Posted on 04/23/2007 4:16:08 AM PDT by theothercheek
Talk about unfortunate timing: Just as European Union diplomats were bending over backwards (or were they just bending over?) to reassure Turkey that a proposal requiring member states to criminalize "publicly condoning, denying or grossly trivialising crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes" will not include the Armenian Genocide, a group of young Turkish nationalists savagely murdered three Christian employees of a bible publishing company in the name of Islam. One of the victims, German citizen Tilman Ekkehart Geske, who was 46, was buried April 20th at an Armenian cemetery in the town of Malatya, a hotbed of nationalism and the hometown of Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981.
The other victims were Turks who had converted to Christianity from Islam. One of them, Necati Aydin, 26, had previously been charged with insulting Islam and was imprisoned for one month after he was caught distributing bibles in Izmir. As in the case of January’s assassination of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink - who was convicted of insulting Turkishness for pressing Turkey to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide - nationalists used Aydin’s prosecution as justification to impose a death sentence.
In two other chilling parallels to Dink’s murder, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul lamented the effect the killings would have on his country's image, and a group of 150 marchers in Istanbul lit candles and unfurled a banner that read "We are all Christians." After Dink’s murder, they were all Armenians, remember?
A supposedly secular nation, Turkey is deeply suspicious of, and hostile to, the Christian minorities living in its midst. The string of attacks on Turkey's Christian community – comprising less than 1 percent of the country’s population of 71 million - that have occurred over the last 14 months include the murders of three Catholic priests, one of whom was praying in church when he was shot to death.
The Associated Press quotes several Turkish media outlets on the motives of the 11 nationalists who have been detained for questioning in connection with the murders as of this writing:
One group of suspects detained in the slayings Wednesday told investigators they carried out the killings to protect Islam, a Turkish newspaper reported. …
"We didn't do this for ourselves, but for our religion," Hurriyet newspaper quoted a suspect as saying. "Our religion is being destroyed. Let this be a lesson to enemies of our religion." …
Local media said the suspects were students, and that the residence where they were staying belongs to an Islamic foundation. …
In a statement, Ronald Pofalla, general secretary of Germany’s Christian Democrat Party - which opposes Turkey's accession to the EU - said: "The Turkish state is still far from the freedom of religion that marks Europe."
Turkey’s Christians are becoming increasingly fearful that as the country becomes more nationalistic and Islamist, they will be repeated targets for violence. The Associated Press reports:
Christian leaders said they worried that nationalists were stoking hostilities against non-Turks and non-Muslims by exploiting growing uncertainty over Turkey's place in the world.
The uncertainty - and growing suspicion against foreigners - has been driven by the faltering EU bid, a resilient Kurdish separatist movement and by increasingly vocal Islamists who see themselves - and Turkey - as locked in battle with a hostile Christian West. …
Nationalists, who have long dominated public debate in Turkey, have also begun to call for Turkey to withdraw its EU bid and make its own way in the world. Some young men indoctrinated with a vision of Turkish greatness - and with a view of the West as intent on keeping the Islamic world weak - view non-Muslims with suspicion. …
Against these developments, the EU is making a grave mistake in letting Turkey off the hook for the genocidal murder of Armenian Christians by their Ottoman forebears. With nationalism and Islamism joining in an unholy alliance, history will surely repeat itself. The Turks got away with it the first time, so what’s to stop them from finishing the job now?
Click Here If You Want To Stop Genocide
The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) is launching a 10-day Internet campaign - "Click for Justice" - that will help voters send targeted e-mail messages to their Senators and Representatives urging passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.106/S.Res.106), and advocating that the U.S. take an active role in ending the genocide in Darfur. The online campaign, which takes place April 20th to 30th, also includes outreach to MySpace and Facebook members. More than 100,000 postcards promoting the "Click for Justice" campaign have been distributed at events and university campuses nationwide. Organizations and student associations that would like to participate can e-mail clickforjustice@anca.org.
NOTE: In case I did not put all the links in correctly, please refer to the original source.
The “secular” Turks - 99.8 percent Muslim - are waging jihad on their Christan population using genocide as the weapon. They started with the Armenians, and will not rest until their country is purged. If no one cares that 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered 92 years ago then they should care that once Turkey is Christian -free, they will have provided a roadmap - and the inspiration - for Islamofascists to do the same around the world until the Caliphate is restored. Not for nothing Turks and other Muslims have been moving to Europe in droves ...
BTTT.
ping
Pull the UN and NATO troops out of Kosovo (the Serbs can handle the problems there) and move them into Turkey to protect the Christian minorities there.
Yup. But Condolezza Rice doesn’t think that the Armenians and other Christians in Turkey need any protection. In fact, the former Russian scholar, refused to say at a House hearing on HR106 that a genocide occurred at all. Yeah, and Islam is a religion of peace. I guess if Rice and Bush kept repeating this mantra so often they believe it - even if the rest of us don’t.
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