ANKARA—Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian attended the swearing-in ceremony of Turkey’s President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdogan in August, and handed him an invitation from President Serge Sarkisian to visit Armenia and take part in the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide Centennial there.
A statement issued by Armenia’s Foreign Ministry noted, “During the reception given after the ceremony in honor of the heads of delegations, Minister Nalbandian had a short conversation with President Erdogan and handed him the official invitation of…Sarkisian to attend the Remembrance Ceremony, dedicated to the victims of the Armenian Genocide…on April 24, 2015.”
The statement did not mention Erdogan’s reaction to the invitation. Official Ankara has also not made a statement about the invitation.
Armenia’s opposition parties had criticized Nalbandian’s planned attendance of the Aug. 28 inauguration. ARF Bureau Political Affairs Director Giro Manoyan expressed his concerns that the Ankara visit was part of a broader effort to resuscitate the failed Turkey-Armenia protocols.
A senior lawmaker from the ruling party came to Nalbandian’s defense. “We are…showing that we have not forgotten and will not let others forget the 1915 Armenian Genocide,” Hovannes Sahakian of the Republican Party of Armenia told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). “The handing of the letter [to Erdogan] should be looked at from this standpoint.”
Armenia basically just trolled Erdogan at his own inauguration. And that picture of Erdogan looking at the invitation is legitimately laugh out loud funny. Well played.
At least nalbandian knows who the boss is around there and attends his inauguration.
FM Nalbandian was officially invited by the Government of turkey.
Got that, turk ? Officially invited.
Being progeny of civilized people, unlike your savage nomad turk kin who think and act like you, it would be improper to turn down an invitation, even from an Anti-Armenian like President erdogan: we can’t help it; we are Civilized.
Like RVDV wrote above: the joke is on erdogan. He probably almost had an aneurism, seeing the official invitation from the Armenian government to attend the 100th anniversary of the AG.
FM Nalbandian really rained on erdogan’s parade.
The detached, expressionless look on Nalbandian’s face, while he is sticking the knife, is priceless.
The boss in a country is the newly elected president? Ahmet just dropped some knowledge on us, I hope everyone was able to keep up with that extremely complicated concept.
That was a pretty clever move on the part of Nalbandian’s boss (President Sargsyan) to send his foreign minister over to Ankara on the presidential inauguration day of Turkey’s sleazy, terrorist leader (Erdogan), and to present him with an official invitation to attend next year’s Remembrance Ceremony, dedicated to the 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide. It’s, of course, clearly evident that Erdogan will never attend this particular ceremony. Nevertheless, it’s always imperative to show the extreme criminal Turkish nation that the Armenian Genocide issue will follow it wherever it goes and that there is no possible escape. Truly speaking, this Armenian Genocide issue has become a huge nightmare for the Turkish government. It wakes up in the morning with this nightmare; and, it goes to bed at night with the same nightmare. And even on the presidential inauguration day of Turkey’s leader, the foreign minister of Armenia happened to be there in front of his nose to remind him of the sickening, heinous crimes his Turkish forefathers committed against the Armenian people between 1915-1922, which the Turkish nation has never been able to admit to in all these years. This definitely must’ve ruined President Erdogan’s entire inauguration ceremony.
MY COMPATRIOPTS DON´T UNDERESTIMATE OTTOMAN -TURKISH WILY DIPLOMACY,please!!!!!
They are apt to change like the camaleon and come up with the idea that they will loose nothing by coming ,if not him his rep. …somebody another foxy person like Daout oghlu and place flowers at the Tzitzernakapert our martyrs Monument.Thus to show the entire world that they have repented and beg forgiveness.But…..
