|
|
Middle East situation
Genocide resolution, Verbal Crime and terrorism
For most Turkish citizens, it is hard to understand why other countries
are interested in this issue, which should be solved between Turkey
and Armenia. Especially for those who didn't live near these lands.
And it is harder to understand how it can be called a "crime"
to express an opinion in a European country while those countries blame
Turkey for not respecting the human thoughts
By I.ILKER BACAKSIZ IBO
from Ankara, TURKEY
The US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs will vote
on Resolution 106, which calls on the US President to ensure the "Armenian
genocide". This will be reflected in the US foreign policy. And
Turkey was not late to respond by diplomatic ways and by public reactions.
It was protested while France was voting and accepting this kind of
laws but this time the reaction was bigger because of the good relation
(or needs) of US and Turkish government. Turkish government didn't even
hesitate to threat the States that they would not be able to use the
air base in Adana which is close to the Iraqi border. According to a
diplomat, the US may lose a major route for logistic supplies for the
US troops in Iraq if Turkey decides to stop cooperating with Washington
on Iraq, another possible measure to retaliate a congressional approval
of the "genocide resolution".
Even though the Turkish government offered to make a historians' council
from the whole Europe, with Armenian and Turkish historians included,
and promised to open the archives of the Ottoman Empire, the world couldn't
hear this invitation and in some countries it is a crime to say "there
was not a genocide". There are opposite theories from both sides,
so I would like to leave the theories about 1915 events and tell about
people's thoughts on the street.
For most Turkish citizens, it is hard to understand why other countries
are interested in this issue, which should be solved between Turkey
and Armenia. Especially for those who didn't live near these lands.
And it is harder to understand how it can be called a "crime"
to express an opinion in a European country while those countries blame
Turkey for not respecting the human thoughts.
The resolution has not been voted yet and it seems that we will be the
witnesses of a different kind of making politics but this case is now
not on the stage for a while. Just after this diplomatic tension, the
terrorist attacks have increased from the south-eastern border of Turkey
by PKK and after several years Turkey had a loss of more than 30 soldiers
and 10 civilians. And those losses triggered nationalist feelings inside
the citizens. People poured outside to protest PKK with Turkish flags.
Each funeral was a place of protest with tears being shed.
People were also protesting against the US for not giving a clear support
to Turkey in their battle against terrorism while they were controlling
Iraq. On the other hand, during the operations, American weapons were
found by Turkish soldiers on terrorists and "for sure" they
were stolen from the States' army in Iraq. The Turkish government decided
to a cross-border operation if necessary and now there are huge military
camps near and inside Iraqi border. Turkey asked from the Kurdish leaders
to close the PKK camps in Iraq, and stopping the support by any means.
After the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's visit to the White
House in Washington, the U.S. seems to support Turkey but it is still
not clear what will be the end of the story, what is the game in Middle
East and who is playing with whom. In the reality crying mothers of
young boys who died during this battle are begging for this thing to
end. According to the author of this article and most of Turkish citizens
Turks and Kurds are brothers and sisters and lived together in Anatolia
for hundreds of years in peace. This is not a Kurdish problem, it is
a terrorism problem.
(Published: 09.11.2007.)
Send your comments
|
|
