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Conferderacy of Morons: The New Thread

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  • Conferderacy of Morons: The New Thread

    This is a brand new thread dedicated to all things related to the Armenian Genocide that make you scratch your head and lose faith regarding the existence of intelligent life on this planet.

    For example, some of you may remember in 1995 there was a Turkish street demostration in Izmir against Dole bananas in retaliation for Senator Bob Doles support of a genocide resolution in the US Congress; or the Turkish reaction to the Italian and French genocide recognition when mobs cut up Italian ties and poured out French wine into the streets (even worse than "freedom fries", isn't it?) which in essence led to spike in sales of products from those countries as people bought those products in order to destroy them and the boycotts eventually faded away.

    The first articles are courtesy of www.thenewanatolian.com (I have neither amended or hindered the articles in any way); so let us begin.....

    1. Lawsuit against Armenia in ECHR

    Turkish engineer Melih Vidinli filed an application against Armenia at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), demanding 150 million euros of compensation for financial loss. In his petition, Vidinli said that his company has lost some tenders due to Armenia's "genocide policy."

    2. RADIKAL
    How can a dialogue be established with this mentality?

    Turkey says historians should research together the claims of a so-called Armenian genocide, but on the other hand Turkish Historical Society head (TTK) Yusuf Halacoglu's attitude towards the funeral of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink indicates how difficult this dialogue would be.

    According to Halacoglu, no more than 50,000 people attended Dink's funeral, but signs in the shapes of heads had led to incorrect figures. As the signs were seen as people, the number of people attending was thought to be twice the actual number of participants, he claimed.

    3. CHP quizzes Gul over airline genocide propaganda

    The New Anatolian / Ankara
    27 February 2007

    Font Size: default medium large

    A main opposition deputy yesterday questioned Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul over the ministry's efforts to forestall Armenian "genocide" propaganda, particularly that distributed on German airline Lufthansa.

    Gul who returned to the country on a Lufthansa aircraft after a U.S. visit this month faced complaints from passengers due to the company distributing an issue of Time magazine with a supplement and CD about the so-called genocide claims.

    Carrying the issue to Parliament with a question motion, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Aydin Deputy Ozlem Cercioglu asked Gul what he had done regarding the complaints.

    Cercioglu, who said that the Armenian diaspora in the U.S. has come to use airliners to spread its anti-Turkey and pro-genocide propaganda, asked Gul whether it is possible to contact U.S. officials who allowed the distribution of pro-genocide material on the U.S.-Turkey planes, in order to dissuade them.

    "Have you communicated Turkey's concerns over the incident to the related authorities?" she asked.

    4. PARANOIA???

    Turkey is under severe attack, can't you see?

    Monday, February 26, 2007

    print this page mail to a friend

    OPINIONS

    All News »

    » Anniversary of the 'post-modern coup'
    (YUSUF KANLI )
    » Turkey is under severe attack, can't you see?
    (Dogu ERG?L )
    » Stateless people of Europe in the 21st century
    (SYLVIA T?RYAK? )
    » This time Papadopoulos’ visit to Athens was different
    (Ariana FERENTINOU )
    » MORE


    The imperialist EU dares to tell us how to improve the rights of our women. Isn’t this yet another of those evil plots that have been cooked up lately against Turkey ?

    Dogu ERG?L
    I am tired of seeing negative news about Turkey, particularly in the foreign press. Like most Turks I believe the world is biased against us. But I cannot understand why. Is it because they are envious of us and do not want Turkey to be a superpower again as in Ottoman times or do they have a genetic defect that prevents them from liking Turks? Both questions beat me.

    However, allow me to drive the point home by scanning the news about Turkey on the same day this article was penned.

    Büyükan?t's warning on ‘threats'

    The first source out of Washington labels Chief of General Staff Gen. Ya?ar Büyükan?t's speech delivered in the United States to a mainly Turkish audience under the heading “serious threats.” Under this title the news release read as follows: “The Republic of Turkey has never faced threats, risks and difficulties of this magnitude since 1923, the date of the republic's founding.”

    Gen. Büyükan?t urged the nation not to lose faith, adding, “We have fears that we need to overcome. Who can divide Turkey? There are vigilant forces to prevent such calamity.”

    The next day he warned all Turks to be on the look out for a grand scale plot to pull the curtain open in order to legalize the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) by granting this notorious organization the opportunity to engage in politics.

    Subversive forces in Turkey and abroad immediately started asking who those “vigilant forces” might be. The insinuation is to obfuscate minds and to let them think of the existence of illegal ultra-nationalist paramilitary groupings who allegedly are allowed to eliminate the enemies of the nation and the state. Kurds do not have any problem other than supporting a terrorist organization and thinking that they are ethnically different than what the constitution affords them to be a citizen.

    Another unfair critique is the over emphasis on the risks, difficulties and dangers that Turkey is facing in an unprecedented magnitude since the declaration of republic. Perverse writers and irresponsible spokesmen of shady groups are asking why Turkey is under such duress. How can a modern functional, delivering system can end up producing a society more problematic than a backward, war-torn, poor society that it was at the beginning of the 20th century?

    These wise guys mean that we should look at how Turkey has been managed so far, failing to be among the prominent, developed countries of the 21st century.

    EU's warning on women's rights:

    The second news emanates from the European Parliament. Its subject matter is a (second) report on Turkey's legal framework on women's rights. The report reads, “[Progress]…has in general been satisfactory, but its substantive implementation remains flawed.” It looks at women's role in social, economic and political life in Turkey.

    The report emphasizes that respecting human rights, including women's rights, is a sine qua non for Turkey's membership of the EU, as if we do not respect our women. Furthermore, the report carries the fingerprints of Ms. Emine xxxkurt (PES, NL) and was adopted with 522 votes in favor, 15 against and 53 abstentions. Why would this lady work to tarnish Turkey's image? Do you think she is helping Turkish women by pointing at their difficulties in their homeland while she is enjoying the comfort of European citizenship and the prestige of membership of its Parliament?

    We know that she has given up her nationality and instead become a Dutch citizen most probably because her father defected the country on the premise that he was a Kurd and under pressure. Otherwise how could the authors of the report unjustly “regret the slowing down of the reform process in Turkey over the last year and the persistent problem with women's rights…particularly in the poorer regions of the country."

    MEPs also deplore the fact that, in parts of south-east Turkey, girls are not registered at birth. MEPs note that this hampers the fight against forced marriage and “honor crimes,” since the victims have no official identity, and they urge the Turkish authorities to continue taking all necessary measures to ensure that all Turkish children are registered at birth. This is really insulting.

    The report condemns “instances of violence against women, including honor killings, domestic violence, forced marriage and polygamy.” It calls on the Turkish government and the commission to tackle “violence in general and honor crimes in particular” as a priority and to set up special high-security shelters. The report also “stresses the importance of systematic investigation and effective punishment” and therefore the training of police and judicial authorities in gender equality issues and the fight against violence.

    In my mind this is a direct intervention into the internal matters of a country and needs a proper retribution. But European Parliament's insolence does not stop here. The report notes that the political participation by women in Turkey is too low and that there is an absolute need for female role models in positions of power and decision-making. MEPs point out that discrimination against women can sometimes best be remedied by temporary positive discrimination measures. MEPs also urge the political parties in Turkey, starting from the upcoming elections in 2007, to include more female candidates on election lists.

    Offending our ‘national pride'!

    Now let us be fair: Has the Turkish Parliament or the government issued statements that would hurt the national feelings of EU countries? And I do not know who else, other than conspiratorial forces in Turkey that work for foreign powers, would have given out such figures that further offend our national pride.

    Based on this information, the EU Parliament expressed concern about Turkish women's vulnerability due to discriminatory practices because of education and a high illiteracy rate. Based on the (imperialist!) UNICEF estimates, each year between 600,000 and 800,000 girls are either prevented by their families from going to school or do not attend it because of logistical difficulties. MEPs therefore call on the Turkish government to ensure gender equality in access to education and the labor market, especially in the southeastern regions. The female employment rate in Turkey is just under 25 percent, compared to the average women's employment rate in the EU-25 of 55 percent.This is too much and unacceptable. Isn't it obvious that Turk's only friend is another Turk as we often repeat ourselves when faced with such unfounded slanders?

    The internal ‘intellectual' enemies:

    The third source is Turkish, obviously deceptive. It gives an account of writers, intellectuals etc., who have been prosecuted and penalized for crimes of thought and expression. Their numbers have risen to 293 in year 2006. This number was 157 the previous year. According to the news source, neither the incumbent government nor the main opposition party had heeded warnings and advices of independent law scholars and liberal institutions to annul or to drastically change the problematic Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) that penalizes attempts to denigrate Turkishness (by oral or written means) or the formal institutions of the state. Eight persons were prosecuted for insulting the personality of Atatürk and 24 for writing things that were interpreted by the prosecution with the intention of influencing court procedures of ongoing trials.

    The news source has concluded its reporting by stating that intimidation on intellectual life and freedom of expression was on the rise in Turkey.

    I believe this statement or judgment is equally liable for insulting the country and it judiciary. That is why Article 301 of the TCK should never be annulled.

    Now, do you see under what unjust attacks and treacherous accusations we are experiencing? The Turk's best friend would be another Turk if the prosecuted and penalized ones had not have been Turkish. But then they may have converted from another ethnic and/or religious origin as many did in Ottoman times. We have to be agile and hawkeyed, for we are surrounded by internal and external enemies. Or is this a nightmare from which we will wake some day?

    more to come...
    General Antranik (1865-1927): “I am not a nationalist. I recognize only one nation, the nation of the oppressed.”

  • #2
    5. Japan to the rescue!

    LOBBYING IN TURKEY - USA RELATIONS

    Turkish Press
    Feb 26 2007

    ISTANBUL - "If Turkish lobbying is not conducted properly in the
    United States, resolution on the so-called Armenian genocide will be
    troubling for us", said Ercument Kilic, president of the Center for
    Turkish American Chambers of Commerce, on Tuesday.

    Ercument Kilic, who took the floor at a conference titled "Turkey - USA
    relations Within the Framework of Lobbying" in Yeditepe University,
    Istanbul, pointed out that an Armenian Museum will be opened in
    Washington, capital of the USA.

    "If Turkey is promoted on a regular basis and under a schedule, this
    will have significant results in the U.S. parliament," he stressed.

    -RELATIONS WITH JAPANESE LOBBY-

    Pointing out that the Japanese have a dominant position in industries
    such as insurance and banking, Kilic said relations with the Japanese
    lobby must be enhanced.

    Kilic, who lived in the USA for over 30 years, made some suggestions
    for a better promotion of Turkey in this country.

    Establishment of a "Lobbying Ministry" in Turkey, steps regarding
    dual citizenship, new promotion campaigns, and establishment of a
    legal protection institution to protect Turks in the USA against
    unjust situations are some of Kilic`s suggestions.
    General Antranik (1865-1927): “I am not a nationalist. I recognize only one nation, the nation of the oppressed.”

    Comment


    • #3
      "to protect Turks in the USA against unjust situations"

      That's rich.

      Comment


      • #4
        6. University *visiting professor is victim of campaign of intimidation
        *
        Star Tribune
        *25.2.2007
        What's new: Taner Akçam, an expert on the Armenian genocide and a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, was detained in Montreal by Canadian customs officials Friday. He was held for more than four hours while officials investigated a charge of terrorism leveled against him by unknown persons.
        What happened: Akçam had been invited to speak at a human-rights symposium at McGill University Law School. A Canadian customs officer showed him copies of reviews of his new book on the Armenian tragedy, "A Shameful Act," from Wikipedia.com and Amazon.com that said Akçam was a member of a terrorist organization.

