Posted on 03/05/2010 11:27:35 AM PST by pissant
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Turkey's foreign minister is warning of a breakdown in ties with the U.S. after a congressional committee approved a resolution branding the World War I-era killing of Armenians genocide.
Ahmet Davutoglu said Friday the Obama administration had not sufficiently put its weight behind efforts to block the vote. He called on the administration to prevent the measure from coming to the full House.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
>>I believe the Turks started WWII on the Axis side.
Neutrals all the way, IIRC. They never joined the Axis, not even when the Wehrmacht moved into Greece.
ColdWar, well, we did use their land to place the Thor(?) missiles and even ran reconaissance flights over the Soviet Union from there.
Anyway, if Congress wants to pass symbolic resolutions on foreign policy, that’s their right.
And it’s not as if Obama wanted this passed, it’s just that his own party didn’t listen to him and went its merry way.
It may well be satisfying to the US Diaspora, but the nation of Armenia just took it on the chin.
They wanted normalization of relations with Turkiye, a process that was about to reach a successful conclusion......
“...paved with blood and the should man up if they want to part of the modern world.”
.
A muslim nation and man up? You’ve got to be kidding. The West is expected to accept Islam as it is, don’t you know?
Succinct and well said.
Here is a fact for you:
Turkey, directly and indirectly, killed over a million Armenians, a genocide of the clearest definition, but won’t admit it.
Over 100 years ago. I suppose you also believe I'm responsible for slavery and should pay reparations, because I live in the South.
I suggest you take a look at a map and the location of Turkey. The use of Turkish air space and our base at Incirlik are vital to the logistical support of Iraq and Afghanistan.
An Air Mobility Command tenant unit at Incirlik, the 728th Air Mobility Squadron, provides air transport of passengers and cargo. It moves 70 percent of all air sustainment cargo going into Iraq.
Yes, the Turks stopped the transit of their country by the 4thID, but the vote in Parliament was very close. In order to understand the vote, you must recognize the impact of the Kurds, the 15 million in Turkey and the millions of others in Iraq. 95% of the Turkish people were against the US invasion of Iraq. As a result, Turkey forfeited a hefty package of grants and loan guarantees amounting to $30 billion.
The Turks were concerned about a possible flood of refugees into Turkey and possible political instability caused by an infusion of Kurds from Iraq.
Turkey is a majority Muslim country that has been a successful democracy. Turkey is a regional power with the potential to serve as a model to nations aspiring toward parliamentary democracy and free market economy. Turkey has a large, well-trained, well-equipped and highly disciplined army that has performed well in operations in Bosnia and Afghanistan. Turkey is part of the energy corridor linking Central Asia and the Caucasus to Europe. Turkey has played the role of honest broker in the Middle East, maintaining good relations with both Israel and the Arab countries.
Turkey acts as an important link in the East-West Southern Energy Corridor bringing Caspian, Central Asian, and Middle Eastern energy to Europe and world markets. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which came online in July 2006, delivers 1 million barrels/day of petroleum, and in 2007, the South Caucasus Pipeline (from Shah Deniz) started bringing natural gas from Azerbaijan to Turkey. Turkey's interconnector pipeline to Greece, an important step in bringing Caspian natural gas to Europe via Turkey, came online in November 2007.
Trade? If the US was to cut ties with Turkey you would hardly notice it. The Turks on the other hand...
The vast majority of Turkey's trade is with the EU.
U.S.-Turkish relations focus on areas such as strategic energy cooperation, trade and investment, security ties, regional stability, the global war on terrorism, and human rights progress. Relations were strained when Turkey refused in March 2003 to allow U.S. troops to deploy through its territory to Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom, but regained momentum steadily thereafter and mutual interests remain strong across a wide spectrum of issues.
