GOODY TWO SHOES: Turkish Prime Minister Condemns Genocide
In another characteristic example of “chutzpah” Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denounced “genocide.” No, not the Armenian Genocide, which Turks have assiduously referred to as “the events of 1915” since, well, 1915. He means "the event of 2009" in China's Xinjiang region, reports the BBC:
The death toll from the violence there has now risen from 156 to 184, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reports. More than 1,000 people were injured.
Turkey is secular but the population is predominantly Muslim and it shares linguistic and religious links with the Uighurs in China's western-most region.
"The event taking place in China is a kind of genocide," Mr Erdogan told reporters in Turkey's capital, Ankara. …
Beijing has so far not publicly commented on Mr Erdogan's criticism.
But it said that of the 184 people who died, 137 were Han Chinese.
Leaving aside the issue of whether it is grossly hyperbolic to call the event of 2009 “genocide,” Turkey wrote the book – literally - on this particular genocide denial tactic, as it continues to insist - and to teach schoolchildren - that at least as many Turks were killed by Armenians during the “events of 1915.”
[Hat Tip: Dikran Abrahamian, who blogs at Keghart.com.]
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