Recently in Armenian Genocide Category

I am not in favor of laws restricting the freedom of speech, but this response from the OIC is consistent with its own attempts to restrict truth-telling about Islam and jihad under the guise of criminalizing "religious hatred." Note also that by labeling the French law an example of "Islamophobia," Ihsanoglu is tacitly admitting that the Armenian genocide was an Islamic jihad action; otherwise, what would Islam have to do with this law at all?

"OIC: Adoption of genocide law sign of Islamophobia in France," by A. Taghiyeva for Trend, January 24:

The adoption of the law criminalizing the denial of the so-called "Armenian Genocide" is a sign of Islamophobia in France, Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told Trend on Tuesday.

"This law contradicts three fundamental principles of democracy -- equality, freedom and brotherhood. It is a sign of growing Islamophobia," Ihsanoglu said.

He called the law unacceptable, non-complying with historical facts and demonstrating double standards.

After a nearly eight-hour debate, the French Senate adopted the bill. Some 127 senators voted in favor, while 86 senators voted against on Jan.23.

The lower house of the French parliament adopted a bill criminalising the denial of the so-called "genocide" on Dec.22. Some 45 out of 577 French MPs voted with 38 voting for and seven against the adoption of the bill.

The bill demands a year's imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euro for denying the so-called "genocide." In response to the decision, Turkey announced that it has frozen all diplomatic relations with France.

MPs from the French president's Union for Popular Movement (UMP) party, which has the parliamentary majority, proposed the bill aimed at criminalising the denial of the so-called "genocide" to the legislative committee of the National Assembly in early December.

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that the predecessor of the Turkey - Ottoman Empire had committed the 1915 genocide against the Armenians living in Anadolu, and achieved recognition of the "Armenian Genocide" by the parliaments of several countries.

Not only are Islamic supremacists absolutely unwilling ever to acknowledge that Muslims have ever done anything wrong; they will also persecute and harass anyone who dares point out that they have.

An update on this story. "Genocide law MP receives death threats," from The Local, December 26 (thanks to Fjordman):

The French parliamentarian who proposed a controversial genocide denial bill has received death threats and had her website attacked.

Valérie Boyer, a member of the governing UMP party, was successful in getting parliamentary approval for a bill that outlawed the denial of a massacre of Armenians by Ottoman troops in 1915.

The bill’s passage unleashed a wave of indignation in Turkey.

Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said the vote represented “politics based on racism, discrimination and xenophobia.”

Daily newspaper Le Parisien reported that Boyer’s website was attacked on Sunday.

Visitors were redirected to a site showing the Turkish flag and a message attacking the French government and the Armenian community in France.

“You, the Armenian diaspora, are so cowardly that you don’t have the guts to open up the archives and face the truth,” said the message.

In an attack on French politicians the message said “you, the French, are so pitiful and pathetic that you ignore the truth to get votes.”

On Monday morning, the site, valerie-boyer.fr, was still unavailable with a "site indisponible" message being shown.

Boyer said she has received numerous “insults and threats of murder and rape” over recent days on her Facebook page and her Twitter account.

“That such a level of violence is being expressed shows the necessity to punish genocide denial,” she told the newspaper.

“What I’m experiencing is without doubt nothing compared to the experience of the Armenian community."...

Quite so.

The Armenian genocide was a fact, and the Turkish refusal to admit its existence is of a piece with the consistent Islamic supremacist tendency never, ever to admit wrongdoing, and to project their faults upon others. As a believer in the freedom of speech, I believe that the antidote to lies is truth, not censorship, and so I oppose France's new law, but there is no doubt that its foundation is correct and its intention is good. And Erdogan's reaction is the quintessential Islamic supremacist response to the truth about Islamic jihad: evasion, finger-pointing, projection, and claiming of victim status.

"Turkey Accuses France of Genocide After Armenian Bill," from Reuters, December 23 (thanks to all who sent this in):

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accused France of genocide in Algeria in the 1940s and 50s, in his latest response to a French parliament vote to make it a crime to deny that the mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey was genocide.

Erdogan also said President Nicolas Sarkozy's father might have direct knowledge about French "massacres" in Algeria.

"In Algeria from 1945, an estimated 15 percent of the population was massacred by the French. This is a genocide," Erdogan said on live television.

15 percent of the population? Ridiculous and unsupportable historically -- unlike the Armenian genocide.

"If the French President Mr Sarkozy doesn't know about this genocide he should go and ask his father, Paul Sarkozy.

"His father served in the French Legion in Algeria in the 1940s. I am sure he would have lots to tell his son about the French massacres in Algeria," the Turkish premier said.

Parliamentarians in France's lower house of parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of a draft law outlawing genocide denial Thursday, which the Senate will debate next year.

If passed, the bill would make it illegal to deny the 1915 mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks amounted to genocide. The issue has caused outrage in Turkey, which argues killings took place on all sides during a fierce partisan conflict.

Erdogan condemned the bill shortly after the vote, recalled Ankara's ambassador to France for consultations and cancelled all joint economic, political and military meetings. Friday, he vowed to take more steps....

"The vote in the French parliament has shown how dangerous racism, discrimination and Islamophobia have become in France and Europe."

Although nearly a century has passed since the killings in the middle of World War One, successive Turkish governments and the vast majority of Turks feel the charge of Armenian genocide is an insult to their nation.

"The Assyrian Genocide: a Product of Ottoman Jihad" is a moving and informative lecture by Sabri Atman, the founder and director of the Assyrian Genocide and Research Center, Seyfo Center. From AINA, April 17:

Ladies and Gentlemen

I belong to the Seyfo Center. 95 years after the genocide, Seyfo or Sepa has become a topical issue in the international arena and it is making headlines. It is now becoming a salient point in international political agendas. Until recently only the Armenian aspect of the genocide was known and most people were not aware that the entire Christian population of the then Ottoman Empire was subjected and suffered under the same genocidal policies of the Young Turks. This is a recognisable difference that I am talking about: it is the recognition and inclusion of the Assyrian and Greek genocide as part of the earlier known Armenian genocide. However, this genocide is yet to be called by its proper name, "Seyfo," in which Western Assyrian dialect it means "the sword."

