Private NTV television reports that Turkey has recalled its ambassador

[Ice4Clark]

Source: AP

to the United States over the Armenian genocide bill.

No direct link yet, just a "breaking news banner"


Read more: http://www.cnn.com/

[bdamomma]

1. oh what the hell?? what the hell is wrong with Turkey, just come

clean and fess up huh? Turkey is rather touchy aren't they, afraid to succumb to the truth.

[meegbear]

2. Watch the repugs go into a tizzy ...

never mind in 2002/03 they didn't give a rat's ass about pissing off France or Germany.

[indypaul]

4. Perhaps no Turkey companies have oil production contracts as

France and Germany had that needed repudiation.

[meegbear]

5. So what are you saying?

[aquart]

3. Really? What does Turkey want?

Aside from permission to invade Kurdish territory in Iraq?

[damntexdem]

6. Oh, my -- I hope they don't declare war on us!

Where would we get the troops to fight them off? They might practice genocide on Americans like they did on Armenians!

;-)

[f the letter]

7. Why the difficulty between us and turkey this week?

Up until like three days ago all i'd ever heard was how we're best friends and shoot pool and drink beer together, and now the genocide bill combined with this whole "Turkey had best not invade Iraq" line from commander guy.. Did i miss something that led to this?

[antiimperialist]

8. Turkey recalls ambassador to U.S. for consultations over genocide bill

Source: MSNBC

BREAKING NEWS BANNER IN MSNBC AS I WRITE THIS.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

[TwilightGardener]

9. Ooohhh, somebody's in trouble!

[bdamomma]

10. This is rather childish isn't it???

Turkey is over reacting, grow up and face the truth huh?

[MrCoffee]

11. AP has an update:

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey has asked its ambassador in Washington to return to Turkey for consultations over a U.S. House panel's approval of a bill describing the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians as genocide, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday.

The ambassador would stay in Turkey for about a week or 10 days, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Bilman.

"We are not withdrawing our ambassador. We have asked him to come to Turkey for some consultations," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071011/ap_on_re_mi_ea/turkey_us_genocide;_ylt=An82lO393gJSGfKiAh_lhSCs0NUE

[bdamomma]

13. this line is most telling:

"We are not withdrawing our ambassador. We have asked him to come to Turkey for some consultations," he said.

I hope they can come to a understanding and face the truth.

[ohio2007]

14. They have a problem with Armenians and US Congressman

...Historians estimate up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed by genocide scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey, however, denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying that the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

...

[bdamomma]

16. they (Turkey) has a problem with the truth and facts.

[ohio2007]

19. it's that river in Egypt nt

[ohio2007]

12. gotta a real link?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
doesn't go directly to the story

[bdamomma]

15. this is on the BBC website

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7040366.stm

[ohio2007]

17. looks like a ramp up to an invasion

....Turkey's foreign ministry said the ambassador would return to Turkey for a stay of "a week or 10 days".
"We are not withdrawing our ambassador," said ministry spokesman Levent Bilman.

"We have asked him to come to Turkey for some consultations."

US President George W Bush had argued against the bill, saying its passage would do "great harm" to relations with "a key ally in Nato and in the global war on terror".

....


does Congress plan to put sanctions on Turkey unilaterally?

[MrCoffee]

22. the concern is that Turkey will invade northern Iraq to attack the Kurds

[ohio2007]

26. next week the Turkish parliment meets to authorize the use of force in northern Iraq

I think this decision will get a few more yes votes next week.

But the Congressman can always claim the 'non binding' bill wasn't supposed to have teeth ;)

[Mike Daniels]

25. Clinton put an end to a similar proposal during his presidency as well

For some reason, we seem adverse to pissing off the Turks when it comes to this incident.

[rodeodance]

18. REUTERS: Turkey recalls ambassador to U.S. over Armenians

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL1166215920071011

Turkey recalls ambassador to U.S. over Armenians
Thu Oct 11, 2007 1:34pm

[rodeodance]

20. "We called back our ambassador to Washington for consultations. It should not be understood that we

By Paul de Bendern

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey recalled its ambassador to the United States for consultations on Thursday after a vote in a U.S. congressional committee branded killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide.

