Turkish Forum

Tag: Davutoglu

  • NEO-CONS AND GENOCIDE-DENYING CORRUPT LACKEY POLITICIANS SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE

    NEO-CONS AND GENOCIDE-DENYING CORRUPT LACKEY POLITICIANS SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE

    appo1
    By Appo Jabarian

    USA Armenian Life Magazine
    March 24, 2010

    In early March, the political wrangling between the righteous and
    corrupt politicians in Washington before, during and after the voting
    by the House Foreign affairs committee sparked a series of articles
    critical of genocide-denying corrupt U.S. politicians both in the
    House and the White House.

    In a 12 March article in Huffington Post, Stephen Zunes wrote that
    failure to acknowledge the genocide “is a tragic affront to the
    rapidly dwindling number of genocide survivors as well as their
    descendents. It’s also a disservice to the many Turks who opposed
    the Ottoman Empire’s policies and tried to stop the genocide, as
    well as the growing number of Turks today who face imprisonment by
    their U.S.-backed regime for daring to publicly concede the crimes
    of their forebears. For example, Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish novelist
    who … was prosecuted and fled into exile to escape death threats
    after making a number of public references to the genocide.

    “Some opponents of the resolution argue that it is pointless for
    Congress to pass resolutions regarding historical events.

    Yet there were no such complaints regarding resolutions commemorating
    the Holocaust, nor are there normally complaints regarding the
    scores of dedicatory resolutions passed by Congress in recent years,”
    added Zunes.

    Opponents of the resolution also falsely argue that its passage by the
    Congress can harm the U.S.-Turkey relations. “The United States has
    done much greater harm in its relations with Turkey through policies
    far more significant than a symbolic resolution acknowledging a
    tragic historical period. The United States clandestinely backed
    an attempted military coup by right-wing Turkish officers in 2003,
    arming Iraqi and Iranian Kurds with close ties to Kurdish rebels in
    Turkey who have been responsible for the deaths of thousands of Turkish
    citizens. The United States also invaded neighboring Iraq. As a result,
    the percentage of Turks who view the United States positively declined
    from 52 percent to only 9 percent,” asserted Zunes.

    The Obama administration, also controlled by the neo-cons, insists that
    “this is a bad time to upset the Turkish government.

    However, it was also considered a ‘bad time’ to pass the resolution
    back in 2007, on the grounds that it not jeopardize U.S. access to
    Turkish bases as part of efforts to support the counter-insurgency
    war by U.S. occupation forces in Iraq. It was also considered a ‘bad
    time’ when a similar resolution was put forward in 2000 because the
    United States was using its bases in Turkey to patrol the ‘no fly
    zones’ in northern Iraq. And it was also considered a ‘bad time’
    in 1985 and 1987, when similar resolutions were put forward because
    U.S. bases in Turkey were considered important listening posts for
    monitoring the Soviet Union during the Cold War. For deniers of the
    Armenian genocide, it’s always a ‘bad time,’” he pointed out.

    In 1981, at a time when the neo-cons failed to control the White
    House, President Ronald Reagan brushed off strong diplomatic protests
    from Turkey and used the term genocide in relation to Armenians,
    yet U.S.-Turkish relations did not suffer.

    How come U.S. acknowledgement of the Jewish Holocaust does NOT upset
    the German government, which also hosts critical U.S. bases?

    “Obama is sending a message to future tyrants that they can commit
    genocide without acknowledgement by the world’s most powerful
    country.” In 1994, the Clinton administration “refused to use the word
    ‘genocide’ in the midst of the Rwandan government’s massacres of over
    half that country’s Tutsi population, a decision that contributed to
    the delay in deploying international peacekeeping forces until after
    the slaughter of 800,000 people. … The Obama administration’

    s
    position on the Armenian genocide isn’t simply about whether to
    commemorate a tragedy that took place 95 years ago. It’s about where
    we stand as a nation in facing up to the most horrible of crimes,”
    confronted Zunes.

