Please find below:
(1) The longer of two responses by the American Hellenic Media Project (AHMP) to US News & World Report; and
(2) The shorter of two responses by AHMP.
American Hellenic Media Project
P.O. Box 1150
New York, N.Y. 10028-0008
ahmp@hri.org
www.ahmp.org
Via fax and e-mail: (202) 955-2049
(the longer of two responses)
July 30, 1999
To the Editor of US News & World Report:
Your article, "Israel's Intriguing Turkish Ties" (8/2), fails to address the moral paradox of Jewish-Americans, who have traditionally stood at the forefront of egalitarian causes, advocating on behalf of an outlaw government that is spending millions on public relations firms, hired guns in academia, and political lobbyists to deny its implementation of our century's first genocide.
In 1995, Stanley Cohen, Professor of Criminology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, wrote in Law and Social Inquiry that:
"The nearest successful example [of "collective denial"] in the modern era is the 80 years of official denial by successive Turkish governments of the 1915-17 genocide against the Armenians in which some 1.5 million people lost their lives. This denial has been sustained by deliberate propaganda, lying and coverups, forging documents, suppression of archives, and bribing scholars. The West, especially the United States, has colluded by not referring to the massacres in the United Nations, ignoring memorial ceremonies, and surrendering to Turkish pressure in NATO and other strategic arenas of cooperation."
According to watchdog groups such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, Turkey has one of the worst human rights records on earth. By its own admission, the Turkish government has killed five times more dissidents since the 1980's than Pinochet did during his notorious dictatorship -- not even counting the thousands of Kurds killed under cover of Turkey's war against its Kurdish insurgents.
The International Pen disclosed that Turkey had more writers in jail than any other nation. The New York Times cited Turkey as the country leading the world in imprisoned journalists ahead of China and Syria. This April, the neo-fascist Nationalist Action Party (MHP) doubled its votes in parliamentary elections and emerged as the second-largest party in Turkey. Through the use of death squads, kidnappings and bombings, the Gray Wolves, MHP's paramilitary arm, is credited with having killed thousands of leftists and other dissidents; a picture still hangs in MHP's headquarters with the slogan "Those who lift a hand against the Turk will die like dogs."
In 1974 Turkey invaded Cyprus and ethnically cleansed 200,000 Greek Cypriots from their homes, killing thousands in the process. Within Turkey, 200,000 Greek Orthodox Christians were driven out since WWII by government-sponsored pogroms. Today, the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul -- the seat of Eastern Orthodox Christianity -- is slowly being asphyxiated by government repression and has endured repeated bomb attacks by extremists.
The moral absurdity of the children of the survivors of one genocide collaborating with the perpetrators of another was starkly illustrated recently when the Anti-Defamation League took out a large ad in The New York Times. Emblazoned in bold letters above the Turkish flag was the word "CONGRATULATIONS" in English, Hebrew and Turkish. The ad praised Turkey for its democratic values, prompting Harvard professor and Jewish-American genocide scholar James Russell to denounce the ad as "diabolical".
This century began with Turkey's genocide of 1.5 million Armenians and 350,000 Pontian Greeks. It is ending with Turkey's grisly campaign against its Kurdish minority, replete with institutionalized torture, the killing of thousands of non-combatants, the destruction of more than 3,000 villages, and the ethnic cleansing of an estimated 3 million Kurds. Were Jewish and other Americans made more fully aware of these facts, they too would find their leadership's mephistophelean alliance with Turkey not so much "intriguing" as diabolical.
Very truly yours,
P. D. Spyropoulos, Esq.
Executive Director
_____________
The American Hellenic Media Project is a non-profit organization created to address inaccuracy and bias in the media and encourage independent, ethical and responsible journalism.
American Hellenic Media Project
P.O. Box 1150
New York, N.Y. 10028-0008
ahmp@hri.org
www.ahmp.org
Via fax and e-mail: (202) 955-2049
(the shorter of two responses)
July 30, 1999
To the Editor of US News & World Report:
Your article, "Israel's Intriguing Turkish Ties" (8/2), fails to address the moral paradox of Jewish-Americans, who have traditionally stood at the forefront of egalitarian causes, advocating on behalf of an outlaw government that is spending millions on public relations firms, hired guns in academia, and political lobbyists to deny its role in our century's first genocide: the systematic extermination of Armenians by the Turkish state.
In 1974 Turkey invaded Cyprus and ethnically cleansed 200,000 Greek Cypriots from their homes, killing thousands in the process. According to watchdog groups such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, Turkey has one of the worst human rights records on earth. By its own admission, the Turkish government has killed five times more dissidents since the 1980's than Pinochet did during his notorious dictatorship. Moreover, Turkey has more writers and journalists in jail than any other country.
This April, the neo-fascist Nationalist Action Party, credited with having killed thousands of leftists and other dissidents, doubled its votes in parliamentary elections and emerged as the second-largest party in Turkey.
The moral absurdity of the children of the survivors of one genocide collaborating with the perpetrators of another was starkly illustrated recently when the Anti-Defamation League took out a large ad in The New York Times. Emblazoned in bold letters above the Turkish flag was the word "CONGRATULATIONS" in English, Hebrew and Turkish. The ad praised Turkey for its democratic values, prompting Harvard professor and Jewish-American genocide scholar James Russell to denounce the ad as "diabolical".
This century began with Turkey's genocide of 1.5 million Armenians and 350,000 Pontian Greeks. It is ending with Turkey's grisly campaign against its Kurdish minority, replete with the killing of thousands of non-combatants, the destruction of more than 3,000 villages, and the ethnic cleansing of an estimated 3 million Kurds. Were Jewish and other Americans made more fully aware of these facts, they too would find their leadership's mephistophelean alliance with Turkey not so much "intriguing" as diabolical.
Very truly yours,
P. D. Spyropoulos, Esq.
Executive Director