Armenian Genocide debate - Kurds - Cyprus

Immediately below an embeddeed video of the entirety of the historic and much argued-over 'Armenian Genocide Debate' held in the Foreign Relations Committee of the US House of Representatives on 10th October 2007.



As Turkish PM Erdogan visited Washington 5th November for talks with George Bush, which he will no doubt would wish to emerge from with a Turko-American version of the strategic partnership agreement he signed with Britain last month, in exchange for not rocking the boat in Northern Iraq (over the Kurds), readers of this blog might wish to take a look at the video material at the two following profiles on YouTube, (which provide the source material for the videos below). The true historical nature of the Turkey which is such a good expedient partner for the US, and now a "Strategic Partner" for poodle Britain is shown. But, will the master of the poodle jump as high as the poodle at the urgings of the Turkish Prime Minister? This is the Turkey for whom Britain will strategise entry to the EU?


http://youtube.com/sakobb
The two playlists below DO NOT WORK but are included here anyway as 'placemarkers' to encourage viewers to visit the YouTube account (detailed immediately above) to view the material.

(a) Professor Taner Akcam talks about the Armenian genocide (watch all five parts).



(b) Germany Turkey and the Armenian Genocide - documentary (7 sections)



More material by Turkish archives-historian Taner Akcam, at:
http://www.youtube.com/LanguageSoup
(A talk on Taner Akcam's book "A Shameful Act", at the Human Rights faculty of Columbia University)

Also, I found the following video on FORA TV which goes over history which I must admit I did not know the details of, and I imagine many of us don't, so I make it available here for those who have a spare hour-and-a-half to follow it all. The period of history being talked about is the Lausanne Treaty of 1923, but it is just as relevant today, with events happening in Iraq and still now in the Balkans with Kosovo -- as well as Cyprus of course.

http://fora.tv/2007/10/18/A_Troubling_History_of_Ethnic_Conflict

Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
Oct 18th, 2007

Historian Bruce Clark discusses the emergence of modern Greece and Turkey in the early 20th century. Leaders in both countries sought to advance a national ethnic identity, resulting in mass expulsions of Christian Greeks from Turkey and Muslims from Greece.

Below, a playlist from my own YouTube account with items from a variety of media sources, though mostly from Al-Jazeera English which has chosen to follow the Turkey-Kurds situation particularly closely, to show the developing 'attitude' in Turkey during and following the Armenian Genocide debate in the US House of Representatives early in October 2007.




Lastly, a playlist with items from recent Cyprus politics, providing a reaction in Cyprus to Britain's Gordon Brown having signed a "Strategic Partnership Agreement" with Turkey's Erdogan during the latter's visit to Downing Street in October 2007. Video clips of the press conference are included, with Erdogan referring at length to how it is the UN Security Council which has failed to endorse the Report about the Annan Plan process which is to blame for the lack of progress. During the press conference both Brown and Erdogan failed to refer to the Gambari Agreement in November 2006 which has been agreed by the UN Security Council as the 'way forward' .

US gave full backing to Turkish invasion

http://www.cyprusweekly.com.cy/default.aspx?FrontPageID=304_1

US gave full backing to Turkish invasion

THE United States gave full blessing to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, even assuring Turkey that it would "get them a solution involving one third of the island.''

This cynical US involvement is revealed in the latest batch of secret official State Department documents released for publication under the 30-year rule.

The American stand has long been known, but this is the first time that it has been confirmed so completely by an official State Department document.

This is clarified in the very first paragraph of the document which is stamped ``SECRET/EYES ONLY.''

It declares that the only conceivable settlement of the Cyprus problem "will have to rest on a de facto division of the island, whatever the form."

While admitting that the United States ``has the clout'' to prevent the invasion, the document nevertheless advises against doing so "before the fighting stops."

The document is dated August 14, 1974, the exact date of the second massive wave of the Turkish invasion of the island. It is headed: ``Memorandum for the Secretary - Cyprus Actions'' from Helmut Sonnenfeldt, one of the top State Department officials dealing with Greco-Turkish affairs.

The document even includes a map detailing the plan of action of the Turkish invasion force. This is headed ``Map done by the Bureau of Intelligence and Research projecting Turkish moves on Cyprus, August 13, 1974.''

