Reply #9: I've had this discussion many a day with my officemate... [View All]

[cascadiance]

who's Armenian, and I've lived in Turkey a good portion of my younger life too. There are two sides to this story, though certainly that story was an ugly one on the Turks' history. This is a whole separate topic that one can talk and argue about for hours. I think there is motivation on both sides to distort things in their favor, and there are also just as many well-meaning Armenians and Turks on both sides that would like to acknowledge that this horrible set of events happened and put it behind them to start anew, but not forget so as to make the same mistakes again. The problem is that those that want to distort things on both sides are the ones hoping to profit from these distortions, and that's what perpetuates these kind of things to keep happening over time.

As Sibel herself said, and this article says, her main focus isn't to put the Turks in bad light in terms of the Armenian question. That is just one small aspect of this whole thing. She wants the truth, and I admire her for that, even if it alienates her from many of her former countrymen. What seems to be coming through is that perhaps the fact that the stuff that is being "leaked out now" about Hastert and the Armenian Genocide question, might in fact be intentional, so that Sibel can be made to look like she's part of the Armenian lobby here to make the Turks look bad, when that really is not her focus. Perhaps some feel if this is what the press dwells upon, it will look more like a petty Armenian Genocide/Turkish argument instead of an honest plea to investigate the far more nebulous and dangerous criminal activities by our government and other criminal organizations that are being alluded to here.

Though the Armenian question is certianly one to look at and hopefully Turkey's quest to be in the EU can help it get worked out, I think one should be careful not to be sidetracked on this issue when talking about the information that Sibel Edmonds feels that is essential for our country to hear about. We cannot afford to lose track of that!