Sassounian: Did Turkey’s Ambassador Really Lobby for Passage of the Resolution?
By Harut Sassounian // Posted on March 26, 2010 in Harut Sassounian // 115 Comments // 
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Thousands of articles are posted on the internet every day. But, very few make us fall off our chairs!
Last week I came across a shocking news item posted by the Turkish Forum, the largest website for Turkish news. It was titled, “Forgotten Ambassador in Sierra Leone Uses Armenian Genocide Resolution to Solve His Problem.” Here is the translated summary of that incredible article:
“In recent years, parliaments of several countries have adopted resolutions on the Armenian Genocide. In retaliation, Turkey has recalled its ambassadors from these countries. It has been revealed that some opportunistic ambassadors exploited this situation, by abusing their position.
“According to a Foreign Ministry announcement this morning, Orhan Emin Turkone, Turkey ’s ambassador in Sierra Leone for the past 12 years, has been fired for having lobbied for the passage of the Armenian Genocide bill in that country’s parliament.
“During a press conference this morning, the Foreign Ministry’s undersecretary, Ersin Ozbukey, explained: ‘Recently, it came to our attention that the so-called Armenian Genocide bill was placed on the agenda of the parliaments of Chad, Eritrea, and Djibouti. But, when we saw that this bill was unanimously adopted by the parliament of Sierra Leone, we started suspecting that something had gone terribly wrong.’ Ozbukey added: ‘We formed an investigative committee that uncovered some interesting, but disturbing information.’
“‘We confirmed that Ambassador Turkone had carried out lobbying activities in favor of the Armenian Genocide bill,’ Ozbukey stated. ‘Of course, this can’t be excused, but the ministry also has its fault in this affair. This man was abandoned and forgotten in a far away country. He got that idea, after [Turkish] ambassadors were recalled following the adoption of the genocide resolution by other countries. Twelve years is a long time,’ Ozbukey admitted.
“Ozbukey then provided the details of Turkone’s unbelievable actions in publicizing the Armenian Genocide in Sierra Leone. Ozbukey said that whenever the ambassador visited a bar, he would write on facebook: ‘We massacred the Armenians in such a nasty way.’ He told bartenders: ‘My grandfather alone killed 100-150 Armenians whose bones are in the basement of our home.’ The ambassador made up such falsehoods and lies. He basically said whatever came to his head. Sierra Leone is a small place. Word spreads quickly. No one had ever heard of either Armenia or Turkey. But, within a month, everyone in the whole country was agitated over this issue. People were dancing in the streets when they learned that the genocide was recognized. This shouldn’t have happened, but unfortunately, it did!
“Ozbukey explained that after this revelation, the Turkish government started paying more attention to the agenda of various parliaments. In order to avoid such situations in the future, instead of recalling ambassadors, ‘we are now considering the possibility of cutting off trade relations, until the resolution is removed from the parliament’s agenda.’”
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Even though this article sounded too good to be true, the amount of detail and specific names mentioned in it led dozens of Turkish websites to post it, without realizing that it was a hoax. After learning that Turkey did not have an embassy in Sierra Leone, the Turkish Forum deleted the fake news from its website. It was also not true that Armenian Genocide resolutions were being considered by the parliaments of Chad, Djibouti, and Eritrea in recent months.
It is not known who concocted this elaborate hoax. Given the extensive amount of criticism directed at Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan within Turkey in recent weeks, the author could well be a disgruntled Turk with a sense of humor who decided to take a sarcastic swipe at his Don Quixotic leader. The article was accompanied by an authentic looking photo of three African officials along with a non-African individual at a signing ceremony. The photo gave the false impression that the latter was the Turkish ambassador to Sierra Leone.
It is not at all surprising that several Turkish websites fell for this ruse, as the government of Turkey has made a practice of recalling its ambassadors from France, Canada , the United States, and other countries for having recognized the Armenian Genocide.
Namik Tan, the newly appointed Turkish ambassador to Washington, was recalled on March 4 after the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved the Armenian Genocide Resolution. It was reported that he might stay in Ankara until after April 24. This is great news for Armenian American activists, as they can lobby Congress without facing any opposition from the Turkish ambassador during the crucial weeks leading to April 24, when he needs to be in Washington trying to block the genocide resolution in the House and persuade President Obama not to refer to the Armenian Genocide in his annual statement.