        The outcome: While being questioned, Akçam was contacted on his cell phone by his host, McGill professor Payam Akhavan, when he failed to pass customs. Akhavan called the office of Jason Kenney, secretary of state for multiculturalism, and Stockwell Day, the minister of public safety. Akçam's release followed almost immediately.

        Not the first time: Akçam, who is a Turk, believes this was part of "a campaign against me by the Turkish authorities" for speaking out on the Armenian genocide. "When I was at New York University recently as part of my book tour, the autograph session was broken up by Turkish nationalists. They distributed a flier labeling me a terrorist and claiming that I was responsible for the deaths of Americans in Turkey."

        The same thing happened in December at the Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School in New York, but with a twist. When e-mails suggested the same group was going to break up a conference on genocide and law, the sponsors called the Turkish Consulate in Manhattan to complain. The next day, Akçam said, a consular official called Cardozo to say there would be no demonstration. There wasn't.

        The fallout: Akçam said that because of the campaign of intimidation against him he is fearful for his life when he travels outside the United States. "I have been forced to cancel five international appearances at academic conferences, " he said.. "Under the guise of freedom of speech, certain groups are causing me great physical and material harm. It is very difficult to do my work."


        MICHAEL J. BONAFIELD
        General Antranik (1865-1927): “I am not a nationalist. I recognize only one nation, the nation of the oppressed.”

        Comment


        • #5
          7. How to repsond to pesky minorities

          TURKEY BELONGS TO TURKS' SUIT IN ATAşEHIR

          Sabah, Turkey
          Feb 27 2007

          The wife of a retired colonel told her Jewish apartment manager:
          "Turkey belongs to Turks," which has resulted in quite a debate,
          landing the two parties in court.

          According to the claims of the court case being held in Kadıkoy's
          1st Peace Criminal Court, the Jewish apartment manager of a building
          in Ataşehir, İshak Baruh, quarreled with the wife of retired colonel
          Esin Yavuzer while tiles were being laid, resulting in her response.

          The word "Turkey belongs to Turks" ends up in courtroom

          Esin Yavuzer told apartment manager İshak Baruh: "Turkey's laws apply
          here. Turkey belongs to Turks." The prosecutor stated: "saying those
          words knowing he was a Turkish citizen of Jewish heritage constitutes
          an insult."

          As Turkey has brought to the agenda the issue of changing Article
          301 of the Turkish Criminal Code which contains the item of "insult
          against Turkishness," the words "Turkey belongs to Turks" has as a
          result ended up in the courtroom. Ishak Barut, aged 73, A Turkish
          citizen of Jewsih heritage was elected as the apartment manager a
          while ago. Some of the building's residents were disturbed by this.

          This disturbance led to a quarrel between the wife of retired Colonel
          Yakup Yavuzer, Esin Yavuzer and apartment manager İshak Baruh.

          According to the claims in the suit conducted in Kadıkoy's 1st Peace
          Criminal Court, the wife of retired Colonel Esin Yavuzer asked, in
          reference to tiling going on in the building, "whom did you receive
          permission from to do this?" Baruh said: "mind your own business."

          Esin Yavuzer responded with: "This is Turkey and I am a Turk.

          Turkey's laws apply here. Turkey belongs to Turks."
          General Antranik (1865-1927): “I am not a nationalist. I recognize only one nation, the nation of the oppressed.”

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by hitite View Post
            So is Akçam a member of the Confedaracy? Hence the title....
            hitite, I think you know the answer to your own question.
            General Antranik (1865-1927): “I am not a nationalist. I recognize only one nation, the nation of the oppressed.”

            Comment


            • #7
              8. Nice quote below from Onur Oymen, who once said at an during the infamous TARC meetings; "Armenians were merely guests in Anatolia"

              Turkish writers watch their backs
              After an editor's killing, a nationalist resurgence has chilled literary life.
              By Laura King, Times Staff Writer
              March 1, 2007

              ISTANBUL, TURKEY — At a recent dinner party on the shores of the Bosporus, the bookish chatter among the Turkish writers and academics present took a sudden grim turn: Are you under police protection yet?

