TURKEY BLAMES JEWS FOR ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL

Blame game: Turkey points finger over 'genocide' bill (JTA)
ISTANBUL (JTA) -- When a U.S. congressional committee approved a resolution recognizing the World War I-era massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide, Turkey’s reaction was swift and harsh: Blame the Jews.

In an interview with the liberal Islamic Zaman newspaper on the eve of the resolution’s approval Oct. 10 by the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said he told American Jewish leaders that a genocide bill would strengthen the public perception in Turkey that “Armenian and Jewish lobbies unite forces against Turks.”

Babacan added, “We have told them that we cannot explain it to the public in Turkey if a road accident happens. We have told them that we cannot keep the Jewish people out of this.”

The Turkish public seems to have absorbed that message. An online survey by Zaman’s English-language edition asking why Turks believed the bill succeeded showed at one point that 22 percent of respondents had chosen “Jews’ having legitimized the genocide claims” -- second only to “Turkey’s negligence.”

BUSH REJECTS TURKEY "GENOCIDE" TAG

THIS IS DISGUSTING. WHEN HITLER REASSURED HIS HENCHMEN THAT THEY WOULD NOT BE CRITICIZED FOR MASS-MURDERING JEWS AND POLES, HE SAID, "Who still talks nowadays of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

BUSH REJECTS TURKEY 'GENOCIDE' TAG (The Age - Australia)
THE US President has opposed moves to legally term the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire a "genocide", backing Turkey's stand on the issue.

"The President has described the events of 1915 as 'one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century', but believes the determination of whether or not the events constitute a genocide should be a matter for historical inquiry, not legislation," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

The comments came after George Bush talked with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and discussed legislation before the US Congress, which describes the deaths of Armenians from 1915 to 1923 as genocide. "The President reiterated his opposition to this resolution, the passage of which would be harmful to US relations with Turkey," Mr Johndroe said.

Turkey is a key Muslim ally for the US and a fellow member of NATO.

Turkey's then foreign minister Abdullah Gul, who is now Turkish President, warned after a visit to Washington in February that passing the draft would "poison" ties and "spoil everything" between the two countries.

A similar draft to the resolution before Congress was pulled in October 2000, following an intervention by then president Bill Clinton.

Turkey categorically rejects Armenian claims that 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in systematic deportations and killings during 1915-1918, as the Ottoman Empire was breaking up.

Mr Bush commemorates the massacres each year in a speech but stops short of calling them genocide.

Many countries have recognised the killings as genocide, and Turkey has responded by temporarily downgrading its political and economic ties with some of them.

DID TURKEY HELP ISRAEL RAID SYRIA?

Report: Turkey provided Israel with intelligence on Syria (JPost)
Turkey provided Israel with intelligence on Syria prior to last week's alleged IAF flyover into the country, Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida claimed on Thursday.

According to the report, the country had a central role in delivering precise information regarding targets in Syria that were to be hit by Israeli planes. Further, the report claimed that the Israeli pilots were given authorization by the Turkish army to use its airspace in order to carry out the operation.

Sources told Al-Jarida that Turkish intelligence did not coordinate the move with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "Coordination of the [release of information] occurred far away from the political echelon," it said.

The Israeli and Turkish armies share a strong relationship that has been felt through several joint exercises and weapons sales.

On Saturday, an unnamed Turkish official demanded explanations from Israel after fuel tanks allegedly dropped by Israel F-151 planes who were conducting a foray into Syrian airspace, were found on the Turkish-Syrian border.

Turkish paper Hurriyet reported that Turkey was demanding whether the Israeli planes also passed over its own airspace.

