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Another Turkishness Gimmick! Davutoglu’s Revisionism Targets the Diaspora

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Turkish Foreign Minster Ahmet Davutoglu

BY ARA KHACHATOURIAN

Ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and in its continuing efforts to revise history and distort the truth, official Ankara has set its eyes on the Armenian Diaspora, this time revising the definition of the word to water down the political and legal elements that define a diaspora. In an interview published in the Turkish Milliyet on July 7, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced that he has sent a directive to all Turkish embassies in which he redefined the Turkish diaspora. “We consider all those who emigrated from those lands, and not only the Turks, to be the diaspora—the Armenians, Jews, Greeks, the people called El Turco in Latin America, and the Arabs in Argentina…

Those are our people… Those are people whose culture and language resemble ours.” Based on these “redefined criteria,” Turkish representations around the world “ will now open their doors to those people who were once Ottoman subjects, they will contact them, and they will even invite them to national days. The contacts with the Armenian diaspora are said to have already started,” according to Milliyet. Asbarez warned its readers recently of an effort to infiltrate the Armenian community. It is a direct by-product of this diplomatic directive that has propelled the Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles to reach out to well-meaning yet confused community members to open, what is potentially a dangerous dialogue. According to Wikipedia, a Diaspora is “the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland; or “people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location”; or “people settled far from their ancestral homelands.” “In an article published in 1991, William Safran set out six rules to distinguish diasporas from migrant communities,” Wikipedia goes on to explain. “These included criteria that the group maintains a myth or collective memory of their homeland; they regard their ancestral homeland as their true home, to which they will eventually return; being committed to the restoration or maintenance of that homeland; and they relate ‘personally or vicariously’ to the homeland to a point where it shapes their identity.” Davutoglu’s redefinition of Diaspora and his blatant perpetuation of Turkish revisionism and denial is the second of a three-point outline he has concocted—introduced—to advance Turkish-Armenian relations ahead of the Genocide Centennial. The first point is what Davutoglu says concerns “feelings,” whereby the Turkish foreign minister wants to assure Armenians that “I understand your pain; we will listen to the Armenians.” This patronizing approach of showing “respect” toward Armenians’ feelings, not only diminishes the fact of the Genocide, but it waters down the incident, making the Genocide seem like an accidental mishap that must be dealt with. While he acknowledges that in past Turkey has denied the Genocide, his new approach is nothing more that using another euphemism to address this matter. “The Armenians are not facing a foreign minister who claims that nothing happened in 1915. I do not call the incidents genocide. We must develop a new language on the issue. We are not denying your suffering, we understand it. Let us get together and do whatever is necessary. That, however, cannot be a unilateral declaration of guilt,” Davutoglu told Milliyet. Davutoglu, the newspaper explains, has developed a concept called “just memory,” which is supposedly based on feeling the pain of the Armenians and “not trying to shut them up.” He either actually believes or wants the entire world to believe that the Turks should not be compared to the Nazis, because the Genocide was not a systematic effort to annihilate an entire race but rather a consequence of events the caused “paranoia in people who feared that they would be exiled from Anatolia.” Davutoglu also claimed that there are efforts to sign a joint declaration before 2015 with Armenia that reflects this version of the events. The third point in this preposterous plan deals directly with the provisions of the Armenia-Turkey protocols, whose ratification by Turkey is pre-conditioned on a pro-Azeri resolution to the Karabakh conflict. Armenia’s Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian rejected this three-pronged solution, saying Thursday at a press conference that the international community has already proposed its own three point plan, which includes ratifying the Armenian-Turkish protocols without preconditions; carrying out the provisions of the agreements, again without preconditions; and refraining from linking the Armenian-Turkish issue with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Nalbandian asserted that Turkey has failed to take serious measures toward any rapprochement for 97 years, saying “Turkey has been unable to face its own history.” “If Turkey intends to work in the same manner for the next three years and proposes ‘a combination of some steps’ which lead to nowhere, the result is obvious,” said Nalbandian. By redefining what a Diaspora is, Turkey is advancing a dangerous policy to change the role of its diplomatic representations into centers that can—and have started to—have an impactful role in [our] community life. Individuals who do not recognize this threat and are actively taking part in this divisive tactic, must closely evaluate their personal interests and not become pawns in this dangerous effort to diminish our national struggle. At the same time, the Armenian government must become more assertive on this issue and instead of the reactionary and tacit responses to Turkey’s malicious policies, must aggressively advocate and advance the Armenian Cause. Less than three years remain to the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide. The political aspects of this milestone, perhaps, far outweigh the efforts to properly mark this anniversary. Our national aspirations that include just reparations and restitution for the victims of the Armenian Genocide, as well the territorial demands of the Armenian nation are paramount to advancing the Armenian Cause. It is high time that we, as a Nation, start speaking the same language and acting on the imperatives that will advance justice. The government of Turkey began implementing this new approach to its decades-old denialist policy long ago by pouring millions of dollars into Turkish organizations outside of Turkey and bolstering Turkish presence in political life in various countries. Davutoglu can redefine terms and concepts as much as he wants. The fact remains that Turkey will have to pay for its crimes—current and past.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Milliyet article reference above was reported by Asli Aydintasbas and translated into English by Katia Peltekian.

