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Ear to the Ground

France, Turkey Trade Accusations of Genocide

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Posted on Dec 23, 2011
Wikimedia Commons / World Economic Forum (CC-BY-SA)

J’accuse: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pictured here in 2008.

Since France took the bold step this week of making it a criminal act to deny that Ottoman Turks committed genocide in Armenia nearly a century ago, Turkey has countered with similar accusations, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan even added a personal touch about French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s own past, the BBC reported Friday.

BBC:

He accused President Nicolas Sarkozy of using the bill to fan hatred of Muslims and Turks for electoral gain.

He said Mr Sarkozy should “ask his father, who served in the French Legion there” about the Algerian “massacre”.

Year in jail

Ankara has already recalled its ambassador to France and frozen political visits and joint military projects over the bill.

And Mr Erdogan has warned he will take further unspecified steps.

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blogdog's avatar

By blogdog, December 25, 2011 at 12:23 am Link to this comment

let’s hope this sours France-Turkey relations enough to convince Erdogan that
forging bonds with neighbors benefits Turkey’s interests more than throwing in with
hegemons intent on destabilizing and failing neighboring states

it should be clear to all third-world nations: never trust hegemons

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By gerard, December 24, 2011 at 5:13 pm Link to this comment

See what I mean?

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By Kalifornia, December 24, 2011 at 1:07 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Those who damn the Ottoman Empire for atrocities against some Armenians 100 years ago never mention comparable deaths of Turks and Kurds, which in many cases are even better documented. They did not kill themselves. There is a lot of blame to go around for these terrible events. Will France also pass a law making it illegal to deny that Armenians killed a comparable number of Turks and Kurds?

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By tapxe, December 24, 2011 at 10:54 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

the “Armenian” holocaust…  OK

wasn’t that the work of the “Young Turks” party which were…  jews?  Why no mention of who the perpetrators were? and blame the Turks?  I don’t think so.  But since hardly anybody knows squat about history…

what about the ongoing holocaust in Gaza?

The one in Lybia by nato, etc, etc…

How many did the french kill in Africa (and still are)?

revisionism?  that’s the trademark of the west’s msm.

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By Neil, December 24, 2011 at 10:49 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I wish Turkey would say, “thank you international community for making us face up to past atrocities. As a matter of political reality we couldn’t do it our selves. Now let us return the favour…” China, France, U.K., USA, Canada, etc. all have dark histories underplayed and often denied”

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By NZDoug, December 24, 2011 at 10:08 am Link to this comment

There should be a Halocaust Museum for North American indigenous people.
Israel -USA NO WAR!

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By ObamaisGod, December 23, 2011 at 11:55 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

@gerard
And I suppose we should tell the Jews to keep quiet about the holocaust or whatever really happened way back in WWII. Politcal dynamite and all. Of course, WWI isn’t as cool, I guess.

And I also guess we can get all those Indian folks to have second thoughts before talking about genocide. After all, that was two, three hundred years ago!

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By Roger Lafontaine, December 23, 2011 at 7:56 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I first heard about this 45 years ago - never a peep about it in the media all this time. All of a sudden after the Mavi Marmara incident it’s in the news all the time. Who’s behind this ‘expose’? What’s it really all about?

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By gerard, December 23, 2011 at 4:44 pm Link to this comment

I sincerely hope that Truthdig will begin to have second thoughts before publishing stuff like this.
This allegation, while it hits raw sensitivities of millions of people, is also political dynamite, even though whatever happened, and how it happened, occurred approximately 100 years ago, and there is absolutely nothing anybody can do about it now.  Republishing and rehashing only aggravates old memories and claws at raw nerves.  Truthdig can do better than this.

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PatrickHenry's avatar

By PatrickHenry, December 23, 2011 at 4:21 pm Link to this comment

What, we don’t have enough on going problems to talk about than discuss events which happened before the internet?

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