Avustralya Süryani soykırım anıtı dikilesine karar verildi...

Sydney Belediyesi’nin Osmanlı topraklarında öldürülen Süryanilerin anısına anıt dikmeyi planlamasına tepki gösteren Büyükelçi Oğuz Özge, bunu engellemek için girişim başlattı
Çeşitli platformlarda Ermeni ve Rum nüfusa karşı ‘soykırım’ yapmakla suçlanan Türkiye son olarak Avustralya’da Osmanlı İmparatorluğu zamanında Süryanilere yönelik ‘soykırım’ uygulamak suçlamasıyla karşı karşıya kaldı. Sydney kenti belediye meclisi 1. Dünya Savaşı sırasında ve sonrasında öldürülen Süryanilerin anısına bir anıt inşa edilmesini gündemine aldı. Girişime büyük tepki gösteren Türkiye’nin Avustralya Büyükelçisi Oğuz Özge, planın uygulanmasını önlemek için hukuki yollara başvurulacağını açıkladı.
“The Australian” gazetesine konuşan Özge, düşünülen anıtın inşa edilmesi halinde bunun Türkiye-Avustralya ilişkilerinde gerilime yol açacağını, Avustralya’daki Türk ve Süryani kökenlileri düşman kamplara böleceğine dikkat çekti. Anavatanlarının Türkiye, Suriye ve İran topraklarında kaldığını savunan Süryaniler, 1. Dünya Savaşı sırasında Türk zulmüne uğradıklarını iddia ediyorlar. Avustralya Dışişleri Bakanı Stephen Smith, Sidney meclisinin söz konusu planına karşı çıkıyor, ancak projeyi durdurma yetkisi bulunmuyor.
Uyuma zarar verecekBüyükelçi Oğuz Özge, “Girişim Avustralya’nın Türk kökenli vatandaşlarını rencide ediyor ve şimdiye kadar yan yana yaşayan iki topluluk arasındaki uyuma zarar verecek. Bu konuda gerek hukuki, gerek başka yollardan neler yapabileceğimize bakıyoruz” dedi. Geçen hafta konunun tartışıldığı Fairfield Konseyi binası, Avust- ralya çevik kuvvet polisi tarafından olası saldırılara karşı sıkı şekilde koruma altına alınmış, Türk ve Süryanilerin çatışmaması için de önlemler artırılmıştı.
Dünya Süryani Birliği Sekreteri Hermiz Şahin, projenin kışkırtıcı bir yönü olmadığını ileri sürdü. Anıta konacak plakada Türklerden söz edilmeyeceğini söyleyen Şahin, anıtın Süryani toplumuna olan saygıyı göstereceğini, plakada “Süryani şehitlerin ruhuna” ithafta bulunan ifadelerin yer alacağını kaydetti. Avustralya’da 150 bin Türkiye göçmeni yaşıyor. Sydney’de de çoğu 20 bin kadar Süryani bulunuyor.
(Milliyet) http://turkyurdu.com/manset/avustralya-suryani-soykirim-aniti-dikiyor/

Turks angered by Assyrian memorial in Australia
Dec 21, 2009, 23:08 GMT

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/turks-ponder-legal-action-over-assyrian-memorial/story-e6frg6nf-1225812575570

Sydney - Plans by a Sydney council to build a monument to Assyrians slain during and after World War I has prompted the Turkish embassy in Australia to threaten legal action, news reports said Tuesday.

Ambassador Oguz Ozge told The Australian newspaper that the proposed statue would strain bilateral ties and provoke division between Turkish immigrants and Assyrians.

Assyrians are Christians whose homeland takes up parts of Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey. They claim they were persecuted by Turks during and after World War I.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith had opposed the plans but has no power to overturn them.
'It hurts the Turkish Australians living in this country and it is an attempt at destroying the harmony of the two communities living in Australia side by side,' Ambassador Ozge said. 'We are looking into whether we can do anything, legally or otherwise.'

Last week, when the plans were discussed at Fairfield Council chambers, riot police were on duty to prevent clashes between Turkish and Assyrian groups.

Hermiz Shahen, secretary of the Assyrian Universal Alliance, admitted his group had not consulted the Turkish community over its plans, but insisted the move was not provocative.
'There is no mention of the Turks on the plaque,' he told the paper. 'That is part of our respect for the community here,' Shahen said, noting the inscription was a dedication to the 'souls of Assyrian martyrs.'

There are around 150,000 people of Turkish descent living in Australia. About 20,000 Assyrians live in Australia, most of them in Fairfield, a western Sydney suburb.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1520743.php/Turks-angered-by-Assyrian-memorial-in-Australia

A memorial to mark where Australia lost ( Anit ile gelen Avustralya'nin kaybi ..)

Andrew Bolt

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 07:08am

How ludicrous and dangerous for an Australian council to involve itself in imported inter-ethnic disputes and even side with a “winner”:

MORE than 200 members of Sydney’s Turkish and Assyrian communities were separated by police outside the Fairfield Council offices last night after the council approved plans for a monument commemorating what was called the Assyrian genocide.

At least 40 police stood between the two groups as the council considered plans for the first ever Australian memorial to Assyrians killed by Turkish forces during World War I and subsequent conflicts…

At 7.30pm the council voted to approve the monument, producing a spontaneous outburst by the Assyrians. ‘’Winner, winner, winner - thank you Australia,’’ one jubilant Assyrian said
The Assyrians win, and Australia loses. Shame.

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/a_memorial_to_mark_where_australia_lost/

Fears 'genocide' memorial could cause split (-Sydney-Fairfield belediyesindeki Soykirim aniti ayriliklara sebep olabilir) AMY CORDEROY AND ELLIE HARVEY / December 16, 2009














Tension ... young Assyrian protesters gather outside the Fairfield Council building while the decision on the memorial was being debated. At least 40 police stood by. Photo: Wolter Peeters

Tension ... young Assyrian protesters gather outside the Fairfield Council building while the decision on the memorial was being debated. At least 40 police stood by. Photo: Wolter Peeters
MORE than 200 members of Sydney 's Turkish and Assyrian communities were separated by police outside the Fairfield Council offices last night after the council approved plans for a monument commemorating what was called the Assyrian genocide.

At least 40 police stood between the two groups as the council considered plans for the first ever Australian memorial to Assyrians killed by Turkish forces during World War I and subsequent conflicts.

A local group, calling itself the Assyrian Universal Alliance, had proposed to build a 4.5-metre-high memorial to victims of the Assyrian genocides in a reserve under construction opposite Bonnyrigg Park . However, the move is bitterly opposed by the local Turkish community, which disagrees with the Assyrians' interpretation of the past.

At least 100 Turkish Australians bearing signs critical of the proposal gathered at the front of the council building while at least as many Assyrians draped in Assyrian and Armenian flags stood on the other side.

At 7.30pm the council voted to approve the monument, producing a spontaneous outburst by the Assyrians. ''Winner, winner, winner - thank you Australia ,'' one jubilant Assyrian said.
A Turkish protester Gokhan Tugcu, 25, said the monument was divisive and should never have been allowed. '' Australia , being a multicultural society shouldn't have things like this that divide the different cultures that live here. [It's] a statue now, it could be in the school curriculum later on,'' Mr Tugcu said.

As the crowd left the council emotions grew. One man standing with the Turkish group called out ''Ottomans'' and slid his fingers across his throat.

Hermiz Shahen, the deputy secretary of the Assyrian Alliance, said that the monument was never intended as an insult.

''If you respect the ANZACS, you are not insulting the Turkish people,'' he said. ''We just want to erect a monument to respect the victims of genocide''.

But a local resident, Adem Cetinay, who has a Turkish background, believes that the memorial is already causing a split.

''We're dividing the community and that has never happened before,'' he said.
Within two days of hearing about the proposed memorial, Mr Cetinay obtained more than 800 signatures for a petition opposing it.

''If it goes ahead, our kids are going to grow up here with this monument in their faces,'' he said. The Local Government Association of NSW has formally recognised that genocide was perpetrated against the Assyrians since World War I.
But neither the NSW Government nor the Federal Government have come to the same conclusion

To: Fairfield City Council
Administration Centre
86 Avoca Road,
WakeleyFairfield
NSW 1860

Do we need for exploiting the ethnic differences in Australia?

Dear Sir/Madam

I am a proud Turkish-Australian and I would like to express my disapproval of the Assyrian Genocide Memorial monument of the Fairfield Council’s call for community which proposed for Edensor Park on 5th of December 2009. Today’s date is 7th of December 2009. The above mentioned monument of historical event so-called incident had happened in 1915. Claimed event supposedly occurred about 94 years ago.

I would like to ask you now;
Why the council waited that long to raise this declaration? What is/are your historical evidence/s for this so-called genocide?
Is that going to help to the council responsibilities to do better for Assyrians and other locals by gaining such an official recognition of the so-called “Assyrian genocide” in NSW?

As I am holidaying in Turkey now, after hearing of your council’s movement which made many Turks extremely furious about the council decision, disappointments of Turkish people will grow over in coming days.

I am not going give a history lesson to you now; however, there was similar tragedy for all the regional people of the Ottoman Empire's last years; exactly the same for the Turks themselves, the Armenians, the Assyrians, even for the Australians. There were no differences in between Turks and Armenians, Assyrians, even Australians; they were all the fellow sufferers.

In fact, Turks were the ones who suffered the most:
" February 2nd(1915), this is a dirty place, nothing but sand
..went to Kash-el-Nil with a party to bring back prisoners.
Saw some Turkish prisoners from the Suez Canal. They were in a terrible
condition, half of them not properly clothed." Private Studley Gahan, 9th Infantary RFS

As we all must accept now, all those sufferers died for the cost of capturing the region’s oil resources by the “western global powers!“. So, if you are looking for the justice for the fallen ones; ask and claim from the “western global powers”, not from the Turks. And ask the western global powers, if there is any relation between discovering the regional oil and helping g to rise-up the Armenians, Assyrians the others against Turkiye who lived in the area for many years together with peacefully. On the other hand, there wasn’t found any evidence of any genocide for the Turks in history at all.

Lastly, I would like to ask you a few more questions;
How accurate to assess more than 90 years old history, from that far country, Australia?
What is the benefit of exploiting the ethnic differences in Australia?
What is the advantage of promoting ethnical issues ( if there any ) to Australia?
Which one is better; dividing Australia or celebrating togetherness?
Which one is the Australian of way of perception; dividing or uniting the communities in our new country (Australia).

Turks can be taken as a role model who never looks back and they don’t ask Australians why they went to Turkey and caused to killing many Turks in 1915. However, as old foes; Turkiye and Australia now became new friends despite of unfortunate war in between them. Now both countries know that how important to improving friendships and in recent years, they prefer to develop good relations.The friendship in between countries and people will continue to grow over the years, regardless of some slim minds that are insisting to learn from the reality instead.

