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*Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevits's Visit To Washington
*Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevits's Visit To
Washington
*Kurdish film review
*Sam v. Saddam: no easy victory
*Interview With Talabani
*The Other Iraq
*Sanctions on Iraq: A Valid Anti-American Grievance?
*Iraqi opposition needs unified US policy
Letter To Forbes Magazine
News Editor
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Turkey and human rights By: Nichlas Tanery Jan 18, 2002 The washington Times Bruce Fein's Jan. 15 Commentary column, "To reap twice-blessed rewards," is a highly offensive missive of misinformation and hatred toward the former vassals of the Turks — Arabs, Kurds and Greeks. As a self-proclaimed "scholar" for the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, a well-financed Turkish lobby in Washington, Mr. Fein should mention the animosity the Arab press has directed toward Kemalist Turkey in recent days. On Jan. 12, the Riyadh Daily said of Turkey, "Even a simple Islamic dress attire as a head scarf has not been accepted by the country's leadership, when even non-Islamic countries permit it." The influential Saudi paper went on to conclude that Turkey's disrespect for the sentiments of Muslims nullifies its standing in the Muslim world. No small wonder that world-famous Saudi Osama bin Laden, in a recent broadcast, branded Turkey "the infidel" — in the same category as the Israeli crusaders. For me and many millions of Pontic Greeks around the world, the description of Turkey as "infidel" resonates, as do the words "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing." Our ancestors were forcibly deported in death marches from their native region of Pontus on the orders of Mr. Fein's "George Washington," Mustafa Kemal. He and his Turkish armies landed in the Black Sea port of Samsun on May 19, 1919, ousted some 700,000 indigenous Greek civilians from their ancestral homes and forced them on a death march that claimed more than 300,000 victims. The international community, through its silence, has pardoned the perpetrator of this crime, and newspapers such as The Washington Times publish "scholars" such as Mr. Fein who denigrate the memory of the victims. Mustafa Kemal, the so-called "Ataturk" or father of the Turks, is a figure whose statues in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan must be washed every morning of dung and refuse hurled on them by passers-by. Not only did this ethnic cleanser commit genocide on the Pontic Greeks, his policies set the stage for the ongoing Kurdish genocide — some 750,000 Kurd victims and rising. NICHOLAS TANERY Portland, Ore. --------------------------- Bruce Fein's Jan. 15 Commentary column on Turkey was extremely narrow in its analysis and devoid of objectivity. It is a tremendous disservice to George Washington to compare him with Turkish ultranationalist leader Mustafa Kemal, who was responsible for the genocide inflicted upon Anatolia's Armenian, Assyrian and Greek-Christian populations in 1922 and 1923. Upon entering the city of Smyrna in September 1922, Kemal's troops enthusiastically slaughtered more than 100,000 Greeks and 30,000 Armenians, To refer to Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit as a proponent of human rights is to ignore the fact that Mr. Ecevit ordered the Turkish invasions of Cyprus on July 20 and Aug. 14, 1974, that resulted in the ethnic cleansing of more than 200,000 Greeks and the occupation of 37 percent of the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus. The Turkish occupation of Cyprus is a violation of international law and dozens of U.N. resolutions as well as legal rulings by the European Court of Human Rights. Mr. Fein's analysis of the Cyprus situation ignores both international law and the atrocities committed by Turkish forces. To date, more than 1,600 Greek Cypriots have been missing since the Turkish invasions. Referring to the Turk-occupied territories as "democratic" is terribly misleading, as can be demonstrated by the murders in August 1996 of two Greek Cypriots, one of whom was shot to death by a Turkish sniper while protesting peacefully. Mr. Fein ignores the reality that there is no such thing as a "Greek-Cypriot administration," only the Republic of Cyprus. To date, no country in the world recognizes the legitimacy of the Turkish occupation of Cyprus. Mr. Fein's commentary refers to Kosovo and Bosnia. Unlike these two provinces, the Republic of Cyprus was an independent and sovereign entity, fully recognized for 14 years before it was invaded by the army of a foreign state in 1974. THEODORE G. KARAKOSTAS Boston |
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*KRG's Shawes Responds toTurk Reports
*Turkey
cracks down on campaign for Kurdish-language education
*Turkish
prosecutor asks court to ban Kurdish party
*ANAP
Figures Call for Release of Kurd MPs
*KDP
And PUK Release A Joint Statement *KDP-PUK
Try To Solve Parliament Dispute
*KDP
And PUK Deny Any Aim To Establish An Independent State
*US
Ambassador To UN Meets KRG Representative In Geneva
*Barzani
and the Kurdish state
*PKK
Seeks A New Name
*Turkey
holds activists calling for Kurdish rights
*KDP
Media Pays Tribute To Hussain Gamil
*Iaqi
Kurds hold third day of protest at Greek port
*Talabani
on information policy
*PKK
retreated, we forgot about the Southeast!
*PKK
TO Resume Activities
*Thousands
reclaimed HADEP
*PKK
leader to face trial in Germany
*Turkish
Prime Minister to Visit U.S.
*Talabani
on information policy
*Masoud
Barzani Sheds light on Major Iraqi Kurdish Issues
*Radical
Islamist combatants caught in standoff with Iraqi Kurds
*Students
At Full Speed
*Frontier
opens, Turkish trucks to resume Iraq fuel oil delivery
*Original
Kurdish, not the degenerated one
*Status
quo not so good
*Questions
raised by Turkomans on a Turkoman party's 'foreign affiliation'
*Top
figure in militant Kurdish group seeks Dutch asylum
*Turkish
Special Forces Inside Iraq
*US
team unhappy after visit to site of planned bridge
*U.S.
senators seek to reassure Turkey over Iraq
*Security
intensified along Kurdish enclave
*Asylum
is Kurds' only hope
*Film
on Turkish-Kurdish language divide is a hit in Turkey
*9
women to Face Trial For Demanding Education in Kurdish
*People-smugglers
jailed
*Turkish
Prosecutor Urges Court toBban Pro-Kurdish Party
*Ship
Stranded Near Greek Coast
*KRG
Proposes New Free Media Legislation