On July 5, 2006, Secretary Rice and then-Foreign Minister Gul signed a Shared Vision Statement to highlight the common values and goals between our two countries and to lay out a framework for increased strategic dialogue. U.S. President George W. Bush welcomed Prime Minister Erdogan to Washington for a White House visit on November 5, 2007, during which he committed to provide greater assistance to Turkey in its fight against terrorism from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK or Kongra Gel), which he characterized as a "common enemy" of Turkey, Iraq, and the United States. He reiterated this commitment during President Gul's January 8, 2008, White House visit.
Both Bush and Obama supported Turkey's inclusion in the EU, something everyone knows will never happen.
Kindly explain to me where my post disagrees with you. (Other than that I said it was BOTH an abomination and genocide.)
Strawman’s argument, but thanks for trying.
The holocaust was over 60 years ago, let’s just tell the Jews it was all one big misunderstanding and sweep this 6 million dead people thing under the rug.
And the US Congress is pushing them further in that direction with resolutions on Armenian genocide that are just meant to win votes for Congressmen.
We are somehow supposed to give them a pass because of “strategic interests”, no problems, no worries.
Was it a genocide or not?
The Turks don't consider it to be a genocide. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan statrf, “We regard the statement concerning the 1915 events as an interpretation of history that does not reflect the truth and is thus unacceptable. We are saddened that the issue is being persistently exploited and many politicians are trying to win votes out of the controversy over the 1915 events. Turkey is not a country that can be flattered and then fooled.” Whilst Turkish President Abdullah Gül claimed, “Hundreds of thousand of Turks and Muslims also died in 1915. Everyone’s pain must be shared.”
Are you siding with Mr. Erdogan?
>>And the US Congress is pushing them further in that direction with resolutions on Armenian genocide that are just meant to win votes for Congressmen.
Yup, the AKP and the Generals are now kissing, making up and united.
They weren’t with the arrests of the Generals a few weeks ago.
Nationalism and Islam merge.
Way to go.
I see. Every country should now account for all the dead through out the history of mankind. Because it gives congress something to do. What's next? Spain and South America? Russians and the Ukraine? Hell, we can keep congress busy for decades......
So, how about those Jews?
So lets see, now the Turks can turn around and pass a resolution condemming the US for genocide comitted against the American indians.
Last I checked, they have their own country now...and so does Armenia. What's your point?
Three historians specializing in Near Eastern Studies - Bernard Lewis, Justin McCarthy, and Heath Lowry, all who are members of the Institute of Turkish Studies, as well as the late Stanford Shaw from the Bilkent University, Ankara and independent scholars Guenter Lewy and Eberhard Jäckel are critical of the Armenian Genocide term. In 2004 the British historian Norman Stone wrote from Ankara to the Times Literary Supplement to deny "Armenian nationalist claims that a 'genocide' as classically defined had taken place".
Bernard Lewis questions the Armenian Genocide
I have great respect for Professor Lewis. "There is no evidence of a decision to massacre. On the contrary, there is considerable evidence of attempts to prevent it, which were not very successful. Yes there were tremendous massacres, the numbers are very uncertain but a million may well be likely,...[and] the issue is not whether the massacres happened or not, but rather if these massacres were as a result of a deliberate preconceived decision of the Turkish government... there is no evidence for such a decision."
Lewis stated that he believed "to make [the Armenian Genocide], a parallel with the Holocaust in Germany" was "rather absurd." In an interview with Ha'aretz he stated:
“ The deniers of Holocaust have a purpose: to prolong Nazism and to return to Nazi legislation. Nobody wants the 'Young Turks' back, and nobody wants to have back the Ottoman Law. What do the Armenians want? The Armenians want to benefit from both worlds. On the one hand, they speak with pride of their struggle against the Ottoman despotism, while on the other hand, they compare their tragedy to the Jewish Holocaust. I do not accept this. I do not say that the Armenians did not suffer terribly. But I find enough cause for me to contain their attempts to use the Armenian massacres to diminish the worth of the Jewish Holocaust and to relate to it instead as an ethnic dispute."
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