It is worth noting that this plan was the one followed exactly by the Turkish troops, a further proof of the close American involvement in the Turkish invasion planning.

Here is the full text of the document:

THE COUNSELOR

DEPARTMENT OF STATE

WASHINGTON

August 14, 1974

SECRET/EYES ONLY

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY

FROM: Helmut Sonnenfeldt

SUBJECT: Cyprus Actions

You wanted some brief ideas on what we do next.

Nothing I can think of will stop the Turks now from trying to secure by force what they demanded in their ultimata. In fact, as has always been true, the only coneivable modus vivendi will have to rest on a de facto division of the island, whatever the form.

If the Turks move fast and can then be gotten to stand down, it may pre-empt Greek counteraction and then give us a chance to try for a deal. (It may also save Karamanlis).

While the Soviets can serve as a bogey, we must keep them at arms length. They cannot become the arbiter between US allies. Their interests differ drastically from ours: we want a modus vivendi between Greece and Turkey, they want a non-aligned Cyprus, preferably with Greece or Turkey or both disaffected from NATO.

Thus, we should

- urgently try to contain Greek reaction; 24 hours at a time;

- bluntly tell the Turks they must stop, today, tomorrow at the latest;

- warn the Turks that Greece is rapidly moving leftward;

- send high-level US man to Athens to exert continuing direct influence on Karamanlis;

- assuming the Turks quickly take Famagusta, privately assure Turks we will get them solution involving one third of island, within some kind of federal arrangement;

- assure Greeks we will contain Turk demands and allow no additional enclaves, etc.

You should not get involved directly till the fighting stops; then you must since there is no alternative and only we have the clout.

I do not think Brussels/NATO is the place to use when the time comes. The Greeks are probably too sore at NATO and the vehicle of a ministerial meeting is awkward. Anyway, you need Ecevit and Karamanlis.

London may be unacceptable to the Turks because of Callaghan’s blast at them.

You should not shuttle.

This may mean Geneva. Washington, at the President’s initiative, would be all right but hard to get the parties to come to. Also provocative of the Russians. New York would make it difficult to keep the Russians away.

You could also try Rome.

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http://www.cyprusweekly.com.cy/default.aspx?articleID=7849&heading=Viewpoint

10th August 2007

Cyprus Weekly Editorial on the matter:

Shocking US admission

THE full United States backing of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 has long been well known.

This does not render any less shocking the first official confirmation of this involvement in the State Department secret documents released this week under the 30-year rule.

If anything, what is needed is a stronger word than just "shocking" to describe the State Department's assurance to the Turks that "we will get them a solution involving one third of the island, within some kind of federal arrangement."

Here is the almighty Uncle Sam acting like King Solomon by assuring Turkey that it will in effect chop Cyprus in half, and give it part of it as its own!

While it may be argued that such a division might have been accepted by both sides as a mutually agreed settlement of the problem, it is a far cry from backing such a solution as the direct result of the invasion of one sovereign country by another at the cost of tens of thousands of innocent civilian lives lost, the forced uprooting of a whole population and the seizure of the properties of the displaced persons.

Such actions are war crimes and this inevitably makes Uncle Sam himself a war criminal, or an accessory, for advising Turkey to act this way.

Cyprus has already resorted to the international courts, demanding Turkey's punishment, and compensation for the victims of these war crimes.

With the US State Department admission that it backed the Turkish aggression and consequent war crimes, it is high time that Cyprus also sued the United States, and Henry Kissinger himself, as accessories to Ankara's war crimes and sought compensation from there also.

[op ed: This writer calls for Google to be "sued" at court in the US by the Cyprus Lobby regarding its practice in "promoting the sale of property which has been proved to have been stolen"]

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Below, a video recorded by the author of this blog during a recent event in London organised by the "Lobby for Cyprus" within the context of Theatro Technis' "Cyprus Week" [all organised in conjunction with the [Organisation of Cypriot Organisations, this year presented by its newly elected President, Peter Droussiotis] (to mark 33 years since the Greek junta coup and Turkish invasion of the island) regarding continuing moves in the European Court of Human Rights -- "Property rights in occupied Cyprus"

Other video items, including the Demonstration in Trafalgar Square (with speeches by British MPs and EuroMP's) is available at the Theatro Technis facility at MySpace:

http://www.myspace.com/theatrotechnis