Monday 18 February 2008

Turkey, attempts to undermine Obama's U.S. presidential campaign

Dear Friend,
The media is preoccupied with the ongoing competition for the most coveted position in a country that has a lot to say about its conduct in the international field. Not surprisingly many capitals around the world are attentively following the outcome.

Like in all such contests “interest groups”, ethnic or otherwise, try to voice their grievances, concerns, and advance their agendas. The war and oil industry, the transnational corporations, although not explicitly, have their say. The Latinos want to achieve a just resolution of the “illegal immigration” syndrome, the African Americans and women voters express their pride...and the list goes on. The Armenians are not an exception. This community that counts an estimated one million and one half people in USA strives to promote its cherished causes.

Avedis Kevorkian's It Wasn't a Win, It Wasn't a Loss; It Was a. . .well, you see it's like this. . . . takes us back to October when it all began. In a humorous way, though probably somewhat unflattering in content for some, the author reminds us of the shortcomings. It is a pleasure to read it and follow the trails of the fox and the mice.

Three items appearing in this issue of Keghart constitute just a sample devoted to the elctions from an Armenian perspective. Appo Jabarian in his article Prime Minister of a foreign government, Turkey, attempts to undermine Obama's U.S. presidential campaign speaks about the interference of a foreign statesman in the process of who the Americans choose as their next commander-in-chief. Candidates McCain, Romney & Huckabee Don’t Seem Interested in Armenian Voters penned by Harut Sassounian reminds the readers of the insensitivity of the Republican contestants, and Looking ahead into the future, distancing from the past is unequivocally Obama's path contrasts the Democratic hopefuls with respect to the recognition of the Genocide of the Armenians if one of them becomes the next president.

Following the previous message of 19th January dealing with article 301 of the Penal code of Turkey the site was hacked and disrupted. It took several days until it got fully restored. Many private messages were received regarding the issues raised in various items that were posted. The most thought provoking was Dr. Tuna Baskoy’s correspondence. He is an assistant professor in the department of Political Science and Public Administration at Ryerson University, Toronto. His remarks interest Turkish and Armenian intellectuals, political leaders, activists, and the public at large. With his kind permission and in the belief that civil society has a say in these matters, the aforementioned correspondence is posted in Keghart in its entirety without alterations under the title Why don't Armenians support the idea of setting up an international commission? It may raise some eyebrows. So be it.

Recently The Human Rights Watch USA 2008 report was published. Olivia Ward, a regular columnist of Toronto Star, presents an overview in the essay Rights group says West backs 'sham' democracies Probably due to limitations of the size of the article references to Armenia and neighbouring countires were not reflected. That geographical area, a hot spot, is of concern to many Keghart readers. Hopefully it will soon be covered in an upcoming essay.

Views expressed in the above articles are those of the respective authors. You may read them by clicking at www.keghart.com
The "Visitors' Comments" section is updated and readers are invited to browse it.

If you would like to submit an article please feel free to contact dikran@keghart.com and provide full name, city and phone number.
A friendly reminder: Please visit Open Letter of Protest/Article 301 and express your voice if you agree with the content.

Respectfully,

Dikran Abrahamian BA, MD
Ontario, Canada

No comments: