Outrageous LA Times Interview with Turkey

This morning, I recceived an e-mail from a friend telling me about an outrageous article published by the LA Times titled: "Genocide, diplomacy and terrorism", which appeared on its website on April 02 2008

The article is a transcript of what appeared to be an interview or a chat with members of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations or ATAA. The author at LA Times claim that the ATAA “stopped by” the journal-I wish I had this type of privileges with the Times, but that is another story- and talked about Genocide, diplomacy and terrorism.

I thought first that the author would ask about the Armenian genocide, the lack of Turkish diplomacy and finally the state terrorism in which Turkey is involved, both in Turkey and outside…boy was I wrong, it instead talked about the imaginary genocide committed by the Armenian on the Turks, and the claimed terrorism of a nation (the Kurdish nation) against Turkey, simply because the Kurds desire what is a God giving right, that is the right to self determination.

What is most shocking and concerning is that the Author seems to lead the interview, but in a direction in which the ATAA members are given opportunities after opportunities to lay down the rhetoric of the racist Turkish State. The Author starts by laying out the reason why the ATAA was invited, since the LA Times endorsed the recognition of the Armenian genocide, the Author wanted to hear ATAA’s position. The interview then goes through a series of questions during which the Author is a mere recorder/typer, and does not interact, reframe, question or ask further explanations to the Turkish delegation even after some horrific and offensive remarks made by them.

The surgical precision in choosing the questions gives an ample platform to the Turkish delegation to go over what seem to be a standard format that the nationalists have designed when talking about the Genocide:

• Victimhood:
  - Portrait the Turkish nation as a victim and here to defend itself
  - Turkish death during the Armenian genocide
  - European Union refusal to accept Turkey
• Discrediting the Armenian communities:
  - Turks want a dialogue, only rejected by Armenians.
  - Dismiss Armenian analogy to the other Genocide (in this case the Jewish)
  - Reinforce the idea that only fringe Armenian communities pursue the recognition
  - Bring up Azerbaijan-Armenia issues
• And finally the Kurds and erase Kurdistan from the maps (nothing to do with their attempts to discredit the genocide, but it seems that they always find a way to put the words "No" and "Kurdistan" in the same sentence).
  

The interview as it is claimed to be seems to be no more than the presentation of bulleted point from the ATAA website. A simple survey of the website should have tipped off the Author, but in this age of black-out in California, I want to give the benefit of the doubt to the Author and believe that he did not get the chance to do his homework.

I would like to recommend to the Author that next time he sits for a chat with the ATAA to ask them why it is so important for Turkey to deny the Genocide. Why would they oppose so fanatically the word Kurdistan while it existed and still exist on their own Ottoman era maps?

And finally I would like to remind the Author, that the Word "Genocide" was specifically created by Raphael Lemkin in the 30’s to describe the atrocities that happened to the Armenian. Before the Armenian Genocide, the word genocide didn’t exist.