WASHINGTON—The largest Turkish lobbying group in the United States has prepared a plan to counter efforts by Armenian-Americans on the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, Hurriyet Daily News reports.
April 24, 2015, will mark the one hundredth anniversary of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, in which 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or exiled from their historic homeland. Turkey denies that a genocide ever took place and has routinely campaigned heavily against efforts to bring recognition to the Armenian Genocide in the United States and abroad.
The Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), a Washington-based group founded in 1979, has prepared a “master plan” to “respond to the Armenians’ claims on every front.”
The Turkish campaign, which will include “both proactive and reactive responses,” will be introduced to all Turkish groups that will be invited to Washington in September.
“Proactive” measures include the forming of “activist committees” who will visit lawmakers in each state, conduct social media campaigns, keep in touch with traditional media outlets, prepare online courses and organize countrywide networking meetings for Americans.
One part of the initiative consists of the organization of at least 20 “day-long conferences” in partnership with local universities and with the participation of famous Turkish-Americans like Dr. Mehmet Öz and Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent.
However, in an editorial note in its report, Hurriyet Daily stresses that neither Dr. Oz nor Muhtar Kent are involved in or have knowledge of the ATAA’s plans.
“Reactive” responses will include immediately countering when “claims from Armenians are published or featured in panels, conferences and exhibitions organized by the Armenian lobby groups.” The ATAA says it will request from writers and publishers to include Turkish claims in their books or documentaries based on the Armenian claims.
Another aspect of the Turkish campaign will focus on Capitol Hill. The ATAA will cooperate with PaxTurcica for a joint educational program for the members of Congress. Members of the U.S. Congress will be instantly informed when they are presented with an anti-Turkish bill.
The Turkish-American community will also hold a fundraising event for every such event that the Armenian lobbies organize in the U.S.
If Mehmet Oz is going to smear his own good name by associating with these clowns then he truly is an imbecile. He should stick to performing CABGs and not throw his hat into this three ring circus. His agent, the broadcast companies that carry his show, and all other media outlets of his should be contacted, if he does participate in any of these denialist campaigns then he has no place in public media.
Mehmet Oz should answer why as an American citizen enlisted and served in the turkish military.
The more they make noise the more world’s people will know the truth of Armenian Genocide!
Let them go out and make public jackasses of themselves. There are enough semi-informed people in this country to be outraged. Their efforts will not be well received.
Guaranteed that neither Oz nor Kent will open their mouths to deny the Genocide. They have far too much to lose by supporting outrageous and false claims.
Unless they bribe or pay under the table no one will collaborate with them on such an important anniversary. Their counterclaims are futile, only a few disenfranchised individuals will actually take them seriously.
Besides, they have a bigger problem to deal with the, the Kurdish independence recognition is unavoidable whether they like it or not.
Good !!! Official and unofficial Turkey will make our job easier through such “denialist” campaigns : the more they try to refute the historical facts related to the Armenian Genocide, the more people will grow curious to learn about what happened in the Ottoman Empire. Remember the line in Shakespeare’s HAMLET : “The lady doth protest too much, methinks”. This quotation has been used as a figure of speech, in various phrasings, to indicate that a person’s overly frequent or vehement attempts to convince others of something have ironically helped to convince others that the opposite is true, by making the person look insincere and defensive.Therefore in rhetorical terms, the phrase can be thought of as indicating an unintentional apophasis – where the speaker who “protests too much” in favor of some assertion puts into others’ minds the idea that the assertion is false, something that they may not have considered before .If these people are smart they will reread HAMLET to learn something first.
and Turkey wants normalization of relations with Armenia?, NEVER, until the Genocide is recognized.
We have many enemies who call themselves friends.Or we remain united or we will succumb.Many people work against Armenian interests behind the scenes and also explicitly.We need to wake up.We have to abandon the selfishness although it seems difficult.
It’s a waste of time on their part, but even better, let them show their faces in public and allow the side of truth to make them look bad.
It’ll only be a matter of time until they regret doing such things, if not for weighing on the wrong side of reality, then for their own sake.
Is there a link or original source available online about the this plan that ATAA has announced (in words coming from the ATAA)? I’m not questioning the reliability of this article, but would like to extend my own research on this subject. Thank you!
Master plan? I guess that’s what follows the Final Solution.
Why would any decent human being,deny the Armenian Genocide….unless they are low-life STOOGIES,being paid off,by the jerky turks……You know that immediately…….PAID-OFF LOW LIFE STOOGIES.
This is a poignant example of Turkey’s legacy of guilt. The myriads of associations, programs and efforts directed towards denial of the Armenian Genocide, eat into the opportunity of democratic reforms in Turkey to help with progress into a society in line with European values.
Turkish leaders have a ‘One of a life time opportunity’ to make the just decision; to face history and bring justice to themselves and the Armenian people as well as other minorities.
AATA’s news sounds the alarm to Turkish leaders, an indication of Turkey’s intentions to immerse themselves deeper into the labyrinth for hiding from their past atrocities and the promotion of ‘concerto for denial’ in A minor.
Extermination of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War was one of the worst crimes of our time, the forerunner of all acts of genocide, which was marked by XX century .. Dr. Oz just put himself to ridicule