Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan --Israel's Enemy, Hamas' Friend-- Mocks Turkish-Armenian Friendship

Turkey's Islamist prime minister, Erdogan, is not satisfied with continuing to deny the Ottoman Empire's genocide of Armenians during WW One. He has now demanded destruction of a statue celebrating Turkish-Armenian friendship. Erdung recently visited the Kars region, part of historic Armenia and near the present Turkish border with Armenia. He called the monument a monstrosity, and pointed to its location near the tomb of a Muslim scholar. Of course, Erdung can get away with saying and doing almost anything, since he enjoys the favor of America's WonderBoy President, the highly cynical Barack Hussein Obama who --before his election in 2008-- had promised the Armenian-American community that he would recognize the Armenian genocide. Since then, of course, Obama has curried favor with the Erdung govt in Turkey, used Turkey against Israel in the "Free Gaza" Turkish armada, and refused to call the Armenian genocide a genocide.

The statue's sculptor, a Turk named Mehmet Aksoy, warned that destruction of his work would remind the world of the Taliban's destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan, and would harm Turkey's candidacy for membership in the European Union.

"La Turquie détruit une statue célébrant l'amitié avec l'Arménie La Turquie a entamé mardi le démontage d'un imposant monument célébrant l'amitié avec l'Arménie près de la frontière entre les deux pays, après que le Premier ministre eut tourné en dérision la statue et demandé son enlèvement. Recep Tayyip Erdogan avait déclenché un torrent de critiques lors d'une visite à Kars en janvier au cours de laquelle il avait fustigé la statue comme une monstruosité... une drôle de chose érigée à proximité de la tombe d'un érudit musulman. Les critiques avaient vu notamment dans ses propos des accents islamiques orthodoxes: les statues considérées comme idolâtres sont souvent rejetées par l'islam. Le sculpteur Mehmet Aksoy a averti que la démolition de son oeuvre rappellerait la destruction des Bouddhas de Bamiyan en Afghanistan par les talibans et gênerait la candidature d'Ankara à l'entrée dans l'Union européenne." [Guysen News 26 IV 2011]

Since we're on the subject of Armenian-Turkish relations, there are still scholars who seek to deny or minimize the genocide or claim that it was just part of the war, etc. Yet, Eitan Belkind, an activist in the NILI group led by Aaron Aaronsohn, was an eyewitnes to massacres of Armenian civilians during WW I. Aaronsohn's sister, Sarah, was an eyewitness to the cruel deportation of Armenians from their homes in Anatolia toward the area of Dayr az-Zur [Deir ez-Zor] in the Syrian Desert where many of the mass murder acts were actually committed. Ironically, a Syrian ruler has lately killed many of his fellow Arabs in Dayr az-Zur who were protesting his despotic rule.
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Earlier posts about the Armenian genocide on this blog, also Aaron & Sarah Aaronsohn, Eitan Belkind: here & here & here & here & here.
4-28-2011 Syrian oppositionist Farid Ghadry asks Erdogan why he doesn't send a "freedom flotilla" to Syria, while Erdogan noisily and actively demonstrates concern for Gaza [here]