    In a March 16 HuffingtonPost.com article, titled “Why the Armenian
    Genocide Matters,”, Writer of words and music, rider of waves, world
    traveler Robbie Gennet wrote: “You may ask yourself why the Armenian
    genocide currently matters, or more accurately, why Turkey is so
    resolute against it being recognized as such. One would think after
    almost a hundred years, an official apology for killing or displacing
    2 million Armenians would be a welcome and long overdue occasion for
    Turkey to make peace with Armenia    . … Germany has made great steps to
    publicly acknowledge and profusely apologize for the Jewish Holocaust,
    even paying reparations, making holocaust denial and the display of
    symbols of Nazism a criminal offense and establishing a National
    Holocaust Memorial Museum in Berlin. But Turkey? They won’t even
    allow the US to label the Armenian genocide as such or acknowledge
    it in any way. Here is why: land.”

    She outlined: “Take a look at a map of pre-genocide Armenia here, here
    and here. What you will notice is that a huge chunk of what is now
    Turkey was then considered Armenia. If the 1915 Turkish actions were
    indeed recognized as a genocide, current day Armenia could potentially
    petition for the return of its land. Note that this may even include
    the area known as Cilicia, a separate but ethnically connected entity
    bordering the Mediterranean Sea that dates back to the Kingdom of
    Cilician Armenia in the early part of the second Millenium. These
    historically grounded lands could rightfully be considered Armenian if
    they could establish that they were unlawfully taken from them via the
    genocide.     The evidence is there and so is the history. Armenia itself
    was officially named way back in 512 BC when it was annexed to Persia,
    while Cilicia was established as a principality it 1078. After years
    of struggle under Turkish, Kurdish and Mongol rule, the Ottoman Empire
    ruled Armenia from 1453-1829, after which the Russian Empire ruled
    through the rest of the 19th century. After the Genocide and WWI,
    what’s left of Armenia was annexed by Bolshevist Russia and became
    part of the Soviet Union from 1922-1991, after which Armenia declared
    its independence. But let’s back up for a moment for a glimpse at
    what happened during WWI”.

    She revealed: “In 1913, three so-called Young Turks took over the
    Turkish government via a coup with a goal of uniting all of the
    Turkic peoples in the region and creating a new Turkish empire called
    Turan with one language and one religion. They wanted to expand their
    borders eastward but standing in their way was historic Armenia. Hence,
    the Armenian Genocide.”

    Gennet asserted: “Judging from Turkey’s recalcitrance to discuss or
    acknowledge it, that stain may never go away. But that doesn’t mean
    it will ever be forgotten, no matter how much Turkey wishes it would
    fade into history. Though they would like to take advantage of the
    world’s collective amnesia, the internet has made it impossible to
    forget and erase” the facts of the genocide by Turkey. In answer to
    Adolph Hitler’s infamous quote, “Who still talks nowadays about the
    Armenians?” she rebutted: “We all do, Mr. Hitler, and long after your
    genocidal dreams have faded, long after the last survivors of those
    inflicted generations have passed, they will not be forgotten.”

    Turkish writer Lale Kemal interestingly wrote in Today’s Zaman:
    “Turkey has currently been paying the price of sweeping under the
    carpet its chronic and historic problems, such as the events of 1915,
    in which, it is claimed, over 1 million Armenians were subjected
    to a genocide campaign under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, the
    predecessor to modern Turkey.     … The Armenian Diaspora has moved
    tobring this topic to the agenda of the Spanish Parliament after the
    regional Catalonian Parliament passed a bill recognizing the events
    as Armenian genocide. … The adoption of the genocide resolution
    by the Committee on Foreign Affairs has already set an encouraging
    example for Sweden to be followed by Britain.”

