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The Armenian Genocide – Another controversial issue for Turkey According to PanArmenian.net, a group of prominent Armenians and Turks initiated a third-party study in 2002 of the procedures of 1915-1918 when they equally came up to the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ). In a comprehensive report, the New York-based organization fulfilled that the Armenian massacres included “all of the elements of the crime of genocide” as distinct by a 1948 United Nations convention. The Armenian Genocide Resolution (S. Res. 106) calls upon George W. Bush to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects suitable sympathy and sensitivity regarding issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide recognized in the United States evidence relating to the Armenian Genocide. U.S. President George W. Bush has also cited the ICTJ study in his annual messages to the Armenian-American community. Bush’s most recent statements called it “a significant contribution toward deepening our understanding of these events”. However, both the US defense secretary and US Secretary of State have sent a letter to senior members of the US Congress indicating the damage that Turkish-US ties could suffer if the pending resolution on Armenian claims of genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks is passed. “It is no secret that the strategic relationship between the United States and Turkey has undergone some turbulence in recent years,” Gates said, in his first public speech after becoming Secretary of Defense. It was not by accident that he spoke at a Turkish-American event, Gates said, adding that Turkey and the United States should avoid damaging attitudes, such as the Armenian genocide resolution pending at the US Congress and the worsening anti-American stance in Turkey. Human rights and freedom of expression violations Despite the escalating pressure by the European Union on Turkey – an EU-hopeful country – regarding freedom of expression, in recent years, hundreds of politicians, writers, journalists and academics have been prosecuted in Turkey for expressing their views. Among them were 2006 Nobel Prize winner, Orhan Pamuk and renowned Turkish novelist Elif Shafak. According to Turkey’s Article 301, mentioning the Armenian genocide or raising the Kurdish issue or praising Kurdish leaders, are criminal offenses. According to this notorious Article, criticizing Turkey in any way is considered “denigrating Turkishness or undermining Turkey’s national unity.” A 92-year-old retired Turkish archaeologist, Muazzez Ilmiye Cig, who is also an expert on the ancient Sumerian civilization of Mesopotamia, has claimed in one of her books that the headscarf worn by Muslim women was first used by women in ancient Sumerian era – for pre-Islamic sexual rites. She went on trial in Turkey for expressing her views, which the government considered “insulting Islam.” In recent years, hundreds of prominent Kurdish politicians and intellectuals have faced charges for referring to Abdullah Ocalan as honorific, or simply for having raised the Kurdish issue. Current Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, himself, was accused of referring to Ocalan as "Sayin" or esteemed in an interview in 2000. Prosecutors examined recordings of the comments, but found him not guilty. On March 6, a Turkish court ordered blocking access to You Tube because of videos allegedly insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish state. Many Kurdish-English websites, newspapers, and TV channels are also being banned in Turkey – something that George Bernard Shaw of the New York Times called “the extreme form of censorship”. EU skepticism over an Islamic Turkish government The skepticism of the European Union towards the efforts of Turkey's Islamist government to meet the EU standards has much elevated. Turkey has been at the center of the altercation between Islamism and freedom of speech. Scientists say religious Muslims in the government, that has its roots in political Islam, are trying to push Turkish education away from its traditionally secular approach. Reuters newly noticed: Now here's a hilarious conundrum for the idiot left that cheers on reactionary Islamism as heroic anti-imperialism. Are we supposed to oppose this garbage when conservative Christians do it in the US, but support it when conservative Muslims do it in Turkey? Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has met and invited his Palestinian counterpart Ismail Haniya of the hardliner Islamist Hamas movement to visit Ankara. Haniya heads the new Palestinian government that includes Hamas, which is regarded as a terrorist group by Israel and the West. Turkey also has strong relations with Iran, which nowadays is almost an isolated regime in the international community, especially in relations with the US and its allies. Turkish Islamist administration was annoyed by an EU mug in Brussels last March. The mug was offered to the French President by German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the last European Union summit, but Turkish media said the lid of the mug portrayed the 1799 defeat of Turkish forces by Napoleon in Egypt. Although Turks are sensitive nationalists in the matter of their related issues, experts believe that the recent reaction by Turkish Foreign Minister was likely religion-related. Another crucial trouble of Turkey with the EU is Cyprus. Last December, the EU suspended talks in 8 of the 35 areas because of Ankara's refusal to open its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus, an EU member that Turkey does not recognize. Now, it is still up to the US to decide whether to share Turkey’s heavy burden, which includes political, military, and financial assistance to overcome its ‘Kurd-phobia,’ the Armenian genocide, the Cyrus issue, the human rights violations, trouble joining the EU and so forth. Or, to support its’ new and loyal Kurdish ally in Kurdistan on which the Americans can depend without facing any hostilities and where, from the beginning of the Iraq War up to now – not a single US soldier has died.
www.newand.net Aram Azez is a Kurdish Political Journalist. He writes about the Kurdish and Middle East Issues in both Kurdish and English languages. Most of his articles are published in Kurdish-English Newspapers and Websites(see www.kurdishmedia.com for his articles in English .) Currently he is editor-in chief of printed Kurdish Newspaper, Newand .
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