To the best of our knowledge, Tan did not lobby Congress for passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution, as did the fictional ambassador in Sierre Leone in order to take an extended vacation with family and friends back home. However, judging from Erdogan’s recent self-defeating statements, sometimes truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
Dear Mt. Ararat – please learn how to read things in context and not have a knee jerk reaction. My comment about religion had to do with Takuhi’s apparent indignation that Armenians were forced to adopt an ‘alien’ religion. The point is that Christianity too, is an ‘alien’, non-Armenian religion, that’s all. I don’t want to walk into or open a religious debate or discussion here. If anything, however, the Armenian version of Christianity is probably my favorite, due to it’s oriental nature, the vestiges of Zoroastrianism that remain and its somewhat unique approach. All that aside, while I truly would like to see an honest apology from the Turkish govt, so this can all go away, I did appreciate the apology letter written and signed by 30,000 Turkish intellectuals. It was a good start and in some way, put pressure on their govt. to do the same. But realize, this can only come from within Turkey, if it is to be genuine and lasting, and cannot be imposed from outside. I guess that’s where we differ…I don’t believe banging the drum over and over is the proper way for Armenians to achieve their goals. It hasn’t worked in 95 years…so, maybe it’s time for a new strategy…one that has a different tone. I’ve seen and heard that from Pres. Sarkisyan. Hopefully, it will continue and we will continue to see a more mature response from Turkey.
I object to SasnaLerner also. I am totally anti-nazi and anti-Hitler. The insult was totally inappropriate as it is inappropriate for “fascist” people to parade around with pictures of Obama pictured as Hitler. These fascist people include followers of certain political candidates and certain settlers in Israel. Sorry people, Obama is no Hitler either.
You should save your insults for the real Hitler. By the way, homogeneous is really prejudiced isn’t it? (diversity and tolerance is the way, isn’t it?).
Calling the USA an artificial nation. OMG, it is not fascist nor communist. It is a democracy. Maybe you have never lived in one or understand the idea. USA is far better than the soviets or any other totalitarian state.
You trivialize the words “Hitler,” “Genocide”, etc. when you use them too loosely and inappropriately. I am for women’s and gay rights, something no Hitler will ever be.
I said doesn’t it make you anti-semitic or anti-Armenian if you or someone else finds out one of my relatives has Jewish or Armenian blood?
I said doesn’t it make you anti-semitic if you keep calling Ataturk Jewish, when it is not known he was Jewish; or if so, how very little Jewish blood he had; and that he was muslim and in no way concerned with a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world, but rather in pan turan.
I would like to also add: please be careful how you use the term “genetic” : in our genes, genetic engineering. Because it has racist connotations. What you probably should be referring to is: it is in our memory; it is part of our MORALITY, our teaching to be a moral human being, a choice left to human beings in their conscience.
Putting new genes in a person may not change his moral choices, his morality.
Maybe not.
Karekin – Have you ever considered converting to Islam, applying for Turkish citizenship, and changing your name to some Ahmet or Murat or Tallat? No, seriously? Because as a newly-cooked Muslim Turk your comments would sound more authentic and credible, so to speak, to the Armenian readers, rather than under the name ‘Karekin,’ a name of an honorable Armenian fedayi and political thinker Karekin Nzhdeh, an Armenian Braveheart who fought the Turks in the years of genocide. Even a Turk wouldn’t insult us in such a disgraceful manner as you did. You’re talking about compassion and kindness, but outrightly blaspheme our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whose teachings were exactly about these all-human virtues. There must be something fundamentally wrong in your psyche, man, but as a Christian I’m not allowed to judge others in order not to be judged. May God be your judge…
Karekin;
I mean no offense to you personally or to your prophet Mohammad (as it’s below me to derogate anyone’s religious relics) but rare, out-of-the-ordinary species like you are called “up-end” or “shur tvats” in Armenia. The term refers to individuals who suffer from xenophilia, whose reasons for excessive affinity with and interminable admiration for alien cultures can be found in natal and adolescent experiences of their parents. These are essentially weak-willed and self-deprecating individuals who can easily resort to obsequiousness and genuflexion in virtually all life situations.
I believe you owe an apology for your misdemeanor for insulting Jesus Christ to all those commentators in this page who consider themselves his followers.
Karekin,
If you now have a knee jerk reaction so to misinterpret my unselfconscious reaction re: a specific passage in your comment, and not how it needs to be read in context, I’d like to introduce your blasphemous passage in its entirety. You wrote:
“And, if anyone really wants to avoid an alien religion, they might do better to go back to the original Armenian sun-oriented pantheon and Zoroastrianism, instead of worshipping the ideas of some carpenter from Nazareth and his magic tricks.”