    Speaking of the Turkish-occupied Armenian lands, Kemal wrote: “But
    Ankara believes that adoption of such a resolution by the full US House
    would have a snowball effect, raising the danger that Armenians will
    initiate legal measures seeking land and compensation from Ankara.”

    “While awareness of anti-Semitism is fortunately widespread enough
    to marginalize those who refuse to acknowledge the Holocaust,
    tolerance for anti-Armenian bigotry appears strong enough that it’s
    still considered politically acceptable to deny their genocide,”
    lamented Zunes.

    The U.S. congressional mid-term elections in November is the number
    one source for pre-occupation among the incumbent congressional
    candidates in battle-ground districts and states.

    Armenian Americans and their friends across the nation should move to
    politically punish the deniers. Denial of the crime of any genocide –
    from Turkish-occupied Western Armenia and Cilicia to Darfur, should
    be made politically unaffordable. The neo-cons and their lackeys do
    not understand the language of morality. But they readily comprehend
    the language of deterrence.

  • More than 100 protesters took to the streets of Istanbul on Friday, March 19, 10

    More than 100 protesters took to the streets of Istanbul on Friday, March 19, 10

    demonsration against Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Istiklal Avenue in Istanbul on March 19, 2010

    Ermeni forumlarindan ulasan bilgiler:

    Turks Forum <turksforum.nl@gmail.com>


    A demonsrator holds a placard reading ”You are not alone” during a demonsration against Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Istiklal Avenue in Istanbul on March 19, 2010. Protestors took the streets accusing Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of racism over his threat to deport illegal Armenian workers in a row over the recognition of Armenian claims of a genocide by Ottoman Turks.
    Photograph by:     Bulent Kilic, AFP/Getty Images

    . com/news/ Turks+protest+ Armenian+ deportation+ threat/2703368/ story.html
     tar.com/news/ Turks+protest+ Armenian+ deportation+ threat/2703368/ story.html
    http://rawstory. com/news/ afp/More_ than_100_ protest_Turkish_ PM_s__03192010. html

    Agence France-Presse  – March 19, 2010 4:03 PM

    A demonsrator (C) holds up a placard that reads, “You are not alone”‘ during a demonsration on Istiklal Avenue, in Istanbul. More than 100 protestors took to the streets of Istanbul Friday, accusing Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of racism over his threat to deport illegal Armenian workers.
     e.ca/Article. aspx?ID=77481&L=en


    ISTANBUL – More than 100 protesters took to the streets of Istanbul Friday, accusing Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of racism over his threat to deport illegal Armenian workers.

    Between 100-150 demonstrators marched along the Istiklal Avenue, the main commercial street on the European side of the city, carrying banners with the inscription “You are not Alone” in Turkish, English, Armenian and Kurdish, an AFP photographer said.

    “Tayyip should be deported! A world without nations, borders and classes,” chanted the demonstrators gathered at the call of a non-governmental organization campaigning for immigrants’ rights.

    A statement, distributed to the press, accused Erdogan of treating Armenian immigrants as a pawn in Ankara’s protests against some foreign parliament’s recognition of Armenian claims of genocide by Ottoman Turks.

    “We strongly condemn Erdogan . . . and those who share his racist and discriminatory mentality,” the statement added.

    The demonstration ended peacefully.

    In comments criticized at home and abroad, Erdogan said his government could expel thousands of illegal Armenian workers if foreign parliaments continue to pass votes branding the World War I-era massacres of Armenians as genocide.

    Resolutions recently voted to that effect in the United States and Sweden “adversely affect our sincere attitude” towards illegal Armenians, Erdogan told the BBC Turkish service on Tuesday.

    “There are 170,000 Armenians in my country. Of these, 70,000 are citizens, but we are tolerating the remaining 100,000 . . . If necessary, I may have to tell them to go back to their country . . . I am not obliged to keep them here,” he charged.

    The exact number of illegal Armenians in Turkey are unknown, but researchers say there are between 10,000 to 20,000 of them, adding that Turkish authorities tend to inflate the figures to put pressure on Armenia.

    Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin perished in a systematic extermination campaign during 1915-1918 as the Ottoman Empire fell apart.Turkey categorically reject the genocide label and argues that the toll is grossly inflated.

  • Turkey’s Political Revolution

    Turkey’s Political Revolution

    THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
    OPINION EUROPE MARCH 22, 2010

    Ankara’s civil-military struggle has global significance

      By MORTON ABRAMOWITZ AND HENRI J. BARKEY

      An unprecedented political drama has been unfolding in Turkey, leading toward the elimination of military tutelage over the country’s political life. Prosecutors recently arrested some of Turkey’s most senior military leaders, both active and retired.

      How this civil-military struggle evolves is critically important for Turkey’s future, but also has global significance. If the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is successful in tapering Turkey’s escalating political polarization, avoiding petty religious issues, and enhancing its own democracy, the impact in the Islamic world, however intangible, could be enormous. Turkey’s friends can help by both making it clear where they stand, and by holding AKP’s feet to the fire.

      Shortly after the 2002 AKP electoral victory, elements of the Turkish military, including senior commanders, began worrying that the AKP would transform Turkey from the secular democracy inherited from Ataturk to a more religious and authoritarian state. Some, as we now know, began plotting against the new government. Their fears turned out to be correct, not because the AKP has turned Turkey into an Islamic state—it has not and is not likely to—but because it has gone very far in eliminating the military’s role in Turkish political life. That is an extraordinary achievement, although it is not AKP’s alone. Rather, it is the result of a profound and long-coming societal change—namely, the emergence of a conservative and pious middle class.

      Shaken by the arrests, a tough response from the Turkish military cannot be ruled out. Senior judges and prosecutors remain squarely in the military’s camp even if their subordinates do not, and the military may rely on the Turkish judiciary to somehow check the AKP, as it has tried to do before. Even if that succeeds, it would be a Pyrrhic victory and, in the end, be unlikely to change the course of Turkish politics’ steady civilianization. The Turkish military will, of course, not lose its importance. It is a formidable force in an unstable area and Turks cherish its patriotism and its contributions to the country’s security. It will retain much of its independence and remain a thorn in the side of the AKP. But its days as a kingmaker of governments are coming to an end.

      The military’s past attempts at interfering in political issues, ranging from the selection of the president to judicial processes, have served to undermine its own legitimacy, while helping the AKP win a second electoral victory in 2007. Still, the paralysis and distraction engendered by the court cases against the military have also taken a toll on the AKP. The party remains the most popular and powerful, but it is more vulnerable than ever, with its poll numbers dropping.

      The AKP has done much to modernize and democratize Turkey—something only a pious and conservative party could have achieved. However, its increasingly combative style and its modus operandi of picking domestic fights rather than carrying out meaningful economic and political reforms have helped reduce its popularity. Its all-powerful prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has turned into an increasingly authoritarian leader, contemptuous of criticism. Mr. Erdogan’s proclaimed activist foreign policy in the Middle East, especially his softness on the Iranian nuclear program and harshness on Israel, has won him domestic and occasional foreign plaudits, but it has also contributed to his sense of invincibility. Neither will his international efforts, however popular at home, compensate for rising unemployment and stalled reform efforts. A party cannot live by foreign policy alone, especially when it also sets the stage for serious overreaching and the alienation of friends and allies. Mr. Erdogan’s remarkable outburst threatening to expel all “100,00 Armenians living illegally in Turkey” in retaliation for the adoption of resolutions in some countries recognizing the 1915 Armenian Genocide, is likely to call into question Turkey’s sincerity in reconciling with its neighbor Armenia, and has even earned him criticism at home.

      Turks will make up their own minds about how to deal with the AKP. Turkey’s tragedy has been the absence of a serious opposition to challenge the AKP. The resulting vacuum has usually been filled by the military. The inability of the opposition to focus effectively on economic or judicial reforms may be a major boon to the ruling party, but it has seriously undermined Turkish democracy.

      Despite Turkey’s impressive strides under AKP rule and the praise it has received from the West, the U.S. and other Western countries still have to put their money where their mouths are. While a genuinely free-market party, the AKP is not a liberal party in the traditional sense—Mr. Erdogan rules his party with an iron fist. Nor does the AKP appear to have much time for the needs of those who oppose it. It has ignored the legitimate fears of pro-secular groups, especially women, and it is intent on subduing the media rather than reforming it. It has also yet to effectively tackle the major cleavages in Turkish life: It made a start on the Kurdish issue but has lost its appetite; has long ignored the need to overhaul its authoritarian constitution and unfair election practices; and has failed to make clear to the public whether it is a truly secular party, as it proclaims.

      Turkey will only move forward if the AKP reshapes itself and acts on its promises to make Turkey a better-functioning democracy. That will not be easy, since politics in Turkey have been a zero-sum game this past decade. The West has praised the AKP until now, but it does Turks no favors by shying away from declaring that major changes are essential for Turkey to be a part of the EU and the wider democratic world. If the AKP doesn’t hear and heed that message, it may engender precisely what Turkey’s Western friends would loathe to see: The re-emergence of an authoritarian society, or even the military’s political comeback.

      Mr. Abramowitz, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, was American Ambassador to Turkey from 1989 to 1991. Mr. Barkey is a visiting fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a professor of international relations at Lehigh University.

    • Turkey to lodge lawsuit against states, recognizing Armenian genocide

      Turkey to lodge lawsuit against states, recognizing Armenian genocide

      03/22/2010

      Turkish oppositional parties’ MPs from National Unity and Republican People’s Party intend to come up with a lawsuit against the states, that recognized Armenian Genocide of 1915 in Ottoman Empire, Turkish Hurriyet reads.

      The final decision on the matter should be made by Turkish government, that is yet silent.

      According to the Republican MP Sukru Elekdag, international court should give a precise response to Turkey about its fault. He reckons that both countries’ parliaments break assumption of innocence, accusing Turkey of the genocide: “I suppose that if we achieve the international out-of-court settlement, extensive work should be done to establish our case.”

      He deems the states, that already recognized the fact of genocide should realize the meaning of the word and determine whether one state can accuse the other of such a crime.

      S.T.

      News from Armenia – NEWS.am

    • Uncomfortable Truth ; Mr Erdogan’s unfortunate threats

      Uncomfortable Truth ; Mr Erdogan’s unfortunate threats

      Re: Uncomfotable Truth – 18/03/2010 as below.
      Dear Editor,
      Mr Erdogan’s unfortunate threats are truly regrettable especially as he does not represent the views of most Turkish People. His threats were quickly denied by his own Foreign Secretary Mr Davutoglu, indicating that this is not part of an Turkish Foreign Policy agenda. You are right in finding his intervention as demagogic and disreputable but he is still the same Prime Minister whose reputation and achievements have been held up as an example of a leader of a moderate Islamic government by most commentators in EU and US until very recently!
      Regarding the Armenian genocide claims, this is far from being an accepted fact and an ‘uncomfortable truth’ for Turkey. The claims have been strongly disputed by hundreds of archives (English, French and Russian) and many non Turkish and Turkish scholars. By the way the Armenian Government refuses to open its own archives. The real truth is that there were awful killings and deaths on both sides due to war, starvation and extreme cold and that in fact more Turks than Armenians had died tragically during this period. Unfortunately the powerful Armenian Diaspora continues to distort history and many people are blind to the obvious facts. Only last year Lord Avebury, along with Armenian activists were trying to lobby the Turkish Parliament by impressing on them the notorious and discredited ‘Blue Book’ and had to be stopped ( details are available).
      We hope that we are all interested in the real truth and that it must prevail.
      Yours faithfully,

      Betula Nelson
      Media Relations
      The Ataturk Society of the UK

      From The Times
      March 18, 2010

      Uncomfortable Truth

      Turkish threats to expel Armenian migrants to make a political point are shameful

      • 9 Comments
      Recommend? (16)

      Deportations have powerful symbolism in modern European history. The notion that the government of a would-be member state of the EU might propose the forced collective expulsion from its territory of a specified nationality ought to be unthinkable. Yet that course was casually threatened yesterday by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, against 100,000 Armenian migrants.