Hoping that, this decision will be re-considered by your councillors and will be stoped will start looking forward and start thinking for more constructive issues for the locals and fr the universal peace rather than looking back.

I would like to finish with non-Turkish resources. Please make an effort to read them carefully and stop being irresponsible on such a critical accusation.

Your Sincerely,
Julia Gul Arslan
PS: The following articles taken from in the book named; ‘The fellow Sufferes- Johnny Turks and Diggers - Honourable Enemy’ written by Julia Gul Arslan the president of Australia-Gallipoli Friendship Society.


"Turks have treated our captured men and officers excellently" The diary of the Aus. Official Corres. C.E.W.Bean

“You will hear extraordinary horrible stories practiced by Turks. Well, don’t believe a word of them. They are grossly exaggerated if not wholly false. You will be surprised at the gentlemanly way the Turks has fought us." Jim Haynes (Cobbers - Stories of Gallipoli 1915 p. 178)

" I reckon the Turk respects us, as we respect the Turk, Abdul's a good, clean fighter - we've fought him, and we know" Lieutenant Oliver Hogue

"The Turks have always proved themselves perfectly willing to have armistices and have actually asked for one at Helles which was refused by our General Staff. " Ashmead-Bartlett's Diary,1915

" They (Turks) too were fighting for their country. Good and fair fighters. No. They fought very fair and honestly like us. Both sides lost their very valuable men.” [E.W.BARTLETT - was born in Australia , 1891. 11. Light Horse Regiment. One Hundred years old. He was one of last two hundred who left the Dardanelle.]

"The Turkish sniper understood that we were searching for him. He shot once and the doctor got wounded. When he realized that he was a doctor, he didn’t shoot again.” Exerted from Sydney Alexander Moseley, former war correspondent during the Gallipoli Campaign



“ After the terrible punishment inflicted upon the brave but futile assaults all bitterness faded … The Turks displayed an admirable manliness … From that morning onwards the attitude of the Anzac troops towards the individual Turks was rather that of opponents in a friendly game."
[ Charles. E Bean, the Australian official historian, The Story of Anzac, Vol II, Sydney, 1924, p.162 ]

" The Anzacs left Gallipoli without hatred in their heart for their enemy or bitterness at the incompetence of their own high command.” A.K. Macdouggall, Australian historian
Turks are clean fighters“ During the war British high command wanted to give the soldiers on the front gas masks. The soldiers protested

"The Turks are clean fighters. They don't use gas."The Britische Orientalist, Aubrey Herbert wrote in his famous book "Mons, Anzac & Kut ANZAC, 1915" . Monday, August 16th, 1915. No. 2 Outpost. - Details -"The missing man was badly wounded and was not seen lying in the dense growth of barley when the retirement began on the 19th. He was afterwards found by the Turks and treated in one of their hospitals." Ernest W. Hammond's "History of the 11th Light Horse Regiment" - pp. 71-72 C.F. Dixon-Johnson, The Armenians, Blackburn 1916, p 61

“…We have no hesitation in repeating that these stories of wholesale massacre have been circulated with the distinct objective of influencing, detrimentally to Turkey, the future policy of the British Government when the time of settlement shall arrive. No apology, therefore, is needed for honestly endeavoring to show how a nation with whom we were closely allied for many years and which possesses the same faith as millions of our fellow-subjects, has been condemned for perpetrating horrible excesses against humanity on 'evidence' which, when absolutely false, is grossly and shamefully exaggerated…”
C.F. Dixon-Johnson, The Armenians, Blackburn 1916, p 61

" February 2nd, this is a dirty place, nothing but sand. Went to Kash-el-Nil with a party to bring back prisoners. Saw some Turkish prisoners from the Suez Canal. They were in a terrible condition, half of them not properly clothed." Private Studley Gahan, 9th Infantary RFS

"Today is Sunday, August 8th, fifteen weeks after we landed… ... I have just seen as caddish as act as I ever saw in my life. About 100 Turkish prisoners and 2 Germans were sitting in the pen built by the Australian Division opposite my dug out. There is an incinerator within a few yards. Some chap had poured out a tin of kerosene on the ground in front of it and laid a trail of kerosene ... Some chap put a light to the trail it flared along and when it reached the kerosene there was a huge flare of fire very uncomfortably close - if it not dangerously- to the Turks.The wretched prisoners rushed to the far corner of the pen like a flock of sheep rounded up by a dog, and the fellows looking on laughed. There were both Australians and British there amongst the onlookers. I wondered someone hadn't the decency to hit the man who did it straight in the face. The same thing exactly was done yesterday..."

.The treatment of these prisoners makes you blush for your own side. They are under the control of the Army Corps Police and A.P.M…. They have put Indians sentries over them, who are about as capable of keeping off the Australians who crowd around to state at them, as an old woman with a stick would be. Three Turkish officers are among the lot. So far, as we know they have treated our captured men and officers excellently.

These three officers were sent off under an Indian sentry to a vacant shell of a dug out in Australian Divisional lines. They went sent there in the morning and absolutely forgotten. No food or water was sent o them". Sydney Herald Morning Herald Gallipoli Correspondent Charles Edwin Woodrow Bean - The frontline diary of C.E.W.Bean- Selected and annotated by Kevin Fewster, P:149

Despite, at the Gallipoli battle ground there was no fresh water and no bathing and toilet facilities for Anzacs and also Turks where the Anzac soldiers-troops landed and stayed for eight months with own wishes.
"The drama of the Dardanelles campaign by reason of the beauty of its setting, the grandeur of its theme and the unhappiness of its ending, will always rank amongst the world's classic tragedies. The story is a record of lost opportunities and eventual failure..."
C.F. Aspinall-Oglander, History Of The Great War Based On Official Documents: Military Operations: Gallipoli
"The soldiers had to shelter from the gunfire in deep, muddy trenches, with rats scurrying though them. They crouched, cold and hungry in the mud, while gunfire and shells roared overhead." The Book called 'Poppy Day' by Rosemary Moore.

“… Atrocity stories have been vastly overdone; some of the more recent massacres have been wholly nonexistent. One of the local (Constantinople) members of the press and of a relief organization told some friends openly that he could only send anti-Turkish dispatches to America because that is what gets the money…”

E. Alexander Powell, The Struggle for Power in Moslem Asia, New York, 1925
*******************
“… A circular was issued by the War Office inviting reports on war incidents from officers with regard to the enemy and stating that strict accuracy was not essential so long as there was inherent probability (p 20). Atrocity lies were the most popular of all, especially in this country and America; no war can be without them. Slander of the enemy is esteemed a patriotic duty…” p 22 Arthur Ponsonby, Falsehood in War-Time, New York, 1928… “… It is impossible to describe all the types of atrocity stories. They were repeated for days in brochures, posters, letters and speeches. Renowned persons, who otherwise would be hesitant to condemn even their mortal enemies for lack of evidence, did not hesitate to accuse an entire nation of having committed every imaginable savagery and inhuman action..” p 129. Arthur Ponsonby, Falsehood in War-Time, New York, 1928

******************* “… In some towns containing ten Armenian houses and thirty Turkish houses, it was reported that 40,000 people were killed, about 10,000 women were taken to the harem, and thousands of children left destitute; and the city university destroyed, and the bishop killed. It is a well-known fact that even in the last war the native Christians, despite the Turkish cautions, armed themselves and fought on the side of the Allies. In these conflicts, they were not idle, but they were well supplied with artillery, machine guns and inflicted heavy losses on their enemies…”
Lamsa, George M., The Secret of the Near East, Philadelphia, 1923, p 133*******************

“… I am surprised that London should possess information which no one here is aware of and is unable to document. As a result, it has been impossible until now to determine exactly that Armenians have been massacred in any area. There is much talk about it but no one was able to give me certain and exact information. In particular the Armenian losses in Marash appear to be absolutely false. Apparently, the Armenians took part in the struggle of our troops in this city and had casualties like all the fighters. A serious study of the figures shows that these Armenian casualties do not exceed 1000…”Prime Minister Millerand, Archives des Affaires Etrangeres de France,Vol 9, Folio 3******************* ”

… By the end of October, the late Miss Annie T. Allen and Miss Florence Billings, the Near East Relief's representatives in Ankara (Angora), compiled a report on the state of the Turkish villages which the Greeks had burned during their retreat and forwarded it to the Near East Relief's headquarters in Constantinople. But the Near East Relief has never published that report, just as Mr. Lloyd George never published the Bristol report on Greek misdeeds at Izmir (Smyrna)…” Clair Price, The Rebirth of Turkey, New York 1923, p 189
******************* “

… Quoting from the American High Commissioner Admiral Bristol's report: "The United States should raise its voice against the plans of the Allies and the American people should be told the facts. They (the Turks) were still human and still had rights and the other side of the coin was obscured by the flood of Greek and Armenian propaganda painting the Turks as completely inhuman and undeserving of any consideration, while suppressing all the facts in favor of the Turks…." Evans, United States Policy and the Partition of Turkey, 1914-1924, Baltimore 1965, p 272

******************* “… The Turkish Armenian does not know what a revolution is. He fears a revolution like death. But if there is something he is more afraid of, it is the revolutionary Armenian, the unreasoning revolutionary Armenians without a conscience who dragged him from misery to misery for several years with the thought of doing a good deed for him. The Turkish Armenian have to confess that this enemy of their own kind has been everywhere and has done its work everywhere. It also had many followers in Russia, England and Turkey. Because it is known as a social truth that divisive movements and propaganda among groups in a society influence the masses very deeply. When these witless wretches came up with the idea of establishing a large state with the Armenians in Caucasia and Turkey, the God-fearing Armenians with good conscience who were aware of where the best interests of the nation lay, were overcome with sadness: 'An independent state, which will also include within its borders some of the Turkish provinces, is that it? This would be the destruction of Armenians' they said. This was the truth. It was impossible for any Armenian with a little bit of discernment not to see it. Because these people were thinking that they could change the bed of a large river with eight or ten pieces of stone. This large river had opened its real bed by flowing for centuries on a strong surface. To change this direction was to tear Armenian interests from the tranquil flow of the river, to push them to draught-ridden lands and to strangle them there for ever. Those feeble minded persons failed to see that the foreigners who supported their revolution and evil deeds and championed their causes in their newspapers did not undertake such action for the love of Armenians. The aim, and the sole aim of these so-called protective powers was to cause the shedding of blood in regions which they earmarked for their hegemony and to take over these regions with the pretext of cleaning the blood. History is still recording what imperialism is capable of doing in places it sets its eyes on. But it was impossible to make the public-spirited revolutionaries comprehend this. The anarchists and propagandists among them who could be useful neither to themselves nor to their communities in any other way were receiving salaries. They were also receiving what they believed there was Turkish oppression, and they also made their compatriots believe in their lies. The last quarter of a century of Turkey's history is filled with some Armenian events. Although these events were supposedly aimed at some goals harmful to Turkey, in fact they were only the oppression of Armenians by Armenians. If the causes and reasons for each event are analyzed one by one and if the events are analyzed meticulously, the only conclusion that will be arrived at is the one we have stated in the previous sentence; the oppression of Armenians by Armenians…”Migirdic Agop, The Turkish Armenians, Istanbul 1922

