Archive for the 'Genocide denial' Category

Canada: Genocide Book Pulled, Replaced by Denialist Literature

Globe and Mail from Canada reports that a nationalist Turkish group has succeeded in banning a recommended High School book on Genocide. The banned book, which included a chapter on the WWI extermination of Ottoman Armenians, has been replaced by works of two genocide deniers.

A book about genocide has been pulled from the recommended reading list of a new Toronto public school course because of objections from the Turkish-Canadian community, the author says.

Barbara Coloroso’s Extraordinary Evil: A Brief History of Genocide was originally part of a resource list for the Grade 11 history course, Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, set to launch across the Toronto District School Board this fall.

The book examines the Holocaust, which exterminated six million Jews in the Second World War; the Rwandan slaughter of nearly one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994, and the massacres of more than a million Armenians in 1895, 1909 and 1915.

[…]

Ms. Coloroso, a best-selling author of parenting books, said she wasn’t surprised her work was removed, given that “ever since the book came out, the Turks have mounted a worldwide campaign objecting to it, which is not surprising because of the denial of the genocide.”

She said what upset her was not so much that her book had been pulled, but that it was replaced by works by Bernard Lewis and Guenter Lewy, whom she refers to as deniers of the Armenian genocide.

“I knew when I wrote Extraordinary Evil that I would anger some genocide deniers,” she wrote to Ms. Connelly. “I am disappointed that a small group of people can bully an entire committee. …”

[…]

Sudan’s Talaat Visits Ankara

Who would think that another genocide would be denied in the Republic of Turkey? But here you go – it is time for Darfur.

The head of Sudan’s genocidal regime Omar al-Bashir “the Sudanese Talaat” is in Ankara, reports The New York Times, where the African dictator has not only denied the genocide in Sudan’s region of Darfur but has also justified the government promotion of Musa Hilal – one of the commanders of the Darfuri massacres.

On an official visit to Turkey, Mr. Bashir described the sheik, Musa Hilal, as a Sudanese citizen who is influential in Darfur and has “contributed greatly to stability and security in the region,” Reuters reported from Ankara, Turkey’s capital.

“We in Sudan believe that those accusations against Mr. Hilal are untrue,” Turkey’s state-run Anatolian News Agency quoted Mr. Bashir as saying. “Right now in Darfur, the real murderers are those who are aided by Europe and others.”

Mr. Musa is believed to be a leader of the janjaweed, Arab militia forces that have committed mass killings of civilians in Darfur. The conflict has also displaced 2.5 million people in less than five years.

Bashir seems to have learned a lot from the Republic of Turkey – a country that itself denies the Armenian Genocide. Bashir’s statement that “the real murderers are those who are aided by Europe and others” is an implication that the indigenous people of Darfur – who are still being massacred – are “traitors” and they are “criminals.” Just like Talaat, the architect of the Armenian Genocide, had said that Armenians only had themselves to blame.

Cambodia Bans Olympic Torch for Darfur Event

The traveling Olympic torch for Darfur – a symbolic gesture asking the Chinese government to press the Sudanese regime in order to stop the genocide in Darfur – has been denied a ceremony in Cambodia amid apparent fears by the leadership of the Asian country to not anger China.

The same concern was not voiced in other countries that experienced genocide – Rwanda, Armenia, Germany and Bosnia – where the torch was taken to before traveling to Cambodia.

According to Australia’s Courier Mail:

ACTOR Mia Farrow has been barred from holding a ceremony at a notorious Khmer Rouge prison as part of a campaign to pressure China to end abuses in Darfur, a Cambodian official said.

The American actor has started an Olympic-style torch relay through countries that have suffered genocides to draw attention to China’s close ties with Sudan, as Beijing prepares to host the Games in August.

The campaign aims to push Beijing to pressure Sudan into ending the violence in Darfur, where the United Nations estimates that at least 200,000 people have died in five years of war, famine and disease.

Her group, Dream for Darfur, had planned to hold a ceremony on Sunday outside the Khmer Rouge’s former prison, Tuol Sleng, which is now a genocide museum.

But interior ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said the event would not be allowed.

“The Olympic Games are not a political issue. Therefore, we won’t allow any rally to light a torch,” he said.

“We will not support the activity. We will not allow them to politicise the Olympic Games,” he said, warning the group could face prosecution if they try to go ahead.

Farrow’s group said the ceremony aimed to call attention to the constructive role that China could play in the Darfur crisis.

