Even with undeniable and blatant evidence of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, the Turkish government still refuses to accept the actions taken almost a century ago. As seen in the CBS “60 Minutes” segment, it’s hard to ignore the facts when their literally "right under our feet.” The denial of the genocide by the US government is less factual and more political with Turkish lobbyists doing everything in their power to prevent such recognition. Turkey has always said that if America recognizes the genocide, then there will be direct consequences. Let’s remember that the US has one of the worlds largest military bases in Turkey, and without them, the missions in Afghanistan and Iraq would be burdensome. Turkey allows Americans to use their airspace. Jets and planes use the American base in Turkey to refuel so that they don’t have to go all the way back to the US. Equipment, food and basic necessities are all waiting at the Turkish base so again, no need to go back home. The US would have a lot to lose if they accepted the killings as “genocide.” That is why there has always been hesitation on the part of an American President, even when they know the truth.
President Obama has called the Armenian Genocide a “historical fact” when he was campaigning, and knows that if he uses the “G” word while in Afghanistan and Iraq, they would be stuck in their tracks. Without the Turkish military base, it would be very difficult and time consuming to retreat from the missions. Therefore, perhaps, when the US does leave the middle-east and becomes less reliant on Turkey, it is then when we hear the word “genocide” come out from the mouth of the President. This “60 Minute” segment gives us a good view of the evidence, and perhaps acts as a wakeup call to Turkey in light of their renewed alliance with Iran, and established criticisms of Israel.
Below is the segment that was seen on “60 Minutes” entitled “Battle Over History.” To read the transcript, please click here.
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comments:
Anonymous
said...
This CBS report raises some good points and important facts on the Armenian Genocide, but is rife with big negatives, deliberate misrepresentations and outright lies:
1. Its frequent use of the terms "battle...the massacres...the events" to describe an incontestable fact is unacceptable and constitutes an unconscionable act of genocide denial -- the ultimate form of hate speech!
Allowing Amb. Sensoy the opportunity to deny the Armenian Genocide on national television is as criminal and cruel an act as airing any statements by a neo-Nazi leader denying the Jewish Holocaust!
2. It deliberately fails to identify the Armenian homeland of more than four millennia.
There is no reference to "Anatolia...eastern (Ottoman) Turkey...Western Armenia and Cilicia..."
CBS: "But our story begins where the lives of so many Armenians ended, far from Istanbul, in the desert...The survivors ended up in concentration camps hundreds of miles from Istanbul, out of sight."
Istanbul (then Constantinople) was never the Armenian homeland or part of the Armenian homeland. During the Armenian Genocide, Armenians (95%+) were cleansed and driven primarily from Western Armenia and Cilicia!
CBS deliberately does not want the nation to identify and respect the specific location and boundaries of the occupied Armenian homeland, the return of which is the crux of the Armenian Question and the main factor that would end the Armenian Genocide!
3. CBS: "Which is probably why no U.S. president has uttered the word genocide."
This is a blatant lie, as we know that Reagan used the "G" word during his presidency!
4. It highlights the power imbalance between Armenia and Turkey and stresses Turkey's "importance" to the United States and so-called "regional superpower" status.
CBS: "The use of the word genocide is regarded as an insult to the Turkish nation; it is a jailable offense..."
Why didn't CBS emphasize that the nonuse "of the word genocide is regarded as an insult to the [Armenian] nation"?!
5. With the one-sided Armenia-Turkey protocols practically dead, the timing of this report is driven by a desire to "kill the bill" using the same immoral arguments and tactics that somehow "worked" in 2007.
Most congressional supporters of the Armenian Genocide resolution are not that foolish and will not buy into these denialist measures.
When the House passed similar legislation in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Turkey didn't and couldn't retaliate! All it did was cry and verbally abuse the United States, and days later, everything was back to normal.
This righteous bill will again pass in the Foreign Relations Committee and advance to the House floor for a full and successful vote!
There are always negatives in controversial reports, such as this one. But the fact that Turks are outraged and exasperatedly call the report “nothing but lies” (as seen in the media right after it aired) just shows how the real message of this report was fulfilled. That the genocide is a well known fact and is held back by only political objectives.
In December (2009), 60 Minutes had another piece on Turkey. It concerned Turkey's repression of the Greek Partriarchate and Turkey's few remaining Greeks.
Turkey was, predictably, quite upset by this. Now we see another 60 Minutes piece, this time about Armenians, that was critical of Turkey. This is unprecedented on American commercial TV (though not PBS). What is going on? I believe that some segments of the Jewish American community and media are sending Turkey this message: "Stop your attacks on Israel and stop your anti-Semitism. Or else...".