Seyfo was carried out in a true jihadist strategy, ethnically annihilating all the non-Muslim citizens living under the Ottoman occupation, with the objective of homogenizing Turkey with a notion of creating 'one-Nation' and 'one-Religion.' Most of the victims were killed by swords and it is precisely due to this fact that this genocide is known among our people as "Seyfo." This is how it was known by its victims, and this is how they passed it on to us with their eye-witness accounts which have become part and parcel of our collective memory.

I would also like to iterate certain beliefs of mine to avoid any confusion. My knowledge on the subject, which is the Assyrian Genocide, is after all not unlimited, but I was born in Turkey, Turkish language is one of the ten languages I speak, and I know the Turkish policy very well and the reality of the Turkish state. The Assyrian Genocide was organized by the Ottoman Turks, and this is the reason I speak mostly about Assyrians and Turkey. This is not because my people from Urmi, Iraq and the rest of the world are less important to me. This is absolutely not the case. What is happening to our people in today's Iraq is terrible. I am very grateful for the efforts of the Assyrian Aid Society and similar organizations in providing aid to our people in Iraq and making their voices heard in America and the rest of the civilized world.

Dear Friends,

On September 11th 2001, the world witnessed a severe tragedy in their own backyard. In a very short time all our lives where changed when we saw the monumental World Trade Center buildings destroyed. Nearly three thousand people lost their lives. The scenes of September 11th are still vivid in our memory. The engulfing flames were hellish, the clouds of the buildings collapsing were Hiroshima-like. The images of people jumping out of the 33rd floor are forever disturbing. The idea that people who went to work that day on a normal morning were never going to return to their husbands, wives, and children touched all our hearts. This was a severe and a painful tragedy, which should never be forgotten. As life goes on and close to ten years will have passed, the active memory is still going on. However, there is one consolation for those who lost their relatives and loved ones. They have a resting place for those lost loved ones, which now has been transformed to a memorial of flowers, candles, and pictures, never letting the world forget the tragedy that occurred there. Furthermore, some of those who were responsible for the call of jihad (which means the holy war for Islam) have been punished.

That is, unfortunately, not altogether accurate: in reality, the 9/11 family members are now facing the construction of a memorial seven stories underground that will turn the remains of their loved ones into a tourist attraction. But of course this is not his main point.

We Assyrians as a people have been punished more. Our perfect little world has been changed forever. Our children's history books have been rewritten. We are not in them. The world tragedy that took place ninety-five years ago is not in our history books! Across the globe, in another part of the world, this tragedy's painful consequences are still being felt. The word jihad is a familiar word that is not new to Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks. On November 14, 1914 there was a decision to call for jihad, not different from the decision which was called for on the American public and the people of New York. This decision of jihad was preached and read in all of the mosques, while the world stood still watching. As a result, in 1915 the crime of Genocide was committed in Turkey, against the Christians, namely, the Assyrians, the Armenians, and the Greeks. This was the first large genocide of the 20th century, in which not 3 thousand people perished but more than 2 million young-old, men and women, boys and girls were killed. If you divide the number 2 million by 3 thousand, which is the number of those who lost their lives in New York, you will get the number 666. In other words the tragedy that was suffered by our people in 1915 was 666 times bigger numerically than the tragedy that was experienced in New York. No loss of life large or small should be taken for granted, and all losses should always be remembered. Unfortunately, those who watched our people being massacred 95 years ago continue to stand still. Not enough action has been taken, and Turkey, continues to deny that the crime of genocide was ever committed.

The Assyrian Genocide is the unknown genocide of the 20th century. The tragedy of systematic cleansing by the Ottoman Empire of the Christian minorities living under their occupation included the Assyrians, the Armenians, and the Greeks.

Why do I persist in the task of recognition of the Assyrian Genocide? Many non-Assyrians ask me, "Why do you persist on this cause? The past is the past. Let the dead rest." I say to them, "The Assyrians were killed and displaced during the Genocide; I will never rest until they have received their due justice." Assyrians, like me, are forever tied to our bitter past and the genocide committed upon our people by the Young Turks during the First World War. As Assyrians, it is our responsibility that the descendants of the old Ottoman Empire represented today by modern and "secular" Turkey recognize the atrocities of its past, and ensure that such crimes will never happen again.

In addition, my response to them is, that the past shapes our future and to progress you must learn from the past....

There is much, much more. Be sure to read it all.

"[Pelosi's] decision to not move this legislation forward during her four years as Speaker represents a failure of Congressional leadership on human rights and, sadly, a setback to America's standing in the struggle to end the cycle of genocide."

More Islamic supremacist evasion of responsibility. An update on this story. "Blue Dog 'disappointed' controversial genocide resolution didn't come to floor," by Bridget Johnson for The Hill, December 23 (thanks to all who sent this in):

The 111th Congress adjourned Wednesday without bringing up the latest incarnation of legislation that would have recognized the 1915 killings of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

Lobbying groups were on alert over the weekend on reports that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) would bring the resolution to the floor in the final days of the lame-duck session.

But lawmakers went home for the holidays without passing Rep. Adam Schiff's (D-Calif.) resolution, angering Armenian groups and leaving Turkish groups breathing a sigh of relief.

"[Pelosi's] decision to not move this legislation forward during her four years as Speaker represents a failure of Congressional leadership on human rights and, sadly, a setback to America's standing in the struggle to end the cycle of genocide," Ken Hachikian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America, said in a statement....

Schiff's resolution, which "calls upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide," passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 4 by a slim margin, 23-22.

A similar resolution was approved by the Foreign Affairs Committee in 2007. Just like this time around, the White House came out against the resolution, fearing it would damage relations with Turkey, and Pelosi did not bring the measure to the floor.

