UPSET KID!
Yusuf Kanli

Hurriyet
March 17 2010
Turkey

The alleged Armenian genocide bills popping up in legislatures of
some friendly countries enraged the Turkish nation and proved once
again that, when and if we can find a "common enemy," political
differences, die-hard animosities and even the secularist-Islamist
polarization can all be temporarily brushed aside, and a "national
front" is immediately established against the "external common threat."

Once again this happened after first the United States House of
Representatives Foreign Relations Committee adopted a non-binding
resolution condemning Ottoman Turkey for undertaking genocide against
its Armenian population during and immediately after the World War I.

Then the parliament of Sweden adopted a resolution enhancing the
scope of the alleged genocide and apart from Armenians, placing some
other minority ethnic groups among the victims of the alleged crime
against humanity.

The "non-binding" nature of the resolutions was of no comfort to
Turkey, particularly because of the timing of such hostile acts from
friendly parliaments and information pouring in, headed by the House
of Commons of Britain, about similar nasty developments are likely
to come from some other allies of this country.

Furthermore, the Jewish background of the U.S. House committee chairman
who staged a mockery administration and extended the voting session
sufficient enough to get the resolution approved and three "ethnic
Turkish" parliamentarians voting in favor of the resolution in the
Swedish parliament were "too much to digest" for most Turks.

It did not take much for the Islamist-conservative media to start
running articles that those three ethnic-Turkish Swedish deputies were
indeed "non-Turks" and that one of them was of Armenian background,
the other was a Christian and the third one was a Sabbatean, a sect
members of which are Muslim in public life but Jewish in private.

Perhaps it was a consolation for Islamist conservative and
racist-nationalist Turks that the "three traitors" were not
ethnic Turks, though some officious politicians – not necessarily
conservatives but from the supposed "left wing" as well – started
demanding that those three Swedish deputies should be stripped of
Turkish nationality if they had double citizenship.

Such demands are of course funny and indeed resemble an attitude as
if we are kids disgruntled with attitudes of some other boys in a
game and take our toys and leave the playground.

But, hold on! Unfortunately, developments in London during Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s short working visit demonstrated that
there might be no limit in our spoiled childish attitudes. Of course
Turkey may feel ashamed a while later of what is sad (hopefully will
not be done) by the premier. First on an interview with the Turkish
service of the British Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC, and later
at a news conference together with British Prime Minister Gordon
Brown, Erdogan warned that if resolutions on the alleged Armenian
genocide continue to be adopted by parliaments of other countries,
Turkey might feel compelled to expel some 100,000 Armenian citizens
who have been illegally residing and working in Turkey.

This odd idea was first raised by main opposition Republican People’s
Party, or CHP deputy, retired ambassador Å~^ukru Elekdag some four
years ago. At the time, from left to right, Islamists to secularists,
everyone with some brains had opposed the suggestion of Elekdag.

Recently, a similar attitude was voiced by CHP deputy Canan Arıtman,
when Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was briefing the parliamentary
foreign relations commission on the Swedish resolution. Arıtman is
famous with such provocative approaches to issues. She was the deputy
who a while ago had claimed that President Abdullah Gul’s grandmother
was an Armenian (as if it would make a difference if she indeed was)
and ignited a major controversy at the end of which her party had to
apologize to the president.

How wise was it for Erdogan to use the same childish and indeed ugly
sentence smelling blackmail? An administration has the right and
indeed duty to fight with illegal immigration, but since when does
struggling with immigration becomes a foreign policy tool or bargain
chip in relations with other countries?

Turkey does not deserve such attitudes. There is no sense in getting
engaged in oddities just for the sake of reacting to some unpleasant
developments. No one has the right, even if he is the prime minister,
to engage in acts belittling Turkey in front of the international
community.

A prime minister has no right to behave as if he is an upset kid!
From: Baghdasarian