ARMENIAN HARDLINERS ARE GETTING WHAT THEY WANT
Ilnur Cevik

New Anatolian, Turkey
May 10 2006

Turkey has recalled its ambassadors to Canada and France because of
the negative attitude in those countries towards Turkey’s denials
that Armenians living in Turkey early last century were subjected to
genocide …

The French not only acknowledge that there was a genocide but they’ve
also moved to legislate a ban on disputing such an event. That means
if a Turk makes statements in France denying that such a genocide
took place they could be sent to prison.

The Canadian prime minister, on the other hand, has acknowledged that
the Ottoman Turks were involved in genocide against Armenians living
in the eastern regions of their territory.

Turks have spent decades categorically denying such a genocide took
place. They stress that the Armenians collaborated with the invading
Russians in the First World War and the Ottoman administration
was forced to evacuate them by force to other parts of the empire,
especially to Ottoman territory in the Middle East. However Turks do
acknowledge that in the process Armenians perished due to illness and
attacks from bandits. But Turks also say that many Turks who lived
in the eastern provinces were also murdered by Armenian gunmen.

Turkey has offered several times to set up a joint commission of
impartial historians to study the Ottoman files and get to the bottom
of the issue. However the Armenians have rejected this. Armenian
hardliners, especially those in the diaspora, have been insistent on
trying to hurt Turkey as much as possible.

First they organized and financed a terrorist group the Armenian
Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) that killed Turkish
diplomats and their families. The Western powers didn’t touch them
until ASALA made the mistake of unleashing its terrorist activities
at Orly Airport’s Turkish Airlines counter killing French citizens as
well as other tourists. Western intelligence officials then clamped
down on ASALA …

But Armenian hardliners continued their quest against Turkey and the
Turks. They helped Kurdish separatists to harm Turkey, forgetting that
most of the hordes who murdered Armenian families as they were being
evacuated from the east were, in fact, comprised of Kurdish bandits.

The Armenians also used politicians in many Western countries against
Turkey, sponsoring anti-Turkish resolutions in their parliaments.

There are strong and influential Armenian groups all over Europe and
north America. Politicians seeking their votes try to appease them.

The Swiss have already decided that denying the so-called Armenian
genocide is a crime. The parliaments of other countries have already
acknowledged the genocide claims.

So each time a foreign country does something to please the Armenians
Turkey hits back with the weapon of threatening to severe ties with
them. But this is exactly what the Armenian hardliners want. Every
time we create a chill in our ties with France, Canada or the U.S.

the Armenians rejoice. We should protest and try to educate the
public in these countries through lobbies and good public relations
but we should not take these meaningless actions, that only hurt our
international relations and push us into isolation.