“The symbolic Olympic torch relay is urging the Chinese Government, as both Olympic host and Sudan’s strongest political and economic partner, to use its special influence with the Sudanese Government,” the group said in a statement.

In the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, China – which is by far the largest foreign investor in Sudan and absorbs almost two-thirds of its oil output – has been under mounting pressure to use its clout on Khartoum.

Cambodia would be the sixth stop for the group’s relay, which began in Chad near the Sudanese border and continued to Rwanda, Armenia, Germany and Bosnia.

Akcam’s New Book on Genocide Published in Turkey

“The Armenian Problem is solved,” a statement attributed to Ottoman Turkey’s most powerful leader during World War I, is the title of a new Turkish book – released this week – written by a pioneer historian who has been openly writing about the Armenian Genocide.  As of now, the book has received no reviews in the Turkish media.

According to a Turkish website, historian Taner Akcam’s new book on the Armenian Genocide  – a taboo subject in Turkey – is based on documents available in the Ottoman archives.  One of these documents is a telegraph by Talaat Pasha, the architect of the Armenian Genocide, where the bloody leader states “Ermeni meselesi hallolunmuştur” meaning “The Armenian problem is solved.”

Taner Akcam, a native of Turkey who currently teaches at the University of Minnesota, recently told a Minnesota publication that his upcoming book would demonstrate “[t]he genocidal intent… based only on Ottoman documents.”

 

Image: Taner Akcam

And before the book even came out, several ultra-nationalist Turks commented angrily on our December 20, 2007 post linking to the interview with Minnesota Law & Politics.  The comments came after letters were circulated in nationalist Turkish groups, one of them available here, informing of our post and discussing strategies on how to react against Akcam’s upcoming book.

In addition to the regular accusations of “treason and terrorism,” some ultra-nationalist Turks even added reviews of the upcoming book without knowing the title:

Iclal Atay, for instance, (who is the Chief of Bureaue of Release Prevention of Radiaton Protection Programs with the New Jersey state government) commented that “This fictional book is absurd:”

This book is nothing but fiction. Someone who does not use all the historical original factual documents cannot call themselves a historian. It is obvious that Mr. Akcam wrote this book to perpetuate the lies of some Armenians distorting the facts that are: ” the Armenian-Ottoman citizens of the Ottoman empire committed treason, and fought against their own country, and committed unspeakable acts which led to their relocation.” Their treason caused the death of many Ottoman citizens Armenian and non-Armenian alike. Even without investigating the historical documents, the mere knowledge that during the referenced time frame the Ottomans were involved in World War I at all of their borders, anyone with common sense can figure out that they could not afford to start an internal conflict with their own citizens.

What’s troubling about Dr. Atay’s post is not his stupidity of calling an academic book “fiction” before reading it but the fact that he is using taxpayer money of the people of New Jersey – state equipment and state salary – to engage in online ultra-nationalist Turkish campaigns.  The IP address Dr. Atay left his comment from, according to ARIN WHOIS Database, is  that of New Jersey’s Department of Transportation:  

OrgName:    New Jersey Department of Transportation
OrgID:      NJDT
Address:    1 Schwartzkopf Drive
City:       West Trenton
StateProv:  NJ
PostalCode: 08625-0113
Country:    US

NetRange:   160.93.0.0160.93.255.255
CIDR:       160.93.0.0/16
NetName:    NJDOT
NetHandle:  NET-160-93-0-0-1
Parent:     NET-160-0-0-0-0
NetType:    Direct Assignment
NameServer: NS1.STATE.NJ.US
NameServer: NS2.STATE.NJ.US
Comment:   
RegDate:    1992-05-01
Updated:    2001-10-23

RTechHandle: SJO1-ARIN
RTechName:   Orzol, Stephan, J.
RTechPhone:  +1-609-530-6552
RTechEmail:  [email protected]

Now how Dr. Atay is going to deny that he has used taxpayer money of New Jersey residents to engage in online Turkish campaigns is his business, but my business is not to accuse all Turks of denial.

In fact, there was one Turkish user who left a comment asking his compatriots to stop the hatred:

Dogru Yol on 31 Dec 2007 at 11:04 pm #

My fellow Turks,

Do you not realize that the pure aggressiveness of your hatred as witnessed in the above comments is itself offering additional support that we Turks can and did murder up to if not more than a 1 million Christians ?

We must stop acting dishonorably with historical facts. Stop being the dupes of state propaganda. Research the facts, hold your political leaders accountable (if you are able).

It’s time for us and our government to do the right thing : to acknowledge the truth. Anything else is “sherefsizlik” my friends.