“… The Armenian, for all his ineffaceable nationalism, his passion for plotting and his fanatical intolerance, would be a negligible thorn in the Ottoman side did he stand alone. The Porte knows very well that while Armenian Christians are Gregorian, Catholic and Protestant, each sect bitterly intolerant of the others and moreover while commerce and usury are all in Armenian hands, it can divide and rule secure; but behind the Armenian secret societies (and there are few Armenians who have not committed technical treason by becoming members of such societies at some point of their lives) it sees the Kurd, and behind the Kurd the Russian; or looking west, it espies through the ceaseless sporadic propaganda of the agitators Exeter Hall and Armenian Committees. The Turk begins to repress because we sympathize and we sympathize because he represses and so the vicious circle revolves. Does he habitually, however, do more than repress? Does he, as administrator oppress? So far we have heard one version only, one part to this suit, with its stories of outrage and echoing through them a long cry for national independence. The mouth of the accused has been shut hitherto by fatalism, by custom, by the gulf of misunderstanding which is fixed between the Christian and the Moslem. In my own experience of western Armenia, extending more or less over four years up to 1894, I have seen no signs of a Reign of Terror. Life in Christian villages has not shown itself outwardly to me as being very different from life in the villages of Islam, nor the trade and property of Armenians in towns to be less secure than those of Moslems. There was tension, there was friction, there was a condition of mutual suspicion as to which Armenians have said to me again and again "If only the patriots would leave us to trade and to till!". The Turk rules by right of five hundred years' possession, and before his day the Byzantine, the Persian, the Parthian, the Roman preceded each other as over-lords of Greater Armenia back to the misty days of the first Tigranes. The Turk claims certain rights in this matter - the right to safeguard his own existence, the right to smoke out such hornets' nests as Zeitun, which has annihilated for centuries past the trade of Eastern Taurus, the right to remain dominant by all means not outrageous …” David G. Hogarth, A Wandering Scholar in the Levant, New York, 1896, p 147******************* “…Now I can readily understand and make allowance for the public's errors and misconceptions, for it has had, after all, no means of knowing that it has been systematically deceived, but I can find no excuse for those newspapers which, clinging to a policy of vilifying the Turk, failed to rectify the anti-Turkish charges printed in their columns even when it had been proved to the satisfaction of most fair-minded persons that they were unjustified…A case in point was the burning of Smyrna in September, 1922. There was scarcely a newspaper of importance in the United States that did not editorially lay that outrage at the door of the Turks, without waiting to hear the Turkish version, yet, after it had been attested by American, English, and French eye-witnesses, and by a French commission of inquiry, that the city had been deliberately fired by the Greeks and Armenians in order to prevent it falling into Turkish hands, how many newspapers had the courage to admit that they had done the Turks a grave injustice?…"
E. Alexander Powell, The Struggle for Power in Moslem Asia, The Century Co., New York & London (1923), p 32-33

*******************

“…The Editor is, of course, aware that these documents which he only possesses in a defective form cannot be presented as evidence in the strict sense by himself, and can plausibly be repudiated by the parties whose crimes they describe.”
Bryce, Viscount (Arnold J, Toynbee, editor) The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 1915-16, Miscellaneous No. 31(1916), British Secret War Propaganda Bureau Publication (1916) (run by Charles Masterman), p 41

*******************

“… Shortly after the news had spread to Europe of the attack on the Ottoman Bank and the subsequent massacre of Armenians, a number of artists of illustrated newspapers arrived in Constantinople, commissioned to supply the demand for atrocities of the Million-headed-Tyrant. Among these was the late Mr. Melton Prior, the renowned war correspondent. He was a man of strenuous and determined temperament, one not accustomed to be the sport of circumstances but to rise superior to them. Whether he was called upon to take part in a forced march or to face a mad Mullah, he invariable held his own and came off victorious. But in this particular case, as he confided to me, he was in an awkward predicament. The public at home had heard of nameless atrocities and was anxious to receive pictorial representations of these. The difficulty was how to supply them with what they wanted, as the dead Armenians had been buried and no women or children had suffered hurt and no Armenian church had been desecrated. As an old admirer of the Turks and as an honest man, he declined to invent what he had not witnessed. But others were not equally scrupulous. I subsequently saw an Italian illustrated newspaper containing harrowing pictures of women and children being massacred in a church…” p 29 Sydney Whitman, Turkish Memories, London 1914

… “… ‘Do you believe that any massacres would have taken place if no Armenian revolutionaries had come into the country and incited the Armenian population to rebellion?’ I asked Mr. Graves (The British Consul). ‘Certainly not’ he replied. ‘I do not believe that a single Armenian would have been killed’ …” p 70, Sydney Whitman, Turkish Memories, London 1914
Legend: AAG = The alleged Armenian genocideAFATH = Armenian Falsifiers and Turk HatersNYT = The New York Times newspaperTAFT = Turkish-Americans and friends of TurkeyTBG= The Boston Globe newspaperWWI = The First World WarEthocide = Extermination of ethics via pre-meditated and malicious mass deception for political, economic, social, and/or moral benefits

Some quotes may be gruesome depicting the real motives of the Armenians that started in late 1800's and all these facts are documented with source references. And here we are looking for a Turkish Organisation (excluding individuals readiness to fight are unquestionable) that has the apt and honor to fight these lies and fabrications,poignant but true. " All Turkish children also should be killed as they form a danger to the Armenian nation"Hamparsum Boyaciyan, nicknamed "Murad," a former Ottoman parliamentarian who led Armenian guerilla forces, ravaging Turkish villages behind the lines, 1914. Cited from Mikael Varandean, "History of the Dashnaktsutiun." (Alternately known as "History of the A.R.Federation" ["H. H. Dashnaktsutyan Patmutiwn," Paris,1932 and Cairo,1950]. The author [1874-1934] has other works, including "L'Arménie et la Question Arménienne," noted in the library as "Delegation propaganda authenticated by the Armenian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919"]
"I killed Muslims by every means possible. Yet it is sometimes a pity to waste bullets for this. The best way is to gather all of these dogs and throw them into wells and then fill the wells with big and heavy stones. as I did. I gathered all of the women, men and children, threw big stones down on top of them. They must never live on this earth."
A. Lalayan, Revolutsionniy Vostok (Revolutionary East) No: 2-3, Moscow, 1936. (Highly deceptive Armenian activists on the Internet are spreading rumors there is no Lalayan.The above quote has been confirmed. Lalaian was an Armenian Soviet historian and the Dashnag report above was first published in issue 2-3 of the magazine, Revolyutsionniy Vostok and then in issue 2 of Istoricheskie Zapisky, the organ of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Institute of History, The above quote is from a proud Dashnag officer, in the report he wrote from the Beyazit-Vaaram region in 1920, Updated translation:

"I exterminated the Turkish population in Bashar-Gechar without making any exceptions. One sometimes feels the bullets shouldn't be wasted. So, the most effective way against these dogs is to collect the people who have survived the clashes and dump them in deep holes and crush them under heavy rocks pressed from above, not to let them inhabit this world any longer. So I did accordingly. I collected all the women, men and children and extinguished their lives in the deep holes I dumped them into, crushing them with rocks.")

"We closed the roads and mountain passes that might serve as ways of escape for the Tartars (Turks), and then proceeded in the work of extermination. Our troops surrounded village after village. Little resistance was offered. Our artillery knocked the huts into heaps of stones and dust, and when the villages became untenable and the inhabitants fled from them into the fields, bullets and bayonets completed the work."Ohanus Appressian, describing incidents in 1919; Memoirs of an Armenian officer, Men are Like That, 1926.

"This three-day massacre by Armenians is recorded in history as the 'March Events' and thousands of Muslims, old people, women and children lost their lives."F. Kazemzadeh, The Struggle for Transcaucasia (New York, 1951), p. 69.
(This excerpt refers not to Armenian atrocities against Ottoman Turks, but to "Tartar" (derogatory for "Tatar") Turks, when Armenia attacked Azerbaijan in 1918. Regarding this period of March 30 to April 1 1918, Vladimir Lenin said that commissar S. Shaumyan, the chief architect of the massacres throughout Azerbaijan, "turned Baku into an Armenian operated henhouse [slaughterhouse]." According to Justin McCarthy's "Death and Exile,"

"Between 8,000 and 12,000 Muslims were killed in Baku alone.…")
As the Armenians found support among the Reds (who regarded the Tartars as a counter-revolutionary elements) the fighting soon became a massacre of the Tartar population"W. E. D. Allen and Paul Muratoff, "Caucasian Battlefields", Cambridge University Press, 1953, p. 481
"Many massacres were committed by the Armenians until our army arrived in Erzurum... (after General Odesilitze left) 2,127 Muslim bodies were buried in Erzurum's center. These are entirely men. There are ax, bayonet and bullet wounds on the dead bodies. Lungs of the bodies were removed and sharp stakes were struck in the eyes. There are other bodies around the city."

Official telegram of the Third Royal Army Command, addressed to the Supreme Command, March 19, 1918; ATASE Archive of General Staff, Archive No: 4-36-71. D. 231. G.2. K. 2820. Dos.A-69, Fih.3.
"The Armenians did exterminate the entire Muslim population of Russian Armenia as Muslims were considered inferior to the Armenians by the prominent leaders of the Dashnaks." Mikael Kaprilian, Armenian revolutionary leader, in Yerevan, 1919.
"In Soviet Armenia today there no longer exists a single Turkish soul." Sahak Melkonian, Preserving the Armenian Purity, 1920

"Since all the able Moslem men were in the army, it was easy for the Armenians to begin a horrible slaughter of the defenseless Moslem inhabitants in the area. They ... simply cleaned out the Moslem inhabitants in those areas. They performed gruesome deeds, of which I, as an eye witness honestly say that they were much worse than what Turks have been accused of as an Armenian atrocity." General Bronsart von Schellendorf , "A Witness for Talat Pasha," Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, July 24, 1921
"It is in our blood to hate the Turks. However, we hate Bulgarians and Greeks also. The Jews like Turks, but they hate Arabs. The Arabs, in their turn, are not in favour with the Turks. And the level of hatred is rising." Narek Mesropian, described as Armenia's poet laureate, in Golos Armenia, a Russian-language newspaper in Armenia, in an August 5, 1997 article reflecting the tension between the Armenian and Jewish communities. Interestingly, the Turks are not accused of hating anybody.
"... It's better that I be a dog or a cat, than a Turkish barbarian..." Edna Petrosyan, a SIX YEAR OLD Californian girl who recites hateful poems on the insistence of her mother. It is easy to see how this cycle of hate-perpetuation feeds the "Armenian Genocide" obsession for most Armenians. The Los Angeles Times, February 1, 1990

"...In the early part of 1915, therefore, every Turkish city contained thousands of Armenians who had been trained as soldiers and who were supplied with rifles, pistols, and other weapons of defense. The operations at Van once more disclosed that these men could use their weapons to good advantage..."