Hold it there as Saroyan would have said. ¨As you well know we have always lived on handouts and or borrowed monies from many important nations.Our govt. coffers are all empty(while they transfer at point of time all their cash to money havens, CH, the Carribean etc.,therefore please understand we are now on the clean and wish to do BIZness, especially with those Paremid not to say Barzamid Armenian Biznessman that already carry on business with us secretly…
Therefoe ,I do not think it was a good move. to invite a Genocide State to an important commemoration,such as ours at this point.
Especially so as our brethren should have waited their RESPONSE AND/OR stance,while the whole world saw Hundreds of our people on the streets of Boston to B-Aires,To Brazilia to Paris to Washington to Beyrouth to Teheran to all other important cities of Armenian dense Gaghouts(Armenian colonies)…
Now that wojuld have been the right thing to do.
As to FM nalbandia showing up-as above someone describes, was O.K. because he was officially INVITED TO ATTEND!!!! follow what I mean???
Take care.And do admit that our brethren in Ra sometimes jump ahead of 1 near 7 million Armenian Diaspora—they should have conferred and consulted with our many important centres….
best Hasgcoghin
Addendum
I meant HUNDRED THOUSANDS OF OUR PEOPLE ON THE STREETS OF THESE BIG CITIES…for that is what is going to happen.Whether our brethren in RA wish it to happen or not.We cannot be taken in by the wily Turks any more…nor those who ¨´suggest¨¨ us to comply with their wishes..such as at the signing of the infamous Protocols in CH.
Avery please take your medicine and a few deep breathes. No one is after you and no one cares. You are borderline insane if you think Turkey will give you half of it’s land because some 100 year old document drew some lines. I can understand compensation via money etc.
Anyways enjoy your Starbucks coffee and Putin Today news and keep insulting us. It’s taken you places.
Doctor Ali, MD:
First, I want to assure you that before I sat down to write this post, I did take my medicine and took more than a few breaths.
I would also greatly appreciate if you could send regular reminders, so I do not have a relapse.
The email address is: RemindArmenianAveryInCaliforniaToTakeHisMeds@Gmail.com
Life is so unfair: instead of Dr Oz peddling ‘miracle pills’ on US TV, you should have been doing it: you are so much better, Doctor.
Now then, kindly allow me to calmly retort:
1. {“ No one is after you and no one cares.”}
Lots, and lots, and lots of Armenians and non-Armenians do care.
And sadly, Turks and Turkbaijanis in fact _are_ after indigenous Armenians of Caucasus.
[“ Calling Turkey and Azerbaijan “two nations from one stem” Erdogan said in Baku”] (September 4th, 2014)
[“ Liberation of occupied Azerbaijani lands* is a strategic goal for the Turkish government, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday during a speech in Parliament.”] (02 September 2014)
After the several incursions of Armenian lands Jul 28 – Aug 4 by Turkbaijanis, it was determined that most of the invaders were special forces troops trained in Turkey. After the invaders got bloodied, several WIA were sent to Turkish hospitals for treatment.
I am no Doctor, but my diagnosis is that Turks and Turkbaijanis are definitely after us Armenians.
And I talked to actual doctors also: 4 out 5 doctors agree with my diagnosis. (the one not agreeing is you: sorry).
2. {“ You are borderline insane if you think Turkey will give you half of it’s land because some 100 year old document drew some lines”}
I was clinically insane, not just borderline. But I have been taking my meds on schedule, so am quite normal – most of the time.
Regarding that old document: you are partially right. Nobody gives anybody land for a piece of paper. But when things change, the old document will suddenly become very relevant. When Turkish Kurds separate from Turkey, interesting things will happen.
When Saddam was ruling Iraq, nobody could have foreseen what Iraq has become today.
Turkey is not Iraq, for sure. But the same internal fissures that fractured Iraq, also exist in Turkey.
Turkey was being defended and supported by the West (US), when it was secular/Kemalist.
But the Islamist Genie is out of the bottle in Turkey.
Armenians are patient people: we have more important work to do right now. But when the time comes, we will invoke the Wilsonian Arbitral Award. And no need for Armenians to shed one drop blood.
