22 Sep 2005
Turkey bans 'genocide' meeting

Sooner or later the Turks are going to have to deal with 1915 - just like the Japanese dealt with Nanking and Unit 731, and the Germans dealt with the Holocaust. We Americans have had to come to grips with all manner of (much more minor, in scale at any rate) war crimes, from My Lai to Abu Ghraib.

Opening up, talking about it and taking action, even if only symbolic, is the way real democracies deal with these kinds of problems: shoving them under the rug and hoping they'll go away is wishful thinking in an open society.

And until the Turks do the Right Thing, I can only suggest that the acronym "EU" will stand for "Extremely Unwelcome" regarding their membership in the continental trade bloc.

A Turkish court bans a symposium aimed at reconsidering the mass killings of Armenians in 1915.

(link) [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

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