Henry Morganthau, U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Ambassador Morgenthau's Story, Doubleday, Page & Co., Garden City, New York (1918), page 301

"...When Turkey had not yet entered the war...Armenian volunteer groups began to be organized with great zeal and pomp in Trans Caucasia. In spite of the decision taken a few weeks before at the General Committee in Erzurum, the Dashnagtzoutune actively helped the organization of the aforementioned groups, and especially arming them, against Turkey. In the Fall of 1914, Armenian volunteer groups were formed and fought against the Turks..."

Hovhannes Katchaznouni, First Prime Minister of the Independent Armenian Republic, The Manifesto of Hovhannes Katchaznouni, 1923. (The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Has Nothing to Do Any More, New York, Armenian Information Service, 1955, p. 5.) "Practically all of the (volunteers were) Turkish Armenians," The New York Times reported, in 1915.

"THE TRIALS OF THE ARMENIANS Few Peoples have known as many changes of fortune as the Armenians. Situated in eastern Anatolia and extending eastwards into what is now the U.S.S.R., Armenia was in ancient times a buffer kingdom between rival empires. Armenia was frequently invaded-by Assyrians, Persians, Arabs, Greeks and Romans. Withal, the Armenians retained their identity. In the 11th century, after still more invasions of their homeland, a number of Armenians established a new kingdom on the southern coast of Anatolia. This kingdom in its turn was destroyed in the 14th century by invaders from Egypt. Under the Ottoman Empire, Armenian merchants and financiers thrived. As the borders of the empire contracted in the 19th century, however, struggles broke out between Turks and Armenians for the possession of Anatolian lands. Many Armenians died; others fled abroad."

Excerption from a book called 'Life World Library' by Desmond Stewart and The Editors of LIFE which is published in 1965. Desmond Stewart is a British writer and graduated at Oxford in 1948....

"The presence in the northeast of the country of a thriving cultured and relatively wealthy community of Armenians was a difficulty to Turks long before the First World War.
"It became a political and strategic threat when the war broke out because of the place of Armenians in the Russian Empire. However, most Armenians, two million of them living in the Turkish Empire, were no threat whatsoever.

"In many ways, it shows that the old idea that war is politics by other means is outdated in the 20th century. War is hatred by other means. And in this case, hatred means extermination. The First World War was the biggest war ever to date. The Second World War was bigger still. It's not accident on my mind that both of them were marked by genocide. This is the logic of the brutalization of total war." Jay Winter-historian

"…
Saying that the massacre of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire was the same as what happened to Jews in Nazi Germany is a downright falsehood. What happened to the Armenians was the result of a massive Armenian armed rebellion against the Turks, which began even before war broke out, and continued on a larger scale. Great numbers of Armenians, including members of the armed forces, deserted, crossed the frontier and joined the Russian forces invading Turkey. Armenian rebels actually seized the city of Van and held it for a while intending to hand it over to the invaders. There was guerilla warfare all over Anatolia. There is clear evidence of a decision by the Turkish Government, to deport the Armenian population from the sensitive areas. Which meant naturally the whole of Anatolia. Not including the Arab provinces which were then still part of the Ottoman Empire. There is no evidence of a decision to massacre. On the contrary, there is considerable evidence of attempt to prevent it…" Bernard Lewis, on the American TV C-SPAN 2, 25 March, 2002

"… Armenians again flooded the czarist armies, and the czar returned to St. Petersburg confident that the day finally had come for him to reach Istanbul. Hostilities were opened by Russians, who pushed across the border on November 1, 1914, though the Ottomans stopped them and pushed them back a few days later. A subsequent Russian counter offensive in January caused the Ottoman army to scatter.and the way was prepared for a new Russian push into eastern Anatolia, to be accompanied by an open Armenian revolt against the sultan...
Armenian leaders in Russia now openly declared their support of the enemy and there seemed no other alternative. It would be impossible to determine which of the Armenians would remain loyal and which would follow the appeals of their leaders. As soon as the spring came, then, in mid-May 1915 orders were issued to evacuate the entire Armenian population from the provinces of Van, Bitlis, and Erzurum, to get them away from all areas where they might undermine the Ottoman campaigns against Russia or against the British in Egypt, with arrangements made to settle them in towns and camps in the Mosul area of Northern Iraq. In addition, Armenians residing in the countryside (but not in the cities) of the Cilician districts as well as those of north Syria were to be sent to central Syria for the same reason. Specific instructions were issued for the army to protect the Armenians against nomadic attacks and to provide them with sufficient food and other supplies to meet their needs during the march and after they were settled. Warnings were sent to the Ottoman military commanders to make certain that neither the Kurds nor any other Muslims used the situation to gain vengeance for the long years of Armenian terrorism. The Armenians were to be protected and cared for until they returned to their homes after the war…"

Stanford Shaw, Prof. Of History at UCLA, History Of The Ottoman Empire And modern Turkey, Cambridge University Press, 1977, Vol. II, p 315.

A Letter written by a friend of Turks -Harry Blackley:

Assyria was an ancient kingdom that covered the northern part of what is now modern Iraq. The Assyrians were great conquerors, a euphemistic word that is indicative of a people who massacred people in neighboring countries in order increase land under their control. The Assyrians were made up many races and by 600 BC, Assyria had ceased to exist. As the Ottoman Empire, in its death throes, entered World War 1 on the side of the Central Powers, many races saw the opportunity to carve out a homeland by supporting the Entente. The Assyrians asked to attend the Paris Peace Conference on the basis that they had fought against the Ottoman Empire on the side of the Allies. For their support, they expected a homeland for all Assyrians. It never happened. I would ask you to look at Afghanistan. Neither Russia, nor the USA, two of the greatest military powers ever known, has failed to subdue the warlords who control that country. Think back almost a hundred years to a time and place with no sanitation, typhus, cholera, dysentery and starvation. Think of a destitute Ottoman Empire unable to feed or clothe its army fighting on three fronts. Is it possible that the Ottoman Empire would have the manpower or resources to carry out a State sponsored genocide? The British army lost more men to disease in the Crimean War than to enemy bullets. At the Battle of Sarakamis, the Ottoman Army of 90,000 men lost 75,000 due to lack of winter uniforms and boots, dying from cold and lack of food. There is no doubt that the period 1914-1918 was a tragic period for many nations and ethnic groups. But no one group can claim to be more deserving than others for the awful death toll of soldiers and civilians. The number of Christians claimed to have been killed in the Ottoman Empire 1914-1918 grows year by year. With all available men fighting to save the Empire, crops were not planted and starvation was widespread and affected everyone in Ottoman lands. Australia is a country of migrants from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds. Millions are spent by Australia to promote peace and harmony among all these diverse ethnic and religious groups. Conflicts and tragedies that occurred in far off lands should not be honoured with monuments that will create divisions in our land. ataharry of Geelong (Reply)

Letter written by Australian Centre for Turkish Studies ( Halit Sindi)

09.12.2009 Dear Councillors, I would like to express my deepest disappointment on the up coming Assyrian Genocide Memorial monument motion to be debated on the 15 Dec 2009. First of all, I wish to say that I am outraged and disgusted by the alleged genocide memorial motion even prior to debate. There is no doubt that there are a great many honest law abiding, hard-working Australian citizens of Turkish descent that would find this motion to be highly offensive. I would like to urge you to oppose this motion on a number of grounds;- Firstly, the events occurred during World War I was a wartime tragedy which many lives, including Turks, were lost in Eastern Anatolia. It should also be remembered that there is no agreement among international scholars on the death tolls or the true nature of the tragic events that caused significant losses of life among different ethnic groups in Eastern Anatolia during World War I. Secondly, the genocide is a precisely defined legal term that requires a court decision to assert. Not all suffering, temporary resettlements, killings, casualties, my-grandma-told-me stories, photographs, diplomatic reports can be slapped on with a casual genocide label. For an atrocity to be considered genocide, the plaintiff is burdened by the U.N. with the task of proving that the defendant had the "intention to commit systematic extermination. Hence the words like genocide should not be thrown around irresponsibly at the government level. Thirdly, Commonwealth of Australia and the Republic of Turkey developed a close relationship and a friendship over the years. Politicians must be very careful not to jeopardise this relation. In the lights of the above points, I would urge you to oppose the motion and convince your colleagues to oppose it as well. There is no doubt that this kind of ill-fated motions will destroy the multicultural harmony in Australia.

Sincerely,

Halit Sindi Director Australian Centre for Turkish Studies

SÖZDE ASURİ SOYKIRIMI ANITI HAKKINDA DUYURU

Asuri Evrensel İttifakı tarafından, Fairfield Belediyesi sınırları içerisinde sözde Asuri soykırımını anmak üzere bir anıt dikilmesi için Fairfield Belediye Meclisine bir teklif sunulduğu ve anılan önerinin 15 Aralık 2009 tarihli Fairfield Belediye Meclisi toplantısında görüşüleceği öğrenilmiştir.

Hiçbir tarihsel temele dayanmayan ve Avustralya’da uyum içinde yaşayan etnik topluluklar arasında ayrımcılık ve husumet yaratmaya hizmet edebilecek sözkonusu anıt teklifinin, mükemmel düzeydeki Türkiye – Avustralya ilişkilerinin doğasına da ters düşeceği açıktır.

Diğer yandan, Fairfield bölgesi sakinlerinin 4 Aralık 2009 Cuma saat 17.00’ye kadar, bahsekonu anıt önerisi hakkındaki görüşlerini mail@fairfieldcity.nsw.gov.au adresinden veya 9725 0222 telefon numarasından Fairfield Belediyesi yetkililerine iletmeleri mümkündür.

Tarihi hoşgörü üzerine kurulu Türk insanına atılan tek yanlı iftiraların bir başka örneğini teşkil eden sözkonusu anıt teklifi konusunda gerekli resmi girişimler yapılmakta ise de, bu konuda değerli vatandaşlarımızın da gereken hassasiyeti göstereceklerinden şüphe duyulmamaktadır.

Saygıyla duyurulur.

T.C. Sidney Başkonsolosluğu


Consulate General of the Republic of Turkey
66 Ocean Street, Woollahra NSW 2025
Tel: +61 2 9302 4600
Fax: +61 2 9362 4533
E-mail: turkcons.sydney@mfa.gov.tr
Website: www.sidney.bk.mfa.gov.tr

South Australian Premier Mike Rann who was the man lack of sympathy towards Turkey has blundered in the end..