3. {“ Anyways enjoy your Starbucks coffee and Putin Today news and keep insulting us”}
I don’t like Starbucks coffee. I prefer 7-Eleven coffee here in SoCal.
Care to elaborate on the “insulting us” part ?
Please point to the specific sentence in the given comment where you feel I have insulted Turks.
Thank you.
—
* Spoken like a true invadonomad.
[October 2010.
Ahmet Davutoglu, who has become the first Turkish foreign minister ever to visit Uighur Autonomous Region in China, toured historical sites in Kashgar city.
Davutoglu and an accompanying Turkish delegation arrived early Thursday in Kashgar in the extreme west of China and the extreme southwest of Uighur region.
Davutoglu first visited the tomb of Mahmud Kashgari and then they toured the tomb of Yusuf Has Hajib as well the 500-year-old Id Khah Mosque, the largest mosque in China.
“We are visiting the land of our ancestors,” Davutoglu said.
Following his visits, Davutoglu attended a dinner hosted in his honor by leading figures of Kashgar, a junction between two branches of the old Silk Road. The 350,000 population of the city is mostly Uighur Turks.
Davutoglu said he started his tour of China from Kashgar, one of the most important cultural spots of the Turkic world and home to two prominent Turkish intellectual figures in history.]
Yep, everywhere a Turkic nomad pitches his Yurt, becomes ‘Turkish lands’.
{“Armenians in the Caucasus are alien people who created their artificial state on native Turkish lands, and therefore they have no right to talk about their ancient roots in the region.
The statement came from the Secretary General of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkey, Haluk Ipek.”} (News.az 07 November 2012)
Sure looks like Turks are after us.
Avery,
It seems to me that we Armenians, must remind those illiterate Turkic herds, constantly, that how their beloved invading ancestors, settled in Armenian Highlands!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkic_migration
@Avery.
I was referring to your RT news comments mostly and here too you keep calling us savages, barbarians, etc. I don’t have a problem with nomad or invading part, Uyguristan, etc I’m proud that my ancestors were warriors and won us land or we would be stuck in China now.
If you live in a first world country then your country has witnessed genocide/massacre at some point in time.
Your letting your bias get the best of you when you tell me that Turkey will break apart. We don’t split when the topic concerns land. It’s also healthy to have multiple parties etc as any democracy. I also know that we are not a race as you are but that’s what makes us unique and strong (uniting under the Turkish banner got us off our feet after the empire collapsed). USA is mixed race even more so then us and they’re just fine. Turkey is also in NATO and a friend of the west we have a good economy and a patriotic strong military (8th and climbing www. globalfirepower.com) we will never break apart or give up land.
However I do wish and believe Armenians Churches etc should all be restored and allowed entry anytime like Hagia Sophia.
Azeri issue is between you and them both countries are independent rest is just hot air from politicians.
Turkish lobbyists are as strong as the Jewish lobby in the US they will never allow the genocide ruling to pass. You put Obama in a very tight spot and he did he’s best to comfort you.
I would love both of our countries who have a long past to start trading and become friends. Trade has formed bridges between civilizations since the beginning.
Ali,
I am sure Avery will have your answer.
It seems to me, that you have lost faith in Turkey’s Islamist government.
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-345607-turkeys-lobbying-power-in-washington-diminished.html
Ali,
Your savage, nomadic ancestors from Uyguristan won (read: invaded and captured) lands of OTHER, nobler and sedentary peoples. What exactly are you proud of? That your ancestros were invaders, looters and thieves? And exactly what would happen if you were stuck in China? That’s your historical place of origin. What’s wrong with it? And do please enumarate how many first world countries you know that have witnessed genocides? Knowing that your nation is one of the few perpetrators of this heinous crime also makes you proud? And both of our countries don’t have “a long past”. Turks only have 1000 years of history as compared to ancient Armenians who have 4000+ years of history. In order for both nations to start trading and become friends, a murderer nation must apologize to and compensate the victim nation for wiping it out almost entirely from the face of the Earth and stealing its ancestral lands. Lastly, I strongly doubt that given the bitter memories and losses of almost every Armenian family, we can ever become “friends” with the Turks in the true sense of the word.
