turkey

Their existence must be terminated

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Submitted by antarchi on October 11, 2007 - 23:24.
in

On 15 September 1915... Talaat Pasha, the Turkish Interior minister, cabled an instruction to his prefect in Aleppo about what he should do with the tens of thousands of Armenians in his city. "You have already been informed that the government... has decided to destroy completely all the indicated persons living in Turkey... Their existence must be terminated, however tragic the measures taken may be, and no regard must be paid to either age or sex, or to any scruples of conscience."

— Robert Fisk

, in A reign of terror which history has chosen to neglect, October 2007

backing the turkish pogrom

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Submitted by antarchi on April 27, 2008 - 11:53.
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In September 1955, as Cyprus was being discussed at a three-power conference in London, the Turkish secret police planted a bomb at the house where Kemal Ataturk was born in Salonica. At the signal of this ‘Greek provocation’, mobs swarmed through Istanbul looting Greek businesses, burning Orthodox churches, and attacking Greek residents. Although no one in official circles in London doubted that the pogrom was unleashed by the Turkish government, Macmillan – in charge of the talks – pointedly did not complain.

AN ETHICAL FOREIGN POLICY

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Submitted by antarchi on July 12, 2007 - 22:39.
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'...the fourth goal of our foreign policy is to secure the respect of other nations for Britain's contribution to keeping the peace of the world and promoting democracy around the world. The Labour Government does not accept that political values can be left behind when we check in our passports to travel on diplomatic business. Our foreign policy must have an ethical dimension and must support the demands of other peoples for the democratic rights on which we insist for ourselves. The Labour Government will put human rights at the heart of our foreign policy and will publish an annual report on our work in promoting human rights abroad. Robin Cook, May 1997

* * *

Here are a series of nuggets to illustrate the driving force behind, and impact of that ethical dimension. Not all, it is true, have been New Labour's success: some are taken from the years immediately before and even after the era of the ethical dimension. See if you can spot the difference.

See all related nuggets on this page.

Hrant Dink's murder

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Submitted by antarchi on January 22, 2007 - 11:18.
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It would be a fitting memorial to a fellow journalist that the BBC carry out some research on the likelihood or not of the Armenian genocide actually having taken place. They continue to refer to the Armenian "genocide". A genocide is a "genocide", apparently, when not all countries agree that it is a genocide (or a "genocide"?). This is what they say in their Q and A on the Armenian "genocide":

Why put "genocide" in inverted commas?

…Some countries have declared that a genocide took place, but others have resisted calls to do so.'

Which countries, I wonder?

I also can't help wondering whether, in the extremely unlikely event of a British Prime Minister recognizing that the Armenian population was targeted in a systematic and brutal fashion consistent with a policy of genocide, the fact that certain other countries dissented might become less important.

Incidentally - some countries have even resisted calls to declare that the Jewish holocaust took place. But I notice that is not enough reason for it to be referred to as a "holocaust".

How fortunate for BBC journalists that most of them are not brave men or women trying to tell an alternative version of events in difficult circumstances. How tragic for such honest and selfless journalists as Hrant Dink or Anna Politkovskaya who made very similar claims about a different minority, that they cannot expect other journalists to take up and publicise their stories to the world – even, it seems, after their death.

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