Report: Turkish military assisted Israel in secret raid on Syria (HOTAIR)

Well, who knows. It’s extraordinary if true, though: not only did they allegedly provide targeting information but they allowed IAF jets the use of Turkish airspace and kept it secret from Erdogan, the Islamist-sympathizer prime minister. Hard to believe they’d go to all that trouble if the target was nothing more than weapons shipments to Hezbollah. Turkey has nothing to fear from those and thus no reason to risk Syria’s ire by helping out the IAF. If, on the other hand, the target was secret Syrian nuclear installations…

North Korea may be cooperating with Syria on some sort of nuclear facility in Syria, according to new intelligence the United States has gathered over the past six months, sources said. The evidence, said to come primarily from Israel, includes dramatic satellite imagery that led some U.S. officials to believe that the facility could be used to produce material for nuclear weapons.

The new information, particularly images received in the past 30 days, has been restricted to a few senior officials under the instructions of national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, leaving many in the intelligence community unaware of it or uncertain of its significance, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Some cautioned that initial reports of suspicious activity are frequently reevaluated over time and were skeptical that North Korea and Syria, which have cooperated on missile technology, would have a joint venture in the nuclear arena…

In talks in Beijing in March 2003, a North Korean official pulled aside his American counterpart and threatened to “transfer” nuclear material to other countries. President Bush has said that passing North Korean nuclear technology to other parties would cross the line.

Israel conducted a mysterious raid last week against targets in Syria. The Israeli government has refused to divulge any details, but a former Israeli official said he had been told that it was an attack against a facility capable of making unconventional weapons.

TURKEY RETURNS 2,700 OLD ARTIFACT TO ISRAEL

Hezekiah Inscription to Return to Israel - Jay Bushinsky
An ancient inscription memorializing Jerusalem's salvation from Assyrian invaders 2,700 years ago is to be returned to the Holy Land from Turkey for study and public display. Israel has been trying for about 20 years to recover the artifact. As Assyrian forces under King Sennacherib were about to march on Jerusalem, a defiant King Hezekiah ordered the construction of a tunnel connecting the city to the Gihon Spring outside its walls, ensuring a source of drinking water. An inscription inside the tunnel described the dramatic moment when stonecutters working from either end converged in the middle. Ottoman Turkish authorities shipped the inscription to Istanbul where it has been kept in the Museum of the Ancient East near the Topkapi Palace. (Washington Times)

ISRAEL SEEKS RETURN OF ANCIENT TABLET FROM TURKEY

Jerusalem Seeks Return of Ancient Tablet - Matti Friedman
Jerusalem's mayor, Uri Lupolianski, has asked the Turkish government to return a 2,700-year-old tablet uncovered in an ancient subterranean passage in the city, as a "gesture of goodwill" between allies. Known as the Siloam inscription, the tablet was found in a tunnel hewed to channel water from a spring outside Jerusalem's walls into the city around 700 BCE - a project mentioned in the Old Testament's Book of Chronicles. It was discovered in 1880 and taken by the Ottoman rulers to Istanbul, where it is now in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. (AP/Washington Post)

TURKEY SENTENCES 7 TO LIFE FOR SYNAGOGUE TERROR ATTACK

Seven Sentenced to Life in Istanbul Truck Bombings - Laura King
A Turkish court handed down life sentences Friday to seven men, accused of having links to al-Qaeda, in connection with truck bombings that targeted two synagogues, the British Consulate, and a London-based bank in Istanbul in November 2003 that killed nearly 60 people. Louai Sakka, a Syrian accused as the mastermind and chief financier of the bombings, who received a life sentence, proclaimed: "We are close to victory....I'll win my freedom and once again join the jihad." (Los Angeles Times)

STANFORD TO SHOW ANTI-SEMITIC TURKISH MOVIE

In February, 2006 I posted about a Turkish movie starring American actors Gary Busey and Billy Zane in which American soldiers in Iraq crash a wedding and pump a little boy full of lead in front of his mother, kill dozens of innocent people with random machine gun fire, shoot the groom in the head, and drag those left alive to Abu Ghraib prison - where a Jewish doctor cuts out their organs, which he sells to rich people in New York, London and Tel Aviv.

In June, 2006 I posted about a San Francisco Muslim Film Festival's decision to show the movie.

Now, this vile piece of celluloid excrement will be show on the campus of Stanford University.