110th year since the Armenian Genocide by Turkey's Islamic Ottoman empire

This year marks the 110th since Turkey committed the Armenian Genocide during WW1, a horrifying history that Turkey and even Azerbaijan still won't clearly acknowledge and definitely haven't apologized for:

April 24 marked the 110th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, during which up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by the Ottman Empire.

Tensions always rise between the Armenians and the modern Turkish government at this time of year, and many Armenians are now taking time during the day to reflect on Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of Armenians from the Nagorno-Karabakh region in late 2023.

Modern historians look upon the events of 1915-1916 as the first of several genocidal events in the 20th Century, while Turkey disputes the allegation that its Ottoman predecessors were attempting to systematically eliminate the Armenian people, as Nazi Germany would later treat the Jews, or the Hutus of Rwanda would treat the Tutsis.

[...] There were numerous international witnesses to these atrocities, including foreign reporters and military officers. Modern Turkish politicians are generally willing to admit that Armenian civilians were killed and abused in great numbers, but they insist there is no documented proof that the Ottoman government was deliberately trying to exterminate the entire Armenian people.

The Armenians say the Ottomans wanted to eliminate them because they were an inconvenient Christian people standing in the way of the Young Turks’ vision for a mighty Turkic empire that would stretch from the Caucasus all the way to China.

[...] Many Armenians today accuse Azerbaijan of ethnic cleansing – eliminating a people by forcibly relocating them, rather than murdering them all – after its military conquest of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in 2023.

Nagorno-Karabakh is a swath of territory that fell inside the borders of Azerbaijan after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but most of its inhabitants were ethnic Armenians, who had dwelled in the area they called the “Republic of Artsakh” for centuries, ever since the height of the greater Armenian kingdom.

If the aforementioned Hen Mazzig were really concerned about forced relocation, he would've taken up topics like this, and thrown his support behind the community that really needs backing, here being Armenia's. Instead, he took the side of the savages.

Writing at the Christian Post last Sunday, religious freedom advocate David Curry urged the U.S. government to hold Azerbaijan accountable for abusing Armenians and other Christians, including the ethnic and religious cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The above columnist is absolutely correct. And it's vital to note that Armenia's current premier has to shoulder blame for much of what's befallen the country lately:

Some in the Armenian diaspora have criticized the government of Armenia for stepping back from its efforts to get the other nations of the world to formally recognize the 1915 genocide, in part because the government believes it is making diplomatic progress with Turkey and Azerbaijan.

In March, Armenian President Nikol Pashinyan told Turkish reporters that obtaining international recognition of the Armenian Genocide “is not among our foreign policy priorities today.” He hinted that insisting on recognition of the event was an obstacle to signing a treaty with Azerbaijan or normalizing relations with Turkey.

So not only did he allow Azerbaijan to take over Arsakh without a genuine fight, he's also selling out on the issue of recognition of a serious issue. This too is very chilling, and Pashinyan doesn't deserve to be a politician.

Here's some more history (via The Daily Wire) of some of the most obscene incidents during tragedy:

While the death toll is in dispute, photographs from the era document some mass killings. Some show Ottoman soldiers posing with severed heads, others with them standing amid skulls in the dirt. The victims are reported to have died in mass burnings and by drowning, torture, gas, poison, disease and starvation. Children were reported to have been loaded into boats, taken out to sea and thrown overboard. Rape, too, was frequently reported.

Just one more reason it's a disgrace anybody lets countries governed by the Religion of Peace off the hook. Of course, CNN is still making things worse by using that line "death toll in dispute". It is most definitely not.

Rabbi murdered in UAE

A missionary rabbi was sadly found murdered in the UAE:

An Israeli man who went missing in the United Arab Emirates has been found murdered, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday, denouncing his death as a “heinous antisemitic terrorist act.”

Zvi Kogan, a rabbi who worked in the Gulf Arab country for an Orthodox Jewish group called Chabad, vanished in Dubai on Thursday.

“The state of Israel will use all means at its disposal to bring the criminals responsible for his death to justice,” the prime minister’s statement said.

The authorities of the UAE did trace and arrest some suspects, and this is what's revealed about them:

It is believed that Kogan was attacked by three Uzbeks, who are suspected of having been hired by Iran. The three allegedly followed Kogan from his workplace, the kosher supermarket in Abu Dhabi, and then escaped to Turkey. Kogan's vehicle was found an hour and a half's distance from Dubai.

What that demonstrates is how Islamofascists can hire other Islamofascists from all sorts of places to do each other's dirty work. And now it's cost a defenseless man his life. Condolences to the rabbi's family.

Turkish MP dies after delivering anti-Israeli tirade

Looks like a most antisemitic member of Turkey's pseudo-parliament paid for his vulgar screeds big time:

Turkish lawmaker Hasan Bitmez of the hardline Islamist Saadet Party (SP) died in the hospital on Thursday, two days after he collapsed during a fiery tirade against Israel at the Turkish National Assembly.

Bitmez, 54, collapsed at the climax of a 22-minute speech on Tuesday in which he criticized the government of Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP Party for not taking a strong enough stance against Israel in the Gaza war.

[...] The parliament was reportedly debating the national budget at the time of his remarks. It is not clear from Turkish media reports if Bitmez’s anti-Israel attack was germane to the budgetary considerations at hand.

For many of these Islamofascists, nothing is ever enough. But here's one scumbag who sure wound up potentially facing the Lord's wrath due to his offensive tirade.

BREAKING...Reports Of Ongoing Military Coup In Turkey - CONSTANTLY UPDATED - GO TO THE BOTTOM OF THE POST

Photo credit: NBC 7 San Diego

There has definitely been a coup attempt. It is unclear who has control.

CNN: Turkish military units attempt uprising, PM says.

A report from the U.S. Embassy in Ankara said military-appearing jets had been flying low over the city and Istanbul for about an hour.

