PrintFebruary 1, 2009
Turkish Prime Minister redefines 'outrage'
Days ago, the Turkish Prime Minister walked off a stage in Davos, Switzerland when he was engaged in a heated argument with Israeli President Shimon Peres. Prime Minister Edrogan angrily stated to Peres that "You are killing people" and "A finger-pointing Peres told Erdogan at Thursday's panel that he would have done the same if rockets had been falling on Istanbul."
Since the Turkish Prime Minister is so incensed about civilian casualties caused largely by Hamas using human shields, forced or otherwise, perhaps he should consider the glass house whose door he has just opened.
Samantha Power's Pulitzer Prize winning 2002 book, "A Problem From Hell, America and the Age of Genocide," points out, on page one, that in 1921 the former Turkish Interior Minister Mehmet Talaat, was shot on a street in Berlin by an Armenian. This was an organized revenge killing for the Turkish genocide of one million Armenian civilians in World War I. Years later, Ms. Power states, on page 23 that, "In 1942, Hitler restored Talaat's ashes to Turkey, where the Turkish government enshrined the fallen hero's remains in a mausoleum on the Hill of Liberty in Istanbul.
Since the Turkish Prime Minister is so incensed about civilian casualties caused largely by Hamas using human shields, forced or otherwise, perhaps he should consider the glass house whose door he has just opened.
Samantha Power's Pulitzer Prize winning 2002 book, "A Problem From Hell, America and the Age of Genocide," points out, on page one, that in 1921 the former Turkish Interior Minister Mehmet Talaat, was shot on a street in Berlin by an Armenian. This was an organized revenge killing for the Turkish genocide of one million Armenian civilians in World War I. Years later, Ms. Power states, on page 23 that, "In 1942, Hitler restored Talaat's ashes to Turkey, where the Turkish government enshrined the fallen hero's remains in a mausoleum on the Hill of Liberty in Istanbul.
Page eight of Ms. Power's book informs us in further detail exactly of what type of "hero" Interior Minister Talaat was by the indirect open admission of the liquidation of the Armenian population of Turkey he made to an American diplomat at that time:
Talaat once asked (then American Ambassador) Morganthau whether the United States could get the New York Life Insurance Company and Equitable Life of New York, which for years had done business with the Armenians, to send a complete list of the Armenians policy holders to Turkish authorities. "They are practically all dead and have left no heirs," Talaat said, "The government is the beneficiary now."
So we have the current prime minister of a country that killed one million unarmed Armenians and honors, to this day, one of the chief architects of that genocide with a hero's grave at a national cemetery in his nation's capitol. This prime minister now states that he is outraged by Israel waging war against an actual rocket-launching enemy which resulted in some civilian casualties in Gaza, an area allowed food and water to its' civilian population by the Israelis. There still are approximately one million civilians living in Gaza.
Well, at least we all can better understand the origins of Prime Minister Edrogan's mindset by seeing who his government honors. I would like to know at what point (in terms of body count) and by what means one becomes a hero rather than a murderer in Mr. Edrogan's opinion.
Jack Kemp is not the politician of the same name.
