen noted that we should not forget the interests of Azerbaijan on Nagorno Karabakh conflict while establishing business relations with Armenia. He added that Turkey needed the energy resources transmitted via Azerbaijan and business done with North Iraq. To him, if there are not business relations, there wil not the development of the region.
    After the assembly Shukru Elekdag gave an interview to APA U.S bureau and commented on restoration of Armenia-Turkey relations.
    “Turkey should not open the border with Armenia without solution to Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Turkey can loose Azerbaijan in such kind of situation. What will be the fate of the word” one nation, two states”? How early have we forgotten it? We are not against the restoration of the relations with Armenia. We should do it after solution to the conflict. If the borders open, we will leave Azerbaijan alone and the power of Azerbaijan will decrease in negotiation process,” he said.
    Elekdag commented on the fact that three subjects – Nagorno Karabakh conflict, so-called Armenian genocide, opening of borders with Armenia were debated during Turkey-Armenia negotiations.
    “If these three issues are solved at the same time, there will not be any problem. The borders between the two countries will not open in 2009,” he said.

  • Morgenthaus vs. Genocide

    Morgenthaus vs. Genocide

    AFTER DAVOS.. ATTACTS ON TURKISH POINT OF VIEW INTENSIFIED .. BELOW İS AN EXAMPLE … TURKISH FORUM …

    Opinion

    By Rafael Medoff

    Published March 04, 2009, issue of March 13, 2009.

    Robert Morgenthau’s announcement that he will retire after more than three decades as Manhattan’s district attorney caps an impressive career in law enforcement. With his latest case, against banks illegally aiding the governments of Iran and Sudan, three generations of Morgenthaus have now confronted perpetrators of genocide – which is as tragic a commentary on the persistence of human rights abuses in modern times as it is a tribute to a remarkable family that has fought those abuses.

    It began with Robert Morgenthau’s grandfather. A lawyer and realtor in turn-of-the-century Manhattan, Henry Morgenthau Sr. was an unlikely crusader for human rights. His life took a surprising turn when his support for the long-shot presidential candidacy of Woodrow Wilson was rewarded with the post of American ambassador to Turkey.

    Under the cover of World War I, the Turkish authorities embarked on a campaign of mass murder against their Armenian citizens. Morgenthau’s desperate cables to Washington about this “attempt to exterminate a race” – relaying details of the wholesale deportations, massacres and rapes – are among the most important evidence of the atrocities.

    The ambassador persuaded The New York Times and other news media to report on the “race murder,” as he called it; he inspired charity groups to raise relief funds for the survivors. But the Wilson administration, anxious to remain neutral in the war, rebuffed Morgenthau’s appeals to intervene. Morgenthau resigned in frustration in early 1916.

    While Morgenthau was unable to save the Armenians, his example has stood as a beacon to generations of activists determined to stop genocide. Morgenthau’s experience fills the opening section of Samantha Power’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide.” Now a senior foreign policy adviser to President Obama, Power regards “the American nonresponse to the Turkish horrors” as “establishing patterns that would be repeated” throughout the ensuing century. Power, according to recent media reports, is now attempting to break the pattern by urging active American intervention against the genocide in Darfur.

    Two decades after Henry Morgenthau Sr. resigned his post as ambassador, a twist of fate put his son in a position to act against genocide. As the proprietor of apple orchards in New York’s Dutchess County, Henry Morgenthau Jr. became friends with his neighbor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In 1934, Roosevelt named him secretary of the treasury.

    Under ordinary circumstances, the Treasury Department would not deal with matters affecting Jews in Hitler’s Europe, but in 1943 Jewish groups asked the department for permission to send funds into Axis territory to ransom Jews. The State Department’s attempt to stall the rescue plan aroused the ire and curiosity of a senior Morgenthau aide named Josiah DuBois. His investigations revealed that the State Department had been suppressing news of the Holocaust and sabotaging rescue opportunities so America would not have to deal with what one official called “the burden and the curse” of having to care for refugees.

    In early 1944, Morgenthau confronted Roosevelt with the evidence and urged him to create a government agency to rescue Jews. Just then, leading members of Congress, galvanized by the activist Bergson Group, were pressing the president to establish such an agency. The pressure convinced a reluctant Roosevelt to create the War Refugee Board. During the final 15 months of the war, the board helped save an estimated 200,000 Jews.

