US Withdraws Award to Diplomat ...

violat3

A small interest story here.

John M. Evans, the U.S. ambassador to Armenia, was to receive a prestigious award for "constructive dissent" for characterizing as genocide the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

In a sudden move, The American Foreign Service Association Selection Committee withdrew the Award.

Not coincidentally, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has just arrived in Washington for a meeting with President Bush to bolster strained U.S.-Turkish relations.

The award is intended to foster creative thinking and intellectual courage within the State Department bureaucracy, and the secretary of state usually attends the award ceremony.

Is this a case of the truth and those who dare top tell it being a casualty of politics, war or diplomacy?

Full story below.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...referrer=email

violat3

for those that do not know about Turkey's recent past :

it's not the first time or the last time that the USA has tried to cover up the genocide by the Turks on the ethnic Armenians in Turkey by request of the previous Turkish goverments

a footnote they hearded the Armenians into caves and gassed them to death ... History was and did repeat itself 20 years later on a much larger scale

the USA has good reason to cover it up they fear upseting the Turks as their biggest military bases in the muslim sphere are in Turkey .... not forgeting Turks buy more American goods than any other part of the world outwith the USA percentage wise of wages

Let them go through what every young German has had to go through for the last 60 years

until then Turks come clean they should never be allowed in the European union along with Admission, apology and compensation before the get a single Euro out of the European taxpayer.

Of course it won't happen, as they are now in the front line of the 'America's War on Terror'

radTube

Turkey shouldn't become a part of the EU even if they all started wearing lederhosen and speaking German. They're clearly not a European nation. Well, admittedly us Finns don't have much in common with some other members, but at least we all share the basic values and have a more or less 'western/modern' culture. The EU shouldn't take on new members just for the sake of growing bigger. That would be like the USA making Saudi Arabia their 51st state.

Sorry about the rant...

violat3

i think you'll find Turkey is putting pressure on the USA to put pressure on the EU to admit them ... personally i do not want Turkey in the Eu either like you say they are not European

digerati

My city is considered part of Glendale. For those of you who don't know of Glendale, it has the largest population of Armenians outside of Armenia. And every year they will go to the city buildings and protest to try and get them to lower the flag to half staff in recognition of the genocide.

Personally I think America needs to recognize the genocide, but I can at least see why they keep playing nice to Turkey. In the game of world politics you need an ally in all parts of the world, and it's hard for America to find allies in the middle east. So until we gain more allies I think the government will have to play nice with Turkey out of circumstance. But I still don't like it.

violat3

it still does not explian why WE (Europeans) should have a outside force sic. *your country America* put pressure on us to admit them when they still have some of the most gross civil rights problems ... i couldn't care less whose allies they are admitting them into to the European union sends out a message that its ok to allow genocide ... the Germans faced the consequences of the Nazis why should young Turks not face the consequences of there peers actions of genocide ... and they still continue their actions towards Armenians in the 90's war between Armenia and Azerjeban (or something like that) the Turkish Army shelled Armenian positions .... a war that did not involve them

digerati

If you're referring tot he Nuremburg (spelling?) trials then they were carried out within the time frame. Considering the Armenian Genocide took place from 1915-1917 I doubt there are very many young Turks who had anything to do with it. Hell I think it'd be a challenge to find anyone who participated in it alive anymore.

violat3

you obviously do not understand ... at a very young age German children are educated on Germany's actions in WW2 (the holecuast) so that they will learn from past mistakes in a hope it will never happen again ... the turkish goverment and people know all about the genocide of the Armenians ... the main differance being, they feel Turkey and Turkish people should not be held responsible or feel the need to apologise, Turkey continues to flaunt civil rights and IMO a disgusting and vile country, but hey ho suppose if its ok for the USA to abuse peoples civil rights then its ok for the Turks (Guantamo bay & yon Iraq prison in Bagdad)

raid517

So much for Bush's stated 'change in policy' where he now admits that American foreign policy has been wrong for the last 60 years and he is now prepared to support the spreading and promotion of democratic ideals in the world. It's still nice though to hear him say something that many of us have been saying for a very long time.

Nonetheless I think I smell a PR campaign, where Bush (in a back handed way) admits that he really did screw up over Iraq and starts to try to make something positive out of a period in American history that has really been extremely damaging and negative.

I doubt it will work. Beyond some smart advertising on the US domestic scene, it is likely to have very little impact in real terms. How for example can the US really promote democracy in Suadi Arabia, when the only viable alternative is a rabidly anti US, extremist Islamic government? Because given the choice, this is almost certainly what most Saudi's would vote for. Similarly how can he turn his back on all of the dictators he has cosied up to in his so called war on terror? Is he simply going to tell them, 'Oops, sorry, your services are no longer required'?

It sounds to me like Bush's plan for the future is less war war and more jaw jaw.

But talk as they say is cheap - and talk of democracy is probably the cheapest of all - and the way things are going for Bush on the home front at the moment, I guess that can only seem like a very good thing.

He will do what most politicians do best - chatter endlessly, while in reality nothing ever really changes.

GJ

raid517

BTW, I don't know if anyone is even remotely interested, but this is what Tony Blair has been calling for for years - since even before 9/11. He sees it as his missionary purpose in life to bring a period of peace and democracy to the world. Indeed that is what he thought he was signing up to when he agreed to support the Iraqi war - and is also why he was prepared to stake so much on it - including his job and his reputation. (Both of which have now been substatially damaged). Maybe this was the payoff he was promised for his support of American intervention in Iraq? Pure speculation of course, but with the end of the recent G8 sumit, I wonder if it is all purely a coincidence?

It's a pity all it's likely to add up to is a slight change in language. And even that isn't likely to be hugely significant, since the US has spoken about promoting democracy in the world for years, while in reality it supported something very different.

GJ