.( Turkiye sempatizani olmayan, surekli Turkiye'e dusmanlik yapan Rum-Yunan sempatizani basbakan Mike Ran sonunda kendisi rezil oldu.!!! Parlementoda garsonluk yapan kadin ile iliskisini garson kadin sonunda itiraf etti... Mike Rann sayesinde Avustralya palrmentosu Yunanlilarla uzun suredir Turkiye alehinde isbirligi yapiyordu, Gecen sene 19 Mart' da sozde Ermeni soykirimini parlementoda onaylatmisti. )

Waitress goes public with Rann sex claims

South Australian Premier Mike Rann has described as "wildly sensational" claims he had a sexual relationship with former Parliament House waitress, Michelle Chantelois.
A lawyer acting for Ms Chantelois has confirmed she has provided interviews for television and a women's magazine in which she claims she had sex with Mr Rann in his office on several occasions while parliament was sitting.

Ms Chantelois is the estranged wife of Richard Phillips, who was charged with assaulting Mr Rann with a rolled-up magazine at a public function on October 1.
He faces court in December.
Ms Chantelois reportedly said she wants the truth to come out.
"It's not something that I like to discuss on a public level but in my case I'm at the point where I feel like I have to come clean. I'm tired of the lies and I'm not holding it in any more," she said.
"I'm taking responsibility for my own bad behaviour and Mike Rann should take responsibility for his own behaviour."
Lawyers for Ms Chantelois had previously issued a statement saying she would not be making a public statement about any matters concerning the case.
But on Saturday lawyer David McLeod says Ms Chantelois is under enormous pressure and has considered it best for her family to deal with the issue by way of exclusive interviews.
'Not true'
The premier, however, has rejected the affair claims, but says he will wait until he sees the program before commenting further.
"What I have been told is wildly sensational and there is a court case pending on December 7," Mr Rann said.
"I intend to make a statement, a brief statement on Monday after we've found out what these allegations are, but I will not be admitting to things that are not true.
"Just over four weeks ago Ms Chantelois's lawyers came out and said she wanted to be left alone by the media. I understand that she's been paid a fortune to say the things that she's said publicly."
Last month, Mr Rann said he had been stalked, attacked and received death threats.
He said he was frustrated that he was unable to "clear the air" because matters were before the police.
Mr Rann faces a state election in March.


http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/australian-news/6499780/waitress-goes-public-with-rann-sex-claims/


Turkey sticks to nuclear power plan
Sunday November 22, 2009, 12:47 am

ANKARA (AFP) - Turkey is determined to build a nuclear power plant and will launch a new project to replace a failed tender, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz was quoted as saying Saturday.
"The fact that the tender was scrapped does not mean that the process is scrapped. Our determination on nuclear power plants is persisting," Yildiz said in Kizilcahamam town, near Ankara, Anatolia news agency reported.
Energy authorities Friday cancelled a 2008 tender won by a Russian-led consortium to build Turkey's first nuclear power plant after a top administrative court suspended parts of the regulation governing the process.
Yildiz said officials were working on a new model of realising the project through shorter procedures, adding that the involvement of the public sector might be also considered.
A consortium led by Atomstroyexport, Russia's state nuclear giant, was the only bidder in the scrapped tender to build four nuclear reactors with a total capacity of 4,800-megawatts at the Mediterranean town of Akkuyu.
The tender had been under fire since it emerged that the consortium was the sole bidder and offered above-market prices for supplying electricity to the Turkish grid.
The auction was held in September 2008, amid global financial turbulence, with Ankara rejecting requests by interested companies for a postponement.
Turkey plans to build three nuclear power plants in hopes of preventing a possible energy shortage and reducing dependence on foreign supplies but the project is fiercely opposed by environmentalists.
Ankara abandoned an earlier plan to build a nuclear plant at Akkuyu in 2000 amid a severe financial crisis and protests from environmentalists in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus.
Critics say Akkuyu is close to a seismic fault line, pointing at a powerful earthquake that killed more than 140 people in the neighbouring province of Adana in 1998.

http://au.biz.yahoo.com/091121/33/29vbp.html

Turkey and the Kurds Peace in sight?

Nov 12th 2009 ERBIL AND ISTANBUL

From The Economist print edition

The government doggedly pursues a settlement of its Kurdish problem

STUFFING its ears to opposition cries of treason, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party is going ahead with bold moves to end the country’s long-running Kurdish problem.

The odd bout of turbulence notwithstanding, peace between Turkey and its rebellious Kurds now seems closer than ever.

This week the ruling party proposed a measure to reduce or commute sentences for thousands of stone-throwing young Kurds charged with acting for the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). If it is passed, they would no longer be tried in adult courts. That should help blunt the radicalisation of a new generation of jobless Kurds, natural recruits for the PKK.This plan came a few days after Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, became the first Turkish minister to set foot in the Iraqi Kurds’ semi-independent state. Flanked by the Iraqi Kurdish president, Masoud Barzani, and the Kurdish tricolour, Mr Davutoglu announced that Turkey would open a consulate in Erbil.

Such a turnaround is dramatic: not so long ago Turkey’s generals were threatening to invade the Kurdish enclave and Mr Barzani was vowing to fight back.Friendship with the Iraqi Kurds is crucial to finding a formula to disband the 3,000-5,000 PKK rebels based in areas under their control. Last month a first batch of PKK fighters untainted by violence crossed the border to give themselves up to the Turkish authorities and were freed soon after.

More would have followed but for the public fury at their rapturous welcome, after which the whole process was put on hold. Mothers of Turkish soldiers who died in 25 years of bitter fighting have taken to the streets. War veterans have cast off medals and prosthetic limbs in anger. A football team in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir threatened to pull out of the national league after crowds took to chanting “Get lost, PKK.” “There is a real risk that the growing emotional divide between Turks and Kurds could lead to a geographic divide,” argues Sezgin Tanrikulu, a human-rights lawyer in Diyarbakir. Indeed, the government’s Kurdish policy is replete with risks, not least that the PKK could revert to urban terrorism. That, in turn, could provide the generals with a handy excuse to reassert their waning influence.

Yet the chief of the general staff, General Ilker Basbug, broadly supports the government’s softer Kurdish policy. A spate of scandals exposing the army’s secret plans to overthrow the AK government has put him on the defensive. Several generals are being tried in the so-called Ergenekon case against would-be plotters of a military coup.

For all his grandstanding about seeking a better deal for the Kurds, Abdullah Ocalan, the captive PKK leader, also seems on board. Quiet co-operation with the Turkish authorities is said to have enabled Mr Ocalan to remain in command of the PKK from his island prison near Istanbul. If he tells them to disarm, most will. The Iraqi Kurds are talking of amnesty for PKK fighters born on their side of the border, Syria may do too. The question of where to park the top PKK cadres is being weighed: Norway and Australia are among the options.

Yet even if the PKK is disbanded, the government still has to fix the grievances that spurred its campaign (there have been some 28 other rebellions), or more armed groups will surely follow. Some recent reforms, notably the introduction of a state-run Kurdish-language television channel, have been revolutionary. But others have been slapdash.

For instance, the changes proposed this week do not actually scrap laws that allow prosecutors to press for jail terms against anyone, including children, whom they deem to be acting on behalf of the PKK; they just lighten the punishment.
The government is talking of letting Turkified villages reclaim their Kurdish names and allowing Kurdish inhabitants to converse freely in their mother tongue.
Private television channels may soon be allowed to broadcast in Kurdish, and universities permitted to establish Kurdish-language departments. Formal ties with Iraqi Kurdistan are certain to boost already flourishing cross-border trade, creating jobs for Turkish and Iraqi Kurds alike.
The harder task for the government may be to show that these initiatives are crafted not for Kurds alone but for Turkish citizens of all ethnic stripes and creeds. http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14859377

Türkiye-Ermenistan yakınlaşma protokollerinin imzalanmasının yankıları sürerken, Washington’dan gelen “Ermeni lobisi ABD Senatosuna yeni bir sözde soykırım tasarısı sundu” haberi hayal kırıklığı yarattı.

Ancak sözkonusu tasarıyı sunan iki senatör, Robert Menendez ve John Ensign’ın politik sicilleri oldukça kirli olduğu ortaya çıktı.

ANKA

Ankara - Türkiye-Ermenistan yakınlaşma protokollerinin imzalanmasının yankıları sürerken, Washington’dan gelen “Ermeni lobisi ABD Senatosuna yeni bir sözde soykırım tasarısı sundu” haberi hayal kırıklığı yarattı. Ancak sözkonusu tasarıyı sunan iki senatör, Robert Menendez ve John Ensign’ın politik sicilleri oldukça kirli olduğu ortaya çıktı. Biri Küba kökenli, diğeri bir kumarhane kralının evlatlık oğlu olan iki senatörün 1915 olaylarına ilgisi, bilgiden çok para kazanma hırsına dayandığı iddia edildi. Tasarıyı sunan iki bariş karşıtı senatörün kamuoyuna yansıyan “skandalları” ise şöyle:

New Jersey senatörü Robert Menendez

New Jersey eyaletinde Türklerin de yoğun olarak yaşadığı Hudson ilçesinden politikaya atılan ve şu anda ABD’deki en güçlü Demokrat Parti mensuplarından biri olarak görülen Robert Menendez, aslen Küba kökenli. Fidel Castro’ya karşı gündeme getirdiği tasarılarla ün yapan Menendez’in Türk medyasında gündeme gelmeyen skandalları, bundan birkaç yıl önce ABD’de gazete sayfalarını süslüyordu. Menendez’in yanında çalışan Kay LiCausi isimli bir kadınla romantik ve cinsel ilişkiye girmesi ve hemen ardından da LiCausi’nin politikadaki gücünü (Menendez’i) kullanarak yüzbinlerce dolar para kazandığı iddiaları, ABD’de halen konuşulan politik bir skandal. 1998 yılında 26 yaşında bir üniversite mezunu olarak Menendez’in yanında işe başlayan Kay LiClausi, kısa süre içinde kariyerinin basamaklarını çok hızlı bir şekilde tırmanmaya ve ayda onbinlerce dolar para kazanmaya başladı. Lobi ihalelerini “sevgilisine” vermeye başladığı iddia edilen Senatör Menendez, hiçbir zaman LiCausi ile olan ilişkisini reddetmedi. Uzun yıllar önce eşinden boşanan Menendez’in LiCausi ile olan ilişkisinden çok, Amerikan basını ünlü politikacının şahsi gücünü kullanarak sevgilisine onbinlerce dolar para kazandırması konusuna yoğunlaştı. Detayları hiçbir zaman açıklanmayan ve aylık 20 bin doları geçen LiClausi’nin gelirinin, Ermenilerin de içinde bulunduğu lobi örgütleri tarafından karşılandığı öne sürüldü.Birçok kez mahkemeye çağrılmalarına rağmen, LiClausi ve Menendez ile lobiciler arasında yasalara aykırı bir bağ kurulamadığı için hakimler henüz karar verebilmiş değil. Ancak kamuoyunda inanılan ve Amerikan basınının açıkça ortaya koyduğu bilgilere göre, Senatör Menendez, sevgilisi LiClausi’nin yüzbinlerce dolar tutarında haksız kazanç elde etmesini sağladı. Ellerinde yasal bir kanıt olmadığı için herhangi bir soruşturma açamayan savcılar, tüm baskılara rağmen Menendez’in skandalının peşini bırakmıyor. Politik gücünü sonuna kadar kullanmasına karşın Senator Menendez, henüz aklanabilmiş degil.