Tanks and troops in the streets.

Bridges blocked.

State television appears not to be broadcasting.

No flights in or out.

Internet shut down.

Erdogan is out of the country and seeking asylum in Germany.

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RT: Breaking...Helicopter seen shooting state broadcaster's HQ in Ankara, explosions heard
Seems Erdogan was caught with his pants down...
Senior US military source tells NBCNews that Erdogan, refused landing rights in Istanbul, is reported to be seeking asylum in Germany

Turkish news agency reports Chief of Turkish Army and other generals have been taken hostage

****if I am reading the tea leaves correctly, it appears Erdogan revised the Constitution and replaced key military heads to accomodate reIslamization of Turkey. The above links suggest the moderates in the military (Kemalists) have taken over

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Turkish Justice Minister reportedly blames the coup on members of a movement loyal to US-based cleric Mohammed Gulen.

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Continue to shelter in place in #Turkey. Do not attempt to go to US Embassy or Consulates at this time

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NBC reporting that President Erdogan's asylum request has been rejected by the Germans, he is thought to be flying to London

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This is a welcomed return to normal.

But there's a lot more Islamist citizens in Turkey now than there was last time, or the time before that, or the time before that.

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CNN: LIVE video of shooting in Istanbul

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... The Turkish Military is like a secular business friendly militia.

Our relations were a lot better with Turkey in the past when the military was in charge.

The electorate in Turkey, like in Egypt, Iraq, and every other place Muslims have been allowed to vote, are overlay persuaded by the Cleric.

If fact this is not much different than what went down in Egypt recently.

Every Turk I've ever ran across on the Internets has been a anti-American asshole btw.

As a whole they're still having a hard time getting their minds around the fact that their time as an influential empire is over and it aint coming back.

The Turkish military understands this though. They wouldn't have destabilized Syria.

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Video of tank pushing civilian vehicles out of its way

..... And the timing of this coincides with Ergodan (and thus Turkey's) defacto loss in Syria..... courtesy of Turkey's historical enemy Russia.

Misadventure has it's consequences.

It seems the military opposition might have miscalculated support for the coup. If their was support for overthrowing the government, this would be finished by now. But it seems not.

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AFP: #BREAKING: Plane carrying Erdogan set to land at Istanbul airport: presidential source

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#Coup Jet just bombed Ataturk Airport

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BREAKING: Erdogan emerges in Istanbul Airport surrounded by supporters

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Coup in Turkey– Obama Sides With Islamist Erdogan Government Over Moderates

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Turkish Parliament bombed

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Quote===>. "Erdogan called the coup a "gift from God" because it will help Turkey clean out the military from the "members of this gang." The timing of the coup was "meaningful," because the military will start meetings in the beginning of August, and those who staged the coup were afraid of the decisions that would be made at those meetings, Erdogan said.
This is not old Turkey," he said. "This is new Turkey."<===

https://mobile.twitter.com/intlspectator/status/754128119896825856


The Int'l Spectator‏ @intlspectator

BREAKING: Erdogan's hotel room, where he was spending his vacation, was bombed by coup plotters

BREAKING...Two Suicide Bombers Strike Istanbul Airport (updates and bumped)

Istanbul Ataturk Airport.

10 dead, 20+ injured.

Two suicide bombers wearing suicide vests.

CNN has coverage here. Already, CNN is saying that this likely an ISIS attack.

(well of course they are because it is overseas. if it were here in the U.S. they'd be calling it gun violence...mr)

updates via Drudge:

TERROR AT TURKISH AIRPORT
'BRUSSELS-STYLE' ATTACK

Istanbul International Terminal Rocked By Blasts, Gunfire...
3 BOMBERS...
TERRORISTS BLOW THEMSELVES UP AFTER POLICE FIRED...
Explosive devices thrown...
AT LEAST 28 DEAD, 60+ REPORTED INJURED...
Armed men seen fleeing terminal after blasts...
Recent bombings in Istanbul targeted tourists...
SENIOR US OFFICIAL: 'FITS ISIS PROFILE -- NOT PKK'...

FROM TURKEY: Muslim Brotherhood TV issues warning that all foreigners, tourists, and foreign companies in Egypt must leave quickly, or face devastating attacks with dire consequences

FROM TURKEY: Muslim Brotherhood TV issues warning that all foreigners, tourists, and foreign companies in Egypt must leave quickly, or face devastating attacks with dire consequences

The warning expires February 11, 2015.

 After that, all foreigners will be "targeted by the movements of revolutionary retribution."

Remember, Obama met with Muslim Brotherhood leaders just a few days ago:

A senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood was recently hosted at the White House for a meeting with President Barack Obama, prompting an outcry from critics of the global Islamist organization. 

Anas Altikriti, a top British lobbyist for the Muslim Brotherhood whose father heads Iraq’s Muslim Brotherhood party, recently met with the president and Vice President Joe Biden as part of a delegation discussing problems in Iraq. 

Altikriti, whose work has also been tied to Hamas, can be seen smiling in photos published by the White House as he stands next to Iraqi Parliament Speaker Usama al-Nujaifi, who is pictured shaking hands with President Obama in the White House’s Roosevelt Room. The meeting was first highlighted by the blog Harry’s Place.

One must wonder if there is some level of coordination going on.

Support For Terrorism In Muslim Countries

According to a new Pew poll:

... Islamist terrorist groups still command double-digit support, with Hamas being looked upon favorably by about one-third of respondents. About one-fourth do not have an opinion of the terrorists, leaving them up for grabs in the ideological war.

[...]

The country with the worst trend is Turkey. It is the only country where support for suicide bombings has increased....

More information HERE.

Watch for Obama to kiss up to Erdogan even more.