Turkish colonel says headscarf a “symbol of terrorism”

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Turkish colonel says headscarf a “symbol of terrorism”
June 28, 2012 – 12:50 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Turkish Col. Ali Çakmakkaya, a judge, describes the headscarf as a “symbol of terrorism” in a voice recording, in which he also uses profanity while referring to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his wife, Emine Erdoğan.

According to Today’s Zaman, the voice recording was released on Twitter on Tuesday, June 26, although the date of the recording remains unknown. A caption provided with the recording says Çakmakkaya made the statements in an official military setting.

Criticizing Erdoğan for not wearing a tie during his meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Çakmakkaya says Erdoğan had put an end to state culture in Turkey. He talks about the wives of Erdoğan and Assad: “You look at the wife of the other [Assad]; she is pretty modern and [looks] European.” [Read more…]

New York Times’ Exposé: Imam Gulen’s Charter Schools

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Report By: boilingfrogspost.com/tag/fethullah-gulen/Is the Media Catching Up with the Turkish Imam’s US Operations?

For the last two years I have been pounding on Imam Fethullah Gulen’s web of organizations and his charter schools empire in the US. For years I have been marveling about the consistent media blackout on the Turkish Imam Fethullah Gulen’s past and present nefarious activities and highly suspicious partnerships with various US government agencies and elected officials. And of course for almost two years I have been writing and discussing Gulen with you over here at Boiling Frogs Post. Now the New York Times appears to be catching up; at least with a fraction of this notorious Imam’s multi billion dollar network of organizations and businesses. Yesterday, the Times ran a fairly detailed and long exposé on Gulen’s dubious and highly secretive penetration of US school systems via his rapidly growing charter school operations; let’s start with the attention grabbing intro:

TDM Contracting was only a month old when it won its first job, an $8.2 million contract to build the Harmony School of Innovation, a publicly financed charter school that opened last fall in San Antonio. It was one of six big charter school contracts TDM and another upstart company have shared since January 2009, a total of $50 million in construction business. Other companies scrambling for work in a poor economy wondered: How had they qualified for such big jobs so fast?

The secret lay in the meteoric rise and financial clout of the Cosmos Foundation, a charter school operator founded a decade ago by a group of professors and businessmen from Turkey. Operating under the name Harmony Schools, Cosmos has moved quickly to become the largest charter school operator in Texas, with 33 schools receiving more than $100 million a year in taxpayer funds. …

Some of the schools’ operators and founders, and many of their suppliers, are followers of Fethullah Gulen, a charismatic Turkish preacher of a moderate brand of Islam whose devotees have built a worldwide religious, social and nationalistic movement in his name. Gulen followers have been involved in starting similar schools around the country — there are about 120 in all, mostly in urban centers in 25 states, one of the largest collections of charter schools in America. …

And this is what the paper says it is attempting to examine:
But an examination by The New York Times of the Harmony Schools in Texas casts light on a different area: the way they spend public money. And it raises questions about whether, ultimately, the schools are using taxpayer dollars to benefit the Gulen movement — by giving business to Gulen followers, or through financial arrangements with local foundations that promote Gulen teachings and Turkish culture.