              "We were all comparing notes about which of us had only one bodyguard and which of us had two, and we joked a little about being in competition with each other over this," said journalist and novelist Perihan Magden, who was among those placed under police protection after threats by ultranationalists. "It was comical, but also very tragic."

              In the wake of the January assassination in Istanbul of prominent ethnic Armenian editor Hrant Dink, Turkey's intellectual community is feeling under siege to a degree not experienced in decades.

              A mass outpouring of dismay and revulsion when Dink was gunned down, illustrated by a funeral that drew tens of thousands of mourners, has given way to a powerful right-wing backlash. Shadowy nationalist groups have issued chilling threats against authors and thinkers who, like Dink, speak out against Turkey's official denial that the mass killings of Armenians beginning in 1915 constituted genocide, or on the power of the Turkish military, or the status of minority Kurds.

              As a result, novelists are canceling book tours, once-outspoken professors are maintaining a low profile, and crusading columnists like Magden wonder whether their words will wind up costing them their lives.

              The man who temporarily stepped in for Dink has been afraid to put his name on the masthead of Agos, the bilingual Armenian Turkish newspaper his slain colleague edited.

              "It's a real climate of fear," said Eugene Schoulgin, a board member of the writers group PEN, which together with other international organizations has been lobbying for repeal of Article 301, a provision in the Turkish penal code that makes it a criminal offense to "denigrate Turkishness."

              Many intellectuals had hoped that the brazen daylight shooting of Dink, who received a suspended sentence of six months in jail in 2005 over his views on the slayings of Armenians, would prove a catalyst for abolishing Article 301. Turkey's curbs on freedom of expression are seen as a significant obstacle as the government seeks to advance the country's bid for membership in the European Union.

              But amid the increasingly polarized atmosphere, many observers have grown more pessimistic than ever about prospects for reform. And in this election year, Turkish political parties, even mainstream ones, are reluctant to alienate voters with nationalist leanings, who make up a substantial chunk of the electorate.

              Analysts point to Turkey's historical tendency to dig in its heels in the face of reform pressures from the outside world. They argue that the outcry over Article 301 is not only hardening domestic resistance but may even be adding to an already profound ambivalence over forging closer bonds with the West.

              "Sometimes international groups create a reaction in Turkey, an overreaction, because the language they use is not always constructive," said Onur Oymen, an opposition politician and former Turkish ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. "Critics should be careful not to produce the opposite reaction to that sought."

              Police officials have not disclosed how many dissident public figures have been placed under protection since Dink's killing, but estimates range into the dozens, including acclaimed fiction writer Elif Shafak, who was taken to court last year under Article 301. Her case, like most of the scores of similar prosecutions, ended with the charges being dropped.

              Shafak, who was a close friend of Dink, has sharply curtailed appearances to promote her new novel, "The Bastard of Istanbul," a family saga whose complex plot line hinges on the Armenian killings. Now under police protection, she wrote in an e-mail that she remained "in mourning" and declined to be interviewed.

              Shafak's husband, Eyup Can, told the Hurriyet newspaper about the couple being shadowed by a police guard whenever they ventured out. "He is inside your life," he said.

              Shafak was so distraught after Dink's slaying, he said, that she was unable to breastfeed their baby.

              "This is the situation of writers in this country today," he said. "It is really bad."

              Orhan Pamuk, the winner of last year's Nobel Prize in literature and another writer to run afoul of Article 301, stood outside Dink's office hours after the Jan. 19 assassination and publicly declared that the editor "was killed because of his ideas, ideas that aren't acceptable to the state."

              Pamuk, who has long been vilified on nationalist websites, was subsequently singled out for a seeming threat by Yasin Hayal, who police say has confessed to helping orchestrate the Dink killing, including recruiting the 17-year-old alleged gunman, Ogun Samast.

