Turkish Diplomacy’s Gordian Knots

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has been trying to give a positive spin to his country’s foreign policy with his academic semantics, but thus far, he has been only successful in providing a very transparent veneer to all the intractable problems that Turkey has created over the years, both domestically and internationally. Even his professorial tone has been sober and somber as he advocated an Ottoman-style hegemony in the Balkans, extolling the “harmony” which the Ottoman sultans had created over centuries. more

The Forebears of Erdoğan and the Armenian Genocide

A noted French author said truly that, “We are all products of our childhoods”. In order to correctly understand any politician, or even any man, it is necessary to understand where he or she comes from. This is even more important after Erdoğan stated, “My ancestors have 
never committed genocide!”. more

Bu tavırlarla 'soykırım'dan kaçış yok

ÖMER TAŞPINAR
 
'Soykırım' meselesini bir kenara bırakın, 'Ermeni' olmayı 'maalesef' kelimesiyle beraber kullanan faşist ve ırkçı bir zihniyet var müthiş bilimsel çalışmalar yapan anlı şanlı Türk Tarih Kurumu'nun başında... devami

Kendimize söyleyebilsek

Yasemin Congar 

Karalamacılığa Karşı Birlik (ADL) adlı 94 yıllık Amerikan Yahudi derneği, 'Osmanlı Ermenilerine yapılanın sonuçları itibariyle soykırıma tekabül ettiğini' açıklayınca yine aynı noktada bulduk kendimizi. Ermeni konusundaki gelişmeleri devletin içinden okuma, 'ulusal çıkar' retoriği üzerinden algılama, siyasi etki-tepki dinamiğiyle açıklama noktası bu... Sonuçta, ADL açıklamasına ilişkin yorumların istikameti, yorumu yapanın siyasi tavrına ve ideolojisine göre farklılaşsa da, aslında bir Möbius şeridinin iki ayrı yüzeyinden ilerliyor ve tek bir sınıra, aynı noktaya gelip dayanıyor. devam

Shoot the Messenger

Pr. Taner Akçam

In May 2007, I revealed the identity of Murad “Holdwater” Gümen, the secretive Webmaster of Tall Armenian Tale, an extensive and influential site devoted to “the other side of the falsified Genocide” and the defamation of genocide scholars, myself included. Mr. Gümen has been a leading voice in an ongoing campaign to denounce me as a traitor to Turkey and as a terrorist who ought to be of interest to American authorities.    more

Turkey's Dark Past

On November 16, 2004, Frontpage magazine posted an article from the New Europe Review, by Mustafa Akyol, titled "European Muslims and the Quest for the Soul of Islam." In the article Akyol argued that a new more tolerant interpretation of Islam should be constructed and that "A great deal of shariah laws -- like killing of apostates, stoning of adulterers, seclusion of women, compulsory prayer, required dress code, punishments for drinking or even possessing alcohol -- have simply no basis in the Qur'an." He wrote that Turkey has an Islamic heritage free of anti-Westernism and anti-Semitism and argued that it will benefit the West if Turkey is admitted into the European Union.. (Suite)

Antisemitism in the Turkish Media

The rising antisemitism in the Turkish media is a complex phenomenon that manifests itself in several forms.
This is the first part in a series of reports which will be released in the coming weeks. The following are excerpts from articles in the Turkish press dealing with antisemitism (the format of the text appears as in the original). see more

Turkish Intellectuals Against Antisemitism

 Antisemitism in the Turkish media targets not only Jews in general, but also the Turkish citizens who are members of the small Jewish community of about 20,000 people. Increasingly, newspapers are accusing Turkish Jews of disloyalty, of betrayal, and of having hidden and sinister agendas. The Turkish media has recently blamed the Jews for espousing secularism and for espionage against Turkey. see more

The U.S.-Turkish Strategic Partnership is Long Gone

In an interview in the Turkish business daily Referans on May 30, 2005, Kemal Koprulu, Founder and Chairman of the ARI movement, a leading Turkish think tank, reviewed U.S.-Turkish relations. In the interview, Koprulu discusses the activity of the delegation of ARI representatives who visited the U.S. in April 25-30, 2005, and conducted a series of meetings in Washington with the White House, State Department, members of Congress, and the National Security Council, as well as many American NGOs and think tanks. According to Koprulu, the strategic partnership between Turkey and the U.S. is over, despite the Turkish government's claims to the contrary. see more

Minority reports in Turkey

Despite the government reforms to facilitate joining the European Union, there is no indication of increasing religious freedom. While the Turkish constitution includes freedom of religion, worship services are only permitted in "buildings created for this purpose," and officials have restricted the building of buildings for minority religions. More