I suggest you visit the site and read the entire article. It is definitely worth reading. You may also want to read a few select pieces from BFP on Gulen:

Did You Know: The King of Madrasas Now Operates over 100 Charter Schools in US?

Turkish Intel Chief Exposes CIA Operations via Islamic Group in Central Asia

Additional Omitted Points in CIA-Gulen Coverage & A Note From ‘The Insider’

http://turkishinvitations.weebly.com/gulenist-non-profits.html

The Sanitized Gulen Coverage Continues
Read More:
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2011/06/07/new-york-times%e2%80%99-expose-imam-gulen%e2%80%99s-charter-schools/#more-3859

Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story!

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In this startling new memoir, Sibel Edmonds—the most classified woman in U.S. history—takes us on a surreal journey that begins with the secretive FBI and down the dark halls of a feckless Congress to a stonewalling judiciary and finally, to the national security whistleblowers movement she spearheaded. Having lived under Middle East dictatorships, Edmonds knows firsthand what can happen when government is allowed to operate in secret. Hers is a sobering perspective that combines painful experience with a rallying cry for the public’s right to know and to hold the lawbreakers accountable. With U.S. citizens increasingly stripped of their rights in a calibrated media blackout, Edmonds’ story is a wake-up call for all Americans who, willingly or unwillingly, traded liberty for illusive security in the wake of 9/11.

You can visit the Classified Woman website here: http://classifiedwoman.com

BBC shoots film uncovering Azerbaijan’s dirty secrets [Video]

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Reporter Paul Kenyon finds out how the contest has been used as a tool of intimidation: viewers have been interrogated for voting for the nation’s long-term enemy,

Armenia; a protest singer has been told to flee before Eurovision or he will be thrown in jail; and dozens have had their homes bulldozed to make way for the Eurovision event itself.
The US embassy in Baku has compared the ruling family to the Mafia. The regime has held onto power through a combination of rigged elections, jailing opponents, and by irregular control of the country’s vast oil wealth. So, why did the organisers of the world’s best well-loved music event agree to host it in Azerbaijan?

 

The largest charter school network in the United States is operated by people in and associated with the Turkish Imam Gulen Movement (GM), a secretive and controversial Turkish religious sect.

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By Sharon Higgins, founding member of Parents Across America

Note: This is an expanded version of a guest post published in The Washington Post under Valerie Strauss’s column, The Answer Sheet, on March 27, 2012.

The largest charter school network in the United States is operated by people in and associated with the Turkish Imam Gulen Movement (GM), a secretive and controversial Turkish religious sect. With 135 schools enrolling more than 45,000 students, this network is substantially larger than KIPP, the well-known charter management organization with 109 schools.

Please read the rest of the artical>>>>

 Parents Across America Aganist Turkish Imam Gulen Movement

Judges to deal with Genocide to demand for proper compensation – British lawyer

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April 24, 2012 | 23:35

YEREVAN. – British famous human rights protector Geoffrey Robertson believes that “the Genocide recognition process should be brought to an end.”

He published in 2009 his legal notes ‘Was there an Armenian Genocide?’ book, Radio Liberty reports.

He stated on Monday that the Genocide recognition process is one of the long lasted ones in the world history and he demands the world to bring it to an end. “The historians have completed their mission, now it is the time for judges, who will demand proper punishment for guilt and compensation for the Genocide victims. It is no longer a subject of historians but judges,” he concluded.The world commemorates on April 24 the 97th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the first genocide of the 20th [Read more…]

“Vive La France” Armenian Various Artists [Video]

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The music is composed by Armen Martirosyan, the lyrics are by Bishop Bagrat Galstian, the song is performed by Armenian pop stars, Inga and Anush Arshakyans, Nune Yesayan, Avo Khalatyan, Forsh, Hasmik Karapetyan, Andre, Zaruhi Babayan, Alla Levonyan, Arthur Ispiryan, Arthur (Mister X), Narine Dovlatyan, Emmy, Emma Asatryan. Directed by Hrant Yeritskinyan.