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  • Westminster Turcophiliacs

    Westminster Turcophiliacs

    By Jirair Tutunjian, Toronto,
    20 October 2014


    During the North American book launch of Katia Peltekian's "The Times
    of the Armenian Genocide" in Toronto in August, many attendees were
    astonished by the tremendous and almost unequivocal British support of
    the Armenians during the Genocide. They were surprised because
    throughout the rest of the 20th century Westminster was an ally of
    Turkey and refused to recognize the Genocide.

    England/Britain-Ottoman Empire/Turkey relations go back to the reign
    of Queen Elizabeth I (1550-1603). England's first ambassador was
    dispatched to Istanbul in 1578 to obtain the charter of the Levant
    Company from the Sublime Porte. The charter granted privileges to
    English merchants trading in the Ottoman Empire. Two years later the
    two countries signed a treaty of commerce. The Virgin Queen also sent
    to the sultan a musical clock organ and a ceremonial coach to cement
    relations. It was of no consequence to the English that the sultan had
    executed 19 of his brothers and half-brothers to secure the throne.

    Ignoring the threat the Ottomans posed to Europe, Britain sold
    ammunition, tin and lead (for the manufacturing of cannons) to the
    Ottoman Empire. Queen Elizabeth even contemplated a joint military
    operation with Sultan Murad III against Spain in 1585.

    In the 17th century diplomatic and trade relations picked up speed and
    English adventurers travelled through the Ottoman Empire; some of them
    wrote about their journey ("Descriptions of the Turkish Empire" by
    George Sandys, "General Historie of the Turkes" by Richard Knolles) to
    familiarize English politicians, merchants and scholars with the
    Ottomans. Knolles expounded that Turkish ignorance of classical
    literature was a boon because it allowed them to focus on the business
    of government. Many other books followed.

    Although in the next two centuries relations between England/Britain
    and the Ottomans remained reasonably friendly, the image of the Turk
    began to slowly change from an exotic warrior to one of weak, corrupt,
    and incompetent Oriental.

    Nevertheless, the British helped the Ottomans when Napoleon invaded
    Egypt and Palestine in the last years of the 18th century. The might
    of the British Navy dissuaded the French general from continuing his
    campaign north into other Ottoman occupied lands.

    During the Second Turco-Egyptian War (1839-1841), when the Ottoman
    armies were on the verge of collapse, the British and Austrian fleets
    cut Egyptian military leader Ibrahim Pasha's communications with
    Egypt. The British also occupied Acre (Palestine) and Beirut to scotch
    the Egyptian invasion of Asia Minor. Because of British threats, Egypt
    abandoned its claims to Syria (Lebanon, today's Syria, Palestine and
    Jordan) and Ibrahim Pasha (son of Egypt's leader Muhammad Ali) signed
    a peace treaty.

    Throughout the rest of the 19th century Britain continued to nurse the
    "Sick Man of Europe". The reason it did so was because of British
    regarded the Ottoman Empire an obstacle to Russian expansion into the
    Middle East.

    During the Crimean War, in the mid-1850s, Britain joined several
    European nations to defend the Ottomans against Russian encroachments.
    Two decades later, at the Congress of Berlin (1878), Britain, along
    with Germany, reversed the gains Russia had made during the
    Russo-Turkish War.

    But the ungrateful Ottomans joined Germany against Britain and its
    allies during the First World War. This goes a long way to explain why
    the British government sided with the Armenians when the latter were
    being exterminated by the Ottomans. With the war over, London didn't
    see any benefit in continuing hostilities against the Turks. 10
    Downing Street betrayed the Armenians, and returned to its traditional
    strategy of supporting Turkey.

    In the last few months of the Second World War the Soviet Union tried
    to annul the Kars Treaty and regain Kars and Ardahan. Soviet Foreign
    Minister Vyacheslav Molotov told the Turkish ambassador to Moscow that
    the territories should be returned to the Soviet Union in the name of
    the Armenian and Georgian republics. Winston Churchill objected to
    Moscow's claim while President Harry J. Truman felt that the matter
    should be settled between Moscow and Ankara. However, Churchill
    persuaded the newly-elected American president to force the Soviets to
    drop the idea. Kars and Ardahan remained in Turkey.

    British/Turkish relationship was solidified in the late '40s with
    Turkey's admission to NATO. Turkey has remained in the good books of
    Westminster despite Ankara's decades of dictatorships, the illegal
    occupation of northern Cyprus, the atrocities against the Kurds, the
    persecution of minorities, the drift to Islamic fundamentalism... and
    the recent Ankara support of the Islamic terrorists in Syria/Iraq.

    While many British citizens and media are supportive of Armenians,
    don't expect 10 Downing Street to recognize the Genocide of Armenians
    next year.


    http://www.keghart.com/Tutunjian-Westminster-Turcophiliacs


    From: Baghdasarian
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