Islamic Trojan Horse: Turkey Infiltrating Native American Tribes — and May Get Congressional Help

From Will at THE OTHER NEWS:

Recently, Native American Congressman Tom Cole (R-OK, member of the Chickasaw Nation) introduced H.R. 2362, the Indian Trade and Investment Demonstration Project. The bill singles out Turkish-owned companies for exclusive investment preferences and special rights in Native American tribal area projects.
Congressman Cole freely admitted the following on the House floor:

There’s no question that I was approached by the Turkish American Coalition (properly the Turkish Coalition of America), who have a deep interest in Turkey and American Indians.

“Deep interest” indeed. The bill was the culmination of a multi-year effort by Turkey to ingratiate itself with Native American tribes: tribal students now study in Turkey with full scholarships; Turkish officials regularly appear at Native American economic summits; and dozens of tribal leaders have gone to Turkey on lavish all-expense-paid trips.
Why the intense interest in business and cultural ties with Native American tribes now, when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist Justice and Development party (AKP) have taken Turkey down a path of aggressive and dangerous Islamism?
Evidence from Uzbekistan points to a possible motive: infiltration and Islamization. The government of Uzbekistan is claiming that private Turkish business interests in the Central Asian country have been acting as a front for banned Islamist extremists. According to Agence France-Presse:

[The Uzbek government has accused] Turkish companies of creating a shadow economy, using double accounting and propagating nationalistic and extremist ideology. … Long wary of the influence of Islamic fundamentalism … secular authorities appear to be linking Turkish private business to the activities of the Nurcus, an Islamic group that is banned in the country.

Nurcus is also banned in Russia.
Is it in America’s national security interests to have Turkish contractors and their families flooding into America’s heartland and settling in semi-autonomous zones out of the reach of American authorities? Especially if their intent is to form intimate business and social ties with a long-aggrieved minority group?

GO READ THE REST OF THE STORY AT THE OTHER NEWS.

Woman shoots and DECAPITATES rapist who made her pregnant before dumping his severed head in village square

From the Daily Mail:

• Woman cut off rapist’s head before declaring: ‘That is the head of one who toyed with my honour’
• Mother-of-two, 26, had been ‘abused for months’ by attacker before she took revenge
• By Allan Hall
  PUBLISHED: 04:51 EST, 3 September 2012 | UPDATED: 08:57 EST, 3 September 2012
  A pregnant rape victim in Turkey shot and decapitated her attacker then left his severed head in the square of her local village.
  The woman, five months pregnant, is demanding authorities let her have an abortion even though she is way beyond the ten week limit allowed for terminations in Turkey.
  When police arrested her near to the severed head she said; ‘That is the head of one who toyed with my honour.’
  Horrific: The pregnant rape victim left her attacker’s severed head in the centre of the Turkish town of Yalvac
  Womens’ groups in Turkey have praised her as a heroine.  It turned out that the woman, aged 26 and a mother-of-two, had been abused by her attacker for months before she took her revenge and was being blackmailed.
  Click to continue:

Spain: Zapatero wants Morocco and Turkey in the EU as a “gesture of conciliation with the Islamic world”

That the only casualties of the twin bombings of Norway are European origin and people outside the Islamic religion has not prevented the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, from calling on EU leaders for Morocco and Turkey to be allowed entry into the European Union as a gesture of reconciliation with the Islamic world.

The Spanish Government’s President spoke about that support in phone calls to both to the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the Alawite ruler of Morocco (what do Erdogan and King Mohammed VI have to do with Norwegian murder? No Muslim was murdered, no Moroccan or Turkish citizen was murdered or hurt…), in which he reiterated his commitment to the alliance of civilizations as the only way possible for a north-south agreement. Zapatero argues that both Turkey and Morocco meet the requirements set by the EU to join their project.

Some news that you could have missed

1. Afghanistan: former Muslim could be sentenced to death penalty for conversion: Sayed Mossa, an Afghan convert from Islam to Christianity, has been scheduled to stand trial today and most likely will be sentenced to death. His trial for apostasy will probably be televised in the war-torn country, and it appears Mossa may not even have adequate representation. Every lawyer, all Muslims, that has been appointed by the courts to represent Mossa have refused. They dare not defend someone who converted to Christianity. Mossa is a 45 year old, married, father of six children. His youngest is 8 and he has one disabled child. Mossa is an amputee and has spent 15 years of his life helping others with the International Red Cross. However a co-worker turned Mossa in for being a Christian convert – a crime in most Muslim nations practicing Sharia law.
2. Egypt: cleric demands death penalty for importers of female virginity-faking device. Abdul Mouti Bayoumi said supplying the item was akin to spreading vice in society, a crime punishable by death in Islamic Sharia law. The device is said to release liquid imitating blood, allowing a female to feign virginity on her wedding night.
   
3. France: another Catholic church attacked. Father Gabriel, the parish priest, speaks to the press, almost in desperation. For several months, his church has been the target of obscene and offensive tags, excrement-throwing … And last week, the cypresses adjacent to the religious building were set on fire, threatening to spread the flames to church. For this priest, “these acts have a direct link with what is happening in Iraq where Christians were attacked.” At the outset, Father Gabriel talks about inter-community tensions and denounced a “climate of increasingly aggressive and violent maintained by a small group of young people 12/13 years up to 16 years.” At first, Father Gabriel was believed to “incivility” of unemployed youth in the neighborhood. Nonsense of teenagers in need of provocation.Then a few days before the fire of cypress, a youth entered the church during mass, urinating on the porch with while shouting this terrible sentence, “We’ll toast you all, you and your church.” The parish priest complained to the police on Nov. 9.
4. Iran: Islamic religious leader expects the Pope to consider the Qu'ran as holy as the Gospels. 
5. Iraq's Christians unimportant in global politics. "We also must squarely face the unpleasant reality that terrorism done in the name of Islam is not going to disappear on its own or be resolved by dipomacy. As Fr. de Souza wrote in a National Post column earlier this week, “The blood on the altar makes it clear. No amount of goodwill, no amount of dialogue, no amount of circumlocutory evasions, no amount of supine prostrations — nothing will dissuade the jihadists. … The jihadists respect neither man nor God, not even their own. They have killed their fellow Muslims and bombed mosques. The Christians killed on Sunday were Iraqis, their fellow Arabs, their fellow citizens, their neighbors. They kill because they are seized with a murderous hatred. The least we can do is to summon a righteous anger in return.”
6. Malaysia: Dad in pork issue claims son is not Muslim. Debates and arguments in Parliament over the last two days had centred on whether or not his son Basil — raised by a Christian mother — was also Muslim. The father left Islam and now is registered as "non-Muslim".