Saygilarimi sunarim,
DY

And although Turks like Dogru Yol are not too many, it is encouraging that Taner Akcam’s entire book was worked on by Turkish individuals like Kerem Ünüvar, Remzi Abbas, Suat Aysu, Ümit Kıvanç, Hüsnü Abbas, Şahin Eyilmez, Hasan Deniz, Mat Yapım and Sena Ofset.

The English version of “The Armenian Problem is Solved,” our sources say, won’t be coming out for another year or so.

Turkey: Genocide Researcher Denied Entry

A friend was telling me yesterday that a certain field of psychology, developed in France, studies the memory of the  perpetrator group in genocides.  In a hundred years, it is thought, the forgotten crime evokes discussion and condemnation of the genocide among the descendants of the perpetrators.  

Only seven years before the centennial anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, there are still only a handful Turkish scholars who openly write and acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.  But given the fact that these scholars literally risk their lives and everything else they have, their existence is amazing.  Moreover, Turkey’s millions-of-dollars-campaign to attract non-Turkish scholars in the genocide denial “scholarship” has produced a pool of few professors who, I guess, don’t mind being the devil’s advocate as far as the devil is paying well.

This is, perhaps, the reason that the ultra-nationalist “deep state” apparatus in Turkey is freaking out that the list that has included Taner Akcam, Fatma Gocek, Elif Shafak and others is growing.

Mehmet Sait Uluışık, a Turkish-born Circassian, has only recently started researching the role of his own ethnic group – the Circassians – in perpetrating the Armenian Genocide although Mr. Uluışık is careful not to use the word ‘genocide.’

But Turkish nationalists already know that they can’t label Uluışık a “traitor” because the Circassian researcher is not investigating the genocide as a whole but is instead specifically looking into the role that his own people – a Muslim group from the Caucasus – played in the massacres.  Moreover, in Turkey’s attempt to deny, justify and downplay  the Armenian Genocide some have talked about “the Circassian genocide,” with a reference to persecution of the Circassian people under Tsarist Russia.

So yes, Mr. Mehmet Sait Uluışık is more dangerous for the Turkish apparatus than any other scholar so far.  And, so, he was recently denied entry to his homeland.

Here is a press release, received in e-mail, from Mr. Uluışık about what happened at the Turkish airport:

Notice to Press and Public

      My name is Mehmet Sait Uluışık and I was born in Eskişehir (Turkey) on July 10, 1959. On November 20, 2007, at Yeşilköy Airport (Istanbul), without presenting any justification but based upon an order from the Ministry of the Interior, I was declared a suspicious person, denied entry into Turkey and sent back to Berlin on the first return flight.

      I have been living in Germany since 1984 and have worked as a journalist and publisher since 1992. Because of my Circassian ethnic background I have been interested in Circassian history and since 2005 have stopped working actively as a journalist and publisher and started devoting all of my time to gathering documents on the subject.

      I was stripped of my Turkish citizenship in 1991 because of my failure to perform obligatory military service (based on Order #1956, dated June 7, 1991, supported by Statute 403, Section 25, paragraph ç). Since 1997, the year I became a German citizen, I have been entering and exiting Turkey regularly without incident.

      I was not provided with the official reason for denying my entry into Turkey. Despite this, based upon information that I was able to gather from contacts I made, the reason I was denied entry into Turkey is apparently to prevent my performing research at the Presidential Ottoman Archives (Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşiv, hereinafter “BOA”) in Istanbul.

      There is a very simple reason why my entry to Turkey was blocked instead of directly prohibiting my research at the archives. If the latter had occurred, it would have made an obvious statement that would have belied the arguments of the governing AK Party administration that “Our archives are open to all. Everyone’s welcome to come in and examine them,” or “let the historians form a commission.” By using a different strategy and preventing my entry into the country, it allows for the raising of a suspicion that there are perhaps other issues in my personal background.

      Recently, I started to wonder about the history of Circassians and I want to write a book about the subject. The actual topic that interests me is “Did the Circassians play any role in the events of 1915 and if so, what?” Also, I have been trying to find the answers to the question, “What was the relationship between Circassians and other minorities during the period in question, prior to that and afterwards?” For the past two years, I have been working in a regular, disciplined manner at the BOA and systematically gathering documents on the subject. A large part of my life during the past two years has been taken up this way at the archives in Istanbul.