Nevada Senatörü John Ensign
Türkiye’ye karşı Ermeni lobisinin en çok güvendiği politikacılardan biri olan Cumhuriyetçi Parti Nevada Senatörü John Ensign’ın geçmişi de hiç temiz değil.Ünlü kumarhane şehri Las Vegas’ın da içinde bulunduğu Nevada eyaletinde yaşayan bir kumarhane kralının evlatlığı olan Ensign, bu yaz iki yıl önce yanında çalışan Cindy Hampton isimli bir bayanla cinsel ilişkiye girdiğini itiraf etti. Evli ve üç çocuk babası olan John Ensign’ın seks skandalını daha da kötü yapan olay, cinsel ilişkiye girdiği çalışanının kocası Douglas Hampton’un da senatörle birlikte çalışıyor olmasıydı. Çalışanıyla cinsel ilişkiye girdiğini bir basın toplantısıyla itiraf eden Ensign “Geçen sene bir ilişkiye girdim. Evlilik sözleşmeme ihanet ettim” ifadesini kullanırken, Amerikan basını Nevada senatörünün ilişkiye girdiği bayana verdiği “sus payı”nı da gündeme taşıdı.

İddialara göre, Cindy Hampton’un aylık maaşı senatörle ilişkiye girmeye başladıktan sonra 1385 dolardan 2771 dolara çıkarıldı. Seçim kampanyasından da maaş alan bayan Hampton’un buradaki aylık maaşı da 500 dolardan 1000 dolara yükseltildi. Bu arada Ensign-Hampton ilişkisi devam ederken, bay Douglas Hampton senatörün yanındaki işinden ayrıldı ve Ensign tarafından seçim kampanyasına yüklü miktarda maddi bağışta bulunan bir şirkette işe yerleştirildi.

İlişkisini itiraf ettikten sonra Hampton çiftini kendisine karşı şantaj yapmakla suçlayan Ensign’a en sert cevap yine Hampton’lardan geldi. Aile, senatöre karşı özel bir avukat tutarak eski patronlarını “seks istismarı ve seks istismarına dayalı ayırımcılık” suçuyla mahkemeye vereceklerini açıkladı. Skandal şimdilik donmuş durumda. Douglas Hampton, Temmuz ayında yaptığı açıklamada Senatör Ensign’in eşine işten ayrılması karşılığında 25 bin dolar tazminat ödediğini söylerken, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Washington’da Sorumluluk ve Etik için Vatandaşlar) isimli temiz toplum örgütü, “Senatör Ensign’ın bu tür bir ödemeyi vergi dairesine bildirmediğini ve bunun da cezası en az beş yıl hapis olan bir suç olduğunu” duyurdu.

John Ensign, Monica Lewinsky skandalı sırasında devrin ABD Başkanı Bill Clinton’ın ya istifa etmesi ya da görevden alınması için en çok çaba harcayan politikacılarından biriydi. 13 Temmuz 2004 tarihinde Senato’da evliliğin önemi üzerine konuşan Nevada Senatörü John Ensign, Ermeni yalanlarına ek olarak tutucu Hristiyanların politikadaki sözcülerinden biri olarak görülüyor.

(AU Federal Government does not endorse South Wales Parliament’s Genocide decision – said Ambassador Peter Doyle on May 8th, on Press release)

Bilindiği gibi Güney Avustralya Parlamentosu, Rum ve Ermeni lobilerinin ortak gayretleri sonucunda, Ermeni soykırımını (Avustrala Elçiliğimizin yoğun çalışmalarına rağmen, politik rantlar nedeniyle) kabul etmişti.

Büyük Elçiliğimiz, TF tarafından da yayınlanan bir basın açıklaması ile karşı tutumunu Avustralya kamuoyuna duyurmuştu. Arkadan, Ankara Dışişleri bakanlıgı Avustralya Elçisini çağırıp, tutumunu belirtmiş ve arkasından gayet yumuşak bir ifade ile bunun Türk-Avustralya münsabetlerine getireceği zararı vurgulamıştı.
Öğrenildiğine göre, Avustralya Ankara B. elçisi (her halde hükümetinden aldığı talimat uyarınca) Avustralya Federal Hükümetinin böyle bir kararı onaylamaya veya bu konulara karışmaya niyeti olmadığını bildirdi.

Bu durumda, Rum-Ermeni lobisinin gayretleri gol olamamıştır.

Bu konuda, B. Elçiliğimizin ve Dışişleri bakanlığımızın ilgili bölümleri tebrike şayan bir diplomatik başarı sağlamışlardır.

Haberi sizlerle paylaşmaktayım.

Sukru S. Aya
ssaya@superonline.com

Mr Peter Doyle

Ambassador to Turkey
Biography

Mr Doyle is a career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Until mid- 2007, he was Deputy Head of Mission in Kuala Lumpur and prior to holding that position he was Deputy Head of Mission in Dhaka from 1997 to 2000. In Canberra, Mr Doyle has held a range of positions including Director, People Smuggling, Refugee and Immigration Section from 2001 to 2003 and Executive Officer in the Corporate Planning Section in 2001. He has also worked on South and South-East Asia issues.

Educated at the University of Queensland, Mr Doyle holds Bachelor of Law and Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degrees. Mr Doyle is married with two children.

Turkey, Armenia sign deal to resume ties
October 11, 2009 - 6:49AM
AFP
Turkey and Armenia's foreign ministers have signed pacts to establish ties, in a first step to reconciliation after nearly a century of bitterness over World War I-era massacres.
Armenian Foreign Minister Edouard Nalbandian and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu shook hands after signing the two protocols in a ceremony at a university in the Swiss city of Zurich on Saturday.
But the two ministers and US, Russian, French and Swiss foreign ministers immediately left the room and failed to make their scheduled statements after the signature.
"No problems, they signed," said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner afterwards.
The deals to establish diplomatic ties and regular dialogue, as well as open their common border, still have to clear the hurdle of parliamentary ratification in each country before they can take effect.
The ceremony attended by US, Russian, French and EU officials was delayed for more than three hours after "a last minute hitch" with the Armenians over the closing statements, according to a US official.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with US and Swiss diplomats in tow rushed back to a hotel to iron out the concerns expressed by Nalbandian.
A Turkish diplomatic source said the parties had decided not to make any statements to avoid the problem that had triggered the delay.
© 2009

BE FAIR MR. FISK ... your are grouching again!!!

WHat about the lost and killed Turks Mr. Fisk?

....Robert Fisk grouches again!!!


Robert Fisk: Genocide forgotten: Armenians horrified by treaty with Turkey

A new trade deal is set to gloss over the murder of 1.5 million people

Thursday, 8 October 2009 In the autumn of 1915, an Austrian engineer called Litzmayer, who was helping build the Constantinople-Baghdad railway, saw what he thought was a large Turkish army heading for Mesopotamia. But as the crowd came closer, he realised it was a huge caravan of women, moving forward under the supervision of soldiers.

The 40,000 or so women were all Armenians, separated from their men – most of whom had already had their throats cut by Turkish gendarmerie – and deported on a genocidal death march during which up to 1.5 million Armenians died.

Subjected to constant rape and beatings, some had already swallowed poison on their way from their homes in Erzerum, Serena, Sivas, Bitlis and other cities in Turkish western Armenia. "Some of them," Bishop Grigoris Balakian, one of Litzmayer's contemporaries, recorded, "had been driven to such a state that they were mere skeletons enveloped in rags, with skin that had turned leathery, burned from the sun, cold, and wind.

Many pregnant women, having become numb, had left their newborns on the side of the road as a protest against mankind and God." Every year, new evidence emerges about this mass ethnic cleansing, the first holocaust of the last century; and every year, Turkey denies that it ever committed genocide.

Yet on Saturday – to the horror of millions of descendants of Armenian survivors – the President of Armenia, Serg Sarkissian, plans to agree to a protocol with Turkey to re-open diplomatic relations, which should allow for new trade concessions and oil interests. And he proposes to do this without honouring his most important promise to Armenians abroad – to demand that Turkey admit it carried out the Armenian genocide in 1915.
In Beirut yesterday, outside Mr Sarkissian's hotel, thousands of Armenians protested against this trade-for-denial treaty. "We will not forget," their banners read. "Armenian history is not for sale." They called the President a traitor. "Why should our million and a half martyrs be put up for sale?" one of them asked. "And what about our Armenian lands in Turkey, the homes our grandparents left behind? Sarkissian is selling them too."

The sad truth is that the 5.7 million Armenian diaspora, scattered across Russia, the US, France, Lebanon and many other countries, are the descendants of the western Armenians who bore the brunt of Turkish Ottoman brutality in 1915.

Tiny, landlocked, modern-day Armenia – its population a mere 3.2 million, living in what was once called eastern Armenia – is poor, flaunts a dubious version of democracy and is deeply corrupt. It relies on remittances from its wealthier cousins overseas; hence Mr Sarkissian's hopeless mission to New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Beirut and Rostov-on-Don to persuade them to support the treaty, to be signed by the Armenian and Turkish Foreign Ministers in Switzerland.

The Turks have also been trumpeting a possible settlement to the territory of Nagorno-Karabagh, part of historic Armenia seized from Azerbaijan by Armenian militias almost two decades ago – not without a little ethnic cleansing by Armenians, it should be added. But it is the refusal of the Yerevan government to make Turkey's acknowledgement of the genocide a condition of talks that has infuriated the diaspora.