    Like his father and grandfather, Robert Morgenthau chose a career path that one would not expect to embroil him in international affairs. As Manhattan’s district attorney since 1975, Morgenthau prosecuted the usual array of criminals, from muggers to Mafia bosses to white-collar swindlers.

    Last month, however, Morgenthau announced the results of what is perhaps his most important investigation: His office caught 10 major international banks laundering “billions of dollars” for Iran and Sudan. Part of the money purchased goods that international sanctions prevent Tehran and Khartoum from acquiring. Some of the money was channeled to terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah.

    Ironically, Morgenthau’s bank investigators have been collaborating with the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control – the same office that, under the direction of Josiah DuBois, his father worked with during the Holocaust.

    Three generations of Morgenthaus were unexpectedly thrust into the international arena and rose to the challenge. Henry Sr. exposed the perpetrators of the Armenian genocide. Henry Jr. helped interrupt the Nazi genocide. Now the Sudanese regime that is carrying out genocide in Darfur and the Iranian regime that dreams of genocide against Israel are facing their own Morgenthau. The family’s legacy has come full circle.

    Rafael Medoff is director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and the author of “Blowing the Whistle on Genocide: Josiah E. DuBois, Jr. and the Struggle for a U.S. Response to the Holocaust” (Purdue University Press, 2008).

    Source:

    [2]

    Makalenin yazarinin Wikipedia girisi:

    Rafael Medoff is the director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. Medoff received his PhD from Yeshiva University in 1991. In 2001 he was Visiting Scholar in Jewish Studies at the State University of New York at Purchase. He has served on the editorial boards of American Jewish History, Southern Jewish History, Shofar and Menorah Review. He is a member of the Academic Council of the American Jewish Historical Society, and his essays and reviews have appeared in many scholarly journals.[1] He has made a significant contribution to the history of US-Israel relations by examining American Jewish attitudes towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Palestinian Arabs. [2]In The Deafening Silence, Medoff argues that had American Jewish leaders been more forceful in presenting the case for rescue of European Jews to the Roosevelt administration, they could have moved the administration to act. In Deborah Lipstadt’s review of Holocaust literature, she engages Medoff’s argument, but concludes that “There is nothing on record to indicate that their outspoken support would have changed the mind of restrictionist legislators.” [3]

    Lawrence Davidson of West Chester University cites Medoff’s assertion in Zionism and the Arabs: An American Jewish Dilemma, 1898-1948, that Zionists did not see the Palestinian Arabs as “a distinct national group with national rights-largely because the Palestinian Arabs themselves did not claim the status of a specific national grouping,” to argue against Zionism on the grounds that “no one ruled against self- determination in other parts of Greater Syria where the same views prevailed.” [4]

  • Turkey’s New Mission

    Turkey’s New Mission

    Shlomo Ben-Ami

    TEL AVIV – Ever since Turkey’s establishment as a republic, the country has oscillated between the Western-oriented heritage of its founder, Kemal Ataturk, and its eastern, Ottoman legacy. Never resolved, modern Turkey’s deep identity complex is now shaking its strategic alliances and recasting its regional and global role. Indeed, Turkey’s changing perception of itself has shaped its so-far frustrated drive to serve as a peace broker between Israel and its Arab enemies, Syria and Hamas.

    Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s missionary zeal to replace Egypt as the essential regional mediator, and his violent tirades against Israel’s behavior in Gaza, looks to many people like an attempt to recover Turkey’s Ottoman-era role as the guarantor of regional peace and security. Its credentials for this role in the Middle East are by no means negligible.

    Turkey is a true regional superpower, with one of the largest armies in the world. At the same time, it is the only Muslim country that, while no less worried than Israel about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, can maintain excellent economic and political relations with Iran, regardless of American displeasure. Of course, Syria is Iran’s ally, too, but no country in the region has the leverage with it that Turkey possesses. And Turkey’s diplomatic reach in the region is also reflected in its recent signing of a friendship treaty with Saudi Arabia, while maintaining excellent relations with Pakistan and Iraq.

    Europe’s persistence in snubbing Turkey’s attempts to join the European Union, the rise of violent anti-Western popular sentiment in the wake of the Iraq war, and strained relations with the US – owing in part to the forthcoming Armenian Genocide Act – are major factors in Turkey’s change of direction. The civilizing efforts that Ataturk’s revolution directed inward and in favor of disengagement from the Arab and Muslim worlds are now being revisited. The Turkey of Erdogan’s dominant Justice and Development Party (AKP) appears to be seeking a new mission civilisatrice , with the Middle East and the former Soviet republics as its alternative horizons.