      During my work at the archives I was frequently blocked in my efforts by the employees, who are known as followers of Turkish-Islamic synthesis (mostly supporters of the Turkish nationalist party). I believe that the denial of my entry into Turkey was the result of efforts by these same individuals. At the airport I was presented with a “Record of Denial of Entry” form. On the form was all of my identification information. This information taken from my German ID card is available in only one place, and that is the Presidential Ottoman Archives.

      The police officer at the airport informed me that the order [to deny entry] came directly from the Ministry of the Interior, not from the General Directorate of Security. Based upon his investigation of the issue, parliamentarian Mr. Ufuk Uras informed me that the entry denial did not come from the Ministry of National Defense nor did it have anything to do with military service.

      Since the issuance of the entry denial on Nov. 20, 2007, I have made no effort to broadcast this information. I believed that the ban was an effort to discredit the AK Party administration. I had hoped that the AK Party administration would quickly rectify the situation when it so obviously contradicts the government’s policies as stated to the public. I tried to remain silent because if the incident were revealed, it would create an obstacle in Turkey’s relations with the European Union and lead the way to lowering opinion towards the current administration and Turkey in general, especially after recent discourse regarding the events of 1915. I tried to resolve it through private channels.

      Unfortunately both my own efforts and those of my attorney to reach the authorities within the AK Party have come to a standstill. I was unable to get anywhere with my efforts. That leaves only one option: letting the public know, through the media, about a mindset that attempts to prevent an individual from conducting research in the archives by denying them entry into the country.

      It is obvious what sort of difficulty is going to befall someone like me who is doing nothing other than gathering documents in a systematic manner from the archives, if a government that claims “Our archives are open to all; we welcome the formation of a historians commission” turns around and not only denies that person access to the archives but even entry to the country itself. Nothing that Turkey and its administrations say on the subject can be considered credible. One can only smirk at a statement like “Let’s solve our problems from the past” when it comes out of a mindset that views working in the archives and gathering documents as criminal. This can only be answered with the statement, “Do your homework first, then open up the archives to everyone.”

      I want this disrespectful action against me resolved immediately and my work, which has been delayed because of it, compensated for as soon as possible.

      Respectfully,

      Mehmet Sait Uluışık

      Jan. 2, 2008 – Berlin

Israel Apologizes for Massacre; Armenia Optimistic for More

During the same week when Israeli president Shimon Peres apologized for the Kafr Kassem massacre of Arab civilians in 1956, official Armenia expressed its optimism that Israel will soon recognize the Armenian Genocide.

Written by the same author who reported the recent vandalism of Armenia’s Holocaust Memorial, an article in the Jerusalem Post states that an adviser to Armenia’s president explains that Israel’s affirmation of the Armenian Genocide is not a matter of if but of when.

The government of Armenia is “very hopeful” that Israel will soon recognize the World War I-era massacre of Armenians by Turks as an “act of genocide,” a senior Armenian official told The Jerusalem Post last week.

[…]

“I am very hopeful that Israel, step by step, will recognize it as well… We are very hopeful and we are waiting for it,” Yeritsyan said.

Contacted by the Post, a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined to comment.

[…]

Israel, an ally of the Republic of Turkey, has been avoiding the term “genocide” when talking about the extermination of the Armenians.  Furthermore, some Israeli leaders, including Shimon Peres, have been charged with genocide denial in their attempts to minimize the Armenian experience.  Peres, for instance, has been fiercely criticized for an earlier characterization of Armenian accounts of the Genocide as “meaningless.”  In his more recent refusal to refer to the Armenian Genocide as such, nonetheless, Peres has said it is up to Turkey and Armenia to solve the “issue.”

The fact that Peres has officially apologized for the Kafr Kassem massacre is very encouraging and should serve as an example to the Turkish government.

I am not talking about recognizing the Armenian Genocide tomorrow and placing plaques next to the “memorials” of the organizers of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey telling the truth.  Israel apologizes for killing 48 civilians; why doesn’t Turkey apologize for over a million death?

Let’s say that Turkey genuinely believes that “only” 300,000 Armenians were killed during World War I.  Isn’t that 300,000 lives to apologize for?  Let’s say Turkey genuinely thinks the term genocide cannot be applied to the Armenian case; why doesn’t it apologize for “the Armenian massacre” then?

The horrible truth is that the denial of the Armenian Genocide is not a simple refusal to apply the term genocide to the Armenian experience.  The denial of the Armenian Genocide in Turkey is refusal that any kind of crime has been committed against the Armenian people.  It is microdenial – an attempt to legitimize the extermination of the Armenian civilization from what is today’s Turkey.