Schiff said that he and co-sponsors had launched a "full-press effort" to get the resolution to the floor in the past weeks.

"We believed that Turkey's burgeoning alliance with Iran, its support for Hamas, and its insincere promise to seek reconciliation with modern Armenia would finally serve to offset Turkey's shameful campaign of denial," Schiff said in a statement....

Schiff's resolution would have called upon Obama to "accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide" in his annual message.

"Coming in the wake of President Obama's string of broken promises to recognize the Armenian Genocide, Speaker Pelosi's refusal to schedule a vote on the Armenian Genocide Resolution represents a major breach of trust with Armenian American voters," Hachikian said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sent Obama a letter Monday asking him to prevent the vote, warning that it could damage ties between the two countries.

"We cannot allow the resolution to hang over Turkish-U.S. ties like a Sword of Damocles," said Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who also urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday to keep the resolution from passing.

Yes. We can't allow the truth to get in the way of our love.

More Islamic supremacist displacement of responsibility. If I ever meet an Islamic spokesmen who will acknowledge that Muslims have ever done anything wrong anywhere at any time or place, I will faint dead away. Once again here, Turkey is trying to make sure that the U.S. doesn't tell the truth about the Armenian genocide, which had numerous features of a classic jihad operation. And Obama, predictably, is carrying water for the Turks.

"Turkey warns US of Armenian resolution vote," from World Bulletin, December 21 (thanks to George):

Turkey's Embassy in Washington, D.C. has intensified lobbying efforts against a possible approval of an Armenian resolution at the U.S. House of Representatives that calls for the recognition of Armenian allegations over the the [sic] incidents of 1915 back in the Ottoman Empire.

Diplomatic sources close to the ongoing efforts said Turkish Ambassador in Washington, D.C. Namik Tan personally telephoned Congress members to win their support against the resolution as the ambassador also called former U.S. secretaries of state and defense as well as national security advisors.

The Turkish Embassy also had contacted officials with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to have them exert pressure on Congress members and warn them over possible damage of the resolution on business relations between Turkey and the United States.

The resolution "H. Res. 252" --labelling the 1915 incidents which took place shortly before the fall of the Ottoman Empire as "genocide" -- was approved by the Foreign Relations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 23 against 22 last March.

The adoption of the resolution caused wide reaction in Turkey, which recalled its ambassador, who returned to Washington, D.C. a month later.

The resolution may come to the House floor on Tuesday on a call by Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

Actually, it didn't yesterday, but it may come to a vote today.

"Obama admin in touch with House"

Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. State Department Philip Crowley said Monday that they were in touch with the U.S. House of Representatives regarding the Armenian resolution.

Speaking at a daily press briefing in Washington, D.C., Crowley said that the U.S. State Department had made their opposition to such a resolution clear in the past.

We are in touch with the House on the resolution, Crowley said....

The descendants of genocidal jihadists taunt the descendants of those their ancestors murdered, Washington, April 24, 2010. (Thanks to J.)

You'd think he'd be too ashamed, but apparently he has no shame. "Erdogan Accuses Armenians of 'Exterminating' Turks," from Asbarez, March 22 (thanks to Fjordman):

ANKARA (RFE/RL)-Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday claimed that Armenians in the Ottoman Empire never faced genocide and, on the contrary, themselves plotted to exterminate Turks.

Erdogan was reported to angrily deny the historical record of Genocide as he marked the 95th anniversary of a rare Turkish military victory during World War One.

"In 1915 and before that, it was the Armenian side that pursued a policy aimed at exterminating our people which led to hunger, misery and death," he said in a speech delivered in the city of Canakkale. "Forgetting all that is unfair and heartless. Our warriors always respected ancestral laws and did not kill innocent people even on the battlefield."

"I should underline that this country's soldier is bigger than history and that this country's history is as clean and clear as the sun. No country's parliament can tarnish it," Erdogan said, in a clear reference to U.S. and Swedish lawmakers' latest resolutions recognizing the annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.

"There is no genocide in our civilization. Our civilization is the civilization of love, tolerance and brotherhood," he added, according to "Today's Zaman" daily.

Erdogan followed a similar line of reasoning last November when he stated that the universally condemned massacres of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Darfur, Sudan were not a genocide. "Muslims don't commit genocide," he said.

Yeah, surrrre.

The Turkish premier did use the word "genocide," however, when he condemned the deaths of several dozen Turkic-speaking and Muslim Uighurs during unrest in China's northwestern Xinjiang region last July. "The killings of Uighur Turks by the Chinese police during demonstrations constitute genocide," he said at the time. "I use this term intentionally."

The Turks are irked.
The Turks are irked.
Who would dare to irk the Turks?
One who smirks, "You're genocidal jerks!"

And so now, in a move reminiscent of those who say in effect, "Say that Islam is a religion of peace or we'll kill you," the Turks are saying, "Say we didn't commit genocide against the Armenians or we will start persecuting the Armenians." And remember, the Armenian genocide itself started with mass expulsion orders. Hrayr Karapetyan, an Armenian MP, certainly sees Erdogan's statement as heralding another genocide: "The statement once again proves that there is an Armenian genocide threat in present Turkey."

"Turkey threatens to expel 100,000 Armenians over 'genocide' row," by Damien McElroy for the Telegraph, March 17 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Turkey has threatened to expel 100,000 Armenians from the country in response to the US branding the First World War killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as "genocide". [...]

Tensions with Armenia have recently escalated as a well-organised worldwide campaign has persuaded the American Congress and Swedish parliament to adopt resolutions condemning the incidents as "genocide".

An Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day Bill has also been put before the House of Commons and Mr Erdogan has warned Gordon Brown that relations would suffer if parliament passes it.

Turkish law already makes discussion of genocide an offence punishable by imprisonment.

