The two turks who I have had frank discussions with seem reasonable, naturalized American citizens in every way, and they have been muslims in name only, until the post 9/11 political climate in the US made them more conscious and concerned about anti-muslim sentiment. As shi'a they do not worship in a mosque, due to a tradition that began in the 8th century when Ali was stabbed in the back of the neck by an assassin named Omar, his head bowed in prayer, in a mosque.
Both of my turkish friends are unwavering in their denial of armenian genocide.
They dismiss it as a post WWI victor's tale against the defeated ottomans. One of these guys gets angry and agitated when the subject is raised.
This news especially bothered both of themL:
Quote:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4994434.stm
Thursday, 18 May 2006, 14:37 GMT 15:37 UK
French MPs shelve 'genocide' vote
The French parliament has postponed debate on a bill that would make it a crime to deny that the mass killing of Armenians in 1915 was "genocide".
Turkish officials and businesses had lobbied French MPs to shelve the bill, which relates to a thorny issue still plaguing Turkish-Armenian relations.
Turkey rejects Armenia's claim that the Ottoman Turks killed 1.5m Armenians.
The French Socialist opposition wanted a new law to impose fines in line with those for Holocaust deniers.
Anyone denying that six million Jews were killed by the Nazis in World War II can be fined up to 45,000 euros (£30,600) and be jailed for five years in France.
Armenia says up to 1.5 million Armenians were deported and died at the hands of the Ottoman rulers in World War I. Turkey says a few hundred thousand died in a war which also left many Turks dead.
Diplomatic impact
Ahead of the debate, Turkish MPs had been lobbying their French counterparts, warning of irreparable damage if the bill passed into law.
It was set to be a free vote for French MPs, but President Jacques Chirac said that passing the bill would be a mistake.
Turkey is a leading economic and trade partner... We cannot accept this bill
Philippe Douste-Blazy
French Foreign Minister
Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy agreed, telling the National Assembly: "The Armenian cause is just and should be defended and respected. But the bill you have submitted today would, if passed, be considered as an unfriendly gesture by a large majority of Turks, whether you want this or not."
As the session ran out of time for a vote to take place, there were reportedly angry scenes as MPs and Armenian groups in the public gallery shouted: "Vote! Vote!"
There are some 400,000 people of Armenian descent in France, and the Socialists have been accused of trying to win their favour ahead of next year's presidential election.
Some European Union countries have passed bills recognising the killings as genocide and the European Parliament has backed a non-binding resolution saying Turkey must recognise it as such before it can join the EU.
The French bill will now be shelved until October at the earliest.
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Quote:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6107360.stm
Europe diary: Historical guilt
2 November 2006
BBC Europe editor Mark Mardell talks to Armenians in Turkey and asks why a massacre that took place nearly a century ago, and the question whether it was genocide, is such a sensitive issue in Turkey today.
....Why is modern-day democratic Turkey so sensitive about something that happened nearly 100 years ago in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire? A BBC radio programme wants me to probe the delicate question of what the state's official attitude to the killings says about present-day Turkey.
Q&A: Armenian 'genocide'
Nobody seriously disputes that many thousands of Armenians died in what is now eastern Turkey between 1914 and 1918. Some Turkish historians say 200,000 died, some Armenian historians say it was two million. Turkish writers are still prosecuted for calling it "genocide". But the French parliament has caused outrage in Turkey by voting to make denial that these killings were genocide a crime on a par with holocaust denial......
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As long as official turkish admission to armenian genocide is an EU requirement for admission, turkey will balk, and the armenians will pressure the EU to not back down.
The US and UK have no leverage over turkey, and the turkish military has no choice but to invade and occupy any new kurdish state partitioned from Iraq, and the US must come up with a solution that allows withdrawal of US troops from an acceptably and enduringly stable Iraq, by summer, 2008, or 18 months from now, at the latest.
All of these pitfalls were known in 1991, but they were ignored in late 2002 by the US political leadership.