While the rhinoceri rush to prepare the way for Turkey's entrance into the EU, one non-rhinoceros has turned up in the US: Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ), who has noticed that just as Turkey is about to join the democracies of the EU, it has passed an interesting new law: if you affirm the Armenian Genocide as a fact or dissent from Turkey's illegal occupation of northern Cyprus in the enlightened, secular land of Ataturk, you can get ten years in the slammer. Let them into the EU!
Here is Pallone's press release, with thanks to Andrew Bostom:
Long Branch, NJ --- U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues and a member of the Congressional Caucus on Hellenic Issues, today urged the State Department to strongly condemn a new penal code adopted by the Turkish Government late last month that would punish Turkish citizens or groups with up to ten years in prison if they confirm the fact of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey or call for the end of the Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus.In a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell, the New Jersey congressman said that the new Section 306 of Turkey's criminal code not only hinders improved relations between the Republic of Armenia and Turkey, but it is also an imprudent step on the part of a nation that is desperately trying to establish an image of having a free and democratic society. Pallone wrote that Turkey's action represents a dramatic display of the Turkish government's campaign to deny the Armenian Genocide and further inhibit a resolution to the Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus.
"Section 306 of the new criminal code does nothing to remove barriers to bilateral cooperation and lower the level of distrust and tension in this critically important region," Pallone wrote in his letter to Secretary Powell. "I urge you and the State Department to condemn this oppressive provision in the criminal code and do everything that is in your power to ensure that the government of Turkey, our NATO ally- cease to inhibit the rights of its citizens; remove its troops from Northern Cyprus; come to terms with its own history; and finally start living up to the expectations that the United States has of free and democratic nations."
Pallone voiced particular concern that Turkey's actions run counter to the goals the State Department strives to achieve in the Caucasus region. Far from coming to terms with the Genocide or reaching out to Armenia, Turkey, in adopting Section 306 of its new penal code, the New Jersey congressman wrote that Turkey is hardening its anti-Armenian stance and undermining hopes for a reduction of tensions in the region.
"I would like, for a moment, to discuss why I consider it important that the State Department not remain silent in the face of this extremely troubling restriction on freedom of expression mandated by a NATO ally," Pallone continued. "In the past, when the State Department has spoken out against an Armenian Genocide Resolution, it has argued that such legislation would not contribute to improved Turkish-Armenian relations. We have been told, recently and in the past, that the State Department and the Administration have fought so strenuously against this legislation, because its adoption would somehow harm progress in the region toward the normalization of ties between these two states.
"This line of reasoning is, in my view, deeply flawed," Pallone continued in his letter. "However, if the State Department were to seriously rely on this argument concerning improved Turkey-Armenia relations, it would stand to reason that the State Department should also publicly and privately condemn Turkey's patently hateful codification of its official campaign to deny the Armenian Genocide, the most recent attempt being in the form of a repressive and unjustified new criminal code."
Pallone also believes the Turkish Government's action toward Cyprus is not consistent with the State Department's own misguided belief that Turkey did everything possible to end the thirty-year illegal occupation of Cyprus when it supported a United Nation's plan that would have reunified the island nation. The New Jersey congressman believes Turkey's latest action proves the government in Turkey remains supportive of the continued illegal occupation of the northern end of Cyprus.
It is fitting that Ionesco has been invoked. For in the 1970s, I recall, Ionesco gave an interview in which he denounced, without naming, Le Monde. He said (this is close to verbatim):
"Why do they always call the Lebanese Christians the 'right-wing Christians'? In the 'newspaper everyone reads' they are always called 'right-wing' -- what makes them 'right-wing'?"
The Homeric epithet --- grey-eyed Athena, rosy-fingered Dawn, wily Odysseus -- has become, in the modern press, an instrument of political bullying. Few stop to analyze those fixed epithets, and all the damage they do. Think of that weasel-word "occupied" which makes us think of those who, like the Germans in France, have no other claim but that of military occupier. But when it is used for "occupied" West Bank or Gaza, the reference is to land that was intended to be, under the League of Nations' Mandate for Palestine, part of the Jewish National Home. The legal, moral, and historic claim is effaced, in one epithet.
As for the Maronites, to whom Ionesco was deeply sympathetic, even though many of them were poor people who had managed to maintain their faith in the mountainous regions of northern Lebanon, Le Monde -- and of course Eric Rouleau, that convinced islamophile -- insisted on calling them "right-wing" and therefore, bien entendu, not to be sympathized with. Oh, Le Monde had a great effect. How many of us, in the world, really understood what had been happening, little by little by little, to the Christians of Lebanon? How many of us swallowed the idea that they were "right-wing"?
Ionesco paid attention to words. And he could not be fooled.
"I would like, for a moment, to discuss why I consider it important that the State Department not remain silent in the face of this extremely troubling restriction on freedom of expression mandated by a NATO ally,"
Hideous and sickening hypocrisy, what about the "freedom of expression" for those jailed in Europe for questioning the established "truths" about the Second World War? Some thought crime legislation are OK but other thought crimes are a restriction on "freedom of expression". You either believe in free speech or you don't. Those that believe in selective free speech are hypocrites. No one tries to ban free speech they agree with.
The fact that there were no trials for those responsible for the Armenian genocide and that it was so soon forgotten encouraged Hitler to mass murder innocent civilians too.
In September 1939 he said 'I have given orders to my death squads to exterminate men, women and children of the Polish speaking race. For who today remembers the extermination of the Armenians?'
It shows what a bunch of nasty mummies' boys the Turkish government is that even almost ninety years on they can't bring themselves to apologize.