    The uneasy challenge for Turkey is to secure its newfound regional role without betraying Ataturk’s democratic legacy. Turkish democracy and secular values have been greatly enhanced by the country’s dialogue with Europe and its American ties. Turkey can be a model for Middle Eastern countries if, while promoting its regional strategic and economic interests, it resists the authoritarian temptation and continues to show that Islam and democracy are fully compatible.

    For Israel, the long overdue message is that its future in the Middle East does not lie in strategic alliances with the region’s non-Arab powers, but in reconciling itself with the Arab world. In the 1960’s, David Ben-Gurion’s fatalistic pessimism about the possibility of ever reaching a peace settlement with the Arab countries led him to forge an “Alliance of the Periphery” with the non-Arab countries in the outer circle of the Middle East – Iran, Ethiopia, and Turkey (he also dreamed of having Lebanon’s Maronite community as part of that alliance).

    All of these countries did not have any particular dispute with Israel, and all, to varying degrees, had tense relations with their Arab neighbors. The myth of Israel’s military power, resourcefulness in economic and agricultural matters, and an exaggerated perception of its unique capacity to lobby and influence American policy combined to make the Israeli connection especially attractive to these countries.

    The “Alliance of the Periphery” was a creative attempt to escape the consequences of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It reflected the yearning of the Jewish state to unleash its creative energies in economic and social matters, as it created space for an independent, imaginative foreign policy that was not linked to, or conditioned by, the paralyzing constraints of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

    Shlomo Ben Ami, a former Israeli foreign minister who now serves as vice-president of the Toledo International Centre for Peace, is the author of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy.

    But the security that this scheme was supposed to produce could never really be achieved; the centrality of the Arab-Israeli conflict could not be attenuated. The Arabs’ capacity to maintain their pressure on Israel and to keep world opinion focused on the Palestinians’ plight made Israel’s quest for evading the consequences of the conflict, either through periodic wars or by forging alternative regional alliances, a futile exercise.

    The Islamic revolution in Iran, the changes in Ethiopia following the end of Haile Selassie’s rule, the collapse of Maronite Lebanon, and Hezbollah’s takeover of that country left Turkey as the last remaining member of Israel’s Alliance of the Periphery. Turkey’s powerful military establishment may want to maintain close relations with Israel, but the widely popular change in Turkey’s foreign policy priorities, and the serious identity dilemmas facing the nation, send an unequivocal message that the alliance can no longer serve as an alternative to peace with the Arab world. From now on, it can only be complementary to such a peace.

    Shlomo Ben-Ami is a former Israeli foreign minister who now serves as the vice-president of the Toledo International Center for Peace. He is the author of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy.

    © Project Syndicate 1995-2009

    Source:  www.guatemala-times.com, 03 March 2009

  • Cypriot, Greek and Turkish Affairs

    Cypriot, Greek and Turkish Affairs

    LOCATION London School of Economics (LSE)

    SPEAKER Caroline Flint

    DATE 26/02/2009

    Europe Minister, Caroline Flint, delivered a speech titled ‘a Cyprus settlement: who benefits? at the London School of Economics on 25 February 2009.

    Copied from British Foreign Office announcement

    Read the speech

    I’d like to thank Zenon and the Association for Cypriot, Greek and Turkish Affairs for inviting me here tonight.  Thanks also to the LSE for hosting us and for James for acting as chair.

    It is an honour to speak at this event where we remember Keith Kyle, a distinguished historian, journalist and a true friend of Cyprus.  I’m delighted that some of Keith’s relatives are able to be here tonight.
    Since I took over as Europe Minister last Autumn, I have made it one of my top priorities to do all I can to support the Cyprus settlement negotiations.  I am proud that it is very much a personal commitment and I was asked to take a lead on by Gordon Brown and David Miliband.  A commitment that I know those here tonight will share.

    Earlier this month I made my second visit to Cyprus as Europe Minister. I came away feeling that we need to do all we can to foster an expectation of success – an expectation that this round of negotiations can and will become the basis of a strong and lasting agreement.

    Negotiation towards a settlement is moving forward – and I believe much has already been achieved.  Important steps have been taken, such as opening Ledra Street, cancelling military exercises, and co-operating on cultural heritage and the environment. These steps show what can be done when the political will exists.