"There are currently 170,000 Armenians living in our country. Only 70,000 of them are Turkish citizens, but we are tolerating the remaining 100,000," said Mr Erdogan.

"If necessary, I may have to tell these 100,000 to go back to their country because they are not my citizens. I don't have to keep them in my country." [...]

Mr Erdogan said its neighbour should distance itself from the overseas community leading the lobbying.

He said: "Armenia has an important decision to make. It should free itself from its attachment to the diaspora. Any country which cares for Armenia, namely the US, France and Russia, should primarily help Armenia to free itself from the influence of the diaspora."

But yesterday there was uproar in Armenai [sic] over the suggestion of deportations. Hrayr Karapetyan, an Armenian MP, condemned Mr Erdogan's remarks as blackmail.

"The statement once again proves that there is an Armenian genocide threat in present Turkey, thus world community should pressurise Ankara to recognise [the] genocide," he said....

But, of course. "Sweden labels mass killing of Armenians genocide," by Karl Ritter for the Associated Press, March 11 (thanks to Rich):

STOCKHOLM - Sweden's parliament narrowly approved a resolution Thursday recognizing the 1915 mass killing of Armenians in Turkey as genocide, prompting the Turkish government to recall its ambassador in protest.

The measure passed with a one-vote margin in a surprise decision that came a week after a U.S. congressional committee approved a similar resolution.

Sweden's governing center-right coalition opposed the measure but it passed in a 131-130 vote because a handful of center-right lawmakers broke party lines. Eighty-eight lawmakers were absent in the 349-seat assembly.

"After 95 years it is time for people who have suffered so long to obtain redress," said Gulan Avci, a Liberal Party lawmaker who broke her party's line and backed the measure, which had been proposed by the left-leaning opposition. Avci is a Kurdish immigrant from Turkey.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

Turkey recalled its ambassador to Sweden immediately after the vote and the Anatolia news agency reported that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan canceled a visit to Sweden on March 17.

"We condemn the decision. Our government, and our people strongly reject the resolution crippled by big mistakes and devoid of basis," the Turkish government said in a statement.

The resolution also labeled as genocide the killings of Assyrians and Pontian Greeks, ethnic groups that also suffered under the Ottoman Turks.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said he regretted the Parliament's decision, saying it "will unfortunately not have a positive effect on the ongoing normalization process between Turkey and Armenia."

The U.S. congressional committee approved a similar measure there in a 23-22 vote that would send it to the full House of Representatives, if the leadership decided to bring it up. Minutes after the vote, Turkey withdrew its ambassador to the U.S.

Turkish Ambassador to Sweden Zergun Koruturk told Anatolia that the Parliament's decision was harmful for relations between the two countries.

"I hope they are aware of the damage done here," she said.

Countries recognizing the genocide include Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Russia, Canada, Lebanon, Belgium, Greece, Italy, the Vatican, France, Switzerland, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania and Cyprus.

Of course. Who else would it be but the ones the Qur'an designates as the worst enemies of the Muslims (Qur'an 5:82)?

More on this story. "'Jewish lobby behind U.S. Armenia genocide vote,'" from Haaretz, March 6 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Jewish lobbyists contrived a U.S. congressional vote that labeled the World War One-era massacre of Armenians by Turkish forces as genocide, a London-based Arabic-language newspaper claimed on Saturday.

Pro-Israel lobbyists had previously backed Turkey on the issue ? [sic] but changed tack in retaliation for Turkish condemnation of Israel's policies in the Gaza Strip, the Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily said in an editorial, according to Israel Radio reports....

In his leading article, Al-Quds Al-Arabi editor Abd al-Bari Atwan curged [sic] Erdogan not to give in to the Jewish lobby's "extortion" tactics.

Erdogan on Thursday recalled Turkey's ambassador to Washington after the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee voted 23-22 to approve the non-binding resolution, clearing it for consideration by the full House.

"The decision of the Foreign Affairs Committee will not hurt Turkey, but it will greatly harm bilateral relations, interests and vision. Turkey will not be the one who loses," said Erdogan, speaking at a summit of Turkish businessmen....

Threat noted.

Turkey regards such accusations as an affront to its national honor.

And that's what it is all about so often.

Why did H.Res. 252 get the works? That's nobody's business but the Turks. Or at least that's how they'd prefer it. An update on this story. "US administration to block vote on Turkey 'genocide'," from BBC News, March 5:

The Obama administration has said it will seek to block a controversial bill describing as genocide the World War I killing of Armenians by Turks.

A congressional panel on Thursday approved the resolution, paving the way for a possible vote by the House.

But US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the administration would "work very hard" to prevent this.

Turkey voiced strong protests after the vote and recalled its ambassador from Washington for consultations.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country had been accused of a crime it did not commit, adding the resolution would harm Turkish-US relations.

President Abdullah Gul said Turkey - a key Nato ally of the US - would "not be responsible for the negative results that this event may lead to".

Change of position

Mr Clinton - who had urged the House Foreign Affairs Committee not to hold the vote - said on Friday: "We are against this decision. Now we believe that the US Congress will not take any decision on this subject." [...]

During his campaign for the 2008 election, Mr Obama promised to brand the mass killings genocide.

Mrs Clinton has acknowledged his administration's change of opinion on the issue, saying circumstances had "changed in very significant ways".

So now it wasn't a genocide?

In October last year, Turkey and Armenia signed a historic accord normalising relations between them after a century of hostility.

Armenia wants Turkey to recognise the killings as an act of genocide, but successive Turkish governments have refused to do so.

The truth hurts, and provokes fury -- a reaction we have seen from Islamic supremacists many times when their full agenda is exposed here. "President Abdullah Gul has warned that 'Turkey will not be responsible for the negative ramifications' of the vote." Yes, that's a threat.

An update on this story. "Turkey urges US to block 'genocide' bill or risk ties," by Sibel Utku Bila for AFP, March 5 (thanks to Block Ness):

ANKARA (AFP) - A furious Turkey warned of damage to its ties with the US and protesters descended on the American embassy on Friday after a Congressional panel labelled the Ottoman-era massacre of Armenians as genocide.

