Armenian Genocide & UK Politics‏

British justice minister tells Erdoğan ’genocide’ bill will not pass
ISTANBUL — Daily News with wires
Tuesday, March 16, 2010

British Justice Minister Jack Straw on Tuesday assured Turkey's prime minister
that Parliament would not pass a resolution recognizing the Ottoman-era killings

of Armenians as "genocide," CNNTürk reported.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was in London on an official visit

Tuesday, during which he was scheduled to meet with British Prime Minister

Gordon Brown.

"The chance of this becoming law is zero," Straw said, according to CNNTürk's

Web site. "I can assure everyone on this issue."

After the Swedish parliament adopted an Armenian "genocide" resolution last

week, many have turned their attention to the British Parliament, where a draft

will be submitted to a House of Commons committee after a second reading on

April 30.

If it is approved, an “Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day” will be established

in the country.

"The English government and the opposition do not support this draft," Straw said.

The British committee is scheduled to hold its last evaluation in late March; the first

reading of the draft was made Jan. 6. A similar draft will follow the same process

in the British House of Lords.

Armenians claim 1.5 million of their kin were massacred in 1915 at the hands

of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey rejects these claims and says many people on both

sides were killed during a period of civil strife.

From The Times
March 18, 2010
Uncomfortable Truth
Turkish threats to expel Armenian migrants to make a political point are

shameful

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.

Comments on Times website:

adir yoruk wrote:
One day INDEPENDANT historians will put this so called 'genocide' accusation right

through the UN, and the finger waving hand slapping western peoples will shut up and

move onto their next victim, hopefully it will be against those that have done us much

harm, for example the bulgarians who took my grandfathers(both parents by the way

and my wifes grandparents) land, home and expelled us from bulgaria, or my uncles

wifes parents who suffered a simalar fate at the hands of the greeks, or my dads best

friend from the crimea or my best friends parents from macedonia, or my other uncles

wife from bosnia, who all live in turkey in safety now thankfully. Or perhaps the hundreds

of thousands turkish cypriots who now live away from their lands UK=350,000,

USA=250,000,Australia=100,000,Canada 100,000 all kicked out quite recently(1950's

onwards) by greek cypriots with the help from their western allies, of course most now

have been away for so long that they have no real ties with cyprus(well done to all the

nations mentioned above,well played)nor do they have cypriot citizenship anymore.

But then again who cares what happens to turks right,they should all pack up and go

back to central asia, they had 1000 years now among you guys and only ever caused

you trouble,so bye bye im off to pack my bags(once again).
March 19, 2010 1:46 AM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
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M B wrote:
How about this idea: The European Union suggests that it may consider transfering

Turkey's E.U. candidate status to Armenia.

Regardless of what happens it is clear that Turkey has a LONG way to go before EU

membership should even remotely be an option. There are an incredible myraid of

reasons not to admit Turkey in the near future. Maybe in several decades the issue

can be re-examined.

It is clear that Turkey is still an adversary of Armenia (and Cyprus). The EU was very

wise to admit Cyprus to join well before Turkey.

Also, I hope that the members of the Swedish parliament warn the Prime Minister not

to insult them in a way desired by a genocide denying head of state.
March 18, 2010 4:54 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
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Eva Wright wrote:
Lot of selective memory from the people who comment. I seem to remember that you

Brits are only too keen to deport illegal immigrants. The US is also conspicuous by their

genocide of their native Indian population (even after signing a peace treaty with them).

Not satisfied, they went on a few years later, and took a similar approach in the

Philippines. I’m a great advocate of Turkey becoming an EU member. Unlike France

they are a loyal NATO member, and far less trouble. The current “Islamic” government

has done more to bring Turkish laws into line with “EU standards”, and more to create

a stable economy, than most previous “non-Islamic” governments. So let’s give them

a kick were it hurts, encourage them to join the extremist camp, but don’t be surprised

if their sons leave nasty deposits on your doorstep.
March 18, 2010 4:28 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
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sharif Lone wrote:
Erdogen's threats are not only shameful, but primitive. Many countries dispatch illegal

migrants away, but Turkey is doing it to make a point about genocide of Armenians in

early 290th century.
I think if Germany's Chancellor Merkel did the same to Turks living in Germany, Erdogen

will try blackmailing Germany also. I have no trust in governments which are voted to

encourage religious feelings against others.
March 18, 2010 2:31 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
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Fati Raster wrote:
See the New York Times for recent articles giving us the latest developments in Turkey.

The power of army as a political force is broken, this Islamist government has also hit

at critics of its views. Turkey is travelling to the Islamic right, the one force that could have

stopped this is now longer able to do so.
Turkey is a real worry, why our political caste want to invite it into the EU is a nighmarish

puzzle. This is a state ceasing to be 'secular' by the day.
March 18, 2010 2:22 PM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
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W Gladstone wrote:
@Keith Welton

No Sir, you are missing the point. Turkish membership of the Eu will not be used to justify

the membership of the countries you list. Rather, it is intended to provide justification for

the fast-tracked admission of Israel as a "counter-weight" member and, of course, a near

Middle-East neighbour of an EU State.
March 18, 2010 11:15 AM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
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Seto Boyadjian wrote:
Mr. Erdogan’s threat to deport Armenians from Turkey in retaliation for Armenian Genocide

recognition resolutions is indeed “shameful,” as the Times courageously asserts. Turkey,

our NATO ally and strategic partner, is exploiting our partnership without sharing our values.

It is sad that Mr. Erdogan is resorting to tactics reminiscent of Ottoman Turkey, which carried

out the first genocide of the twentieth century against its helpless Armenian population. The

Ottoman Turkish Interior Minister Mehmet Talaat uttered the same threats in 1914 when

European countries decided to implement the promised reforms to ameliorate conditions

for Armenians living within the Ottoman Empire. To end European initiatives, Mr. Talaat and

his Young Turk government decided, planned and implemented the mass deportation and

extermination of their Armenian subjects. As a result, Western Armenia was depopulated

and more than 1.5 Armenians slaughtered. Before Mr. Talaat and the Young Turks, in 1892

the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid pursued the same objective of ending European reforms

by massacring and deporting his Armenian subjects in such major cities as Adana. As a

result, more than 200,000 Armenians were massacred.

Apparently, Mr. Erdogan is bent on following in the footsteps and his grandfathers. Just like

Mehmet Talaat and Sultan Abdul Hamid, he is telling Western world stop recognizing the

Armenian Genocide or else Armenians will be deported … again.

Erdogan seems to justify the old saying “like father, like son.” But in his case it would be

more accurate to say “like father, like grandson.”

Seto Boyadjian
Attorney at Law
Pasadena, California USA

March 18, 2010 7:40 AM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
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Anthony Anders wrote:
Even more shockingly, Der Spiegel reports that Turkey recently invited well-placed

members of the Turkish diaspora throughout Europe to an all-expenses paid summit

in Turkey, then told them to "inoculate European culture with Turkish culture."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,684125,00.html

European citizens of Turkish descent were expected to become agents working on behalf

of the Turkish government's foreign policy goals.

How much more evidence do we need that Turkey is not fit to be a member of the

European Union? Why is there a total consensus among our major political parties that it

should be allowed in?
March 18, 2010 2:21 AM GMT on community.timesonline.co.uk
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Keith Welton wrote:
And many politicians want Turkey to be allowed into the EU. What next? Syria, Iraq, Iran?