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Turkey’s Top General: "The US Shot Itself in the Foot"
http://www.thememriblog.org/turkey/blog_personal/en/3225.htm ^

Posted on 10/15/2007 5:06:41 PM PDT by cool2007

The US shot itself in the foot, commented the Chief of General Staff General Yaşar Büyükanıt after a US congressional vote branding the killing of Armenians in 1915-17 as genocide, Milliyet reported yesterday. In an interview with the daily, Büyükanıt said if the non-binding resolution that passed in a House committee last week was to be adopted in the House too, Turkish-US military ties would “never be the same again.”

The general expressed the opinion that world parliaments had no business in judging history. He said, “The US is a very important ally of ours, but an ally does not act like this.”

This week, General Buyukanit will visit Israel.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 110th; armenia; armeniangenocide; armenians; nancypelosi; pelosi; turkey
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To: cool2007; All

translation of general comment: Gimme a dollar...


101 posted on 10/15/2007 7:08:38 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: muawiyah

You are right of the democrats.

That said, Turkey sees this as an excuse to get money out of the stupid americans. If not this it would have been something else.


102 posted on 10/15/2007 7:23:30 PM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: longtermmemmory
We don't have a statement from the Turkish President yet. Time will tell. Anyway, if he wants to have a bunch of Iranians climbing his tail, I guess he's free to go along with the Democrats and try to leave our army high and dry in Iraq.

I doubt he cares to have Iranians on his doorstep.

103 posted on 10/15/2007 7:26:19 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: RKV
RE: So our so-called allies didn’t screw us royally in 2003?

The Turks had asked to cross into Iraq on the border to take care of the problem that is still with us today, the PKK / KADEK Marxist workers party. Washington refused them.

Also, newspapers at the time reported that France told Turkey that if Turkey helped the U.S. they would never, never get into the EU.

The PKK had by that time killed an estimated 22,000 Turkish citizens civilian and military.

Yes, we were "screwed by the Turks;" but if our border with Mexicorruption ever gets to were drug-smuggling violence has killed off 22,000 Americans I think then we will understand how important it is to the Turks.

All Washington had to do in 2003 was to say, yes -- and guarantee Turkoman citizens protection in Kirkuk.

I would have to revisit the newspaper reports of that time period to refresh my memory. There were several other problems that Washington ignored Turkey's protests.

104 posted on 10/15/2007 7:28:03 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: Gritty

UHHH. When did congress get balls?????


105 posted on 10/15/2007 7:40:50 PM PDT by US_MilitaryRules (All my bullets are dipped in PIG fat. How about yours?)
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To: cool2007

No the demonrats shoots at American troops


106 posted on 10/15/2007 7:44:15 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK (In everyday life there is more than meets the eye to reach the depths of truth we must DRAGTHEWATERS)
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To: US_MilitaryRules
When did congress get balls?????

It doesn't. But America does.

Please don't confuse this Democrat Congress with "America", or anything even approaching her...

107 posted on 10/15/2007 7:56:12 PM PDT by Gritty (With Dems forcing an end in Iraq we must now prepare to fight at home for the next 30+ years-Ed Koch)
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To: WilliamofCarmichael
The action taken by the Democrats to ONCE AGAIN charge the Ottoman Turks with Genocide - had ONE PURPOSE ONLY...

To throw fuel on the fires already burning in the region, to do anything possible to make VICTORY for the U.S. more difficult...

The ONE thing the Democrats can not allow and will not survive, is an American VICTORY against the Islamists — their allies against “Bush”...and Conservative America....

The Democrats have CLEARLY become the enemy within....

What the Leftists haven’t figured out, is that it is THEIR base who will be most impacted by Sharia law..
The pious Islamists kill perverts, adulterers and blasphemers —— and terribly punish drinkers, gamblers, thieves, whores, drug users and the “immodest”, etc........

This would play HAVOC with the Liberal “Progressive” Leftists of the Democrat base.