      Its purported justification was the recent passage of non-binding resolutions in the US Congress and the Swedish parliament. These motions describe as genocide the mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during and after the First World War. Turkey takes strong issue with the claim of genocide. The history and politics of TurkishArmenian relations are convoluted, but the ethics of Mr Erdogan’s remarks are not. His intervention is demagogic and disreputable.

      The US and Swedish votes were carried by narrow margins and were opposed by their respective governments. The historical events that they recall began with the massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. The very word “genocide” is a post-1945 coinage, intended to define the peculiar barbarity of Nazism. Only gradually did the Armenian massacres come to be recognised as the first authentic case of genocide in the 20th century. But so they were. On conservative historical estimates, around a million Armenians were killed in a xenophobic purge that continued till 1923. It was a crime without precedent in modern history.

      Historical truth matters. It is extraordinary that the Government of modern Turkey should resist it. No one alive today was responsible for these barbarities. They were committed by an imperial power that has long since passed into history along with Wilhelmine Germany, to which it was allied in the First World War. While running for the presidency, Barack Obama declared his intention of being a leader who would speak the truth about the Armenian genocide. In practice, while his views are a matter of record, Mr Obama has been conciliatory in relations with Turkey.

      Mr Erdogan has little cause for complaint about the symbolic diplomacy of resolutions on historical events. He has no justification whatever for threats against Armenian migrants. Turkey is home to thousands of illegal immigrants from Armenia. Few would dispute that sovereign nations have the right to determine barriers to entry on the part of non-citizens, but these are migrants who have sought refuge from disaster. Forming an impoverished population that does necessary but low-wage work, they include many whose homes and livelihoods were destroyed in the Armenian earthquake of 1988. Mr Erdogan estimated yesterday that of 170,000 Armenians in Turkey, only 70,000 held Turkish citizenship. He threatened directly to tell the rest to leave.

      Turkey is a member state of Nato and a strategically important power within the Western alliance. It borders Iraq, in whose stability the Western democracies have an intense interest. But the Government in Ankara cannot exploit that status in order to advance its own diplomatic goals at the expense of liberal values. To object to a proper historical accounting of awesome crimes is a demeaning and destructive stance. But then to retaliate against the most vulnerable people within Turkey’s borders is unconscionable.

    • Advice to Prime Minister Erdogan:

      Advice to Prime Minister Erdogan:

      Continue Denying the Armenian Genocide

      Mr. Erdogan, please keep up the good work. Armenians need your kind assistance to pursue their cause until justice is done.

      By Harut Sassounian

      Publisher, The California Courier

      sassounian32

      It is a well-known fact that Turkish leaders are exceptional diplomats. However, as soon as they hear the words Armenian Genocide, Greece, Cyprus or Kurdistan, these diplomats lose their “cool” and resort to emotional outbursts and undiplomatic actions that harm their own interests.

      Realizing that this is the 95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Turkish officials have been nervously preparing themselves for the upcoming tsunami of commemorations that would remind the international community of the crimes against humanity committed by Ottoman Turks.

      The first unexpected shot was fired on February 26 by the Parliament of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, Spain, when it unanimously recognized the Armenian Genocide. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu immediately contacted his Spanish counterpart and Catalonian officials venting his anger and demanding an apology!