              "Orhan Pamuk, better be wise!" Hayal called out as he was being taken into an Istanbul court in January. "Be wise."

              Pamuk has since canceled a series of readings and other scheduled appearances in Germany and is now staying in the United States.

              His Turkish publisher declined to say whether Pamuk had left the country because of safety concerns or was honoring prior academic commitments. Fellow writers said that the Nobel laureate was placed under tight security after a flurry of threats and that when he departed, police guards escorted him to the airport.

              Many here say the intimidation of intellectuals brings back vivid memories of the 1970s and '80s, when political violence frightened many journalists and academics into silence.

              Police protection is of scant comfort to those who believe the government is passively or actively complicit in the threats against them.

              After Dink's killing, allegations surfaced that police had ignored explicit threats against him. And after the arrest of the suspected gunman, TV footage leaked out that showed the man striking triumphal poses with arresting officers, who could be seen helping him carefully position a Turkish flag for the cameras. Investigations of both incidents are continuing.

              Another former Article 301 defendant, Ankara University political science professor Baskin Oran, wrote about a months-long ordeal after he sought police protection because of a series of threats that arrived by text message, fax and e-mail. The messages called him an "enemy of Turks" and a "dog," with one vowing, "Turkish nationalists will cut you up one day."

              When the identities of some of those menacing him were traced electronically, he said, a prosecutor summoned him and put him face to face with the authors of the threats, urging that he listen to their grievances. Oran said he was frightened and furious at the suggestion, which he refused.

              *

              [email protected]
              General Antranik (1865-1927): “I am not a nationalist. I recognize only one nation, the nation of the oppressed.”

              Comment


              • #8
                9. Almost forgot to add this:

                Turkish court bans YouTube access


                Access to the popular video-sharing website YouTube has been suspended in Turkey following a court order.
                The ban was imposed after prosecutors told the court that clips insulting former Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had appeared on the site.

                According to Turkish media, there has been a "virtual war" between Greek and Turkish users of the site, with both sides posting insulting videos.

                The clip prompting the ban reportedly dubbed Ataturk and Turks homosexuals.

                Insulting Ataturk, the founding father of modern Turkey, or "Turkishness" is an offence which can result in a prison sentence.

                The offending videos sparked a storm of complaints to YouTube and the clips were removed, but the court order goes further, blocking all access to the site.

                Freedom of speech

                Turkish visitors to the site are now greeted with a message in English and Turkish reading "Access to www.youtube.com site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2007/384 dated 06.03.2007 of Istanbul First Criminal Peace Court".

                Paul Doany, the head of Turk Telecom, the country's largest telecoms company, said that they had blocked access to the site as soon as the court order came through.

                "We are not in the position of saying that what YouTube did was an insult, that it was right or wrong," Mr Doany told Anatolia news agency. "A court decision was proposed to us, and we are doing what that court decision says."

                Mr Doany said that for its part Turk Telecom will continue to enforce the ban as long as the order stands.

                The European Union, which Turkey is hoping to join, has long called for an easing of Article 301 - the law which prevents insults to Turkish culture - arguing that the law places severe restrictions on free speech in Turkey.

                About 50 writers in the country have been put on trial for allegedly contravening the rule, including Nobel prizewinner Orhan Pamuk, though most cases have eventually been dismissed by the judge.


                Story from BBC NEWS:


                Published: 2007/03/07 15:04:09 GMT

                © BBC MMVII
                General Antranik (1865-1927): “I am not a nationalist. I recognize only one nation, the nation of the oppressed.”

                Comment


                • #9
                  How enlightened!

                  10. TURKISH PROFESSOR FACE CHARGES OF ALLEGEDLY INSULTING THE LEGACY OF TURKEY'S FOUNDER

                  AP Worldstream
                  Published: Mar 13, 2007

                  A prosecutor on Tuesday pressed charges against a professor of
                  political science for allegedly insulting the legacy of the revered
                  founder of modern Turkey.