No Muslim that I’ve met in great numbers and, actually, worked amongst them for years in the Middle East, would ever dare to call Son of God ‘some carpenter’ and his Mission and miracles as ‘magic tricks’ because even in Koran Jesus is a prophet; Mary, his mother, is revered by the Muslims as the whole Sura is dedicated to her, and Christians are considered ‘People of the Book’ whom prophet Mohammad specifically urged his believers to respect. But you did, and I’d like to add my outrage to that of several commentators in these pages in that you should be ashamed for your derogatory words and should apologize for insulting our Lord and Savior.
For your information, and the fact is so world-wide known that I don’t care whether you read it in context or outside the context, Christianity has been an Armenian religion for 17 centuries starting 301 AD and it has NEVER been alien to the Armenians because it were Armenians THEMSELVES who voluntarily adopted it, and not been forced to adopt. By adopting Christianity as their state religion Armenians thus became the first official Christian nation in the history of the human civilization.
I’d like to omit any counterarguments that a plethora of commentators here presented re: the paramount need for the Turks to apologize and repent for their crime (read: action) which will only then lead to compassion and forgiveness by the Armenians (read: reaction).
Karekin – Not only do you insult most sacred Christian relic, but you keep posting wicked and distorted views on these pages. One may suspect after reading them that, like some Turkish commentators here, you, too, may be on the Turkish payroll to try to mindflip Armenians. If you truly wish to see an honest apology from the Turkish government, then post comments in the Turkish discussion forums, not here. If you think the apology ‘can come from within Turkey, if it is to be genuine and lasting,’ then where has it been the past 95 years? The majority of observers believe that it is precisely because of the pressure imposed from outside that the Turks now fidget in their seat. Recognition hasn’t worked in 95 years for a variety of reasons, mostly geopolitical, economic, and military. Because up until 1991 there was a Cold War confrontation between the West and the Soviet Union, between the North Atlantic alliance and the Warsaw Pact. One fundamental reason is that the independent Republic of Armenia has become a player in the international arena for 18 years now. I do think that Diaspora’s efforts before Armenia’s independence have prepared a solid ground form Armenia, as a subject of international law, to advance recognition campaign in an official capacity. About ‘a new strategy that has a different tone’ that you’ve ‘heard’ from President Sarkisyan, first, you never know what politicians say out loud and what they really think; when they pretend to play the games imposed by the powerful and when they tacitly advance national agendas. Besides, Serge Sarkisyan does not represent the Armenian nation: he’s an unelected, unrepresentative president of Armenia and is not so respected in the Diaspora either due to his defeatist stance on idiotic Turkish-Armenian protocols. From the historical perspective, it is nations, not presidents who ultimately determine their destiny and stand to defend their dignity.
Jesus died on the Cross for your sins, too, Karekin. I strongly believe he loves you even though you insulted him by calling him ‘trickster’. Jesus said on the Cross: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
And I can only forgive you, too.
In order to have an open discussion it is important to get away from the boundaries of a restrictive ideology and focus on some real issues, without the constraints of your own, personal mindset. Let’s just say that if you see fit to try and ‘insult’ a fellow Armenian by invoking the word ‘Turk’, don’t bother. That won’t work. You should also realize that Armenians have changed their religion fairly often in the course of history and that yes, there are Armenians of all faiths in the world…even quite a few Muslim Armenians, such as the Hemshinlis. I don’t care what religion you are, as long as you not only see fit to uphold Armenian rights, but also universal human rights. I will say it again, if you want to be treated well, you must treat others well, even those you don’t agree with, because when you stop doing that, you are putting yourself into a category that is not very flattering or respectable.
Karekin, you completely discreditted yourself in this discussion… May God give you wisdom.
Where is your apology, Karekin? Oh, sorry, I forgot that you act similar to your Turkish brethren who’ve made it a habit not to apologize for crimes or explicit religious insults…
Slayers prayand kill to live.
We pray to be killed.
At the end
No one will save us.
We prayed enough for the same god.
Park kez der, Astvadz mer…please open your minds.
Dear Readers,
This article is not real actually. There is no Ersin Ozbukey as Foreign Ministery’s undersecretary. This is a fake character from a fake news web site that is built on total prank.
Sincerely,
Koray.