The timing is no coincidence. Prior to the last few months, you see, 60 Minutes had shown no interest whatsover in the genocides committed by Turkey against millions of indigenous Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks. The only genocide that 60 Minutes has repeatedly featured is the Holocaust. The timing is clear and so is the message by some American Jewish groups: "If you (Turkey) do not watch your step, we will bring up the genocides (and more) that you have committed and that we have previously NOT allowed to be discussed on American commercial TV, due to the previously close Turkish - Israeli relationship."
Thankfully, principled segments of the American Jewish community and academia have always acknowledged the genocides that Turkey has carried out. Please visit ww.NoPlaceforDenial.com for more information about the Armenian American campaign against the Genocide denials of the Anti-Defamation League.
The fact that the Genocide happened is not something that can be debated. It's in every archive of every nation of the world. Turkish scholars are apologizing and being tried by nationalists for abusing "Turkishness." If the genocide didn't happen then why does Armenia have one of the largest diaspora per capita rates than any other country in the world. Why is it a coincidence that the largest Armenian communities are in the countries neighbouring Armenia and modern Eastern Turkey (especially Anatolia region)? The term Genocide was infact created to describe what happened to the Armenians and the Jews as a description of mass killings. Youtube "Raphael Lemkin," the man who termed the word genocide. It's not how many people are killed that determines what genocide is, it is the foundation and the basis under why the killings have or were being taken place. Therefore, there would be no need to find another term for what happened to the Jews, because the plan was to kill the Jewish people until they were written in the history books.
Mustafa "Ataturk" Kemal, someone every Turkish person should know about, founder of the modern Turkish Republic in 1923 and revered throughout Turkey. In an interview published on August 1, 1926 in The Los Angeles Examiner, talking about former Young Turks in his country said...
"These left-overs from the former Young Turk Party, who should have been made to account for the millions of our Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven en masse, from their homes and massacred, have been restive under the Republican rule."
Adolf Hitler, while persuading his associates that a Jewish holocaust would be tolerated by the west stated...
"Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
Talat Pasha, in a conversation with Dr. Mordtmann of the German Embassy in June 1915...Turkey is taking advantage of the war in order to thoroughly liquidate (grundlich aufzaumen) its internal foes, i.e., the indigenous Christians, without being thereby disturbed by foreign intervention. After the German Ambassador persistently brought up the Armenian question in 1918, Talat said "with a smile"...
"What on earth do you want? The question is settled. There are no more Armenians."
I am sick of GENOCIDE DENIAL. Wasn’t the Armenian Genocide a motivation for Hitler to invade Poland? Do humanity a favour and accept your actions Turkey.
"Will the outrageous terrorising, the cruel torturing, the driving of women into the harems, the debauchery of innocent girls, the sale of many of them at eighty cents each, the murdering of hundreds of thousands and the deportation to, and starvation in, the deserts of other hundreds of thousands, the destruction of hundreds of villages and cities, will the wilful execution of this whole devilish scheme to annihilate the Armenian, Greek and Syrian Christians of Turkey -- will all this go unpunished?" Henry Morgenthau, United States ambassador to Turkey 3.5 million Armenians Assyrians and Greeks demand vindication.
7 comments:
This CBS report raises some good points and important facts on the Armenian Genocide, but is rife with big negatives, deliberate misrepresentations and outright lies:
1. Its frequent use of the terms "battle...the massacres...the events" to describe an incontestable fact is unacceptable and constitutes an unconscionable act of genocide denial -- the ultimate form of hate speech!
Allowing Amb. Sensoy the opportunity to deny the Armenian Genocide on national television is as criminal and cruel an act as airing any statements by a neo-Nazi leader denying the Jewish Holocaust!
2. It deliberately fails to identify the Armenian homeland of more than four millennia.
There is no reference to "Anatolia...eastern (Ottoman) Turkey...Western Armenia and Cilicia..."
CBS: "But our story begins where the lives of so many Armenians ended, far from Istanbul, in the desert...The survivors ended up in concentration camps hundreds of miles from Istanbul, out of sight."
Istanbul (then Constantinople) was never the Armenian homeland or part of the Armenian homeland. During the Armenian Genocide, Armenians (95%+) were cleansed and driven primarily from Western Armenia and Cilicia!
CBS deliberately does not want the nation to identify and respect the specific location and boundaries of the occupied Armenian homeland, the return of which is the crux of the Armenian Question and the main factor that would end the Armenian Genocide!
3. CBS: "Which is probably why no U.S. president has uttered the word genocide."
This is a blatant lie, as we know that Reagan used the "G" word during his presidency!
4. It highlights the power imbalance between Armenia and Turkey and stresses Turkey's "importance" to the United States and so-called "regional superpower" status.
CBS: "The use of the word genocide is regarded as an insult to the Turkish nation; it is a jailable offense..."