    But it is also clear that significant challenges still lie ahead.  Challenges that will require the continued willingness and courage of both communities if they are to find the compromises needed.

    And while it is up to the leaders to agree a timescale for action, I urge both sides to keep up momentum; to take the bold and imaginative steps needed to turn the expectation of success – into the reality of success.
    Inevitably much of the focus of the media, politicians and the public is on the difficult decisions ahead.  These are important decisions, but equally important is ensuring that everyone keeps sight of the benefits that a settlement can bring. Benefits for the Greek and Turkish Cypriots themselves, but also for the International Community who are supporting this process.

    Reaping the benefits of a settlement will require the support and enthusiasm of all those who want to see a united Cyprus.  That’s why I’m delighted to be here tonight, speaking to you – the representatives of the Cypriot UK Diaspora.

    Your size and your influence is such that you can make a difference to whether this round of negotiations succeeds or fails – but I’ll come back to that thought at the end if I may.

    First I’d like to set out the benefits I see a settlement bringing to Cyprus, the region and Europe more widely, and to explain clearly why the UK is so committed to a lasting settlement.

    Now I do recognise in the short time that I’ve been in this job, that the UK’s views on Cyprus are still seen with scepticism by some – and there are those who claim the UK has a hidden agenda when it comes to Cyprus.

    Let’s be honest, the long and historic relationship between our two countries has not always been free of mistrust and disagreement.  I’d like to set the record straight this evening.  To explain clearly why the UK wants to see a resolution of the Cyprus problem – and show that our interest is straight forward and in complete harmony with that of Cypriots.

    Our overall commitment is to support the UN’s efforts to achieve a settlement based on a bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality.  We want to see a settlement agreed and peacefully implemented by Cypriots for Cypriots.  A settlement that will deliver a stable, prosperous and united Cyprus, operating as a valued partner within the EU.

    And whilst we see huge benefits in this for both Greek and Turkish Cypriots, our motivation is not entirely altruistic.  The fact is a resolution for Cyprus is in Britain’s national interest too.

    One major reason for our interest lies in the strong personal ties that bind Britain and Cyprus together.

    Those here tonight represent 300,000 Greek and Turkish Cypriots living permanently in the UK.  9,000 Cypriot students choose to study at British Universities every year and increasing numbers of British people choose to retire to Cyprus.   The friendships and personal associations at the core of these groups form the backbone of the bilateral relationship between the UK and Cyprus – and will do for generations to come.

    We have a long history of bilateral trade – which continues to this day.  Cyprus is the UK’s main customer for a huge range of agricultural products, many of which – Kiwi fruits and Avocados for example – would have been luxury items a generation ago.  UK exports to Cyprus totalled over 400 million pounds the year before last.

    Last year the UK Prime Minister and President Christofias signed a memorandum of understanding highlighting the breadth of the UK/Cyprus relationship.  It set out a framework for continued cooperation on a range of bilateral, EU and regional issues in which we have shared interests.  Issues of importance to ordinary people, such as education, health and policing.  Issues where UK/Cypriot cooperation brings benefits to both countries.
    We followed this up in December with a further memorandum specifically designed to strengthen our research and development links.  We agreed to take steps to promote greater contact between our academic institutions; to increase the exchange of research and best practice; and to embark upon joint research projects – work which I hope will attract funding from the EU.

    In north Cyprus, we are helping the Turkish Cypriot community prepare for a settlement.  Together with the European Commission we are supporting their efforts to bring their laws and policies into line with the EU.

    The autumn of 2008 also saw the launch of the Cyprus/UK business association – which will build on existing commercial links in goods, services and investment and enhance an already flourishing trade relationship.  Last month’s visit by the Lord Mayor of the City of London highlighted the level of co-operation between Cypriot and British businesses, and the potential for even closer links.
    It is true that many of the things we have in common and much of what we are working together to achieve would continue, regardless of whether or not a settlement is reached in Cyprus.  But, with a solution, this relationship would be even stronger – and even more productive.
    Beyond the purely bilateral relationship – there are real benefits to the UK in seeing Cyprus as a fully mainstreamed member of all the relevant international institutions – where we could work together to ensure those organisations reflected the values we both share.

    There are also clear knock-on benefits to Turkey’s EU aspirations – which we strongly support.  We will continue to urge Turkey to meet its obligations under the Ankara Protocol and sustain its support for a comprehensive settlement on the island.

