Who writes the history?
A. Taylor
Issue date: 4/16/09 Section: Opinions
Let's talk Turkey.
You know, that country, that one that stretches from the Middle East to Europe, bridging the physical East-West divide. Barack Obama made headlines last week when he made a two-day visit there, fulfilling a campaign pledge to visit a Muslim country during his first 100 days in office.
Modern Turkey has been a strategic ally of the United States since the end of World War II. It has the largest military in NATO after the U.S. and is arguably the only Muslim democracy in the Middle East.
The country's borders are also geopolitically important, with neighbors such as Iraq, Syria and Iran, all three of which were included in George W. Bush's "axis of evil."
To Turkey's east are the Caucus states, where a war erupted between Georgia and Russia last summer, and to the west are Greece and Bulgaria, both members of the European Union.
In fact, Turkey is a candidate for European Union membership; this a little more than 50 years after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk founded the modern Turkish Republic, which he based on a strict adherence to secularism and Westernization.
You may have heard about the phenomenal history of the Turks' Ottoman ancestors.
The Ottoman Empire, which at once spanned three continents, collapsed after its poisonous alliance with the losers of World War I.
In the period between its collapse and the founding of the modern Turkish Republic in 1923, there existed a chaotic anarchy on the frontiers of Anatolia.
Millions of Armenians, who were once part of the Ottoman Empire, were killed or displaced during this period.
Some argue that the Turkish majority carried out genocide against Armenian communities at the time.
One such person, my own congressman, Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), has gone as far as to introduce legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that would recognize the events particularly during the year 1915, as "genocide" under U.S. law.
You know, that country, that one that stretches from the Middle East to Europe, bridging the physical East-West divide. Barack Obama made headlines last week when he made a two-day visit there, fulfilling a campaign pledge to visit a Muslim country during his first 100 days in office.
Modern Turkey has been a strategic ally of the United States since the end of World War II. It has the largest military in NATO after the U.S. and is arguably the only Muslim democracy in the Middle East.
The country's borders are also geopolitically important, with neighbors such as Iraq, Syria and Iran, all three of which were included in George W. Bush's "axis of evil."
To Turkey's east are the Caucus states, where a war erupted between Georgia and Russia last summer, and to the west are Greece and Bulgaria, both members of the European Union.
In fact, Turkey is a candidate for European Union membership; this a little more than 50 years after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk founded the modern Turkish Republic, which he based on a strict adherence to secularism and Westernization.
You may have heard about the phenomenal history of the Turks' Ottoman ancestors.
The Ottoman Empire, which at once spanned three continents, collapsed after its poisonous alliance with the losers of World War I.
In the period between its collapse and the founding of the modern Turkish Republic in 1923, there existed a chaotic anarchy on the frontiers of Anatolia.
Millions of Armenians, who were once part of the Ottoman Empire, were killed or displaced during this period.
Some argue that the Turkish majority carried out genocide against Armenian communities at the time.
One such person, my own congressman, Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), has gone as far as to introduce legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that would recognize the events particularly during the year 1915, as "genocide" under U.S. law.