{“@Avery. I was referring to your RT news comments mostly and here too you keep calling us savages, barbarians, etc.”}
(Ali // September 7, 2014 at 8:54 am //)
I figured you were referring to RT.
And I don’t keep calling ‘us’ (meaning Turks in general) ‘savages’, ‘barbarians’, etc.
I asked you to cite the specific comment: if I called a Turk ‘savage’, ‘barbarian’, etc, there was a reason, and it would be specific to the poster. When a denialist starts insulting Armenians, ridiculing our murdered ancestors, calls them traitors, backstabbers, and such, then time for man-o-war broadsides as guns bear.
I had a long running exchange with someone @RT who was posing as an Irish Christian, of all things (…the Kessab thread @RT) and who was undoubtedly a denialist Turk, because he was using all the usual denialist code phrases, such as “backstabbers”, “traitors”, etc.
And yeah, I let him have it.
As I have written many times before, I have absolutely no compunction getting into the muck, as deep as necessary, if Turks start throwing mud at my people.
And if you have read my posts long enough, and I know you have, I go out of my way to specify ‘denialist’ Turks, or words to that effect, when I use the terms ‘savages’,’ barbarians’.
And it is not possible for me to call _all_ Turks that, because I know there exist Turks like Ms. Gunaysu and Mr. Ragıp Zarakolu.
If there are 2, there are 20,00 or 200,000 or 2 million.
{“ I’m proud that my ancestors were warriors and won us land or we would be stuck in China now.”}
If your ancestors were just warriors, there would be no issue with me personally.
Roman legions were the best warriors in their day: they conquered many lands. And also put to the sword many towns that did not submit.
Alexander the Great was a great warrior: he defeated the greatest empire of the time, the Persian Empire.
Mongols conquered Russia and dominated it for 300 years. They extracted their tribute, put to the sword the occasional town that did not summit.
They left their mark on the Russian DNA.
But Mongols eventually left.
And Russians are still Russians in their own homeland.
If I really, really, really try, I can even convince myself that up to about mid 1800s or so, Turks could be considered garden-variety conquerors.
Vary different than Romans, or Alexander the Great, or Shah Abbas, or Batu Khan, for example – but let’s pretend.
But then your ancestors crossed over into pure murder of defenseless civilians. By the millions.
That changes everything.
If you are proud of that, then there is nothing more to say.
But I will say it anyway.
Proud or not – killing is in your Turk genes, in your DNA.
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There goes Avery again calling Turks ‘savages’, ‘barbarians’, etc.
Would you like to know who wrote that about Turks and DNA ?
An Armenian ?
A Greek ?
An Assyrian ?
Nope: A Turk.
And not just any Turk.
One Ms. BELGİN AKALTAN.
You know who she is ? She is the editor of HurriyetDailyNews.
(HDH is very Turkophile and nationalist compared to TZ)
Let me paste some relevant paragraphs:
{Our genes must have gone through mutations while we were traveling on horseback from Central Asia to Anatolia. It’s a long ride. Something must have gone wrong along the way. I think we are mutant Turks. Like Ninja turtles. We are like a lab accident.
First of all – sorry for the repetition – we carry the “killer DNA” in our souls. It may have been a remarkable, wonderful and praiseworthy feature to be able to kill, to kill as many people as possible in the battlefield once upon a time when everything depended on winning wars and conquering. When the whole system was based on occupation, physical power, a strong army; of course, killing meant winning. }
{We have persistently reserved that killer gene for centuries. Even though we do not conquer and fight in the battlefield anymore, we have the mutant killer gene and its sub-gene that protects the murderer. We have special respect and a secret love for the murderer.}
Here.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/we-have-corrupt-dna.aspx?PageID=238&NID=66875&NewsCatID=469
Please read that article to ensure I am not making this up, and do come back to ArmenianWeekly and tell us what you think.