7. 

   Asia Bibi

   Pakistan: Christian woman sentenced to death on blasphemy charges: Some of the women workers had reportedly been pressuring Bibi to renounce her Christian faith and accept Islam. During one discussion, Asia Bibi (pictured) responded by speaking of how Jesus had died on the cross for the sins of humanity and asking the Muslim women what Muhammad had done for them. She is married and has 4 children. Her sentence has been appealed. There is an internacional campaign to help her.
8. Obama praises Jew-free Indonesia.
9. Saudi Arabia: Facebook blocked for not conforming with values. The official announced that Saudi’s Communications and Information Technology Commission blocked the site and an error message shows up when Internet users try to access it.
10. Spain: Violent Muslim occupation of Cordoba Cathedral did not Violate Law against Offending Religious Sentiments, Judge Says.“There isn’t so much an intention to minimize or harm the religious sentiments of the Catholic religion so much as an attempt to favor, not to say clearly impose, in a false gesture of tolerance, the possibility of carrying out joint worship [in the cathedral],” the judge declared. “It doesn’t act to demerit or discredit the Catholic religion, but rather in favor of joint use.
11. Sri Lanka: maid alleges nail torture while working in Kuwait. he doctor said the woman had told surgeons that her Kuwaiti employers drove the nails into her hands and left leg – some as long as 3.5 centimetres (1.5 inches) – when she asked for her salary after working for six months. (AFP)
12. Uk: Tower Hamlets' Luftur Rahman puts fundamentalist sympathiser in charge of the money. The four posts (in Tower Hamlets’ council) Lutfur has filled are all from the ranks of the councillors who defected from Labour to him before the election. They include Alibor Choudhury, a man with even closer links than Lutfur to the Muslim supremacist group, the Islamic Forum of Europe. Alibor has, incredibly, been given the key post of cabinet member for resources – that is, he will be in charge of the money.
13. UN: Iran, Turkey could be frontrunners for nuclear disarmament. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the Islamic Republic and Turkey have potentials to be forerunners of international nuclear disarmament, the local English language satellite Press TV reported on Thursday.”Iran and Turkey can be flag-bearers of nuclear disarmament in the globe to establish a world free from nuclear weapons,” Mottaki said in a meeting with head of Turkish Parliament’s Commission for Foreign Relations Murad Marjan in Tehran on Wednesday. Turkey, which is a partner of the US-led coalition against Iran along with Israel, possesses some 90 thermonuclear B61 bunker buster bombs at the Incirlik nuclear air base.
14. West Bank: Blogger faces potential life prison sentence for "insulting Islam". Husayin faces a potential life prison sentence on heresy charges for “insulting the divine essence.” Many in this conservative Muslim town say he should be killed for renouncing Islam, and even family members say he should remain behind bars for life.”He should be burned to death,” said Abdul-Latif Dahoud, a 35-year-old Qalqilya resident. The execution should take place in public “to be an example to others,” he added.

Posts for Nov 2nd: Drug trafficking, "Solidarity among Muslims", Christian burned for refusing to work as a slave, Karzai on drugs' raid, Greece's parcel bombs, Christian graves vandalised

1. Al-Qaeda, drug cartels and Chávez, united in drug trafficking: Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez differ in many ways, but they share a common enemy — the United States. And according to U.S. officials, drugs help connect and fund the dangerous networks.
2. Iran: "Solidarity among different Muslims' faiths". Of course, Khamenei's fatwa doesn't include non-Muslim faiths...
3. Pakistan: Muslim burns and humiliates Christian who didn't want to work for him as a slave: Yaqub Masih said the young man’s refusal to work in Ghuman’s fields infuriated the Muslim, who was accustomed to forcing Christians into slavery. He said Ghuman considered Masih’s refusal an act of disobedience by a “choohra,” the pejorative word for Christians in Pakistan.
4. Afghanistan: Karzai criticizes US-Russia drugs raid. He called it a violation of Afghan sovereignty and international law. Russia said more than a tonne of heroin and opium, with a street value of $250m (£157m), was destroyed in the raid.
5. Sarkozy among targets of Greece's parcel bombs. Related.
6. Turkey: Christian graves vandalised in the island of Imvros (below). On the night between 28 and 29 October the feast day of the Republic founded by Kemal Ataturk, unknown assailants entered, in the cemetery of the island of Panagia Imvros (Goikocea in Turkish) and seriously vandalised 78 graves. A similar act had been committed in these parts 20 years ago.

In Memory of King Richard III of England Who Wanted to Kick the Turks Out of Europe

August 22 is the 525th anniversary of the Battle of Bosworth Field in which the controversial English king Richard III died leading a calvary charge against the invading forces of Henry Tudor. Henry survived and became King Henry VII, father of Henry VIII and grandfather of Elizabeth I.

Richard is now acknowledged to have been libeled, slandered, and generally dragged through the muck for political purposes throughout the reigns of the Tudor monarchs. There is an ongoing debate over his actual character and actions that is a hell of a lot more fun than reading about Islam, though the questions raised are, admittedly, of much less timely and urgent concern.