DAMN!
The more I think about that, the better it begins to sound.... I’ll have to buy me a Koran and study up!

108 posted on 10/15/2007 7:57:29 PM PDT by river rat (Semper Fi - You may turn the other cheek, but I prefer to look into my enemy's vacant dead eyes.)
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To: WilliamofCarmichael

You got a source for the 22000 number, because I ain’t believing it without one.


109 posted on 10/15/2007 8:13:54 PM PDT by RKV (He who has the guns makes the rules)
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To: El Gato
RE: The [Kurdish groups] giving them problems have gotten Iranian support, and earlier they got support from a certain Socialist country that is not far from Kurdistan and Turkey.

I've found where Syria was supporting the PKK until Turkey put an end to it with some kind of agreement with Syria in 1998. I could not find anything about Iran supporting the PKK except as one Freeper suggested they did it through Syria (until 1998). The old USSR help found the PKK, now known as KADEK (I believe).

RE: If the Turks had let the 4th ID move across Turkey. They'd likely not have the problem with left wing Islamo Nut terrorist type Kurds coming across the border.

Actually, Turkey wanted to enter the border area to take care of the PKK problem if they let the U.S. Army enter Iraq across their border. Washington said no.

There was a lot of speculation about Turkey wanting to continue to Kirkuk to protect the Turkoman people but with U.S. guarantees of Turkoman safety that probably would not have been a problem.

There were several disputes between Ankara and Washington -- with France butting in -- that caused Turkey to "screw us."

RE: [Turkey] also fail[s] to make distinctions between Kurdish groups.

Turkey knows very well the difference. They know the PKK. They do business with the two Kurdish ruling parties, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's PUK and President of the Kurdistan Region Masud Barzani's KDP.

Or, maybe I misunderstood

110 posted on 10/15/2007 8:17:12 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: RKV
From a BBC article on recent murder of Turkish soldiers by PKK (considered a Kurdish terrorist organization by U.S., U.K. and E.U.): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6537751.stm

More than 37,000 people have died since the PKK launched an armed independence campaign in Turkey's southeast in 1984

111 posted on 10/15/2007 8:29:28 PM PDT by L.M.H.
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To: RinaseaofDs; sourcery
RE: Really? Is that the only consideration here?

I too find that troubling.

I have posted (in replies) several comments about the Resolution being secondary now that the Armenians are about to start litigation. No surprise, the purpose of all this is getting money and territory -- enough already with condemning Turkey, make 'em pay. That's the ticket now.

In particular I've referenced Mr. Harut Sassounian author, publisher, and prominent activist promoting Armenian issues and causes.

The comment that "we are morally obligated to say so (if nothing else,) regardless of the consequences." (I.e., pass the resolution no matter what it does to the troops.) is troubling because I've also heard several talk show callers say exactly the same thing even when the host explained the consequences to our troops!

The Armenian Diaspora here in the U.S. is politically powerful and IMO will not care one whit about the security of the United States of America if it interferes with getting what they and Armenia are after. That's my opinion. Of course, the Rat Party (formerly the traditional, patriotic Democratic Party) will be with the Armenians 100% as long as it helps their Party.

112 posted on 10/15/2007 8:34:26 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: muawiyah
RE: the Ottoman Empire did the dirty deed. That empire consisted of a fair number of provinces which are now reconfigured as various states.

. . . plus one long time military adviser: The German Army.

There is more than ample proof of Germany's complicity why not include Germany? One source is 'German Responsibility in the Armenian Genocide: A Review of the Historical Evidence of German Complicity' by Vahakn N. Dadrian.

113 posted on 10/15/2007 8:38:11 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: sourcery
There’s really only one morally valid question here: Did the Turks commit genocide against the Armenians during WWI? Yes or no? If they did, then we are morally obligated to say so (if nothing else,) regardless of the consequences.

Then where is the rowanda and dafur resolutions. This is pure politics. They are cowards and won't to remove funding so they are setting up for Turkey to do thier bidding.
114 posted on 10/15/2007 8:53:13 PM PDT by genxer
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To: All
I spent a year stationed in Turkey, and there are few allies as pro-American as the Turks.

