Kurdish Aspect, CO
Feb 18 2008
The Kurdish and Armenian genocides – from censorship and denial to
recognition
Kurdishaspect.com – By Desmond Fernandes
Apec Press, Stockholm, December 2007
ISBN: 91-89675-72-X
Turkey’s repression of the Kurds has been widely documented – and is
acknowledged as a major obstacle to Turkey’s accession to the
European Union. But what lies behind such repression? Fernandes
confronts the issue head on, forcing the reader to probe a question
that many in Turkey and elsewhere would rather avoid: does the
systematic repression of the Kurds amount to genocide? Open
discussion of this issue is critical if a long-term resolution of the
Kurdish issue is to be achieved – Nicholas Hildyard, Policy Analyst.
The book is an exceptionally important read for anyone with a broad
interest in human rights and social justice. It has a scholarly
account of the historical background to the present awful situation
of Turkish Armenians and Turkish Kurds. In particular, the book
provides a powerful comparative analysis of the policies of the US,
Israel and Turkey in terms of their rationale for labelling human
atrocities as genocide – Dr. Julia Kathleen Davidson, Research
Fellow, Faculty of Education, University of Glasgow and Membership
Secretary of Scotland Against Criminalising communities (SACC).
In this important book, Desmond Fernandes exposes the details of the
sordid and largely hidden role of Israel and the US Israel Lobby in
preventing Congress from recognizing the Turkish genocide of the
Armenians – Jeff Blankfort, Former Editor, Middle East Labor
Bulletin.
Among its Cold War victories the United States certainly succeeded in
its ambition to make the world safe for nationalism. As identity
politics is reprocessed as a function of global capital, and
rehabilitated as its natural ally, Desmond Fernandes documents the
fractured consequences of the ready-made social fantasy – Variant:
Cross Currents in Culture.
Desmond Fernandes writes for those who spoke the truth and were
murdered, those who spoke 200 days ago and are still imprisoned, and
for those who live in terror and in silence, or who meet in nameless
buildings, so that the words `GENOCIDE’, ethnic cleansing, or the
Turkish military word `TEMIZLEME’, may be heard as a siren call for
the muted victims of the Turkish state – Diamanda Galás, Composer and
Performer of Songs of Exile, Vena Cava, Schrei X, Plague Mass and
Defixiones, Will And Testament.
Fernandes’ painstaking investigation sheds much needed light on the
collusion between the Turkish State and the Israel lobby in
preventing recognition of one of the darkest episodes of the past
century, the genocide of Ottoman Turkey’s ethnic Armenians – Muhammad
Idrees Ahmad, Spinwatch.
[This is] a judiciously assembled vast, syntactic mosaic
`illustrating’ the total state terror inflicted upon two ancient
peoples … Desmond Fernandes has laboriously integrated a vast
amount of historical events, scholarly data, secret documents, live
witnesses, relevant literature and even poetry … [He] has hit the
target: mainly encapsulating the enormity of censorship, denial and
recognition of that ultimate crime of man’s inhumanity to man –
Genocide – Khatchatur I. Pilikian [from the Epilogue].
Desmond Fernandes is a policy analyst and former Senior Lecturer in
Human Geography and Genocide Studies at De Montfort University,
England. He has published widely in a number of journals and is
co-author of Genozid an den Kurden in der Türkei? – Verfolgung, Krieg
und Zerstörung der ethnischen Identität (2001, Medico International,
Frankfurt). Forthcoming titles by the author include The Kurdish
Genocide in Turkey and US, UK, German, Israeli and NATO `Inspired’
Psychological Warfare Operations against the `Kurdish Threat’ in
Turkey and Northern Iraq, due to shortly be released by Apec Press,
Stockholm.
The book can be ordered securely online via Paypal at
at the recommended retail
price of £14.99 (postage and packing free within the UK). It can also
be ordered from most bookshops in the UK and via the UK distributor
AK Press and Distribution (;
h.php?itemid=5326).
doc021808DF.html
From: Baghdasarian