Having recalled its ambassador immediately after the panel's resolution was adopted, Ankara warned Washington risked a showdown with a key Muslim ally if the motion advanced to a full vote at the House of Representatives.

Turkey is "seriously disturbed" that President Barack Obama's administration "did not put enough weight" behind efforts to prevent the resolution from being passed by the Foreign Affairs Committee, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

"We expect the US administration to make more efficient efforts from now on," he said.

"We hope Turkish-US ties will not be put to a new test ... otherwise, the prospect that we will face will not be a positive one," he added, calling the issue a "matter of national honour".

NATO member Turkey is a prominent Muslim partner in US efforts to stabilise Afghanistan and Iraq, and lies on a key route taking oil and natural gas to Western markets....

President Abdullah Gul has warned that "Turkey will not be responsible for the negative ramifications" of the vote.

As Turkish anger swelled, a crowd of around 100 demonstrated outside the US embassy in Ankara, laying a black wreath that read "We did not commit genocide, we defended the motherland."

Protesters chanted anti-US slogans at a similar demonstration in Istanbul....

The non-binding resolution calls on Obama to ensure that US foreign policy reflects an understanding of the "genocide" and to label the mass killings as such in his annual statement on the issue....

Washington has traditionally condemned the killings, but refrained from calling them a "genocide", anxious not to strain relations with Turkey.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had urged the committee not to hold the vote for fear it might harm Armenia-Turkey reconciliation.

During a visit to Turkey in April, Obama said he retained his view that the killings amounted to genocide but stressed that reconciliation between the two neighbours was more important.

And he's so good at reconciliation.

Obama vs. Obama: "During his election campaign Mr Obama promised to brand the mass killings genocide."

An update on this story. "US Congress panel accuses Turkey of Armenian 'genocide'," from BBC News, March 4:

A US congressional panel has described the killing of Armenians by Turkish forces during World War I as genocide, despite White House objections.

The resolution was narrowly approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Turkey, a key US ally, responded by recalling its ambassador in Washington for consultations. It has fiercely opposed the non-binding resolution.

The White House had warned that the vote would harm reconciliation talks between Turkey and Armenia.

The resolution calls on President Barack Obama to ensure that US foreign policy reflects an understanding of the "genocide" and to label the World War I killings as such in his annual statement on the issue.

It was approved by 23 votes to 22 by the committee. [...]

In 2007, a similar resolution passed the committee stage, but was shelved before a House vote after pressure from the George W Bush administration.

'Too important'

During his election campaign Mr Obama promised to brand the mass killings genocide.

Before the vote, committee chairman Howard Berman urged fellow members of the committee to endorse the resolution.

"I believe that Turkey values its relationship with the United States at least as much as we value our relations with Turkey," he said....

Lest the truth irk the Turks, Barack Obama rushed to the aid of the Islamic supremacists who deny the Armenian genocide. "Turkey: Armenians; US Gov't Calls For Blocking Resolution," from ANSAmed, March 4 (thanks to Insubria):

(ANSAmed) - ANKARA, MARCH 4 - A few minutes from the beginning of the debate at the Foreign Commission of the American Congress, over the resolution regarding the genocide of the Armenians during the Ottoman empire, the U.S. administration advised the Commission to block the discussion, reports CNN Turk. (ANSAmed).

For speaking the truth about the Turkish persecution of Kurds and Armenians. A Let-Them-Into-the-EU alert from zaman.com, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

The investigation about the insulting expressions in the Istanbul City Guide, which was distributed by MasterCard prior to the UEFA Champions League Final Match, was concluded.

Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office demanded up to three years of imprisonment for MasterCard Southeastern Europe General Manager Ayse Ozlem Imece for degrading the Turkish identity, Turkish Republic, foundation and the state bodies in the investigation conducted in the last four months. The documents prepared by Public Prosecutor Huseyin Nazmi Okumus were sent to the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office due to the lack of jurisdiction. The case will be opened there in the following days.

The investigation was filed when the insults in the 290-page Istanbul City Guide, which belittled the Turkish Identity, Turkish Republic, foundation and the state bodies, reflected in media. The guide reportedly written by the British journalist Virginia Maxwell was published by the "Lonely Planet" publishing house based in Australia....

Some of the expressions in the booklet that was distributed during Milan-Liverpool Match in Istanbul were as follows: "In 1924, [Mustafa Kemal] Ataturk banned any expression of Kurdishness in an attempt at assimilation. Speaking Kurdish was banned. Major battles and atrocities ensued throughout the 1920s and 1930s, and since 1984, nearly 30,000 people have died. The resultant outrage of terrorism (new at the time though all too familiar to us now) set-off a powerful Armenian backslash, resulting in a widespread massacre of innocent Armenians in Istanbul and elsewhere."

In the Fall 2005 issue of Middle East Quarterly, Professor Guenther Lewy of the University of Massachusetts examines the mass murders of Armenians in Turkey before, during and after World War I and concludes: "The three pillars of the Armenian claim to classify World War I deaths as genocide fail to substantiate the charge that the Young Turk regime intentionally organized the massacres. Other alleged evidence for a premeditated plan of annihilation fares no better."

Dr. Vahakn N. Dadrian, the world's leading authority on the Turkish genocide of the Armenians and author of The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus, has drafted this comprehensive reply, and kindly given us the privilege and honor of posting it exclusively here at Jihad Watch:

By its very nature historiography can neither be expected to be complete in every respect, nor be free from any number of other shortcomings. This truism is even more pertinent to the study of such a subject matter as the Armenian genocide the historical reality of which for one reason or another is presently being degraded to the level of dubiousness. The principal vehicles used hereby are the publications of a rather small group of authors purporting to be detached and disinterested investigators. Upon closer scrutiny, however, these very same authors reveal themselves as committed partisans boldly pushing certain denialist agendas that are subtly and skillfully woven into texture of their discourses. Hence the denial is attempted indirectly rather than directly; the historical reality of the World War I Armenian genocide is called into question by casting doubt on the appropriateness of the use of the label “genocide.”

