06 05 22 - A prestigious U.S. daily accused Turkey in an editorial published yesterday ....

ANKARA - Turkish Daily News
A prestigious U.S. daily accused Turkey in an editorial published yesterday of having a self-destructive obsession with denying an alleged Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire during the World War I years.
Turkey's self-destructive obsession with denying the alleged genocide seems to have no limits, The New York Times said in reference to a series of Turkish reactions in the face of genocide allegations, including the temporary recall of the Turkish ambassador to France to protest a French bill penalizing any denial of the alleged genocide as well as the high-profile trial of Turkey's internationally acknowledged author Orhan Pamuk for having made reference to the so-called genocide.
“Turkey's stance is hard to fathom. Each time the Turks lash out, new questions arise about Turkey's claim to a place in the European Union, and the Armenian diaspora becomes even more adamant in demanding a public reckoning over what happened,” it said.
“Granted, genocide is a difficult crime for any nation to acknowledge. But it is absurd to treat any reference to the issue within Turkey as a crime and to scream ‘lie!' every time someone mentions genocide,” said the article, which criticized the government for considering even discussion of the issue to be a “grave national insult” and “reacting to it with hysteria.”
“Turkey's continued refusal to countenance even a discussion of the issue stands as a major obstacle to restoring relations with neighboring Armenia and to claiming Turkey's rightful place in Europe and the West. It is time for the Turks to realize that the greater danger to them is denying history,” said the newspaper.
Another article published in the Washington Times reported on Turkish measures against Canada and France.
Turkey pulled out of a NATO exercise because the Canadian prime minister used the term “genocide” in reference to the killings of Armenians during World War I.
Just like the one published in the New York Times, the article criticized Turkish authorities for opposing any public discussion of the alleged genocide.

Ongoing protests against bill:
Representatives from various nongovernmental organizations and unions protested the French bill in front of the French Embassy in Ankara yesterday, calling on the French government not to legislate the bill.
Blocking Paris Street, where the embassy is located, for half an hour, the demonstrators carried Turkish flags and unfurled banners reading “Turkish-French Friendship Watch -- Do Not Legislate Genocide Lies.”
Westerners are resorting to genocide lies whenever they want Turkey to make concessions, said one of the protestors, while some others said the French bill was a part of games played on Turkey.
In separate protests against the bill, child correspondents from Çankaya Child Magazine marched yesterday from Ankara's Þili Square to Paris Street.
“Did you wait for 100 years to write history?” Ýbrahim Büker, one of the 100 child correspondents, asked French politicians.
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NYT: Turkey is obsessed with 'genocide denial'
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
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NYT: Turkey is obsessed with 'genocide denial'

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