Anyway, being a bit of an amateur "Ricardian" I discovered this tidbit in Bertram Fields 1998 history "Royal Blood". In May 1484 a visiting Silesian knight named Nicholar von Popplau had a meeting with Richard. In the course of their converstation Richard made the following comment: "I wish that my kingdom lay upon the confines of Turkey; with my own people alone and without the help of other princes I should like to drive away... the Turks."

The traditional memorial notice of the British and American Richard III societies goes as follows:

Remember Before God

Richard III

and those who fell at Bosworth Field,

having kept faith

August 22, 1485

Loyaulte Me Lie

[Loyalty Binds Me, which was Richard's motto. His symbol was the White Boar, which would have no doubt annoyed the Turks, as would have Richard had he ever got the chance.]

Germany: Merkel calls for 'bilingualism and integration' for Turkish immigrants

Is assimilation the same as "bilingualism and integration"? Has Merkel really softened her stance as I feared some days ago?

She said both languages should be taught, highlighting the importance of bilingualism and the integration of immigrants into German society.

"What is unacceptable is for this to be an excuse for Turks living in Germany not to learn the German language. The language of the country one lives in is the precondition for good integration," said Merkel, stressing that the goal was not assimilation.

"This is about everybody keeping their roots, their culture and their belief, but those of the third and fourth generation living in Germany should be able to participate in our social life."

via Merkel calls for 'bilingualism and integration' for Turkish immigrants | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 29.03.2010.

Cross-posted from T&P.

Germany: Merkel against Erdogan’s initiative of Turkish schools’ net

Some days ago Erdogan stated he wanted Turkish people abroad not to integrate in those countries, but to influence their policies.

German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has showed her opposition to Turkish Preisdent Erdogan's initiative, of creating a Turkish schools' net in Germany with teachings imparted in Turkish language, because that would fuel discrimination.

"The idea that all Turkish schoolchildren should study in Turkish schools is not acceptable", says Merkel in an statement published by German newspaper Passauer Neue Presse, a few days before her visit to Ankara.

German Government's chief considers that the ideal solution is that "children and teenagers of Turkish origins go to German schools" to make it easy their integration in Germany, where more than 2.5 million of Turkish origins live.

via Merkel rechaza crear colegios turcos en Alemania | FACTUAL.es - Diario digital libre.

Turkish community in Germany is also against Erdogan's proposed measure.

So Erdogan's measure has not been very welcomed, has it? Hope that she is not convinced while in Turkey of the contrary...

Cross-posted from T&P.

Turkey: official figures on "honor killings"

A total of 43 women lost their lives (17 murdered and 26 committed suicide) in eastern and south-eastern Anatolia alone in the opening two months of this year. These figures appear in the pro-government newspaper, Sabah, which cites as its source Birgul Kitay, the head of the Ka-Mer (Women's Centre)Women's Association in Bingol, in this Kurdish majority eastern part of Turkey. The area rose to prominence in news reports a few days ago when a man, who had been given a three-month sentence for beating his wife, six-months into pregnancy with her fifth child, cut off his wifés nose and ears as a punishment for having reported him

via ANSAmed.

Meanwhile, Sweden is going to give Turkey $8.4M per year: Swedish Government wants to facilitate reforms which would facilitate Turkey's entry in the EU.

Cross-posted from T&P.

Turkey: Erdogan seeks influence through Turks living abroad

Image via Wikipedia

Erdogan said in the past that making Turks assimilate in the countries they migrate to, was a "crime against Humanity". Now he is trying to influence other countries through Turkish immigrants:

Leaders of Turkish descent across Europe recently received an invitation to a fancy event in Istanbul, all expenses paid. But what sounded innocent enough appears to have been an attempt by Ankara to get members of the Turkish diaspora to represent Turkish interests abroad. Turkish-German politicians have reacted angrily tbrazen lobbying.
The invitation that numerous Turkish-German politicians received in February sounded enticing: Lunch in a five-star hotel in Istanbul, travel expenses included. The session was titled: "Wherever One of Our Compatriots Is, We Are There Too."
Around 1,500 people of Turkish descent from several European countries accepted the tempting offer. Among the speakers at the event, which took place at the end of February, were businesspeople, NGO representatives and a member of the Belgian parliament of Turkish descent. But the meeting, which has sparked outrage among Turkish-German politicians, was more than a harmless gathering of the Turkish diaspora.
The event was organized by the Turkish government, which is led by the conservative-religious Justice and Development (AKP) party, in an attempt to send a clear message to the participants that they should represent Turkeyin other countries. Turks living abroad should take the citizenship of their new home country -- not, however, with the intention of becoming an integrated part of that society, but so they can become politically active, said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who spoke at the event. Erdogan also compared Islamophobia with anti-Semitism in his speech and said that countries which oppose dual citizenship are violating people's fundamental rights. (Germany, for example, generally does not allow its citizens to hold dual nationality.)

Erdogan has also interesting double standards: he considered that Israel "know how to kill" in Gaza, while defended Sudanese President Al-Bashir against the accusation of genocide because "a Muslim cannot commit" such crime. He has also accused China of genocide against Uighur Muslims (there are people who have defended that China should retaliate towards Turkey for that reason) but is against a US Resolution (and against Swedish vote on the same subject) claiming that the mass murder of Armenians during theFirst World War by the Ottoman Empire was indeed a genocide (even before it's adopted). So much he is enraged that he firstlythreatened with serious consequences against US and now wants to expell 100,000 Armenians from Turkish soil.

Cross-posted from T&P.

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• Turkey protests Swedish genocide vote (cnn.com)

Turkey is lost yet no real loss

Caroline Glick writes about how Turkey is going downhill in their backtrack to Islamofascism, and even reminds of something very dumb the Bush government once did:

Once the apotheosis of a pro-Western, dependable Muslim democracy, this week Turkey officially left the Western alliance and became a full member of the Iranian axis.