Thank you.
“If I really, really, really try, I can even convince myself that up to about mid 1800s or so, Turks could be considered garden-variety conquerors.
.
But I will say it anyway.
Proud or not – killing is in your Turk genes, in your DNA.”
What happened? Did our genes mutate? How did we go from garden-variety to genocidal?
Have you read “Hitler’s Willing Executioners”? David Goldhagen makes a similar argument that since eliminationist Antisemitism was so deeply embedded into and so integral to German identity that this is what explains why regular German soldiers so easily took part in the Holocaust. It’s foolish to think that events as momentous as genocides can be explained so easily. It’s easy to say “Turks are killers, that’s just what they do” and “German’s just had antisemitism so deeply embedded into their identity.” That’s easy. It’s easy to paint the guilty party as some exceptionally evil people who just do evil things us “regular” people could never be capable of. But the world isn’t divided into “good” people and “evil” people. They both exist in all of us. It’s frightening to imagine that ordinary people, with ordinary lives, ordinary jobs, ordinary hopes and dreams could be capable of such unimaginable violence and hatred. It’s scary to imagine that those people weren’t so different from us once. Because what does that say about us, as humans? It’s not easy to think about those things, especially if you’re a Turkish like me. DNA? Let’s be serious. No one is born is a killer. No one passes down a “killer” gene. Hatred is taught, and my people are better than most at teaching hate. I consider myself lucky. If I had grown up in Turkey I might have hated Armenians to a genocidal degree. But I grew up in a place where people don’t teach hatred anymore, so I don’t hate. But maybe my education simply overrode my genetic predisposition. But what do I know, I could so easily been wrong, the above was just my two cents on the matter. Truth be told, all I’ve ever seen from my homeland is hate, cover-ups, murder, oppression, corruption, and a general lack of civility. All I’ve ever felt was shame. I know it’ll never change, as much as I try to tell myself otherwise, and I wish turn my back on Turkey sometimes, but how do you turn your back on your home? I wish it was just in our blood, then I’d have a justification as to why Turks deny the Armenian genocide.Then maybe I wouldn’t have an overwhelming feeling of shame every time I read or hear Turks like Ali making the claims that they do.
Regarding “…or we would be stuck in China now.”}
As [John] wrote above: {“And exactly what would happen if you were stuck in China? That’s your historical place of origin. What’s wrong with it?”}
Ali, you have to admit that the important variable is not the fact that your ancestors’ homeland was Uyguristan.
Chinese also live next to Uyguristan.
They are an ancient, rich, creative, peaceful, sedentary civilization. At least 5,000 years old.
Chinese, with all their might and numbers are really very non-aggressive civilization.
They have invaded Vietnam on occasion, for example, but did not exterminate them.
And they have been invaded themselves regularly.
Is there any doubt in your mind what Chinese people have achieved – stuck in China ? (btw; is “stuck in China” a racist jab at the Chinese ?)
How about Japan.
Not too far from China.
An incredible civilization. (yes, I do know about their Imperial savagery, and the Rape of Nanking).
South Korea.
Stuck next to China.
Do you know their PPP is 2X that of Turkey ?
Korean war devastated SK.
But they bounced back.
Korean hightech products rival, even surpass Japanese now.
Yes, US helped massively and threw open its markets.
But Europe and the West have helped Turkey massively too, and Turkey has unfettered access to West’s and EU’s rich markets.
Chinese: sedentary, ancient civilization.
Japanese: sedentary, ancient civilization.
Koreans: sedentary, ancient civilization.
I will let you, Turkoglu Ali, to figure out what the important variable is.
Have nice day.