      Two days later, an expose of the Armenian Genocide was aired by CBS’s 60 Minutes, showing bones of Armenian victims still protruding from Syrian desert sands, almost a century later! The Turks were livid, accusing Armenians of unduly influencing the CBS network and questioning, as usual, the authenticity of the bones and the sand!

      Four days later, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a resolution acknowledging the Armenian Genocide. Turkey lost despite:

      n      Pressuring the Obama administration to oppose the resolution;

      n      Hiring multi-million dollar lobbying firms;

      n      Sending teams of Turkish parliamentarians to Washington;

      n      E-mail campaigns by Turkish and Azeri Americans; and

      n      Threatening to boycott U.S. defense contractors if they did not oppose the resolution.

      Immediately after losing that vote, Turkey recalled its Ambassador from Washington, indicating that he may be kept in Ankara until after April 24. State Minister Zafer Caglayan postponed his U.S. visit, intended to develop economic ties, “until the United States corrects its mistake.” A scheduled trip by the executive board of the Turkish Industrialists’ & Businessmen’s Association to Washington on March 16 and 17 was also canceled, and anti-American protests were held in Turkish cities. More importantly, Prime Minister Erdogan indicated that he might cancel his planned participation in the global summit on nuclear security to be held in Washington next month.

      Before Turkish passions had cooled down, Sweden’s Parliament dealt a second devastating blow to Ankara on March 11, by reaffirming the genocide of Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks, by a vote of 131-130. Once again, Turkey recalled its Ambassador, and Prime Minister Erdogan canceled his upcoming trip to Stockholm which was to be accompanied by a large trade delegation. And, anti-Swedish demonstrations were held in several Turkish cities.

      These overly dramatic reactions prompted Turkish and foreign commentators to have a field day, speculating that if more countries recognize the Armenian Genocide, Turkey won’t have ambassadors left anywhere in the world, and Turkish officials won’t be visiting other countries, having to cancel their overseas trips. Furthermore, Turkey would be left without any imported goods and a weakened military, having canceled all purchases from the outside world. Turkey’s isolation is a just retribution for its denialist policy. By trying to punish others, Turkey is simply punishing itself.

      Vahe Magarian of Cincinnati, Ohio, sent a pointed letter to the New York Times last week, suggesting that Turkey’s recalled Ambassadors, “rather than flying home, should be made to march home on foot. Forced marches were the preferred means of travel during the dying days of the Ottoman Empire.”

      Prominent Turkish commentator Can Dundar wrote in Haber1 an article titled: “Are we going to recall all our Ambassadors?” He stated that, at this rate, by the time the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide rolls around in 2015, there won’t be a single country left not accusing Turkey of genocide. Isn’t it about time that we search out what dirty work our fathers did 95 years ago? Shouldn’t we ask what did we do wrong, Dundar implored.

      The main reason why Turkish officials panic every time the Armenian Genocide is acknowledged by yet another country is their fear of being asked to pay compensation for Armenian losses and return the occupied lands. Prime Minister Erdogan and his colleagues don’t seem to understand that Genocide recognition by itself does not lead to legal claims. How many inches of land have Armenians managed to liberate from Turkey as a result of such recognition by more than 20 countries? If Turkish leaders would only understand that parliamentary resolutions have no legal effect, maybe they would not get so excited over them!

      Nevertheless, there should be no doubt that Armenians still demand the return of their ancestral lands located in Eastern Turkey. Such claims have to be pursued in various courts, unless an unexpected cataclysmic event occurs first, causing the collapse or dismemberment of the Turkish State.

      In the meantime, we advise Mr. Erdogan to continue denying the Genocide at every opportunity, in order to encourage Armenians to persist in their efforts to expose Ankara’s lies. Were it not for Turkish officials’ vehement denials, there would not have been a worldwide outcry to reaffirm the facts of the Armenian Genocide by airing TV documentaries and adopting genocide resolutions.

      Mr. Erdogan, please keep up the good work. Armenians need your kind assistance to pursue their cause until justice is done.