It isn't that Turkey's behavior changed fundamentally in recent days. There is nothing new in its massive hostility towards Israel and its effusive solicitousness towards the likes of Syria and Hamas. Since the Islamist AKP party first won control over the Turkish government in the 2002 elections, led by AKP chairman Recip Tayyip Erdogan, the Turks have incrementally and inexorably moved the formerly pro-Western Muslim democracy into the radical Islamist camp populated by the likes of Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, al Qaida and Hamas. What made Turkey's behavior this week different from its behavior in recent months and years is that its attacks were concentrated, unequivocal and undeniable for everyone outside of Israel's scandalously imbecilic and flagellant media.

Until this week, both Israel and the US were quick to make excuses for Ankara. When in 2003 the AKP-dominated Turkish parliament prohibited US forces from invading Iraq through Kurdistan, the US blamed itself. Rather than get angry at Turkey, the Bush administration argued that its senior officials had played the diplomatic game poorly.

That's right, don't forget one of the Bush administration's poorer steps there.

Initially, this week Israel sought to continue its policy of making excuses for Turkish aggression against it. On Sunday, after Turkey disinvited the IAF from the Anatolian Eagle joint air exercise with Turkey, and NATO, senior officials like Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and Opposition leader Tzipi Livni tried to make light of the incident claiming that Turkey remains Israel's strategic ally.

But Turkey wasted no time in making fools of them. On Monday eleven Turkish government ministers descended on Syria to sign a pile of cooperation agreements with Iran's Arab lackey. The Foreign Ministry didn't even have a chance to write apologetic talking points explaining that brazen move before Syria announced it was entering a military alliance with Turkey and would be holding a joint military exercise with the Turkish military. Speechless in the wake of Turkey's move to hold military maneuvers with its enemy just two days after it cancelled joint training with Israel, Jerusalem could think of no mitigating explanation for the move.

Tuesday was characterized by escalating verbal assaults on the Jewish state. First Erdogan renewed his libelous allegations that Israel deliberately killed children in Gaza. Then he called on Turks to learn how to make money like Jews do.

Erdogan's anti-Israel and anti-Semitic blows were followed Tuesday evening by Turkey's government-controlled TRT1 television network's launch of a new prime-time series portraying IDF forces as baby and little girl killers who force Palestinian women to deliver stillborn babies at roadblocks and line up groups of Palestinians against walls to execute them by firing squad.

Yep, that was one of the most vomit inducing stunts they could pull. The Jerusalem Post tells that no Israelis want to fly to Turkey now with the way things are going:

With a new wave of anti-Israel sentiment in Turkey, and a furious response in Israel, the once-booming tourism trade between the countries is already feeling the effects.

"I can't sell a Turkish Air ticket going via Istanbul," Mark Feldman, CEO of Zion Tours, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. Istanbul is a common stop-over point on the way to many other destinations.

"Nobody, but nobody, wishes to fly there... packages are very cheap, the airline is a good airline... [but] people are voting with their feet," Feldman said.

Relations with Turkey have recently been strained, due to Turkey's withdrawal from an international military exercise involving Israel, a series of verbal assaults from Turkish leaders, and the premiere of a new television series portraying IDF soldiers as murderers. The first episode of the series aired in Turkey on Tuesday evening and depicted IDF soldiers in the West Bank killing a baby and a young girl, and lining up Palestinians to be shot before a firing squad.

According to Feldman, "This [tourism decline] is getting intensified, and the television series will accelerate it. I expect this [Israeli tourist] boycott and this anger to last throughout the fall and winter."

Maybe even longer than that. But if I were him, I'd rather not rely on countries like Turkey to sell tickets for tourism. This is what happens when no serious attempt is made to make clear to a country with a horrific past like Turkey's that they must own up for their past evils and crimes and abandon all ideologies that could one day lead back to more of the same. That's why their backtrack is no real surprise, and come to think of it, their loss is yet no real loss. If they're going to boomerang to such mostrosities, it's hard for me to feel sorry to "lose" their alliance.

And if Jews in Turkey are afraid that the TV propaganda they launched will boost anti-semitic violence, which is quite likely to happen, that's exactly why they should start packing. No need to remain in a country that's backtracking to Islamofascism.

And Armenia's government made a serious mistake in accepting the deal to open wider relations with Turkey without their agreement to recognize the Armenian Holocaust in WW1, something I get the feeling much of the Armenian public is angry about, with good reason. I won't be surprised if it falls apart sooner or later, and if Turkey starts spewing similar racism against Armenians as well on their government controlled TV.

Obama, Turkey and the "G" word

Up til today, the news headlines on Obama's visit to Turkey and the issue regarding the Armenian killings, have read like this:

Obama Avoids Calling Amenian Killings "genocide"

Obama Softens Tone On Armenian Deaths

POLITCAL LANDSCAPE:Obama Stops Short In Turkey

Obama Follows The ADL Line On The Armenian Genocide

But today, we have this:

Turkey Says Obama's Comments On 1915 Incidents "unacceptable"

ANKARA, April 25 (Xinhua) -- Turkey on Saturday defined U.S. President Barack Obama's comments on the incidents of 1915 related to Armenia as "unacceptable".

"We consider some expressions in that statement and the perception of history it contains concerning the events of 1915 as unacceptable," a statement issued by Turkey's Foreign Ministry said, referring to Obama's speech on the "Armenian remembrance day" on Friday.

The statement said that nobody should forget that several hundreds of thousands of Turks also lost their lives in those days.

Armenians claim that more than 1.5 million Armenians were killed in a systematic genocide in the hands of the Ottomans during World War I before modern Turkey was born in 1923.

But Turkey insists the Armenians were victims of widespread chaos and governmental breakdown as the 600-year-old empire collapsed in the years before 1923.