"The Armenian government is trying to sweeten the taste for us by suggesting that Turkish and Armenian historians sit down to decide what happened in 1915," one of the Armenians protesting in Beirut said.
"But would the Israelis maintain diplomatic relations if the German government suddenly called the Jewish Holocaust into question and suggested it all be mulled over by historians?"
Betrayal has always been in the air. Barack Obama was the third successive US President to promise Armenian electors that he would acknowledge the genocide if he won office – and then to betray them, once elected, by refusing even to use the word. Despite thunderous denunciations in the aftermath of the Armenian genocide by Lloyd George and Churchill – the first British politician to call it a holocaust – the Foreign Office also now meekly claims that the "details" of the 1915 massacres are still in question. Yet still the evidence comes in, even from this newspaper's readers. In a letter to me, an Australian, Robert Davidson, said his grandfather, John "Jock" Davidson, a First World War veteran of the Australian Light Horse, had witnessed the Armenian genocide: "He wrote of the hundreds of Armenian carcasses outside the walls of Homs. They were men, women and children and were all naked and had been left to rot or be devoured by dogs.
"The Australian Light Horsemen were appalled at the brutality done to these people. In another instance his company came upon an Armenian woman and two children in skeletal condition. She signed to them that the Turks had cut the throats of her husband and two elder children."
In his new book on Bishop Balakian, Armenian Golgotha, the historian Peter Balakian (the bishop's great-nephew) records how British soldiers who had surrendered to the Turks at Kut al-Amara in present-day Iraq and were sent on their own death march north – of 13,000 British and Indian soldiers, only 1,600 would survive – had spoken of frightful scenes of Armenian carnage near Deir ez-Zour, not far from Homs in Syria. "In those vast deserts," the Bishop said, "they had come upon piles of human bones, crushed skulls, and skeletons stretched out everywhere, and heaps of skeletons of murdered children."

When the foreign ministers sit down to sign their protocol in Switzerland on Saturday, they must hope that blood does not run out of their pens.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-genocide-forgotten-armenians-horrified-by-treaty-with-turkey-1799302.html



"Robert Fisk: Obama falls short on Armenian pledge ";

Tuesday, 28 April 2009

It was clever, crafty – artful, even – but it was not the truth. For in the end, Barack Obama dishonoured his promise to his American-Armenian voters to call the deliberate mass murder of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in 1915 a genocide. How grateful today's Turkish generals must be.

Genocide is what it was, of course. Mr Obama agreed in January 2008 that "the Armenian genocide is not an allegation... but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian genocide... I intend to be that President." But he was not that President on the anniversary of the start of the genocide at the weekend. Like Presidents Clinton and George Bush, he called the mass killings "great atrocities" and even tried to hedge his bets by using the Armenian phrase "Meds Yeghern" which means the same thing – it's a phrase that elderly Armenians once used about the Nazi-like slaughter – but the Armenian for genocide is "chart". And even that was missing.

Thus once more – after Hilary Clinton's pitiful response to the destruction of Palestinian homes by the Israelis (she called it "unhelpful") – Mr Obama has let down those who believed he would tell the truth about the truth. He didn't even say that Turkey was responsible for the mass slaughter and for sending hundreds of thousands of Armenian women and children on death marches into the desert. "Each year," he said, "we pause to remember the 1.5 million Armenians who were massacred or marched to their death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire." Yes, "massacred" and "marched to their death". But by whom? The genocide – the deliberate extermination of a people – had disappeared, as had the identity of the perpetrators. Mr Obama referred only to "those who tried to destroy" the Armenians.

Instead, he waffled on about "the efforts by Turkey and Armenia to normalise their bilateral relations" – a reference to the appeal of landlocked Armenia appeal to reopen its border with Turkey thanks to Swiss mediation (via another of America's favourite "road maps") – and the hope that Turkish and Armenian relations would grow stronger "as they acknowledge their common history and recognise their common humanity". But the only real improvement in relations has been an Armenian-Turkish football match.

Turkey is still demanding a commission to "investigate" the 1915 killings, a proposal the poverty-broken Armenian state opposes on the grounds (as Obama, of course, agreed before he became President) that the genocide was a fact, not a matter in dispute. It doesn't have to be "re-proved" with Turkey's permission any more that the Jewish survivors of their own genocide have to "re-prove" the crimes of the Nazis in the face of a reluctant Germany.

Armenian historian and academic Peter Balakian – speaking as he stood by a 1915 mass grave of Armenians in the Syrian desert – was quite frank. "What is creating moral outrage," he said, "is that Turkey is claimed to be trying to have a commission into what happened – when the academic world has already unanimously agreed on the historical record." So much, then, for one-and-a-half-million murdered men, women and children.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/robert-fisk-obama-falls-short-on-armenian-pledge-1675197.html

Turkey, Armenia sign historic accord

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 4 mins ago

ZURICH – Turkey and Armenia signed an accord Saturday to establish diplomatic relations after a century of enmity, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton helped the two sides clear a last-minute snag.

"It was pulled back from the brink," said a senior U.S. official

The Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers signed the agreement in the Swiss city of Zurich after a dispute over the final statements they would make. In the end, the signing took place about three hours later and there were no spoken statements.
Officials say Clinton and mediators from Switzerland intervened to help broker a solution.
The accord is expected to win ratification from both nations' parliaments and could lead to a reopening of their border, which has been closed for 16 years.

But nationalists on both sides are still seeking to derail implementation of the deal.
American officials said Clinton; the top U.S. diplomat for Europe, Philip Gordon; and Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey were engaged in furious high-stakes shuttle diplomacy with the Turkish and Armenian delegations to resolve the differences.

Diplomats said the Armenians were concerned about wording in the Turkish statement that was to be made after the signing ceremony at University of Zurich and had expressed those concerns "at the last minute" before the scheduled signing ceremony.

Clinton had arrived at the ceremony venue after meeting separately with the Turks and Armenians at a hotel, but abruptly departed without leaving her car when the problem arose.
She returned to the hotel where she spoke by phone from the sedan in the parking lot, three times with the Armenians and four times with the Turks. At one point in the intervention, a Swiss police car, lights and siren blazing, brought a Turkish diplomat to the hotel from the university with a new draft of his country's statement.

After nearly two hours, Clinton and Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian met in person at the hotel and drove back to the university where negotiations continued. It was not clear if there would be a resolution.

In the end, the Turks and Armenians signed an accord establishing diplomatic ties in hope of reopening their border and ending a century of acrimony over their bloody past. Their parliaments are expected to ratify it, but nationalists on both sides are seeking to derail implementation of the agreement.

Protests have been particularly vociferous among the Armenian diaspora.

"The success of Turkey in pressuring Armenia into accepting these humiliating, one-sided protocols proves, sadly, that genocide pays," said Ken Hachikian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America.

Major countries, however, expressed their support for the accord, with the foreign ministers of the United States, Russia, France and the European Union in the room to watch the much-delayed signing.

"No problem, they signed," quipped French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
In Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country was showing "goodwill" to restore ties with Armenia. But he said Turkey was keen on seeing Armenian troops withdrawn from Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-occupied enclave in Azerbaijan that has been a center of regional tensions.

"We are trying to boost our relations with Armenia in a way that will cause no hard feelings for Azerbaijan," Erdogan told reporters.

Armenian President Serge Sarkisian said his country was taking "responsible decisions" in normalizing relations with Turkey, despite what he called the unhealable wounds of genocide.
The agreement calls for a panel to discuss "the historical dimension" of the killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians during World War I. The discussion is to include "an impartial scientific examination of the historical records and archives to define existing problems and formulate recommendations."

That clause is viewed as a concession to Turkey, which denies genocide, contending the toll is inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war.

"There is no alternative to the establishment of the relations with Turkey without any precondition," said Sarkisian. "It is the dictate of the time."

Clinton, Kouchner and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were among the leaders who were on hand to watch the signing as it took place.

Better ties between Turkey, a regional heavyweight, and poor, landlocked Armenia are a priority for President Barack Obama. They could help reduce tensions in the troubled Caucasus region and facilitate its growing role as a corridor for energy supplies bound for the West.
Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, thanked Turkey, which is a candidate for European Union membership.

"This is an important cooperation, no doubt, of Turkey to solve one issue that pertains to a region which is in our neighborhood," Solana told AP Television News after arriving in Zurich.
Switzerland, which mediated six weeks of talks between Turkey and Armenia to reach the accord, hosted the signing.

Necati Cetinkaya, a deputy chairman of Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party, defended the deal, saying "sincere steps that are being taken will benefit Turkey." He said Turkey is aiming to form friendly ties with all its neighbors and could benefit from trade with Armenia.

But Yilmaz Ates of the main opposition Republican People's Party said Turkey should avoid any concessions.

"If Armenia wants to repair relations ... then it should end occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh. That's it," Ates said Saturday.
About 10,000 protesters rallied Friday in Armenia's capital to oppose the signing, and a tour of Armenian communities by Sarkisian sparked protests in Lebanon and France, with demonstrators in Paris shouting "Traitor!"

On the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, Turks have close cultural and linguistic ties with Azerbaijan, which is pressing Turkey for help in recovering its land. Turkey shut its border with Armenia to protest the Armenian invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh in 1993.

Turkey wants Armenia to withdraw some troops from the enclave area to show goodwill and speed the opening of their joint border, but Armenia has yet to agree, said Omer Taspinar, Turkey project director at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

"We may end up in a kind of awkward situation where there are diplomatic relations, but the border is still closed," Taspinar said.
___
Associated Press Writers Alexander G. Higgins and Bradley S. Klapper in Zurich, Avet Demourian in Yerevan, Armenia, and Christopher Torchia in Istanbul contributed to this report. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_turkey_armenia

BASIN AÇIKLAMASI

TÜRKÝYE CUMHURÝYETÝ BÜYÜKELÇÝLÝÐÝ KANBERRA 30 Haziran 2009

Türkiye`nin Avustralya Büyükelçiliði giriþimleri sonucu Avustralya Federal Parlamentosu Senatosunun, Türk Vatandaþlarýnýn Avustralyada Ýkamet ve Ýstihdamýna Ýliþkin Anlaþmanýn 42. yýldönümü baðlamýnda, Türkiye, Avustralya Türk toplumu ve Türkiye-Avustralya iliþkileri hakkýnda bir karar tasarýsýný 19 Mart 2009 tarihinde kabul etmisti. Benzer içerikte bir kararýn, Temsilciler Meclisinde de kabul edilmesi yönünde Türkiye`nin Avustralya Büyükelçiliði çaliþmalarda bulunmuþtu.
Bu çerçevede, þimdi de Federal Parlamento Temsilciler Meclisi, Turkiye ile Avustralya arasýndaki iliþkilerin özgün niteliði ve önemi, vatandaþlarýmýzýn Avustralyaya göç ediþi ve Avustralya toplumuna yaptýklarý katkýlar hakkýnda bir karar tasarýsýný 22 Haziran 2009 tarihinde kabul etmiþtir. Anýlan kararýn metni ikinci maddede belirtiliyor.
Avustralya Parlamentosu Türkiye Dostluk Grubu üyesi milletvekili Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Viktorya Ýþçi Partisi) tarafýndan sunulan karar tasarýsýna iliþkin oturumda söz alan, Parlamento Türkiye Dostluk Grubu Baþkaný Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Viktorya Ýþçi Partisi), Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Qld Ulusallar), Jennie George (Throsby, NSW Ýþçi Partisi) ve Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Qld Liberal Parti) Turkiye`yi, Cumhuriyetin kurucusu Mustafa Kemal Atatürkü ve Avustralyadaki Türk toplumunu öven konuþmalar yaptilar. Sözkonusu konuþmalarý içeren Parlamento tutanaðýni asli asagidaki gibidir.
2. "That the House- notes:

(a) The Commonwealth of Australia and the Republic of Turkey have established a unique relationship and bond based upon the sacrifices of young men from both nations and that this uniqueness at the core of deep rooted relations between the two countries gained even more momentum by the unforgettable reconciliatory remarks of the Founder of the Modern Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to the mothers of fallen Anzacs:
You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.
; and
(b) that the Turkish nation is now a friendly power and members of the Turkish community have now successfully integrated into Australian society;
(2) celebrates and commends the achievements and contributions of the Turkish Community here in the Commonwealth of Australia in the 42 years since their arrival;
(3) acknowledges the unique relationship that exists between Australia and Turkey, a bond highlighted by both nations' commitment to the rights and liberties of our citizens and the pursuit of a Just world, highlighted by the statement of Atatürk Peace at Home, Peace in the World;
(4) commends the Republic of Turkeys commitment to the shared values of democracy, the rule of law and secularism; and
(5) On the 42nd Anniversary of the Formal Agreement between the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia and the Government of the Republic of Turkey concerning the Residence and Employment of Turkish Citizens in Australia, pledges our friendship, commitment and enduring support to the people of Turkey as we celebrate this important occasion together."

