The Straw That Might Break Turkey's Back

October 12, 2007

Elaine Meinel Supkis

The US Senate vote about the Armenian massacre comes right on the heels of yet another rejection by the European Union concerning letting Turkey become a member and the outrageous and totally untrue and outright insane comments by the new right wing President of France. And all this on top of the US unleashing the Kurdish nationalists upon Turkey. Time to examine a key place on earth, the cradle of WWI and root cause of WWII as well as a host of other wars between and by empires: the Ottoman Empire.

From Bloomberg:

Turkey recalled its ambassador to the U.S. today after a congressional panel voted to call the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a genocide.

Turkey's government instructed Ambassador Nabi Sensoy to return home for consultations as soon as possible, a Foreign Ministry official said by telephone from Ankara. The official, who declined to be identified, said it isn't clear when Sensoy might return to Washington.

The Turkish government warned that the vote threatens its strategic partnership with the U.S. Turkey, the only Muslim member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is home to an air base the U.S. has used as a re-supply hub for missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The country also is one of the few Muslim nations to have close ties with Israel as well as Arab countries.

It always pays to look at more than one news story so I went off to one of Turkey's ancient rivals and neighbors, Russia:

ANKARA, October 12 (RIA Novosti) - Turkey has not recalled its ambassador to the United States, the country's prime minister said on Friday.

"I do not have any such information. Possibly, the Foreign Ministry called in the ambassador for consultations, but no one has recalled him," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Turkish NTV television company said on Thursday that Turkey had recalled its ambassador after a U.S. House of Representatives committee passed a resolution labeling the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman, Levent Bilman, said Ambassador Nabi Sensoy had been recalled "for consultations."

NTV also said the Turkish Navy commander had cancelled his visit to the U.S.

The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee voted 27-21 in favor of the resolution on genocide on Wednesday, in a move that is likely to strain Washington's relations with Turkey, a key NATO ally providing crucial support for U.S. operations in Iraq.

That was actually a close vote. Here in the Northeast USA, we have a considerable Turkish and Armenian communities and this has been a very hot topic for them. Recently, the Anti-defamation Committee that of course, defames people, run by Mr. Fox, a total Zionist seeking advantages for Jews trying to take over the Palestinian sector of the former Ottoman Empire, was in the news out here. Seems that his organization actually supports the Turkish government in refusing to consider the historic brutal suppression of the Armenian Christian community, a 'holocaust.' Seems that Israel has strong diplomatic ties with Ankara they want to preserve. Also, they love to pretend only Jews have been the victims of religious and ethnic cleansing.

The Hitlerian ethnic cleansing was a monstrosity born of war that was totally out of character with the basis of he Austrian Empire that existed for centuries based on the upper elites being from the European royal houses supported by the German/Catholic ethnic community but protecting all other populations such as the Hungarian Maygars, the Jews and Bohemian groups. This is how their empire limped along merrily. The borders of Österreich (Eastern Empire) have been extremely fluid over the centuries. But right off the bat, in 1150, the ruling dynasty, the Babenbergers, married off the ducal sons and daughters to the Hungarian Maygarian King's children. In 1240, the sudden entry of Mogols into European history changed the ethnic/religious make-up of the region as well as in the Middle East. The Mongols overran Russia and Hungary right up to the Gates of Vienna. Where they turned back.

They overran Buddhist lands like Afghanistan which was Buddhist back then and they even tried a cynical alliance with the European Christian Crusaders who wanted Jerusalem back. This was on the heels of the Third Crusade which collapsed after the Duke of Austria got in a fight with Richard the Lionheared and then departed to Vienna where he captured King Richard and thus, got John Lackland into power, etc.

The thing is, the Mongols tipped upside down, the religious map of Europe and the Middle East but NOT THE ETHNIC MAP. Despite their murderous ways, the lands were left empty by these violent tribal killers so the survivors crawled out of the ruins and proceeded to preach to the Mongols who chose to rule the easy way: they joined whichever religion was prevalent. In the main, they leaned towards the Muslim religion because of its support of the military. There is this funny story about how this choice was made.

'Either you can choose to be a Christian and have one wife but be allowed to get drunk or you can follow the Jews and blame yourself for everything god does to you or you can be a Muslim and have no drink but have any number of wives and blame god for the wives' making you miserable' pretty much sums up the situation.

