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Politics : THE WHITE HOUSE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JDN who wrote (9741)	10/12/2007 10:53:11 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25737

Truth is truth... regardless of whether it's 'politically correct' to the Turks or not. (And, this too will pass from the scene.... After a resolution is passed, what more is there to say or do? Once Turkey establishes it's unhappiness - for the record - it should pass as water under the dam. The last thing they want is to give fodder to the Europeans who are already opposed to Turkey's admission to the E.U.) Message 23960805 And, like American Values President Gary Bauer was recently quoted as saying: "I don't see how you negotiate with a Holocaust denier." Message 23960836 Anyway... if the Armenian genocide is erased from the history books (as Turkey would prefer), then who is to say that the Jewish genocide can't be erased from the books one day as well... (Iran would like that, and some Germans as well), or Riwanda's? Or what the Islamicists of Sudan have been up to for the past decade or so....

To: JDN who wrote (9741)	10/12/2007 11:28:06 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25737

If this ain't Political Correctness run wild, I don't know what is: A court in Istanbul has found two Turkish-Armenian journalists guilty of "insulting Turkishness" for reprinting an interview that referred to the mass killing of Ottoman Armenians by Turks in 1915 as genocide. Trial unnerves Turkey's Armenians By Sarah Rainsford BBC News, Istanbul news.bbc.co.uk A court in Istanbul has found two Turkish-Armenian journalists guilty of "insulting Turkishness" for reprinting an interview that referred to the mass killing of Ottoman Armenians by Turks in 1915 as genocide. The ruling came one day after the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US Congress approved a resolution that recognises the killings as genocide, infuriating Ankara, which denies any such thing. "I think this is the retaliation of the judiciary to that decision of Congress," says Ozlem Dalkiran, who followed the trial for the Helsinki Citizens Assembly, a European human rights group. "It's a judicial scandal," she says. The newspaper journalists were prosecuted under the now notorious Article 301 of Turkey's penal code for publishing comments made by their then-editor, Hrant Dink, in an interview with the Reuters news agency last summer. The Agos newspaper has been in the spotlight since Dink's killing Hrant Dink was an outspoken critic of state policy here on the events of 1915, a rare voice in Turkey's small ethnic Armenian community. In January he was shot and killed outside the office of his newspaper, Agos. A teenage nationalist gunman is on trial for murder along with his alleged accomplices. 'Dangerous decision' One of the journalists convicted of insult on Thursday is Hrant Dink's son, Arat. The other is Agos newspaper colleague Sarkis Seropyan. Hrant Dink himself had been tried and convicted of insulting Turkishness in another article on the Armenian issue before he was killed. "The fact Hrant was prosecuted under Article 301 was an important factor in his assassination. That way, the prosecution singled him out as a target," Agos journalist Markar Esayan underlined shortly after the latest court ruling on Thursday. "This latest verdict of insulting Turkishness is a very serious accusation which may have very serious consequences. This court decision puts lives in danger." The European Union has long called for the controversial insult law to be changed or repealed. Article 301 shot to international attention when it was used to bring charges against the author and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, again for his comments on the fate of the Armenians. "This new conviction is a particularly distressing and alarming verdict. It demonstrates once again the serious nature of Article 301," says Emma Sinclair-Webb of Amnesty International. "It shows its implementation is still very problematic," she says. She argues the law must be abolished. Turkish nationalists say there was no genocide against Armenians "There also seems to be a pattern that this law is used against particular groups, Armenian or Kurdish. If so, that is extremely alarming," she says. Frightened into silence Other newspapers in Turkey reprinted Hrant Dink's comments. Only Turkish-Armenian Agos was prosecuted. Just last week, President Abdullah Gul suggested changes to A301 were a possibility. But the Turkish government has shown no sign it is in any hurry. A nationalist backlash against the US Congress resolution on genocide is likely to stall things even longer. That debate in America has also affected Turkey's ethnic Armenian community. Many people were frightened into silence by the murder of Hrant Dink. Now they are even more withdrawn. "If this bill passes it will have an impact on us. But we are already facing problems," says one ethnic Armenian. "Someone threw a sound bomb into a schoolyard recently. People in all neighbourhoods here are now courageous enough to do such things."

To: JDN who wrote (9741)	10/12/2007 11:33:50 AM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25737

Armenia welcomes 'genocide' vote Last Updated: Thursday, 11 October 2007, 17:10 GMT 18:10 UK news.bbc.co.uk Armenia's president has welcomed a vote by US lawmakers backing the description of the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks after 1915 as genocide. Robert Kocharyan told reporters he hoped the vote would lead to "full [US] recognition... of the genocide". Earlier Turkish President Abdullah Gul denounced the vote. Turkey has always denied any genocide took place. The White House has also been critical, expressing fears Turkey could stop co-operating in the "war on terror". The non-binding vote, passed by 27 to 21 votes by members of the congressional House Foreign Affairs Committee, is the first step towards holding a vote in the House of Representatives. Divisions within the committee crossed party lines with eight Democrats voting against the measure and eight Republicans voting for it. President Bush had argued against a vote in favour of the bill, saying "its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in Nato and in the global war on terror". Turkey is a regional operational hub for the US military, and some suggest access to Incirlik airbase, or other supply lines crucial to US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, could be cut in response. The row has also erupted as US fears grow of a Turkish military incursion into northern Iraq to neutralise Kurdish separatist guerrillas there, who continue to cross the border to ambush Turkish troops, reports the BBC's diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus. Talks appeal Speaking after talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Mr Kocharyan praised the committee vote. "We hope that this process will lead to the full recognition by the United States of America of the fact of the Armenian genocide," he said. Mr Kocharyan also appealed to Turkey to join Armenia in talks to restore bilateral relations, reported the news agency Associated Press. Armenian girls holding torches Q&A: Armenian 'genocide' Armenia resolutions Wednesday's vote was received angrily by President Gul, who made a statement late in the evening accusing US politicians of "sacrific[ing] big problems for small domestic political games". "This unacceptable decision of the committee, like similar ones in the past, is not regarded by the Turkish people as valid or of any value," Mr Gul said, according to the Anatolia news agency. 'Sobering' Correspondents say the committee's vote means that only a change of heart by the Democrats, who control Congress, can now stop a full vote on the bill. Tom Lantos, the committee's chairman, had opened the debate by admitting the resolution posed a "sobering" choice. "We have to weigh the desire to express our solidarity with the Armenian people... against the risk that it could cause young men and women in the uniform of the United States armed services to pay an even heavier price than they are currently paying," he said. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to take up its version of the resolution in the future. Iraq vote Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has meanwhile confirmed that the Turkish parliament could discuss a motion as soon as Thursday that would authorise incursions into northern Iraq to hunt down Kurdish PKK separatists. The move comes after an escalation in attacks by the PKK killed almost 30 soldiers and civilians in just over a week. The government is under immense pressure though to act, but Washington has warned Ankara against any unilateral moves that would destabilise Iraq even further. After the Armenian vote in Congress, correspondents say, Turkey will be far less inclined to heed instructions from the US on anything.