    All of this adds up to a compelling package of ways in which the UK would benefit from a settled solution for Cyprus.

    But the most important reason for wanting a Cyprus settlement is this:  we can see no better guarantee of long term stability, peace and security for the people than a united island within the European Union.

    A solution, and the guarantee of long-term security that a solution will bring, will end the ever-present anxiety of all Cypriots. The UN Green Line cuts through the island like a scar and that division has gone on far too long. It is in everyone’s interest that the next generation do not grow up knowing only division, buffer zones and peacekeepers. When visiting the minefields recently, I saw for myself the physical impact of the frozen conflict. I met those brave men who are clearing the mined area, some of whom have been injured in the course of their duty. And it underlined, more than ever, the importance of working towards a settlement, and towards a more peaceful and secure state of affairs.

    And, of course, there will be wider benefits in terms of jobs and opportunities on the Island.

    The British High Commission in Nicosia sponsored two independent reports by the International Peace Research Institute of Oslo looking into the potential commercial and wider economic benefits to Cyprus of reunification.

    The first report, conducted last year, estimated that the benefit for each Cypriot household during the first seven years after a settlement would amount to 5,500 euros per year.  This figure was based on the commercial opportunities for increased trade between the EU, a reunited Cyprus and Turkey.  And I have to say it was a deliberately conservative estimate.

    A second report released earlier this year increased that estimate to 12,000 euros per family by taking into account the effect of the construction boom that a solution would stimulate. The impact of a settlement on tourism, transport, higher education and financial and business services, would raise real GDP growth in Cyprus by 3% in the first five years after a settlement.  I know that’s difficult now in the light of the world financial crisis that we’re all facing.

    That would result in the creation of more than 33,000 jobs, benefiting people from all over the island. Again, these are deliberately conservative estimates.

    These findings confirm what we heard from the IMF and World Bank back in 2004 – that the economy of a re-united Cyprus will be far greater than the sum of its parts.

    And what if the money currently spent on military patrols around the buffer zone were ploughed into redevelopment instead?

    Streets that now play host to decaying buildings and UN soldiers could be transformed into vibrant communities where Cypriot people could live normal lives; could come together to meet and to do business.  You need look no further than Ledra Street for evidence of what can be achieved where there is a will.

    For many who fled their communities in the 1960s and 1970s – who lost their homes, livelihoods, friends and members of their family – healing the psychological scar of the green line will, perhaps, be even more important than the economic benefits of reunification.

    A lasting solution would generate a sense of security, leading to the withdrawal of Turkish troops and the development of a new relationship with Turkey based on peace and common interest.

    It would also enable a generation of people to find a way to close a traumatic chapter of their lives – particularly when the settlement process addresses the property issue.   Many refugees would be able to return to their homes, while others would receive compensation or benefit from exchanging properties.

    And the next generation – their children and grandchildren – would no longer be constrained within communities divided by suspicion and mistrust – but would be free to travel wherever they choose within a stable, united island – and worship in restored mosques and churches.

    Freed from a focus on division, the leaders of a united Cyprus would instead be able to concentrate on the day to day issues that matter so much to people all over Europe – education, health, job creation and building for the future.  They would be able to devote all their time to bringing improvements that would raise the quality of life for everyday people and families from the north and the south.

    Reunification would also provide the space for civil society to flourish and for leaders to look outwards – to spend more time on helping find solutions to global issues such as climate change; energy insecurity; illegal immigration and organised cross-border crime; and to ensure that the Cypriot people come out of the current global economic downturn well placed to enjoy a prosperous and sustainable future.

    The benefits to the Cypriot people of a lasting settlement would spill over to their neighbours and allies as well, including the European Union.  Not least because Cyprus has potential as a positive influence in the region: as a hub of stability at the crossroads between Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

    Again, the benefits go both ways – for too long, people in the north have been unable to reap the full benefits of EU membership or to contribute to the EU effort.  A solution would provide legal certainty and open the way to greater trade, investment and cultural opportunities.

    We need to be clear that these benefits are mutual – increased opportunities for Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots; benefits to both Turkey and Greece.

    Too often in conflict situations, particularly during active settlement negotiations, there is too much emphasis placed on winners and losers.  Everything is boiled down to a zero sum game, where anything that benefits one side is viewed as a defeat for the other.  This is not the reality.  A settlement in Cyprus is a win for both sides.