When by recourse to a variety of techniques he is decrying as unwarranted the use of such a label with respect to the Armenian case, Professor Lewy is thereby providing a measure of confirmation in this respect. In the process he also is betraying his very limited familiarity with the subject. His article is replete with factual errors, misinterpretations that are accented by some outright falsehoods. On top of all this, he further betrays lack of an adequate level of knowledge of Turkish, not to speak of extinct Ottoman Turkish, on both of which he is significantly relying as primary source medium. One is prompted to wonder as to the origin and nature of the outside help he may have received.

What follows firstly is -- given exigent space limitations -– some samples only of the type of errors mentioned above:

The Yozgat trial series were not conducted in Yozgat but in Istanbul; Kemal was Kaymakam of Bogazliyan county only but not of Yozgat district of which he subsequently became an interim mutassarif by way of transfer and promotion; Cemal Pasha was not the governor of Aleppo, but the commander-in-chief of Ottoman’s IVth Army deployed in Lebanon and Syria (all these on p. 2); Dr. Liparit Nasariantz was not a German missionary (p. 5) but an Armenian political activist who later became a member of the Armenian National Council, an émigré political outfit. Moreover, Lewy’s claim that “there is no indication that German colonel Stange had any role in the Special Organization” is flatly contradicted by several authentic sources. Foremost among these is Dr. Ernst Kwiatkowski, Austria-Hungaria’s Consul at Trabzon, the port city where the Special Organization had its center for logistics. In one of his several reports to Vienna he revealed that “convicts were also enrolled” in Stange’s detachment which actually was the 8th Regiment of the 10th Army corps of the Ottoman III Army operating in the eastern province of Turkey. [1] Even more compelling is the disclosure of a Turkish officer who not only participated in Stange’s military operations, but kept a record of them in his notebook. According to him “Stange was in charge of the Special Organization Regiment that was named ‘Teshkilati Mahsusa Alayi’ ” and that it encompassed the notorious killer bands of two noted chieftains, Topal Osman and Deli Halit, who played a paramount role in the implementation phases of the Armenian genocide. That regiment consisted of eleven battalions (tabur) and was thereafter called the Lazistan Detachment (Lazistan Mufrezesi). [2] Unable to strictly control the secret and covert operations of these contingents of this Detachment, Stange at the end blasted them in his “secret” report to his German superiors in which he expressed his contempt of these “chettes” by calling them “scums.” [3]

According to professor Lewy, the Armenian claim of genocide is predicated upon the “the pillars,” namely, (1) the Turkish Courts- Martial of 1919-20, (2) the role of the Special Organization (Teshkilati Mahsusa), and (3) the memoirs of Naim Bey (p. 6). This highly inaccurate description again is reflective of his seemingly limited familiarity with the literature involved. [4] Notwithstanding, they call for scrutiny to “set the record straight.”
Of these, the one involving a lengthy discussion, based on his claim that they are “forgeries,” covers the Naim-Andonian documents. That claim is mainly, if not exclusively, based upon a book produced by two Turkish authors who, following an extensive examination, maintained that the documents are forgeries. Even though at the end of his discussion he finds it expedient to hedge somewhat by allowing that these documents are “at best unverifiable and problematic,” the bulk of Lewy’s arguments with emphasis focus, however, on the forgery angle. Yet, as far as it is known, the two non-Turkish scholars cited by him for support of his claim did not themselves conduct any comparable research, including Zürcher who was content to state that the documents “have been shown to be forgeries.” But on the other end of the spectrum, a German author having very recently uncovered a number of authentic Ottoman documents from the Interior Ministry Section of Turkish state archives, established that these documents

confirm to some degree the contents of two other telegrams ascribed to Talaat in Andonian’s book. Thus the dating of telegrams nos. 840 and 860 as January 1916 appears to be correct…[The two Turkish authors] Sinasi Orel and Süreyya Yüce who have agued that Andonian forged his material, did not consider the source under scrutiny here. Thus their thesis is to be put into question and further research [on this matter] is necessary. [5]

More dhimmitude from Washington. Some are saying, in the wake of Musharraf's speech to the American Jewish Congress last Saturday, that it is unwise to challenge those who invoke Islam's fabled magnificent history of tolerance and peaceful coexistence (which Musharraf invoked, and called for). It is best to pretend that such things did happen, they say, in order to induce Muslims today to emulate the behavior of their forefathers. The obvious flaw in this kind of thinking, however, is that to build on fiction is to build on sand. What will happen when Muslims in the newly-built kingdom of tolerance realize that their ancestors were not proto-multiculturalists, but enforcers of the dhimma? Would it not be wiser for Muslims of good will to confront and reject the dhimma, and devote themselves to working actively against its reappearance? Also, much more often in history -- look at the Communist regimes -- we see that pretending that things are as they are not is not so much a vehicle to make them so but a curtain to fool outsiders, behind which things go on as before.

Would the same thing happen in the Islamic world? The Armenian genocide is a test case. The Turks have been pretending for over 80 years now that they did not massacre huge numbers of Armenians. Has this pretense made them kinder and gentler to non-Muslims? On the contrary: they are just as brutal and unjust to non-Muslims as they were before. But the world pays scant attention -- just as it did before.

From the World Tribune, with thanks to Fjordman:

The House of Representatives was expected to examine a resolution that blames Turkey for the genocide of Armenians in World War I. The House International Relations Committee has passed two resolutions that blame the Ottoman Empire for the killing of about 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey from 1915-1923. On Sept. 15, the committee voted for the resolutions by wide margins despite warnings from the Bush administration that this could harm U.S.-Turkish relations.