Regardless and I hope no one hates me for making fun of religions, I don't belong to anything but love all religions and think all gods should get along better instead of these bitter quarrels over who gets to zap whom with lighting bolts ....history is all about what happened in the past and when the news talks about things like the Armenian Christians, it pays to look at maps and know some medieval history.

The Mongols didn't like mountains. So any populations living in mountains were pretty much spared the sword so the Mongols swept around Armenia and only hit the valleys in Afghanistan and swept into Iraq and set Baghdad to the sword, killing virtually everyone. They did spare intellectuals because they used them for technological advantage. This is why the Chinese peasants weren't all killed. The intellectuals convinced the Mongols that the road to wealth was paved by peasant labor.

The Mongols conquered the Turks and convinced them to become Muslims in order to make ruling them easier. The Turks then organized themselves as a fighting force and overthrew their masters and surged across the Middle East on horseback and defeated the Marmalukes of Egypt, swept up through the Holy Land and besieged Constantiople that was still reeling from the Forth Crusade's looting and destruction. Using modern fighting techniques, especially cannons, they bombared the walls of Constantinople and then overran the Christian capitol.

The European royalty were very busy killing each other but when the Turks entered Europe, they tried to pull together only they couldn't. So the Turks swept all the ay to the Gates of Vienna where they were stopped after a long seige and then force backwards. This set up the division, deep in Europe, between Muslim Turkish rule and the very divided Christian rule which was busy fighting each other in the Thirty Years War, etc.

It pays to remember all this when looking at today's stories: at the turn of the century, Turkey was besieged by the European Empires who nibbled at the edges of the Turkish Empire. Russia was very close to Armenia and like today with the Kurds, the Armenians began to agitate for political severance and like in the American Civil War, this was dealt with quite violently. We keep forgetting that sane governments fight dissolving empires fiercely. For example, the Romans who took over the Alexandrian empires (there were 4 of them) fought the Jewish nationalists tooth and nail and punished them for this by dispersing the population to the far edges of the empire, to Spain and Vienna, to Persia and Morrocco.

So the Ottoman rulers did what all empires do: they brutally moved huge populations. The US did this rather often, in fact. The Trail of Tears as the Cherokees were uprooted and marched on foot to Oklahoma, for example, springs to mind. Then there is the massive transfer of Africans to North and South America done is very hideously brutal fashion. Today, there are many populations demanding justice for past enslavement and holocausts! Indeed, the history of humanity is a long tale of such things. We have this irritating proclivity to enslave and assault masses of humans over ethnic and religous matters.

Which is why I am a humanist. The Jews seeking to steal lands and oppress Palestinians have used the history of inhumanity to single themselves out for special blessings so they may conquer and ethnic cleanse to their heart's content. At the same time, they need allies so they support Turkey which doesn't want to be punished for the Armenian mess and who is very upset about the Kurds fighting government control. We can see ethnic cleansing all the time, most recently in Europe, in the former Yugoslavia which was the former Ottoman Empire.

Now to talk about France's new leader, Sarkozy. He is a Polish/Jewish ethnic mix who is a fairly new immigrant to France. He should have some faint idea of the roiling history of the Holy Roman Empire and the ethnic divisions of Eastern Europe. But look at his latest statements about Turkey!

From the Turkish Weekly:

The French President Nicholas Sarkozy once again repeated the necessity of not to accept Turkey to the European Union (EU). Sarkozy said “I do not believe that Turkey belongs in Europe, and for a simple reason, which is that it is in Asia Minor. What I wish to offer Turkey is a true partnership with the Europe; it is not integration with Europe.”
*snip*
Even the French kings and emperors in the past clearly accepted that the Turks are part of the European political system. Like all other EU members, France also gave full integration promise to Turkey who applied to the EU – the EEC at that time- in 1959. Moreover, this promise was given not orally but also written, and by means of treaties again and again (Ankara Treaty, Additional Protocol, Customs Union Treaty etc.). Turkey is not a country who applied to the EU recently. Its application has been laid on the table for 57 years.

He wants sex with Turkey but doesn't want to kiss or say 'I love you.' He wants a mistress but not a wife. He wants to two-time Turkey and make money with Turkey but not give Turkey the key to the front door. Understandably, this angers the Turks a great deal.

Lastly, Sarkozy should be asked: If you see Turkey only as Asia Minor, in which continent is one of the biggest cities of Europe, Istanbul, located on? In which continent do you insert the Marmara Region which forms more than half of the Turkey’s economy? Or is it the real intention of France to make Turkey only an Asia Minor country by giving Istanbul and Thrace region to a truly European nation?