    It is of course for the Cypriot people to agree on the shape of an eventual settlement.   But I hope that I’ve left none of you in any doubt that the UK is fully committed to offering all the support and assistance we can to the settlement process.

    In closing, I’d like to return to the issue of how you can make a positive difference – and take this chance to appeal to you. Please use the influence you have to ensure these negotiations are successful.  Get in touch with your contacts in Government, in business and in civil society – and urge them to support the current negotiations and reject the status quo.

    Convince Cypriots from north and south to make their voices heard in support of the courageous steps both leaders are facing now and the tough decisions they will need to take in the future.

    Build and strengthen the expectation of success by asking political and community leaders to engage in the bi-communal activity that is absolutely essential to building trust and moving towards the reconciliation that Cypriots deserve.

    And to convince them to reach out and grasp this opportunity to shape a better future.  I hope you agree with me that it’s an opportunity too good to miss.

    Disseminated by:

    For just Social Engineering in Cyprus. No more or No less!

    COMMITTEE FOR THE PROTECTION OF TURKISH CYPRIOT RIGHTS – UK

    CPTCR and CPTR are affiliated to Council of Turkish Cypriot Associations of United Kingdom

    and Turkish Forum, World Turkish Alliance

    c/o SCTA, 152 Old Kent Road,

    London SE1 5TY

    United Kingdom

    [email protected]

    020 7701 7375

    WATCH THE VIDEO https://archive.org/details/CarolineFlintMPCyprusSettlement-WhoBenefits

    Then click embed this again.

    Cyprus Settlement – Who Benefits?
    2nd Keith Kyle Memorial Lecture

    A joint event by the Hellenic Observatory, LSE
    and the Association for Cypriot, Greek & Turkish Affairs

    London School of Economics
    Wednesday 25 February 2009

    Europe Minister Caroline Flint MP set out why a Cyprus settlement is so important to the UK in the 2nd Keith Kyle Memorial Lecture on British-Cypriot Relations at the London School of Economics on Wednesday 25 February.

    Caroline Flint said:

    “With over 300,000 Greek and Turkish Cypriots living in the UK, a long history of trade and increasing numbers of British people choosing to retire in on the island, the UK and Cyprus have much in common. But, with a solution, this relationship will be even stronger and a resolution in Cyprus is strongly in the UK’s national interest.

    With a settlement, the UK will benefit from a Cyprus fulfilling it potential on the international scene, the boost to Turkey’s EU aspirations – which we strongly support and the guarantee of long term stability, peace and security for the people of Cyprus and the wider region.”

    Caroline Flint has a strong interest in supporting Cypriots to find a solution to the Cyprus problem and has made it one of her top personal priorities. Following a successful visit to the island in October (in her first week in the job) she has maintained a close interest in developments and visited the island earlier this month, meeting both leaders. In January she announced a UK donation of 50,000 Euros to the UN Mine Action Centre in Cyprus which helped this important confidence building measure continue its work.

    The full text of the speech (but NOT of the Question and Answer Session) by Caroline Flint is available online at:

    Contact Details:
    Dr Zenon Stavrinides
    General Secretary, Association for Cypriot, Greek and Turkish Affairs
    8 Ganners Mount, Leeds LS13 2PE, Great Britain
    Tel: 0113 256 8907 Mobile: 07790 107353
    Email: [email protected]

    Visit the ACGTA websites at
    and

    Other Online Videos by the ACGTA are visible at:

    Other Cyprus-related videos by this producer are visible online at:
    http://archive.org/bookmarks/grokked

    This movie is part of the collection: Ourmedia

    Producer: Caroline Flint MP
    Keywords: Cyprus; Greece; Turkey; ACGTA; Association for Cypriot Greek and Turkish Affairs; Caroline Flint MP; EU; European Union; United Kingdom; United Nations; James Kerr Lindsay; LSE; London School of Economics; 2nd Keith Kyle Memorial Lecture; Hellenic Observatory

    Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs

  • ARMENIA AND THE ARMENIANS

    ARMENIA AND THE ARMENIANS

    by Hester Donaldson Jenkins

    What really happened in 1915?. 1915 Article in National Geographic is quite a source. The article was written by a professor at the American College for Girls in Constantinople from 1900-1909.

    https://archive.org/details/armeniaarmenians00newy

    Mavi Boncuk |
    ARMENIA AND THE ARMENIANS by Hester Donaldson Jenkins
    1915 National Geographic article | PDF Download
    (1.6 MB)