Even more disturbing I've never met a Turk in Britain who owned up to what happened despite the overwhelming evidence.
The fact that the Turkish men shave and the women wear skirts shouldn't make anyone think that they are any different from other Muslims in their absence of compassion.
I was listening to an Armenian pastor who said that there are five stages to genocide.
1) Identification
2) Dehumanization
3) Separation
4) Extermination
5) Denial
When you get over denial, then can you begin to return to the club of civilised nations.
The Turks are still living out their murdereousness.
Ten years in gaol for affirming the genocide? Just goes to show if you get put in prison for saying something it's because it's true.
The Turks' inability to accept responsibility for the Armenian Genocide is truly remarkable. Instead of acknowledgeing this was part of the dark past they left behind when Ataturk abolished the caliphate and began secularizing Turkish society, they still fruitlessly seek to perpetuate this naked lie before an incredulous world. The criminalization of acknowledgeing this heinous crime shows just how far Turkey still has to go in terms of respecting freedom of thought, conscience, and speech. The EU needs to take a much harder look at human rights conditions in Turkey and not be fooled into a false sense of complacency by the recent release of a few prominent Kurdish human rights advocates. As we see from this report, Turkey still has a long way to go before its HR standards are up to UN and EU standards.
Remember Armenia, there are a lot of chirstians, one million killed by islam, remember Armenia
This demonstrates how Islam has gripped Turkey again as historical revisionism must take place as Islam may not be shown in a bad light. Of course they know this lie will be believed when and if the Caliphate erases it and all other Muslim crimes from human memory. We can not allow this to happen.
Turkey's inability to accept responsibility speaks volumes, for it is on par with the refusal of Muslims to accept genocide they have committed in various parts of the world. The reason of course, is that the slaughter of non-muslims is divinely sanctioned by that most vile of texts, the koran.
Even as I write, Sudan refuses to accept the mass slaughter in Dafur or the genocide of Christians and Animists. Muslims just cannot accept genocide, particularly of non-muslims, as morally unacceptable; as such slaughter is sanctioned by the koran, nay encouraged.
Turkey's refusal to accept moral culpability for the genocide of Armenians, it is clear, that despite protestations of Turkey being a secular state, it is at heart an islamic state at its core and polity.
Then the rest of us around the world must start talking about the Armenian genocide and criticising Turkey's occupation of Cyprus.
CGW et all are right. Although googling on Saxonwulf. Hugh got me nowhere, Karl is a neo-nazi.
'...what about the "freedom of expression" for those jailed in Europe for questioning the established "truths" about the Second World War?'
Spoken like a true fan of David Irving or Ernst Zundel, if I've ever heard one.
The Armenian genocide in all its barbarity on history channel anyone? Where are the documentaries showing the truth about islamocancer everywhere from the burnt tribal villages in Bangladesh to the pus-oozing growth of Muslim ghettos in Paris and Madrid to open bloody slave-trading in Mauritania and Sudan?
Why aren't our famed info-disseminating tools doing the right thing, in the information age at that? yeah, I know, they're too busy doing the left thing I guess.
Can't help but feel pessimistic at times.
The fact that the Turkish government wants to punish Turks who admit that the Armenian atrocities occurred is a very bad sign. It not only makes the falsification of history the law of a country with a large, powerful military; but also threatens to intensify civilizational warfare, since Greece, Armenia, the Orthodox Balkan countries, and possibly even Ukraine and Russia will wonder if Turkey can truly be trusted.
On the other hand, had Turkey frankly admitted that these atrocities occurred; that they were an historic wrong; and that Turkey's religious minorities then received proper recognition as an integral part of the national life--then Turkey would probably have assuaged its non-Muslim neighbors, made the position of moderate Muslims in Bosnia and Albania and residual Muslim minorities in Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Armenia, and Rumanian Dobruja far more secure; defused the possibility of conflict with an arc of countries from Armenia and Georgia over to Serbia and Greece; and probably would have set itself up to be the strategic political and diplomatic center of gravity for the Balkans, Middle East, and probably Central Asia as well. AFter all, its geographic position and cultural heritage makes it the natural "bridge" for all of those regions. Turkish honesty about the more sordid aspects of its modern history might cause a loss of face when it looked in the mirror, but would probably have won an awful lot of trust with the rest of the world.
waterdragon52:
You were just supposed to google "Saxonwulf". The "Hugh" was the beginning of the next sentence of my post.
Thanks for the clarification, CGW. Is this what you were refering to?
Scat Chat
... 62. West Yorkshire, UK male 34, seeks female, preferably for more than just sex -
Saxonwulf (M/34/Yorkshire), Thu, May 1 2003 at 12:21 pm [42 hits]: 63. ...
forum.onecenter.com/cgi-bin/ forum/forum.cgi?fid=scatchat&n=2 - 24k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages
Scat Chat
... pm [487 hits]: - Re: Sexy female seeks male for scat fun - saxonwulf, Thu,
May 1 2003 at 11:41 am [30 hits]: - Re: Sexy female seeks ...
forum.onecenter.com/cgi-bin/ forum/forum.cgi?fid=scatchat&n=3 - 31k - Supplemental Result
I didn't want to check into it any closer than that. Of course it would come as no surprise that anyone as twisted as Karl is about religion and politics might have a few other kinks about other things.
One thing about engaging with trolls... ...sooner or later you draw them out and they say something so clearly egregious that they unmask themselves.
Frank Pallone is the only politician who stands up consistently for the plight of Kashmiri hindu refugees.
waterdragon52:
There was also a link to saxonwulf.deviantart.com