The mainstream media religiously say that “Turkey refuses the word genocide” as though as the Turkish denial of the Armenian Genocide only started after the word “genocide” was coined in 1944.

Years before anyone had word the term “genocide,” Turkey threatened to ban Hollywood movies if MGM produced a movie that dealt with resistance during the Armenian extermination based on a book banned by Hitler because of being written by a Jew.  After the State Department intervened, the movie was dropped.  Isn’t this absolute denial?

Benedict the Nazi

Outraged Native American leaders in Brazil say they are offended by Pope Benedict’s “arrogant and disrespectful” comments that the Catholic Church has purified the indigenous people and a revival of their spiritual beliefs would be a backward step, reports Reuters via Washington Post.

The Pope said Christianity was not imposed on the Native people but was welcomed by them.  If I may, I would like to bestow His Holiness with a new title: Benedict the Nazi.  So dear Associated Press and other “objective” agencies that are underplaying Benedict’s Holocaust denial, please report tomorrow morning, “Simon Says Pope is Nazi.”  

I think he deserves it for denying, and actually honoring, the genocide of the Native Americans that took place with the support and participation of the Catholic Church.  No wonder why the previous Pope, John Paul the Second, had spoken of mistakes in the evangelization of Americas’ natives and basically made a semi-acknowledgment of the genocide.

Time, Old Time

Time Magazine’s European edition has made a surprising move by spending its own dollars to distribute a free documentary on the Armenian Genocide. This was, perhaps, done to avoid anti-racist and genocide/holocaust denialist laws in Europe and also, as Artyom of iArarat has mentioned, to correct their mistake.

In June of 2005, the European edition of Time magazine distributed thousands of free copies of a supposed Turkish advertisement that included a documentary denying the Armenian genocide. Outrage around the world seemed to bring nothing at first.

Time simply published a response to a letter by saying, “TIME is an independent newsmagazine and does not endorse the views of any organization or government. We regret any offense caused by the advertisements.”

On August 1, 2005, California Courier published an article titled “TIME’s Chief Editor Claims Magazine Was Duped by Turks,” basing the story on a private communcation between TIME Inc.’s chief (now retired) Norman Pearlstine and myself, in which Mr. Pearlstine had answered me that TIME had apologized “for accepting a DVD whose contents were different from what we had been led to believe they would be.”

So what was the letter that had cought the attention? – According to the Courier, my reference to making Nazi flags.

Here is the full letter that I had received response to by Pearlstine:

I hope you have recieved the numerous complaints and
concerns regarding Time magazine's recent cooperation
with the Turkish deniers of the Armenian Genocide.

Are you ever going to respond to my letters?
Are you ever going to apologize for cooperating with
the Turkish deniers?
Are you ever going to publish an article that states
that Time has not intended to deny the Armenian
Genocide?
Are you ever going to admit your magazine's wrong
deed?

Oh, you are too busy to apologize, aren't you? Let me
guess! You are making Nazi flags to distribute in
Europe as a free speech, correct?

Regards, 

Simon Maghakyan

Pearlstine, with whom I later continued to keep private communication for at least another year, had answered me back saying,

Dear Sir,
	Your letters have been referred to the advertising department,
where they should have been sent in the first place. Editors are
responsible for stories and pictures. In addition, we have, of course,
apologized in the magazine for accepting a DVD whose contents were
different from what we had to been led to believe they would be.
	Norman Pearlstine

Interestingly, some Armenian pen pals, whom I had forwarded my letter, told me I was too harsh and yelling would not bring any good.I cannot find my very first letter to Mr. Pearlstine, but I remember mentioning the fact that Time had published a report back in June of 1960 calling Ottoman Turkey’s Talaat Pasha the inventor of genocide – “who introduced genocide to the 20th century by ordering the massacre of500,000 Armenians.”

Talaat introduced genocide by killing Armenians, you are introducing genocidel denial by spreading Turkish propaganda, I wrote.

Later Time (European edition) published full-page statements that condemned the sponsorship of the denialist campaign.

In April of 2006, Time named Orhan Pamuk (who later won the Nobel Prize) one of the top 100 influential in the world who had become “a global cause celebre” for having made a reference to “the genocide of Armenians in 1915 by the Turkish military.”

Orhan Pamuk was actually nominated for the top 100 for solely speaking on the Armenian genocide (and I think the same case could have been for his Nobel Prize award).  Harvard professor Samantha Power had nominated him by saying,

I nominate Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk. He has acknowledged his homeland’s genocide against the Armenians and nearly got himself arrested before the Turks decided their commitment to and pride in their greatest writer exceeded a commitment to killers who died almost a century ago. It could bring a cultural change. Also George Clooney, for the obvious reasons, and the students who led the divestment movement on campuses for Darfur.