The resolutions demands that Turkey accept responsibility for the killing of Armenians and that the U.S. president consider the genocide in American foreign policy. The House panel also called for U.S. commemoration of the Armenian genocide.

House International Relations Committee chairman Rep. Henry Hyde voted for the resolutions. Hyde said the resolutions would not harm relations with Turkey.

Turkey has not formally protested the House resolutions. But Turkish ambassador to the United States Faruk Logoglu stressed that Ankara has sought to maintain a dialogue with Armenia in an effort to improve relations.

"Only via open and honest dialogue can the Turkish and Armenian peoples resolve issues that have been following them and damaging their relations," Logoglu said in a statement concerning the resolutions.

OK, Logoglu. Let's see some open and honest dialogue.

From VOA News via the Texas Panhandle, "Armenia Rejects Proposal From Turkey To Join Study Of WWI Events"

WASHINGTON - Last month, Turkey made an unprecedented gesture by offering its neighbor Armenia to conduct a joint study of the historic events that took place during World War One in Anatolia, the Asian part of Turkey. Armenia rejected the proposal.

Peter Balakian, author of several books on Armenian history, says ample research has already been done. He notes that many studies, including one by the International Association of Genocide Scholars, concluded that mass killings and deportations of Armenians from Anatolia under the direction of the Ottoman government amount to genocide.

"I think there is a growth in recognition of the Armenian genocide worldwide - the Canadian government last year, the French government in 2000, the Swiss government last year, the Danish Parliament, the Italian Parliament the Vatican and many countries in Latin America and the Middle East as well. It is the result of education, of the fact that scholars have done increasingly brilliant work over the last couple of decades, writing objective, detached histories of the Armenian genocide."

According to Armenians, on April 24, 1915, the government headed by the Young Turks , the ruling political party of the Ottoman Empire, began to deport and massacre its Armenian Christian minority population, approximately 2.5 million people. Turkey denies that there was a planned campaign to eliminate Armenians from Anatolia. It says that both sides suffered losses in the war. Atrocities may have occurred, they say, but only at the hands of rogue groups or individuals, Turkish as well as Armenian. Turkey says no more than 300-thousand Armenians perished in the clashes.

Turkish-born Muge Gocek, a historical sociologist at the University of Michigan, says ordinary Turks have denied the massacres for many years because they haven't had access to their historic documents.

"Turkish society knows very little about what happened in its own past for two reasons, says Professor Gocek. "One is because of the alphabet reform that happened in Turkey in 1928, where the Arabic script was abandoned and Latin script was adopted. Turks cannot read their own past historical documents. And the second is that things from the past were selectively translated and therefore very little scholarly information has been made available to them about the Armenian question."...

This could be a great opportunity for some anti-dhimmitude: a chance to raise awareness of the historical realities of jihad and dhimmitude. It's a Symposium for Remembering Victims of Genocide (thanks to Sparta and RB):

Jewish, Serb, Armenian, Greek, Roma people,

For centuries, generation after generation of our people are subject to genocide. Let us unite in our demand that suffering of our peoples be finally recognized. Join our effort to organize symposium on this subject.

The symposium will be held in Belgrade on April 22-24. Send your experts, participate.

"They are just trying to make us angry. It is their last chance to cause trouble against us." This sneering article puts "genocide" in quotes and presents it all as something "historians believe," but it isn't really a disputed question for any honest person. See, for example, The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus by Vahakn N. Dadrian. From the Times Online, with thanks to Full Namespace:

TURKEY has reacted angrily to a demand by France that it accept responsibility for a "genocide" against Armenians nearly 80 years ago, which is thought to have influenced the Nazi Holocaust. Michel Barnier, the French Foreign Minister insisted that Turkey must officially recognise the 1915 genocide before it joins the European Union. Historians believe that Turkish authorities orchestrated the killing of 1.5 million Armenian Christians, who were indigenous inhabitants of Turkey, in a brutal attempt to make an ethnically pure nation. However, the Turkish Government has always said that only a small number were killed in spontaneous acts of violence....

[Barnier] later referred to it as a genocide, the first time the French Government has used that word, having previously preferred tragedy. Many parliaments in Europe have called on Turkey to recognise the slaughter, which is marked by monuments in many European cities.

However, a Turkish government spokesman said: "There was no such genocide, so there is no question of recognising a genocide that did not happen."

One Turkish official said: "They are just trying to make us angry. It is their last chance to cause trouble against us."

Mustafa Akyol is in good company: neither he nor John Kerry are in danger of serving ten years in a Turkish prison for affirming the historical reality of the Armenian genocide. From Zaman Online, with thanks to Funcon:

The US Democratic Party's Presidential Candidate, Senator John F. Kerry, put a damper on the expectations of Armenian lobbyists on the issue of genocide.

Kerry denied claims made by the Armenian lobby in late August that he will accept the Armenian Genocide resolution. The Presidential candidate told Zaman that he contributed to Senator Robert Dole's initiatives on the subject in 1990, but said he has not made any statement that he would accept the resolution either before the upcoming elections on November 2nd or within the last 10 years. Kerry said, "Turkey is one of America's oldest allies and it will remain so."

Even if the truth is a casualty of this alliance, eh?

In the first round of debates between the presidential candidates, Kerry narrowed the gap between him and his Republican rival, US President George W. Bush. Kerry, like Bush, gave his full support to Turkey's accession to the European Union (EU). The Massachusetts Senator added that Turkey's candidacy is a must for both Europe and Turkey. He said if he is elected President, the friendship between the two countries will be maintained as is.

At a Democrat Party committee meeting on October 2nd, the Senator paused when he was told that his statement that he intends to accept the alleged Armenian genocide deeply upset Turkish society and voters of Turkish origin. He asked when he had made the statement and was told "last month." Kerry responded by absolutely denying it and stressed that he has said no such thing over the past ten years.

