Armenian News Network / Groong
WILL AMERICA EVER
UNDERSTAND TURKEY?
Time
To Take a Cartoon Out of Storage to Remind Us of Some Crucial Facts
Armenian News Network / Groong
July 2, 2021
by Eugene L. Taylor and Abraham D. Krikorian
Probing the
Photographic Record
LONG ISLAND, NY
By now we have made it abundantly clear that we
are firm believers that cartoons can indeed serve as editorials
without words. They are a distinctive and effective way of addressing
the truth. Some might say that they have no equal in this task.
There has been a great deal of noise in the
media lately about U.S. President Biden and Turkish President Recep Erdoğan. Clearly there has been more heat than light
emanating from this interaction.
We believe that it is time that a cartoon
from many years ago entitled “Contrary to the Laws
of Nature” shown below, be resurrected as a reminder of
the facts of the case which are very deep-rooted.
Cartoon from Pittston
[Pennsylvania] Gazette (newspaper discontinued in 1965) from the
World War II era.
To use Washington, D.C. and Washington Beltway
language, the cartoon shows that there has been little or no bang for the buck
when it comes to the USA support of Turkey from way back. Winston Churchill
tried to woo Turkey without success as did America. Clearly, one cannot buy
friendship or loyalty. The Turks know very well how to pretend to be supporters
and allies even as they brazenly feather their own nests and rob everyone else
‘blind.’ As we have admitted, this is not a feature peculiar to the Turks, but
they are especially openly brazen about it, and even use it as a weapon or
threat whenever it suits them. They think they have a major political advantage
because their country is geo-strategically located on the map. Whether they are
really as crucially geopolitically located seems never to have been seriously
questioned. The USA has blindly seen it as such without backing up that
position with considered arguments. There is more than likely a substantial
economic aspect to it all.
In
the top panel of our pre-World War II cartoon, we see a sign declaring the “Hope of Turkish Participation in War
against the Axis” [the coalition comprised of Germany, Italy and Japan].
Generous helpings of food and munitions are provided by Uncle Sam to an
enthusiastic Turkey.
In
the next two panels, the more Allied food and aid provided by Uncle Sam, the
more the hopes of Turkish participation on the side of the Allies shrink.
Increased generosity is clearly not
doing the trick. Turkey pretended to be neutral even as it was sitting on the
fence reaping the benefits of selling key minerals at high prices in the
manufacture of steel in Nazi Germany etc.
The
last panel shows a Turkey that has eaten and taken all, but the hopes on the
part of the Allies have shrunken to nothing!
The
Old Country Armenian Villagers were realists and might well have asked ‘Asonk hetch ch’en
gush’ta’nar?’ [Are these (the reader may choose an
expletive of choice) never sated?] Response: Of course not! Not ever! It is all
money down the proverbial rathole!
The
Turks have been masters of propaganda and have learned to play adversaries,
real, imagined or perceived, like violins.
They
learned long ago that an avenue well worth pursuing was to pretend that they
had always defended human rights and that contrary to many others, the Ottoman
Empire offered succor and safety to Jews from Europe. This was known to be
nonsense by responsible scholars from the outset, but at long last a very well
documented body of knowledge and evidence has been assembled and offered to the
world at large.
We
shall see how much good this does.
Some key
references follow:
Baer,
Marc David. (2000) Turkish Jews rethink
"500 years of brotherhood and friendship”. Turkish Studies Association
Bulletin vol. 24, no. 2, pgs. 63-73.
Baer,
Marc David (2020) Sultanic Saviors and
Tolerant Turks: writing Ottoman Jewish History, Denying the Armenian Genocide.
Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.
Charny,
Israel W. (2021) Israel’s Failed Response
to the Armenian Genocide. Denial, State Deception, Truth versus Politicization
of History. With three contemporary updates by a Turk, an Armenian, and a
Jew. Boston, Academic Studies Press.
Gruner,
Wolf. (2012) “Peregrinations into the
Void?’ German Jews and their Knowledge about the Armenian Genocide during the
Third Reich. Central European History vol. 45, no. 1, pgs. 1-26.
Shaw,
Stanford J. (1991) The Jews of the
Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic. New York University Press.
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