The murder of the Armenians was a horror, but it was performed by the Ottoman Empire, NOT the Turkish Republic.

The resolution now before the House is timed to sabotage the war effort. Murtha boasted that he would use whatever means at his disposal to make it impossible to prosecute the GWOT front in Iraq. Not one Dem wants victory. They relish in the death and wounding of brave American warriors for their own political agenda. The Dems have implied time and again that Iraqi (Arab) lives are not worth the same as American lives. They are freaking racists and traitors.

Go ahead schmucks, sue me!

These Dems speak of the Common Man until it comes time for their precious darlings to serve.

Remember this, oh ye patriots! A protest vote not cast or cast some ideologue who cannot win IS A VOTE FOR THE DEMOCRATS - the party of sedition, and defeatism.

115 posted on 10/15/2007 8:56:00 PM PDT by ProudArmyRetiree (US Army (Ret.) and Proud Republican)
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To: RKV
RE: I ain’t believing it without [a source].

Fair enough. And thanks to others who also posted a source.

A separatist insurgency begun in 1984 by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - now known as the People's Congress of Kurdistan or Kongra-Gel (KGK) - has dominated the Turkish military's attention and claimed more than 30,000 lives. After the capture of the group's leader in 1999, the insurgents largely withdrew from Turkey mainly to northern Iraq. In 2004, KGK announced an end to its ceasefire and attacks attributed to the KGK increased.

30,000 is probably the most common estimate. I said 22,000 which is an estimate of the number attributable to the terrorists' actions. Our own State Dept. and European governments list the PKK/KADEK/KGK as a terrorist organization.

116 posted on 10/15/2007 9:04:05 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: sourcery
Probably the largest Genocide, well more like classicide, (”enemies of the people” and all that), in terms of fraction of the country's population, was the “Killing Fields of Cambodia”. You’ll not the DemonRats endless complaining about that. Those doing the killing were much too close to the ideology of the Cleadership of the D party for that. Two other major instances, well three or four really, were done by the ideological comrades of today's modern Democrats.

The Red mass murderers make the Ottomans look like pikers.

Ottoman Turkey 1915-1917 Armenians (mostly Christians) 1-1.5 million

China, Red 1949-1952 1957-1960 1966-1976 Political opponents; Rural populations Enemies of the state 20-35 million

Soviet Union 1929-1945 Political opponents; farming communities 20 million

Cambodia (Khmer Rouge) 1975-1979 Educated Persons; Political enemies 2 million

117 posted on 10/15/2007 9:07:05 PM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: DoughtyOne
Thanks. I’m suspecting there may have been a hiatus during that period though. Heh heh heh...

Actually, IIRC, the Ottomans Turks, took in many of the Spanish Jews chased out of Spain by the Christians. That pretty much ended in 1492, when the Christian forces kicked last of the Muslims, who had been protecting the Dhmini Jews, and then kicked out the Jews, giving them just enough time to sell their possessions at below rock bottom prices.

You've heard of the Sephardim? They are the Jews from Spain.

118 posted on 10/15/2007 9:16:35 PM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: WilliamofCarmichael
Or, maybe I misunderstood

Maybe it's the State Department that doesn't make sufficient distinction between Kurdish groups.

However, what I should have said was "some Turks" don't make sufficient distinction, I didn't mean to imply that the Turkish government did not. Just as "some Americans" don't make sufficient distinction between various Islamic groups and nations.

119 posted on 10/15/2007 9:25:04 PM PDT by El Gato ("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
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To: El Gato

Thanks for the inside on that. There’s so much history that it’s tough to keep up. This is the second topic in the last few days that I’ve been underinformed on. You did help. I appreciate it.


120 posted on 10/16/2007 12:48:22 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (Hillary has pay fever. There she goes now... "Ha Hsu, ha hsu, haaaa hsu, ha hsu...")
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