It is not only the bad news about Turkey.

In fact I feel quite pleased when read the online papers in these days.

A petition initiated by a group of intellectuals, including professors Baskýn Oran and Ahmet Ýnsel, journalists Ali Bayramoðlu and Cengiz Aktar, personally apologizes for the events.

The group is asking other people to sign the petition, which reads as follows:

“I cannot conscientiously accept the indifference to the great disaster that Ottoman Armenians suffered in 1915, and its denial. I reject this injustice and acting of my own will, I share the feelings and pains of my Armenian brothers and sisters, and I apologize to them.”

...

Aytekin Yýldýz, ... “It is a good starting point, but not enough. Firstly, what do they mean by ‘great disaster’? Let’s name it, it is genocide. Secondly, the state has to apologize,” Yýldýz pointed out.

..

Historian Ayþe Hür said apologizing is the duty of those who were responsible for the act, or for those who share their arguments. "For me, all these events were the fault of Turkish nationalism flourishing at that time, and personally, I don’t identify with it, so I do not feel the need to apologize personally.”

Rest of the article.

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=160701&bolum=101

I am sure Tamikidakika, Armegon, C++ will sign it as soon as it starts.

I will check if the foreigners are allowed to join as well and tell Aenigma to sign it too

This article appeared in Zaman. Zaman has the notoriority of being the relentless defenders of radical Islam in Turkey. They claim they have changed, matured and become more objective. Some might allude this to the experience they have gained over the years. I for my own my part tend the seek the primer between the two lips od a mullah who restructured the paper in line with a change of strategy that entails refraining from hardliner talk thus gaining the hearts of neo-republicanists, former leftists who have become identical to liberal capitalists for all intents and purposes. Many of these people are willing to question the fundamental aspects of the regime currently in place at the expense of its stability. I always remember this phrase: "Everything is the same under the sun." I refuse to believe the multimillion dollar hatred channel of the past can become a peace advocate.

As for the writer of this article. Almost 90% of her articles are about the Middle East, Ghazza, the Palestinean problem, Israel. In a country which has turned its face to the West both economically and financially, this woman keeps talking about the same matters over and over. Isn´t this  interesting?

I saw the article in : radikal  originally

You might be right a bout zaman. But saying ´willing to question the fundamental aspects of the regime currently in place at the expense of its stability´ brings you to the same line as statusquo defenders, which resist every tiny step for achiving a proper democracy.

If stopping people talking about the issues was one of the ´fundamental aspects of the regime currently in place´, then I am afraid we have serious issues about what we have right now..

I think Turkey is on the fast track to a proper democracy. Although it is a bit late according to me, but now, it is unstoppable.

People will talk, people will question, people will learn the things and statusquo defenders will keep scaring people by saying that´ they are undermining our stability´ at the same time. (this struggle is quite common to be honest. That is how the democracies are FORMED in countries)

I have made it a principle that I should not side up with people just because they are my friends. When taking sides it is necessary to make  decisions based on facts. Some people rely on their instincts or beliefs in the absence of facts, I donft think this works for critical decisions like the one we are talking about.

Therefore the equation you proposed : "...brings you to the same line as statusquo defenders, which resist every tiny step for achiving a proper democracy." is essentially wrong. I am in favour of maintaining political and economic stability but I am also in favour of truth.

To me the Armenian cause is one such conflict about which everyone talks based on what they believe might have happened or according to their ethnic, religious orientations. As a result all kinds of claims and accusations keep flying in the air. Many of those are evidently biased arguments by virtue that they are consistent depending on which side they come from. I believe that some atrocities were committed since the (military) authority of the day considered the Armenian actions in the region as high-treason (on account that they sided up with invading Russian troops taking up arms against local Turks). This however is just a belief. I have no proof at hand.

We know that Turks and Armenians co-existed in the same region usually in their own villages for more than a thousand years. What caused them to get into this conflict which allegedly claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people is actually not a mystery. Everyone accepts today that some Armenians and some Turks lost their lives but information on exactly how many and by whom has not been firmly established so far.

In the absence of facts, we are basing all our arguments on three major channels: Armenia, Turkey and Europe. Armenia and Turkey are the two sides. Therefore we canft expect them to be very objective. I believe neither Turkey nor Armenia is telling the truth. As for Europe, only until ten or so years ago, they were openly supporting the PKK.  France, Germany, Sweden, Belgium and many other European countries opened up their doors to the terrorists. At that time, they were calling these people independence warriors fighting against a sovereign country with which they have strong economic and political ties. I believe this attitude of Europeans is a tell-tale evidence of how they regard Turkey - a potential threat to their well-being.

A number of white-collars in this country have developed a ridiculous idea. It goes like this: There is democracy in the West, these people know everything right. We need to act and think exactly like them if we want to get rid of our primitive ways. This is indeed a proper policy for a vassal state and anyone defending it must be going through a serious identity crisis. Anyone defending this did not understand the first thing about AtaturkLs principles. Both Europe and Turkey must be and are after their own interests, their own well-being and their own policies. We will be more civilized the day we begin to seek solutions inside the country not among instant solutions imported from elsewhere.

This is good news a step towards healing....

Yeah!

They also killed the others living there. And they started it all first. Don´t you think they should also apologize?

This is one of the comments in radikal:

Bire bir arbedenin adý kavgadýr.Bine bin arbedenin adý savaþtýr.Bine bir arbedenin adý linçtir.Linç yapan kiþilerin biz linç yaparken adam kolumuzu ýsýrdý ama deme hakký yoktur.

If it is one to one it is called a fight, if it is thousand to thousand it is called a war. But if it is thousand to one it is called lynching. People who is doing lynching, have no right to complain ´but the man bit our arms´ 

This thread is odd, I can only see 4 posts the last one being an empty bo from Vinyard, but on the new in forums box to the right of the screen, there have been other posting, but I can´t see any of them.

Trudy reported it a couple of days ago, but none of you mods took a BLIND bit of notice

Same with me LL.  Trudy posted something about it in the "problems" thread the other day too.