Reply to Re: The New Law?
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January 25th 2012, 05:30 AM
shevek
Such a law may sound strange and contradictory to freedom of speech, and it is of course. However, it's not as strange as it seems. There are many countries where it is forbidden to deny the holocaust. It's not forbidden to not believe it, of course, but it is forbidden to make public statements saying that it didn't happen. This is because (according to the lawmakers) there is no doubt that it really did happen, but if some people shout hard and long enough that it didn't, it may actually become a danger to society.
Of course some politics is added with "no doubt", because it is a political choice to make this claim. Anyway, I don't think there is much doubt about the holocaust. There are enough landmarks which prove it.
With Armenia, I have no idea really. But what I see in the news is that everyone except Turkey seems to be very sure that it was indeed genocide, and Turkey keeps telling everyone that it's nonsense. Not only that, they go straight into attack mode, threatening with all sorts of sanctions. This makes their position very weak IMO. (But, as a side note, this is exactly what the French are now doing as well.)
Finally, I would like to give some advice to Killersong96: Turkey is very rigid in its foreign communications. Everyone must believe what they say. I expect them to behave the same when it comes to internal communication. So if despite their attempt to force their opinion on you, you still don't know what to believe, their opinion is quite likely wrong.
Also note that there may well be political motives: if Turkey would admit that there was a genocide, Armenia might want to start talks about transferring land or money to make up for it. It's to be expected that the Turkish politicians want to avoid that.
Of course some politics is added with "no doubt", because it is a political choice to make this claim. Anyway, I don't think there is much doubt about the holocaust. There are enough landmarks which prove it.
With Armenia, I have no idea really. But what I see in the news is that everyone except Turkey seems to be very sure that it was indeed genocide, and Turkey keeps telling everyone that it's nonsense. Not only that, they go straight into attack mode, threatening with all sorts of sanctions. This makes their position very weak IMO. (But, as a side note, this is exactly what the French are now doing as well.)
Finally, I would like to give some advice to Killersong96: Turkey is very rigid in its foreign communications. Everyone must believe what they say. I expect them to behave the same when it comes to internal communication. So if despite their attempt to force their opinion on you, you still don't know what to believe, their opinion is quite likely wrong.
Also note that there may well be political motives: if Turkey would admit that there was a genocide, Armenia might want to start talks about transferring land or money to make up for it. It's to be expected that the Turkish politicians want to avoid that.