"History can be construed and evaluated only on the basis of undisputed evidence and documentation," the statement said.

It said that common history of the Turkish and Armenian nations had to be assessed solely through impartial and scientific data, and historians must base their evaluations only on such material.

"It is with such an understanding that we support the historical dimension of the Turkish-Armenian dialogue," it said.

During his visit to Turkey on April 6, U.S. President Barack Obama said he was encouraged by the dialogues between Turkey and Armenia aimed at improving ties, promising Washington will be as constructive as possible on the improvement of their ties.

He said as Turkey and Armenia are having serious negotiations that could bear fruit quickly, "I will be as encouraging as possible," adding the world should also encourage them.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in support of Azerbaijan during its conflict with Armenia over the Upper Karabakh region.

So, what exactly did he say?

HURRIYET

-- HE DID NOT SAY "GENOCIDE", BUT INSTEAD HE SAID "BIG DISASTER"

U.S. President Barack Obama used the expression "Meds Yeghern", meaning "big disaster" in Armenian, instead of "genocide" in his speech on the Armenian claims regarding the incident of 1915.

The executives of the Turkish Embassy in Washington D.C. said that Obama's speech was as it was expected but it contained some heavy expressions like "Meds Yeghern". They said that they would draw Washington's attention to those expressions. Retired ambassador Yalim Eralp said, "this definition is genocide." The Armenians are defining the incidents of 1915 as "big disaster." This expression was also used in the petition of some Turkish intellectuals who apologized to the Armenians.


Now, let's take a look at what happened back then:

When World War I broke out in 1914, leaders of the Young Turk regime sided with the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary). The outbreak of war would provide the perfect opportunity to solve the "Armenian question" once and for all. The world's attention became fixed upon the battlegrounds of France and Belgium where the young men of Europe were soon falling dead by the hundreds of thousands. The Eastern Front eventually included the border between Turkey and Russia. With war at hand, unusual measures involving the civilian population would not seem too out of the ordinary.

As a prelude to the coming action, Turks disarmed the entire Armenian population under the pretext that the people were naturally sympathetic toward Christian Russia. Every last rifle and pistol was forcibly seized, with severe penalties for anyone who failed to turn in a weapon. Quite a few Armenian men actually purchased a weapon from local Turks or Kurds (nomadic Muslim tribesmen) at very high prices so they would have something to turn in.

At this time, about forty thousand Armenian men were serving in the Turkish Army. In the fall and winter of 1914, all of their weapons were confiscated and they were put into slave labor battalions building roads or were used as human pack animals. Under the brutal work conditions they suffered a very high death rate. Those who survived would soon be shot outright. For the time had come to move against the Armenians.

The decision to annihilate the entire population came directly from the ruling triumvirate of ultra-nationalist Young Turks.


The actual extermination orders were transmitted in coded telegrams to all provincial governors throughout Turkey.

Armed roundups began on the evening of April 24, 1915, as 300 Armenian political leaders, educators, writers, clergy and dignitaries in Constantinople (present day Istanbul) were taken from their homes, briefly jailed and tortured, then hanged or shot.

Next, there were mass arrests of Armenian men throughout the country by Turkish soldiers, police agents and bands of Turkish volunteers. The men were tied together with ropes in small groups then taken to the outskirts of their town and shot dead or bayoneted by death squads. Local Turks and Kurds armed with knives and sticks often joined in on the killing.

Then it was the turn of Armenian women, children, and the elderly. On very short notice, they were ordered to pack a few belongings and be ready to leave home, under the pretext that they were being relocated to a non-military zone for their own safety. They were actually being taken on death marches heading south toward the Syrian desert.

Most of the homes and villages left behind by the rousted Armenians were quickly occupied by Muslim Turks who assumed instant ownership of everything. In many cases, young Armenian children were spared from deportation by local Turks who took them from their families. The children were coerced into denouncing Christianity and becoming Muslims, and were then given new Turkish names. For Armenian boys the forced conversion meant they each had to endure painful circumcision as required by Islamic custom.

Individual caravans consisting of thousands of deported Armenians were escorted by Turkish gendarmes. These guards allowed roving government units of hardened criminals known as the "Special Organization" to attack the defenseless people, killing anyone they pleased. They also encouraged Kurdish bandits to raid the caravans and steal anything they wanted. In addition, an extraordinary amount of sexual abuse and rape of girls and young women occurred at the hands of the Special Organization and Kurdish bandits. Most of the attractive young females were kidnapped for a life of involuntary servitude.

The death marches, involving over a million Armenians, covered hundreds of miles and lasted months. Indirect routes through mountains and wilderness areas were deliberately chosen in order to prolong the ordeal and to keep the caravans away from Turkish villages.

Food supplies being carried by the people quickly ran out and they were usually denied further food or water.


Stopping to rest or lagging behind the caravan was mercilessly beaten until they rejoined the march. If they couldn't continue they were shot. A common practice was to force all of the people in the caravan to remove every stitch of clothing and have them resume the march in the nude under the scorching sun until they dropped dead by the roadside from exhaustion and dehydration.

An estimated 75 percent of the Armenians on these marches perished, especially children and the elderly. Those who survived the ordeal were herded into the desert without a drop of water. Others were killed by being thrown off cliffs, burned alive, or drowned in rivers.


The Turkish countryside became littered with decomposing corpses. At one point, Mehmed Talaat responded to the problem by sending a coded message to all provincial leaders: "I have been advised that in certain areas unburied corpses are still to be seen. I ask you to issue the strictest instructions so that the corpses and their debris in your vilayet are buried."

But his instructions were generally ignored. Those involved in the mass murder showed little interest in stopping to dig graves. The roadside corpses and emaciated deportees were a shocking sight to foreigners working in Turkey.