"We called back our ambassador to Washington for consultations. It should not be understood that we have pulled him back permanently. He will be in Ankara for consultations in a few days," a senior Turkish diplomat told Reuters.

Other Turkish diplomats confirmed the move.

The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee approved on Wednesday a resolution branding the killings during World War One as genocide -- a charge Turkey hotly denies.

Turkey's prime minister will ask parliament next week to authorize a military push into north Iraq to fight Kurdish rebels although analysts say a large Turkish cross-border incursion remains unlikely

[rodeodance]

21. * WHAT HAPPENED IN 1915:

Here are some details about the issue:

* THE BACKGROUND:

-- In the late 19th century the Ottoman Empire's Armenian minority, numbering an estimated 2 million, was encouraged by exiled groups in the United States, Geneva and in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, to assert its nationalism.

-- Repression by Ottoman irregulars, mainly Kurds, led to the massacre of some 30,000 Armenians in eastern Anatolia in 1894-1896. Several thousand more were killed in Constantinople in August 1896 after Armenian extremists seized the Ottoman Bank to draw attention to their cause.

-- The massacres were halted after the Great Powers threatened to intervene.

* WHAT HAPPENED IN 1915:

-- As the Ottomans fought Russian forces in eastern Anatolia during World War One, many Armenians formed partisan groups to assist the invading Russian armies. Continued...
View article on single page
Previous Page 1 | 2 Next Page

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSGOR13465220071011

[kskiska]

23. My grandfather arrived here in 1909

after his entire family except for a brother and a sister had been killed. I have a pencil-written 1920s affidavit by a cousin, I believe, who was an eyewitness to my grandfather's young wife's death at the hands of the Turks. It was probably necessary for my grandfather to marry my grandmother, who was American. I've heard many passed down horror stories of the atrocities committed by Turkish soldiers.

[atreides1]

24. Thanks for the History

Isn't it funny how it seems that those who are safe from any danger are the main instigators?

Armenian exiles, Iraqi exiles, and even Iranian exiles, all calling for bringing down governments, but never seeming to put their own lives on the line?


"Thousands were marched from the Anatolian borders toward Syria and Mesopotamia (now Iraq) and Armenians say some 1.5 million died either in massacres or from starvation or deprivation as they were marched through the desert."

Sounds like the Trail of Tears in our own history? Iwonder when congress will address the American attempt at genocide of a native race?

[Andy Canuck]

27. 60 million native people in North America pre-Columbus,

2 million now. Our genocide, perhaps the worst in history.

[bdamomma]

28. and we rounded them up and put them on reservations.

we, humans are aggressive animals, but no ethic group should be massacred, but we have not learned our lessons at all.

[Andy Canuck]

29. the point being lets be leaders in redressing genocide

and accept our own genocidal past, openly, publicly, financially and culturally. Our policies of past slaughter and slavery. But let us have the guts to see and acknowledge what we did and do before we ask others to look at themselves.

Let alone this could lead to an unneccesary present day miltiary confrontation.

[dipsydoodle]

30. Here's the entire resolution

courtesy of the BBC :

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The House of Representatives finds the following:
(1) The Armenian Genocide was conceived and carried out by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulting in the deportation of nearly 2,000,000 Armenians, of whom 1,500,000 men, women, and children were killed, 500,000 survivors were expelled from their homes, and which succeeded in the elimination of the over 2,500-year presence of Armenians in their historic homeland.
(2) On May 24, 1915, the Allied Powers, England, France, and Russia, jointly issued a statement explicitly charging for the first time ever another government of committing `a crime against humanity'.
(3) This joint statement stated `the Allied Governments announce publicly to the Sublime Porte that they will hold personally responsible for these crimes all members of the Ottoman Government, as well as those of their agents who are implicated in such massacres'.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/11_10_08_armenia.pdf

If you can't open a PDF you'll have a problem but doubtless its listed elsewhere.
Main new item is here : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7040366.stm