Tuesday, 24 April 2007The streets of two major cities in the U.S., New York and Washington, have been hosting rallies held by Armenians and Turks ahead of April 24, when Armenians mark the anniversary of what they claim was the beginning of a so-called systematic 'genocide' campaign at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Similarly the Turks say that more than 520.000 Turks were massacred by the Armenian rioters at that time.
Times Square in New York on Sunday saw Armenians' protest against Turkey only a day after the Federation of Turkish-American Associations (TADF) and the Young Turks Association held a joint rally titled "An End to Armenian Lies," in a show of protest against Armenian allegations of genocide.
Robert Menendez, a Democratic member of the US Congress and a supporter of the Armenian lobby, as well as Carolyn Maloney, another Democrat member of Congress and a supporter of the Greek Cypriot lobby, attended the rally, which attracted around 2,500 demonstrators supporting the Armenian allegations.,
Delivering a speech at the rally, Maloney said she had written a letter to European Union officials urging them not to let EU candidate Turkey into the bloc.
"By killing Hrant Dink, Turks add one more person to the number of Armenians they killed," Curtis Sliwa, a radio talk show host, said at the rally, referring to the murder earlier this year of prominent Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink.
Dink was murdered by a Turkish ultra-nationalist gunman outside the İstanbul office of his bilingual newspaper, Agos, in January; his funeral drew 100,000 mourners including government officials who in chorus condemned the killing. Dink is the only Armenian victim in the Republican era.
Meanwhile in Washington, around 500 Turks held a protest march against the Armenian allegations. Demonstrators waving Turkish flags ended their march in front of the Turkish Embassy, and then the group whose protest was also a message to the US House of Representatives before which a resolution based on Armenian allegations is currently pending dispersed without incident.
The resolution was presented to the House of Representatives earlier this year, though the timing of the vote has yet to be decided. Turkey has warned that passage of the resolution would harm strategic relations with the United States and undermine cooperation in key regions across the world, in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who will decide whether to put the bill to a full vote, is a strong supporter of the resolution. During a February visit, Pelosi refused to meet with Foreign Minister Abdullah G+-l. She also declined to meet with a group of Turkish parliamentarians who were lobbying in Washington against the resolution, as she did with two other Turkish parliamentary groups in the recent past.
Meanwhile, yesterday's H+-rriyet daily reported that Pelosi eventually agreed to a meeting with Turkey's ambassador to the US, Nabi Şensoy. Saying that the meeting took place "a short while ago," the daily didn't specify the exact date, while officials at the Turkish Foreign Ministry in Ankara were not able to confirm such meeting.
23 April 2007
|
Tuesday, 24 April 2007
Turks and Armenians
|
|
