Turkey and the G-word

Tue, 07/14/2009 - 10:07am

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems pretty quick to throw the g-word at China, considering his own country's historical sensitivities:

"The incidents in China are, simply put, a genocide. There's no point in interpreting this otherwise," Erdogan said.

It's not exactly that simple. There's a case to be made that China's suppression of the Uighurs combined with it's efforts to build the Han population in Xinjiang constitute genocide under the 1948 convention, which includes "Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part" as part of the definition. But this is a pretty broad interpretation, especially considering that the local Han population has been suffering attacks as well. 

It's also surprising to see a Turkish president so willing to use the word genocide this freely. Turkey has charged quite a few people over the years -- including the country's most famous author -- with insulting Turkishness for saying similar things about the massacre of Armenians after World War I or the killing of Kurds in more recent years. Erdogan himself has attacked proposals that Turkey apologize for historical wrongdoings.

Is this really a conversation he wants to start?

TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images

Joshua Keating | Permalink | | Comments? Login or register
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Why Turkey is an agitator?

by Truth2009 on Sat, 07/18/2009 - 12:29pm

It is ironic to know the word of genocide was said by Turkey, who killed many Armenians in the history and still denied even today. A shmaless country.

I also confused that why these Muslim countries lack self-reflection and feel that other non-Muslim countries own them a lot?

The support of Uighur terrorists from U.S. will reward U.S. the same thing had happened in Xinjiang, China.

Turkey and the G-word

by Vegasli on Sun, 07/19/2009 - 12:08pm

So what TIM SLOAN is saying is, if you have blood in your hands you should close your eyes and shut up about the current issues, such as China's crackdown on Uighurs! Let me ask you one simple question; is there a country, religion, and or ethnic background that does not have blood in their hands? Armenians were working against the Ottoman military for Russia during war times, treason, which is punishable by death! Ottoman military was humane to force them to emigration, however people died of illness, hunger, attacks by gangs, and some by the Ottoman soldiers who were punished later by the Ottoman government. Please get your facts before accusing Turkish people with "genocide" and asking to turn blind eye on what China is doing!