I provided the CIA map of Turkey above to show the truth of this: the EU happily lets in Christian communities that are deep inside Asia Minor but not Turkey which is very much part of the physical continent of Europe. And this is entirely due to ethnic discrimination that Europe specializes in. The Europeans have had huge ethnic cleansing episodes, one of which was called 'Naziism'. The refusal to let Turkey join Europe is pure racism and ethnic identity that discriminates against Muslims. Just as Europe stood aside for a long time, twiddling thumbs, as the Serbs and Croats murdered Muslims 10 years ago.

I decided it was time to visit the European Union headquarters in Brussels to see what is going on with the Turkish application for joining the EU.

Here is the May, 2003 report explaining why they rejected Turkey yet again:

12. Welcomes Prime Minister Erdogan’s intention to establish a new Constitution emphasising the rule of law and a pluralist, participatory democracy;

13. Considers that also the Turkish concept of the nation and secular state has to be based on tolerance and non-discrimination of religious communities and minority groups; considers that the drafting of a new Constitution must facilitate the implementation of these principles;

14. Calls on the government and the parliament, with the cooperation of the European Commission and the European Parliament if wished, to stimulate public debate on the characteristics of the State in relation to the political values of the EU, partly in connection with the outcome of the Convention, in order to strengthen the democratic consciousness of citizens; calls on the Turkish authorities and the Commission to organise information campaigns to increase the awareness of Turkish citizens about the European Union and the obligations arising from membership as well as the awareness of EU citizens about Turkey;

15. Stresses that, in order to strengthen the democratic nature of society, an active civil society is essential; considers that the establishment of free social organisations in the economic, social and cultural fields must be promoted and encouraged by the State; emphasises the value of a fully tripartite consultation between government and social partners;

16. Considers also that ordinary people can be involved more closely in decision-making, and policy be better adapted to needs, by decentralising certain government tasks to a lower level of elected authorities, with the necessary control to ensure transparency;

I picked out a section of a long line of nit-picking excuses put forth by the ethnic cleansers of Europe, the people who brutally ruled this planet for many years, enslaving millions and stealing everything they could grab from the New World, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Now that they have destroyed themselves in not one but two massive world wars that were bigger and more destructive than any wars in history including the Mongol invasions, they are now all prissy and pious about democracy and behaving in a civilized fashion...hahaha. Bitter laughter from the Goddess of History as she dips her quill in the sea of blood shed by the European powers in the past. People are still alive who were dragged into WWII by Europe.

But sitting on their present high horses, they hold their dainty noses and in a nasal voice, tell the Turks they are naughty people and uncivlized, too. Not fit to join the GERMANS for god's sake, in being nice. Yup. Germans.

Sigh. Time to look at more objections to Turkey running Europe or joing the US in an economic alliance as an equal.

The EU rejection of 2003:

27. Recalls the commitment by the Turkish government to finally eradicate torture (zero tolerance); notes with concern that torture practices still continue and that torturers often go unpunished; calls for the most energetic and consistent measures to be taken to combat this barbaric practice, and for the Centre for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of torture victims in Diyarbakir, supported by the Commission, to be able to continue its work unhindered;

28. Calls on Turkey to implement the international standards for prisons and to abstain from isolation of prisoners;

Geeze. So, Gitmo is run by Turkey, eh? And the CIA secret torture flights out of Europe and the kidnappings of Muslims in Europe were done by Turkey? HAHAHA. Oh my god! So, when the Europeans, who launched WWI and WWII and the holocaust, accused Turkey of torturing people WHILE THEY WERE DOING THIS THEMSELVES?????? Talk about nerve. And on top of this, Britain and Germany, yes, DEUTSCHLAND, were in the middle of plotting an illegal invasion of Iraq based on false charges against a former province of the Ottoman empire, Iraq? Which led to the murder of millions, millions of refugees? And many of these refugees have been gunned down or tortured and indeed, right after this report, the US was caught red-handed, torturing Iraqis!

So, when is Europe going to apologize to Turkey? HAHAHA again. Never! Never! The Crusaders never apologize. How about apologizing for the Spanish Inquisition? This was aimed at Muslims AND Jews. And the murder of the Albenginsians in 1230 AD? Or any of the Crusades. The bloody taking of Jerusalem where the Crusaders rode through rivers of blood of civilians until they reached the Tomb of Christ?