YORUM:
Büyükelcilik Duyurusu: Temsilciler Meclisinde kabul edilen karar
July 5 2009 at 12:04 AM

Elbette önemli bir istir federal parlamentodan Türk toplumu adina pozitif bir karar cikartmak. Fakat yine de sormadan gecemeyecegim; bu karar niye cikartildi?

Eger eyalet parlamentolarindan gecirilen soykirim kararlarina karsilik olarak Türk toplumunun ve Türkiye'nin gönlünü almak icin yapildiysa, bu karar soykirim kararlarinin karsiligi asla olamaz. Türkiye Cumhuriyetinin mesrulugunu hedef alan, 3 jenerasyon öncesi Türk ulusunu katil ilan eden soykirim kararlarinin Türk toplumunda yarattigi cöküntü, böyle neden cikartildigi bile belli olmayan tuhaf bir kararla giderilemez.
Türkiye Cumhuriyeti en azindan Kanada'ya karsi sergiledigi kararli tavri Avustralya'ya karsi da sergilemelidir. Avustralya ile iliskilerine mutlaka bir mesafe koymali, soykirim kararlarindan ötürü arada ki dostlugun zedelendigini sürekli belli etmelidir.
Türkiye Cumhuriyeti 1998 yilinda NSW eyaletinden 2009 yilinda da Güney Avustralya eyaletinden de gecirilen -hatta icine Pontus ve Süryanilerde eklenerek icerigi iyice genisletilen- soykirim kararlarindan sonra hicbir sey olmamis gibi davranamaz. 10 yasinda ki cocuklarin bile kanmayacagi sözde "Türk yanlisi" bu son karara, koskaca Turkiye Cumhuriyeti devletinin itibar edecegine inanmiyorum. Devletler yasayabilmek icin cok ileri zekali davranmasi gereken organizmalardir; kendilerine yapilan düsmanliklari iki gün sonra unutma haklari yoktur. Güney Avustralya'da eger bu yil olmasa bile gelecek yil Nisan ayinda ikinci bir karar cikarilarak tipki NSW'de yapildigi gibi parlamentoya birde soykirim aniti dikilecektir.

Türkiye önlemini simdiden almali ve, soykirim kararlarina ve simdiye kadar dikilmis anitlara bir sekilde yanit vermelidir. Bunun da en basit karsiligi Canakkale Belediye meclisinin alacagi "Aborijin Soykirim" karari ve Anzak Koyu'unun girisine dikilecek bir "Aborijin Soykirimi" anitidir. Türkiye Cumhuriyeti daha fazla Atatürk'ün Anzak analari icin sarfettigi sözlere siginarak Avustralya'dan dostluk ve iltifat dilenemez.
Devlet olmanin geregini yapmalidir.
Halit 04.07.2009
http://www.network54.com/Forum/407087/message/1246712690/B%FCy%FCkelcilik+Duyurusu-+Temsilciler+Meclisinde+kabul+edilen+karar

Insan Haklarý Dernegi(!) Genel Merkezinde (Turklerin Haklari Dernegi Merkezi olmadigi kesin)Mavi Kitap ( Blue Book) tanitimi yapildi....

Tanitima Ingiltere parlementosundan milletvekili de geldi. Ben de yanimda sevgili Fatma Sarikaya ve Amerikan gelen Yuksel Oktay beyefendi ile bu tanitima gittim. Kitap tanitimi yapildikdan sonra sorula kisminda sayin Fatma Sarikaya elindeki alternatif baska bir kitabin da referans alinmasini istedi.
(İngiliz Lord James Bryce ve tarih profesörü olan Arnold Toynbee tarafından kaleme alınan kitabı İngiliz Lordlar Kamarası üyesi Lord Avebury ile tarihçi Ara Sarafian tanıttı.)

Ben de hic planmadigim halde bir cikis yaptim. Ingiliz milletvekiline 3 soru sordum
1- Madem Ingiltere parlementosu dunyadaki tum insanlik suclarinin tanindigi simdi son olarak siranin Turklerin 'SOZDE Ermeni soykirimini' tanimasini istiyor; "peki parlementonuz 1915 parasi odendigi halde Osmanliya verilmeyen 2 geminin parasini da geri verecek mi?" dedim.
2- "Ingilterenin Savas Propaganda Burosunda urettigi 'Abdul' imajina karsilik Avustralyalilarin Turklerin adaletini gordukten sonra onlara kendilerine birisi olarak gorduklerini ifade etmek uzere verdikleri 'Johnny Turk' tanimlamasina ne dersiniz?" dedim

3-Elimle icerigini gosterdigim "kitabimda da vurgulandigi gibi Turklerin adaletini oven yazilarda, 1915 Turklerin adil olarak tanimlanmasina, Turkler hakkinda yazilan olumsuz bir cok yazinin dogru olmadigini savunan bazi yazanlarin da oldugunu biliyormusunuz?" dedim Nitekim sorularima cevap alamadim ve ustelik 'bunlari daha sonra tartisalim, simdi yeri degil' diye cevap vermekle yetindiler.
Sayin Yuksel Oktay beyefendi de kendi tezlerini savundu...( o arada baska birseyle ilgilenmek zorunda kaldigim icin simdi tam olarak hatirlamiyorum ancak sordugu sorunun cok yerine bir soru oldugunu hatirliyorum, konusma iceriginin mahiyetini yorgunlukdan simdi tam olarak hatirlayamiyorum)
Konu ile ilgili gazete haberleri asagida: http://www.radikal.com.tr/Radikal.aspx?aType=RadikalDetay&ArticleID=942370&Date=27.06.2009&CategoryID=79
26/06/2009 Mavi Kitap'ýn tanýtýmýnda kitabýn içeriði konusunda tartýþma çýktý ANKARA - Ýngiliz Lord James Bryce ve tarih profesörü olan Arnold Toynbee tarafýndan kaleme alýnan ve kamuoyunda "Mavi Kitap" olarak bilinen "Osmanlý Ýmparatorluðunda Ermenilere Yapýlan Muamele 1925-16" kitabýn Türkçe "sansürsüz basýmý" düzenlenen toplantý ile tanýtýldý.
Ýnsan Haklarý Derneði Genel Merkezindeki tanýtým toplantýsýna, kitabýn Türkçe çevirisini gerçekleþtiren Ýngiliz Lordlar Kamarasý üyesi Lord Avebury ile Gomidas Enstitüsünden Türkiye asýllý Ermeni tarihçi Ara Sarafian katýldý.

Kitaba iliþkin bilgi veren Avebury, kitabýn Türkiye açýsýndan tarihsel bir dönüm noktasý olduðunu söyledi. Avebury, uzun yýllar önce dönemin TBMM baþkanýnýn, Ýngiliz parlamentosuna mektup yazarak kitabýn geri çekilmesini talep ettiðini, Ýngiliz parlamenterlerin de TBMMnin bütün üyelerine mektup yazarak, karþýlýklý diyalog ile konunun tartýþýlmasýný istediðini belirterek, hiçbir Türk parlamenterin mektuba cevap vermediðini söyledi. Avebury, kitabýn Türkçeye çevrilmesinin ardýndan yeni bir diyalog ortamý oluþturulacaðýný da ifade ederek, "Tarihini kabul etmeyenler bunu tekrarlamak durumundadýr.
Bütün ülkelerin karanlýk dönemleri vardýr.
Britanya kraliçesi Hindistandan, Britanyalý parlamenterler de Ýrlanda halkýndan özür dilediler" dedi.
Tarihçi Sarafian da "Mavi Kitap" ile resmi Türk tezlerinin tartýþmaya açýldýðýný belirterek, kitabýn TBMM üyelerine gönderileceðini, milletvekillerinin kitabý okuduktan sonra deðerlendirme yapmasý gerektiðini söyledi.
Toplantýya katýlan Avustralya Gelibolu Dostluk Derneði Kurucu Baþkaný Gül Arslan ve bazý Türk tarih araþtýrmacýlarý da kitabýn "büyük yanlýþlarla dolu" olduðunu savundu. Arslan, Avustralyalýlarýn, Türklerden "adil savaþçý" olarak söz ettiklerine iþaret ederek, buna iliþkin Avustralya kaynaklarýný gösterdi.
Avustralya kaynaklarýnda "Ermeni iddialarýnýn hiçbiri doðru deðil, çünkü biz Türklerle savaþtýk" þeklinde ifadeler yer aldýðýný anlatan Arslan, Türklerin, 2006 yýlýnda Avustralyada "saygýdeðer düþman" olarak adlandýrýldýðýný belirtti.(aa)
Not: Aslinda konusmamda "Ermeni iddialarýnýn hiçbiri doðru deðil, çünkü biz Türklerle savaþtýk" olarak degil, Turkler hakkidaki bazi olumsuz iddialarýnýn cogu doðru deðil, onalra inanmayin çünkü biz Türklerle savaþtýk diye yazan yazarlarin oldugunu soylemistim http://www.radikal.com.tr/Radikal.aspx?aType=RadikalDetay&ArticleID=942370&Date=27.06.2009&CategoryID=79 http://www.yenicaggazetesi.com.tr/haberdetay.php?hit=18920 http://www.turkforum.net/showthread.php?t=1108638918 http://www.sanalvadi.com/forum/mavi-kitap-ta-cirkin-isbirligi-t82893.html http://www.ekolay.net/Haber/Haber.asp?PID=99&HaberID=626794 http://www.aksam.com.tr/2009/06/27/haber/guncel/4603/_mavi_kitap__sansursuz_basildi.html http://www.biroybil.com/showthread.php?t=11252