Eyewitnesses included German government liaisons, American missionaries, and U.S. diplomats stationed in the country.

The Christian missionaries were often threatened with death themselves and were unable to help the people. Diplomats from the still neutral United States communicated their blunt assessments of the ongoing government actions. U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau, reported to Washington: "When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race..."

The Allied Powers (Great Britain, France, Russia) responded to news of the massacres by issuing a warning to Turkey:

"...the Allied governments announce publicly...that they will hold all the members of the Ottoman Government, as well as such of their agents as are implicated, personally responsible for such matters."

The warning had no effect. Newspapers in the West including the New York Times published reports of the continuing deportations with the headlines:

Armenians Are Sent to Perish in the Desert - Turks Accused of Plan to Exterminate Whole Population (August 18, 1915) - Million Armenians Killed or in Exile - American Committee on Relief Says Victims of Turks Are Steadily Increasing - Policy of Extermination (December 15, 1915).


Temporary relief for some Armenians came as Russian troops attacked along the Eastern Front and made their way into central Turkey. But the troops withdrew in 1917 upon the Russian Revolution. Armenian survivors withdrew along with them and settled in among fellow Armenians already living in provinces of the former Russian Empire. There were in total about 500,000 Armenians gathered in this region.

In May 1918, Turkish armies attacked the area to achieve the goal of expanding Turkey eastward into the Caucasus and also to resume the annihilation of the Armenians. As many as 100,000 Armenians may have fallen victim to the advancing Turkish troops.

However, the Armenians managed to acquire weapons and they fought back, finally repelling the Turkish invasion at the battle of Sadarabad, thus saving the remaining population from total extermination with no help from the outside world.

Following that victory, Armenian leaders declared the establishment of the independent Republic of Armenia.

World War I ended in November 1918 with a defeat for Germany and the Central Powers including Turkey. Shortly before the war had ended, the Young Turk triumvirate; Talaat, Enver and Djemal, abruptly resigned their government posts and fled to Germany where they had been offered asylum.

In the months that followed, repeated requests were made by Turkey's new moderate government and the Allies asking Germany to send the Young Turks back home to stand trial. However all such requests were turned down. As a result, Armenian activists took matters into their own hands, located the Young Turks and assassinated them along with two other instigators of the mass murder.

Meanwhile, representatives from the fledgling Republic of Armenia attended the Paris Peace Conference in the hope that the victorious Allies would give them back their historic lands seized by Turkey. The European Allies responded to their request by asked the United States to assume guardianship of the new Republic. However, President Woodrow Wilson's attempt to make Armenia an official U.S. protectorate was rejected by the U.S. Congress in May 1920.

But Wilson did not give up on Armenia. As a result of his efforts, the Treaty of Sevres was signed on August 10, 1920, by the Allied Powers, the Republic of Armenia and the new moderate leaders of Turkey. The treaty recognized an independent Armenian state in an area comprising much of the former historic homeland.

However, Turkish nationalism once again reared its head. The moderate Turkish leaders who signed the treaty were ousted in favor of a new nationalist leader, Mustafa Kemal, who simply refused to accept the treaty and even re-occupied the very lands in question then expelled any surviving Armenians, including thousands of orphans.

No Allied power came to the aid of the Armenian Republic and it collapsed. Only a tiny portion of the easternmost area of historic Armenia survived by being becoming part of the Soviet Union.

After the successful obliteration of the people of historic Armenia, the Turks demolished any remnants of Armenian cultural heritage including priceless masterpieces of ancient architecture, old libraries and archives. The Turks even leveled entire cities such as the once thriving Kharpert, Van and the ancient capital at Ani, to remove all traces of the three thousand year old civilization.

The half-hearted reaction of the world's great powers to the plight of the Armenians was duly noted by the young German politician Adolf Hitler. After achieving total power in Germany, Hitler decided to conquer Poland in 1939 and told his generals: "Thus for the time being I have sent to the East only my 'Death's Head Units' with the orders to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish race or language. Only in such a way will we win the vital space that we need. Who still talks nowadays about the Armenians?

Is this not genocide?

gen-o-cide

–noun
the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.

And lest we not forget what the Young Turks were. Julia Duin at the Washington Times asks,

Is Islam able to apologize?

What would contrition for the genocide look like from a secular state based on a religious tradition - Islam - that does not practice corporate repentance?

Muslim scholars tell me the holy month of Ramadan takes care of the sins of the individual, but not those of a nation. There's no concept of national sin, which may be why the Shi'ite Iranians have never apologized for their sacking of the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979.

The concept of national repentance started with Jewish prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures. Christians then ran with the idea, with modern examples including President Lincoln's 1863 call to a day of national repentance and fasting. His idea lives on in the National Day of Prayer on the first Thursday of each May. Plus, Christians ranging from the late Pope John Paul II to bands of evangelical Protestant missionaries have apologized for the excesses of the Crusades. But what Islamic entity has apologized for the 300 years of conquest that provoked the Crusades?

"The idea of being sorry for what's happened in the past is a Western way of expressing things," Mr. Haddad says.

"Nations elsewhere in the world do not do this."

However, he added that his wife, Georgetown University professor Yvonne Haddad, lost two Armenian Orthodox ancestors during the genocide.

"Individual Muslims can express regret or repentance, but I don't know what the appropriate institution would be to express Islamic regret," Georgetown University Islamic history professor John Voll told me. Christianity has corporate bodies representing its various divisions, he added, but "in Islam, there is no corporate structure that represents the umma [world Muslim community].

" Corporate repentance requires an acceptance of corporate guilt, an idea that dates back to original sin.

"Islamic theological tradition does not involve a concept of original sin," he said.

"Muslims think Adam and Eve disobeyed God and were expelled from the garden, but God did not curse them."

If the majority religion of Turkey does not have a concept of common guilt, can Turks apologize for their past?