28 January 2012

Turkish delight for Holocaust Remembrance Day

I often pass in front of the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv, and ask myself what is going on in the minds and hearts of those people who have been close friends and allies for so many years.

Prepare yourselves to be surprised - no, shocked!

On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Turkey has become the first Muslim country to broadcast a documentary about the Holocaust. And on the Turkish public television, no less!

Hurryet Daily has the story:

Turkish public television (TRT) was set to show an epic French documentary about the Holocaust last night in the first broadcast of its kind by national media in a Muslim state.
 Wow. That is, until we dig a little deeper.

What Turkey's doing is called "getting even".
Turkey warned the French president on Tuesday against signing a law that would make it a crime to deny that the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago constituted genocide, saying such a move would deal a heavy blow to the relations between the two countries.
So...the broadcasting of the Shoah is in fact payback for France's new law regarding the genocide in Armenia, maybe for EU's cold shoulder as well. No, really, who those arrogant hypocritical bastards (that felt good!) think they are, criticizing Turkey for something they (said bastards) did not so long ago.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the European "Turkey's not good enough for us" Union:
The date [Holocaust Remembrance Day] was also chosen by Austrian right-wing student fraternities to hold their annual ball in Vienna, which was expected to be attended by several European far-right leaders, including French National Front head Marine Le Pen.
Let's see if we can make heads, tails or any limbs of it. On the same day when the Turkish foreign ministry said that "This day of remembrance... reminds us of the importance of drawing the right lessons on combating racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism,", in the same Europe that has slammed Turkey for its anti-Israel stance the fascist, anti-Semitic, xenophobic far-right reared its ugly head once again. That's one knot even a jedi's lightsaber wouldn't cut.

Once again, Jews find themselves caught in the middle, eternal scapegoats, but this time the scapegoating is firmly in our favor. We are the happy victims of positive scapegoating!

5 comments:

Dick Stanley said...

Progress of a sort, indeed.

Francis Sedgemore said...

The French are a mystery, even unto themselves.

Pisa said...

This is exactly why I like everything french. Except for their politics.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Just remember that the "mysterious soul" is trademarked and shouldn't be applied to people other than Russian.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Yep, at least in the sense that French officially recognized the Armenian genocide. The thing that Israel and US are trying to be clever about.