Senator Kerry (and Mustafa Akyol) might wish to refer to these extracts from my book Onward Muslim Soldiers on the Armenian genocide:

The missionary Johannes Lepsius, who visited Armenia during World War I, recounts how well the Ottomans did their work, and referred to the cover-up of these horrific events. "Are we then simply forbidden to speak of the Armenians as persecuted on account of their religious belief? If so, there have never been any religious persecutions in the world. . . . We have lists before us of 559 villages whose surviving inhabitants were converted to Islam with fire and sword; of 568 churches thoroughly pillaged, destroyed and razed to the ground; of 282 Christian churches transformed into mosques; of 21 Protestant preachers and 170 Gregorian (Armenian) priests who were, after enduring unspeakable tortures, murdered on their refusal to accept Islam. We repeat, however, that those figures express only the extent of our information, and do not by a long way reach to the extent of the reality. Is this a religious persecution or is it not?"

The New York Times reported it in 1915: "Both Armenians and Greeks, the two native Christian races of Turkey, are being systematically uprooted from their homes en masse and driven forth summarily to distant provinces, where they are scattered in small groups among Turkish Villages and given the choice between immediate acceptance of Islam or death by the sword or starvation." The Times of London noted somewhat later that Assyrian Christians in what is now Iraq suffered at the hands of the Turks as well: "Telegrams from Mesopotamia state that some 47,000 refugees largely Nestorians, have come into the British lines after having got through the Turkish lines. Many of these are being taken to camps near Baghdad. A further 10,000 have been absorbed in the towns of Kurdistan or are wandering among the hills. These refugees have come from the Urumia region, which was isolated during the Turkish advance in North-West Persia. . . . The day after this escape the Turks entered Urumia and massacred 200 unresisting people -- mostly old men -- while 500 Christian women are reported to have been distributed between the Turkish troops and the Moslem inhabitants."

The New York Times predicted that unless Turkey lost the war, "there will soon be no more Christians in the Ottoman Empire." Despite losing the war, postwar secular Turkey substantially fulfilled this prophecy, animated by principles rooted in the Sharia's provisions about religious minorities.

In the genocides of 1915-1916 and 1922-1923, around one and a half million Armenians were killed. Yet despite mountains of documentation, including photographic evidence and eyewitness testimony, to this day the Turkish government persists in denying that the genocide ever happened. These denials, as craven and outrageous as they are, are not entirely surprising. After all, the West in general is suffering from a case of denial that touches on much more than just Armenia: this persistent and pervasive denial encompasses virtually all the crimes perpetrated anywhere and at any time in the name of Islam. The West flees from sitting in judgment upon any religion--save Christianity--even when that religion believes, and practices, the idea of holy war against non-believers, which means, among others, the secular and Judeo-Christian West.

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 Looney Tunes:

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.

And like the good dhimmis they are, the Canadian government is distancing itself from the legislators who recognized the genocide. From the Globe and Mail, with thanks to Mentat:

Ankara -- Turkey on Thursday condemned a decision by Canadian legislators to recognize as genocide the mass killing of Armenians during the First World War, accusing Canadian politicians of being "narrow minded."

Canada's Parliament on Wednesday backed a resolution condemning the actions of Ottoman Turkish forces eight decades ago.

Government members were discouraged from voting for the motion, which was adopted 153-68 in the House of Commons. Prime Minister Paul Martin was absent during the vote.

The motion read: "... this House acknowledges the Armenian genocide of 1915 and condemns this act as a crime against humanity."

In a written statement, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Turkey strongly condemned the Canadian Parliament's decision and accused Canadian legislators of blindly "following those with marginal views."

"Some narrow minded Canadian politicians were not able to understand that such decisions based on ... prejudiced information, will awaken feelings of hatred among people of different [ethnic] roots and disturb social harmony," the statement said.

It said it was not up to parliaments to "reach conclusions over controversial periods in history" and insisted that the vote would not benefit Armenians in Canada or Armenia.

Canada is the 16th country to label the killings as genocide, a step already taken by Switzerland, France, Argentina and Russia, as well as 11 U.S. state governments.

Armenians say a 1915-1923 campaign to force them out of eastern Turkey amounted to a genocide and some 1.5 million people were killed. The Turkish government rejects the charge of genocide as unfounded and says that while 600,000 Armenians died, 2.5 million Muslims perished in a period of civil unrest.

In 2001, Turkey cancelled millions of dollars worth of defence deals with French companies after legislators in France recognized the genocide.

The statement did not say if Turkey planned similar sanctions but said Canadian politicians would "bear the responsibility for any negative developments the decision will bring."

The Canadian vote split the ruling Liberal party between backbenchers and cabinet ministers. Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said the Turkish government had warned that recognizing the genocide could have economic consequences and that he wanted to maintain good relations with Turkey.

On Thursday, the Canadian Embassy released a statement in an attempt to distance the government from Wednesday's vote.

"Private member's motions are not binding on the government of Canada," the statement read.

Since 9/11 I am aware of several attempts to count the number of people killed by jihad in modern times. It's an unsettling exercise, for it brings how just how large a threat this is, and how truly global its reach has been.

If your idea of "modern times" includes the early 20th century, then this count must be added in to the total. This is an old article, but it is historically accurate, and I'll bet you haven't seen it. It tallies the number of Orthodox Christians killed in jihad in the Ottoman Empire between 1894 and 1923.

The article says, "During 1894-1923 the Ottoman Empire conducted a policy of Genocide of the Christian population living within its extensive territory." The fact is that these people were considered to have violated the terms of their dhimmi contract, and thus the "protection" of the Islamic state was removed and they were subject to slaughter (as well as exile) on a massive scale.

It is a sobering and useful list to peruse, for it indicates that Islamic radicalism is nothing new in the world. Today's radicals worldwide have the same beliefs and goals as did the perpetrators of these crimes in the Ottoman Empire. I respectfully refer doubters to an abundance of data illustrating this in Onward Muslim Soldiers.