Time did the right thing, and it is time for Google to do the same. As of February 2, 2007, Google lists www.ermenisorunu.gen.tr (a website denying the Armenian genocide) as a Google sponsor when “Armenian genocide” is Googled.

ALL LIARS SHUT UP

Ayse Gunaysu, a Turkish human rights champion and a contributor to Blogian, has written an angry article about shameless Turkish officials’ self-victimization in Hrant Dink’s death. The original was written in Turkish; this is a translation by another Turkish fellow.  Ayse’s article is especially interesting given the fact that the nationalist Turkish media has now overcome its self-victimization stage and is now comparing Hrant Dink’s murder to the assasination of the main organizer of the Armenian Genocide – Talaat Pasha.

HRANT IS KILLED, LET ALL LIARS SHUT-UP

Everyone who says that this was an attack on Turkey, everyone who talks about the sinister games played on Turkey, everyone who talks about the timing of this attack coinciding with foreign parliaments’ making decisions on the “alleged” genocide, and thus trying to disguise the fact that Hrant Dink was being tried because he said “genocide” and was receiving threats because of this, and everyone who is protecting the real murderer, that is the ones who are allowing Union and Progress’ covert operator, lyncher, rabid spirit to still live on, has a share of responsibility.

The Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk, who yelled from the podiums of the congress that the ones who were organizing the Armenian conference were stabbing the Turkish people in the back, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer who vetoed the law proposal dealing with minority foundations on the grounds that it would strengthen minorities, the district attorneys who turn a blind eye on thousands of cases of torture, convictions without trial, unknown culprits taken into custody and lost, but processed and tried the alleged “notices of guilt” that are devoid of the most elementary notions of universal law, the newspaper Hurriyet that in the days Hrant Dink declared he was going to look for justice in the European Human Rights Courts, made front page news with the head of the Greek foundations who said he wouldn’t go to European Human Rights Courts as he trusted the Turkish Justice system, called him a true citizen, and therefore whomever tried to look for justice in the European H.R. Courts was shown as a target, branded as “so-called/pseudo” citizen, and, before Hrant’s blood was even dry, the Turkish Television stations that for hours debated a litany of provocation by relating it to the law proposal pending in the United States Congress, are all a part of this murder, they have a responsibility.

Everybody who says that this was an attack on Turkey is lying. Because this attack was made possible by Turkey herself therefore, Turkey is responsible. This attack was made possible by the government that has implemented article 301, as protection against only the denigration of Turkishness, not of all identities, thus providing a legal basis for aggression, and it was made possible by an entire population of Turkey who didn’t reject this article.

Everybody who, instead of feeling shame faced with the murder of Hrant Dink, instead of saying “we are all guilty”, worried about Turkey’s dignity, from the officials to the opinion leaders, they are all lying, they are trying to disguise their guilt. Let all the liars shut up.

And you shut up too please, democratic journalists like Altan Oymen. If you are not refusing to answer questions that link the murder of Hrant to the genocide recognition proposal in the US Congress, and do not see a problem replying to them, if you are not refusing to be disrespectful to the pain of the Armenian people by making such connections, if you are not rejecting to thus support the ones who are trying to fool people with conspiracy theories by foreign influences aimed at the Turkish people, just to exonerate our own murderers, shut up, all of you shut up.

LET ALL LIARS SHUT UP. HRANT’S WOUNDS ARE STILL BLEEDING.

Original source in Turkish

AYSE GUNALSU

Turks Conquer Belgium’s Defense Ministry Website

Belgian government website hacked

January 14, 2007

BRUSSELS, Belgium: The Web site of Belgium’s Defense Ministry was hacked Sunday by a group of Turkish nationalists, news reports said.

The group, which called itself “grandchildren of Ottoman Empire and Children of Turkey” posted text in English on the site defending the World War I-era killing of Armenians in Turkey and asserting that there was no Kurdish problem in Turkey. It also claimed that the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, was a terrorist organization supported by the West, according to footage shown on RTBF, Belgium’s French-language public TV broadcaster.

There was no suggestion why the group had chosen a Belgian government site.

Late Sunday, the site, http://www.mil.be, was still inaccessible.

“We must clearly identify the perpetrators and take additional measures to avoid a repetition of this in the future,” Belgian Defense Minister Andre Flahaut told RTBF.

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