                  Nationalists had already declared Atilla Yayla a traitor and his
                  university has suspended him for daring to criticize Mustafa Kemal
                  Ataturk, whose ideas are still the republic's most sacred principles
                  68 years after his death.

                  Prosecutor Ahmet Guven on Tuesday filed charges against Yayla for
                  allegedly "insulting the legacy of Ataturk." Yayla could receive up
                  to three years in prison if tried and convicted. No trial date was
                  set yet.

                  Turkey, which is aspiring to join the European Union, has been roundly
                  condemned for not doing enough to curb extreme nationalist sentiments
                  and to protect freedom of expression.

                  Yayla said in his Nov. 18 speech that the era of one-party rule under
                  Ataturk, from 1925 to 1945, was not as progressive as the official
                  ideology would have Turks believe but was "regressive in some
                  respects." He also criticized the statues and pictures of Ataturk,
                  saying Europeans would be baffled to see the portraits of just one
                  man on the walls.

                  Ankara's Gazi University was inundated with fax messages accusing
                  Yayla of treason and demanding that he be sacked after the speech,
                  delivered at a panel discussion organized by the youth wing of Prime
                  Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted party in the Aegean
                  port of Izmir.

                  Gazi's chancellor, Kadri Yamac, bowed to the pressure and temporarily
                  removed Yayla from his teaching post pending the outcome of an
                  investigation.

                  Yayla has insisted that he was not insulting Ataturk but questioning
                  his legacy, as well as the rigid way some followers interpret his
                  principles to oppose liberal reforms and impose strict secular laws
                  such as the ban on headscarves at universities.

                  "As an academic, I must be free to think, to search and share
                  findings," Yayla, 50, has said in an interview at the Ankara-based
                  Association for Liberal Thinking, an organization he co-founded in
                  1994. "If Turkey wants to be a civilized country, academics must be
                  able to criticize and evaluate Ataturk's ideas."

                  But his ordeal shows how Turkish universities, most of them
                  state-controlled, are not always places of free-thinking. Anyone
                  deviating from the set of principles _ including a strict
                  interpretation of secularism _ inspired by Ataturk and closely guarded
                  by the military, the bureaucracy and judiciary, is chastised and in
                  some cases, sacked.

                  Loved and idolized, portraits of Ataturk hang in all government
                  offices and his statues adorn parks and squares throughout Turkey.
                  General Antranik (1865-1927): “I am not a nationalist. I recognize only one nation, the nation of the oppressed.”

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                  • #10
                    TTK to research Tashnak Archives
                    The Turkish Historical Society (TTK) reportedly wants to finance the opening up of the Tashnak Archives in Boston to Turkish historians.

                    The president of the TTK, Professor Yusuf Halaçoğlu, said that until now his organization has been denied access to the Tashnak Archives on the basis of claims that the documents "are not classified and categorized." As for archives in Jerusalem and Armenia, Professor Halaçoğlu notes that no excuses have been provided in the barring of Turkish historians from these resources. Refusing to accept the excuse the Boston-based Tashnak Archives had proffered, Halaçoğlu has offered to finance the cataloguing of the archive with TTK funds.

                    The TTK has obtained access to documents pertaining to Ottoman Armenians in the archives of a number of countries, including Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, France and England. Two central archives to which the TTK has not been able to obtain access are the Tashnak Archives in Boston, which contains pre-1923 documents concerning the Armenians, and the Patriarchate Archives in Jerusalem.

                    These archives, he maintains, contain crucial documentation about the Armenians. Halaçoğlu also maintains that despite the fact that a few well-known defenders of the Armenian genocide have been given access to the Tashnak Archives, there has never been a Turkish historian or researcher allowed to use this resource.
                    "All truth passes through three stages:
                    First, it is ridiculed;
                    Second, it is violently opposed; and
                    Third, it is accepted as self-evident."

                    Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

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