Isolation of prisoners: Padilla. And others. The US does this all the time. Hell's bells. Everyone should stop torture. The Europeans put people in isolation if they celebrate Hitler's birthday or question the statistics of the Holocaust! Europe has religious and political persecution every bit as bad as the Taliban when you look at it rationally. Free speech is unknown and there are a web of laws forbidding the use of signs, symbols or talking about the recent past because Europe wants to brutally pave over the divisions that still exist, the ones from the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire and the collapse of the British Empire.

43. Welcomes the ending of the state of emergency on 30 November 2002 in the last remaining two provinces of Diyarbakir and Sirnak, but calls on Turkey to contribute to the elimination of tensions with the Kurdish people and to make efforts to overcome the economic and social under-development of the regions in which these people live, to facilitate the return of former inhabitants to 'emptied villages' and returning refugees from abroad, and to bring about the removal of armed village guards in Kurdish and Syrian Orthodox villages;

44. Calls on the Turkish authorities to place any military activity in these regions under civilian control and to demand that the security forces (police and army) be answerable for their actions under all circumstances;

The US and Europe unleashed the Kurds on Turkey and now there are battles, bombings and increasingly, open warfare between the Kurds and everyone and I do mean EVERYONE in the region. The redrawing of state lines along ethnic/religious configurations is always very, very bloody and has many criminal elements and the US and Europe better beware: we are very prone to falling apart along such lines! The United part of the name for the US is all about bloody wars to prevent states from leaving this 'union'.

The EU report:

Partly because the citizens of the EU need to be persuaded that Turkey can become an ordinary Member State – in which a democratically-minded citizen can feel free, protected and at home – every possible emphasis needs to be placed on meeting the political criteria. By contrast, EU citizens had hardly any doubts on this point with regard to the CEECs due to join the EU in 2004.

The sole reason to 'doubt' Turkey joining is pure racism: Europe fears 28 million Muslims joining. They might demand civil rights. They might spread out. They might change Europe's customs and laws. The establishment of these laws have a long and very bloody history. The customs came about in similar fashion. The former Russian colonies that Europe rushed to embrace were not better economically or politically, than Turkey. Many were worse, far worse. But none were Muslim.

The EU report:

The army should of course be under civilian control. In a European democratic constitutional state, the heart of politics lies with the government and the parliament. That should also be the case in Turkey. This means that the political tasks which have hitherto been the responsibility of the army, including the think-tanks set up for this purpose, should be returned to the sphere of the government.

Europe no longer has much of a military/imperial force. They use the US, a country that does illegal invasions of disarmed nations and tortures prisoners as well as murdering millions and displacing huge populations. The astonishing degree of double standards is breath taking. But not all of Europe was united in spitting in Turkey's face. The far left chided the EU report:

MINORITY OPINION

(pursuant to Rule 161(3))

Gianfranco Dell'Alba on behalf of Radical Members

The main role of the European Union should be a political one, and should be aimed at strengthening democracy and extending the rule of law throughout the world. The Union should fulfil this task in a manner which is open and based on a non-religious approach. The Union must therefore respond to countries’ aspirations to accede to it in a way which is both pragmatic and respects the values on which the Union is founded. This report, despite having been improved by the adoption of certain amendments tabled by Liberal and Green colleagues, is permeated with a moralistic, ideological attitude in which there is a tendency almost to replace the political values and principles underpinning the Community with precepts of an parareligious nature. The European Union came into being as a response to totalitarianism and war, in an endeavour to promote tolerance, freedom, democracy and prosperity; there are accordingly no grounds for denying Turkey the right to become a genuine candidate for accession on the basis of cultural differences. This report, which aspires to teach others, could for the first time lend a certain substance to the questionable theory of the clash of civilisations. We take the view that a responsible parliament should refrain from adopting any attitude of this kind.

Europe will lock out Turkey and eventually, radical Muslims will take over the place and use it as their base to destroy Israel and reunite the Ottoman Empire. The possibility of this happening is rising, not falling. And the lost chances here will be greatly rued.

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Comments

[龍之傳子]

You have a correct view of history. Not many Caucasians know their ancestors were once conquered by Asians. This is not an insult but historical facts. Too bad, we didn't push any further into western part of Europe, we could've washed our hands in North Atlantic Sea. Heheheheh..... Perhaps Tom Lantos knows of these historical facts well, and for that reason he is so anti-China.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

The amazing history of the Mongol conquests are often totally ignored by many Euro-centric historians. Perhaps I should write something about all this, I actually have a story in mind...called 'War Horse.' From the point of view of a Steppe mare.