Why didn't CBS emphasize that the nonuse "of the word genocide is regarded as an insult to the [Armenian] nation"?!
5. With the one-sided Armenia-Turkey protocols practically dead, the timing of this report is driven by a desire to "kill the bill" using the same immoral arguments and tactics that somehow "worked" in 2007.
Most congressional supporters of the Armenian Genocide resolution are not that foolish and will not buy into these denialist measures.
When the House passed similar legislation in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Turkey didn't and couldn't retaliate! All it did was cry and verbally abuse the United States, and days later, everything was back to normal.
This righteous bill will again pass in the Foreign Relations Committee and advance to the House floor for a full and successful vote!
There are always negatives in controversial reports, such as this one. But the fact that Turks are outraged and exasperatedly call the report “nothing but lies” (as seen in the media right after it aired) just shows how the real message of this report was fulfilled. That the genocide is a well known fact and is held back by only political objectives.
In December (2009), 60 Minutes had another piece on Turkey.
It concerned Turkey's repression of the Greek Partriarchate and Turkey's few remaining Greeks.
Turkey was, predictably, quite upset by this. Now we see another 60 Minutes piece, this time about Armenians, that was critical of Turkey. This is unprecedented on American commercial TV (though not PBS). What is going on? I believe that some segments of the Jewish American community and media are sending Turkey this message: "Stop your attacks on Israel and stop your anti-Semitism. Or else...".
The timing is no coincidence.
Prior to the last few months, you see, 60 Minutes had shown no interest whatsover in the genocides committed by Turkey against millions of indigenous Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks. The only genocide that 60 Minutes has repeatedly featured is the Holocaust. The timing is clear and so is the message by some American Jewish groups: "If you (Turkey) do not watch your step, we will bring up the genocides (and more) that you have committed and that we have previously NOT allowed to be discussed on American commercial TV, due to the previously close Turkish - Israeli relationship."
Thankfully, principled segments of the American Jewish community and academia have always acknowledged the genocides that Turkey has carried out.
Please visit ww.NoPlaceforDenial.com for more information about the Armenian American campaign against the Genocide denials of the Anti-Defamation League.
The fact that the Genocide happened is not something that can be debated. It's in every archive of every nation of the world. Turkish scholars are apologizing and being tried by nationalists for abusing "Turkishness." If the genocide didn't happen then why does Armenia have one of the largest diaspora per capita rates than any other country in the world. Why is it a coincidence that the largest Armenian communities are in the countries neighbouring Armenia and modern Eastern Turkey (especially Anatolia region)? The term Genocide was infact created to describe what happened to the Armenians and the Jews as a description of mass killings. Youtube "Raphael Lemkin," the man who termed the word genocide. It's not how many people are killed that determines what genocide is, it is the foundation and the basis under why the killings have or were being taken place. Therefore, there would be no need to find another term for what happened to the Jews, because the plan was to kill the Jewish people until they were written in the history books.
Mustafa "Ataturk" Kemal, someone every Turkish person should know about, founder of the modern Turkish Republic in 1923 and revered throughout Turkey. In an interview published on August 1, 1926 in The Los Angeles Examiner, talking about former Young Turks in his country said...
"These left-overs from the former Young Turk Party, who should have been made to account for the millions of our Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven en masse, from their homes and massacred, have been restive under the Republican rule."
Adolf Hitler, while persuading his associates that a Jewish holocaust would be tolerated by the west stated...
"Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
Talat Pasha, in a conversation with Dr. Mordtmann of the German Embassy in June 1915...Turkey is taking advantage of the war in order to thoroughly liquidate (grundlich aufzaumen) its internal foes, i.e., the indigenous Christians, without being thereby disturbed by foreign intervention. After the German Ambassador persistently brought up the Armenian question in 1918, Talat said "with a smile"...
"What on earth do you want? The question is settled. There are no more Armenians."
I am sick of GENOCIDE DENIAL. Wasn’t the Armenian Genocide a motivation for Hitler to invade Poland? Do humanity a favour and accept your actions Turkey.
Yes Ryan,
"Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” - Hitler
His justification that no one will remember his actions. We all know what he went on to do.
"Will the outrageous terrorising, the cruel torturing, the driving of women into the harems, the debauchery of innocent girls, the sale of many of them at eighty cents each, the murdering of hundreds of thousands and the deportation to, and starvation in, the deserts of other hundreds of thousands, the destruction of hundreds of villages and cities, will the wilful execution of this whole devilish scheme to annihilate the Armenian, Greek and Syrian Christians of Turkey -- will all this go unpunished?"
Henry Morgenthau, United States ambassador to Turkey
3.5 million Armenians Assyrians and Greeks demand vindication.
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