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US Azerbaijanis and Turks to unite against another Armenian distortion

27 July 2011 09:43 (UTC +04:00)

The Armenians in their turn hold numerous support actions both online and in real life. American Azerbaijanis and Turks decided to stand together against this disinformation.

â€œWe strongly oppose the language sneaked into the measure by Berman, known for championing controversial and racist Armenian causes, because it presents a partisan view held by those openly hostile to Turks, Turkish Americans, Turkey, and the Turkic realm. This language ignores the centuries long Ottoman/Turkish tolerance to all religions at a time when Jews were persecuted for their beliefs in Europe and found refuge and prosperity on Turkish soil. This language dismisses the constructive steps Turkey has taken to safeguard and expand religious freedom and to preserve places of worship belonging to Jews and Christiansâ€, says the statement, released by the Azeri and Turkish Diasporas July 26.

"All those ’whereas clauses’ loaded with hate towards Turks and reeked of vengeance were weeded out and only ’resolved clauses’ were included. What were left were mostly general concepts like ’Christian rights’ to ownership and religious rites with which most elected officials would have to agree. Please note that anti-Turkish amendments used to sail through, at least now we’re putting up a fight and the anti-Turks are clearly backing down. That’s the power of grassroots, or TABAN as we call it in Turkis)", said Ergun Kirlikovali, President of ATAA.

According to him, the Armenian lobby carefully worded H Res 306 to include loaded phrases like ’intentional destruction’--an integral part of the definition of genocide--because they knew that Speaker Boehner would never let that perennial nuisance, the alleged Armenian Genocide resolution, come to the Floor, nor did he want the HFAC Chair Lehtinen to bring it up.

The authorization bill is widely believed not to become law, say American Turks and Azerbaijanis.