[blues]

Oh great. The hot-shots at the U.S. Senate thought this would be a perfect time to rouse Turkey into a frenzy of wrath by declaring a "National Day of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923." Something that happened 84 years ago!

How many Senators does it take to screw in a light bulb? One to install the bulb, and 51 to appropriate a billion dollars to purchase a tub of water for the bulb screwer to stand in. (The water is needed to keep the bulb from breaking when the bulb screwer drops it the first three times.)

[Neuro Artist]

Bringing up the armenian issue in the US right now is extremely bad timing, at the same time in Turkey there has been strong discussions whether there should an invasion of Northern Iraq to deal with the kurds, which the military and the nationalists wants. Those who speak of other means of solving this issue, suddenly got silenced, once again 'Turkishness' was insulted, this time by the ally US. Now, those who wants war has the perfect excuse of not listening to US objections. Extraordinary timing, makes you almost think that it was planned. Earlier the Turks were not happy, now they are angry! Expect Turkey to invade Northern Iraq, soon!

No doubt there were ethnic cleansing in the end days of the Ottoman empire and most of it has been surpressed in Turkey to this day. But the Turks were in a process of slowly dealing with the past, this will lead to a violent backlash, and serves those with extremist, nationalist, religious, fascist agendas.

Besides how dares US talk about the ethnic cleansing committed in the end days of the ottoman empire, when it is doing the same thing in Iraq right now (in the end days of the US empire)? It would be more apropriate to condemn the genocide committed in Iraq right now than to put the finger in the eye of the Turks for something which happened more than 90 years ago.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Few, few nations can claim their hands are clean. For example, King Leopold of Belguim allowed the murder of millions of Africans. England, ditto. The US: the entire native Indian population, a 90% holocaust. Spain, ditto in spades.

The central plains of Asia: wiped out many when they discovered first, the chariot then, the stirrup The ancient Jews tried to wipe out the natives of the Holy Land not once but twice and now, thrice.

The modern Japanese came out of Korea pushed out the natives of Japan and drove them up to the northern most island. Etc. As I said, this has a long history and no one apologizes. The Armenians weren't wiped out, many came to America and joined the wiping out of the native Indians.

I forgot to mention the Angles and Saxon's long war against the Celts of Britain. Still causes problems, many problems today.

[Not Student]

The point is not to dwell on history but to learn from history and look towards the future. What's the point of remembering this or that genocide when the same thing is happening THIS VERY MOMENT?

During the barbarict times of oour ancestor, the tribe who had the best weapon and strongest army win and get to survive. It is somewhat amusing yet disgusting to see that despite all the scientific achievement of the human race, this animalistic aspect of human has not changed.

Civilizations my ass.

Since someone mentioned the Mongolians I think we should learn a lesson there. So what if the mongolians once built an empire spanning Asia and Europe? Without building a sophisticated culture, the remnant of that once huge empire is now absorbed back to the native culture and what does the mongolian has right now? A republic that acted like a chessboard piece between the chinese and russian empire. If not for China who accepted them as part of contemperory Chinese they would have lost whatever legacy Gengis Khan left them.

Lesson learn? War and voilence and conquest is not the answer. It is sometime necessary, but to overly rely on it spell disaster.

[DeVaul]

Good description of our Congress, Blues!

(That is, when they are not acting totally evil.)

I am speechless... where did this issue even come from? Armenians? What the....

No wonder Congress has no time to deal with tax havens, or if they did, they might ethnically cleanse them first!

[Neuro Artist]

There is a quite high likelyhood that my children are descendants of Gengis Khan, since my wife is Turkish. Even though the mongols didn't leave a great cultural footprint they left a great genetical....

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/02/0214_030214_genghis.html

[rain]

I think if Kosovo becomes an independent nation it will be the first muslim nation in europe. On second thought
with camp Bondsteel there
independent may not be the correct word.

[Neuro Artist]

Yesterday Turkish parlament voted to allow invasion of Northern Iraq. Meanwhile there are negotiations between Turkey-Iraq-US, which probably will lead nowhere. I can't see US allocating troops to northern Iraq to take out the PKK. I can't see the Kurds in Northern Iraq using force to take out the 'freedomfighters'. And I definetely can't see sunni or shiite forces going to Kurdish controlled areas to quell the enemies of the Turkish state.