Hürriyet, Turkey
Feb 15 2007
General Buyukanit speaks at DC reception: I have a complaint about
Turks in US
Speaking at a dinner reception held in his honor at the Turkish
Embassy in Washington, DC, General Yasar Buyukanit of the Turkish
Armed Forces addressed the Turkish community last night, chiding them
for not enough action in working for Turkey’s interests.
Greeted with tremendous applause as he took the podium, General
Buyukanit called on Turks in the diaspora to work harder in the face
of the ongoing push by the Armenian diaspora to have the so-called
Armenian genocide bill passed in the US Congress. Said Buyukanit:
"Whatever happens from now afterwards is linked to you. Don’t the
people living outside the Turkish Republic have to come together and
work harder to protect Turkey’s national interests? Now I would like
to address a complaint I have about you. If the voice of the Turks
living in the diaspora would only rise as high as the others in the
diaspora, the Armenians’ claims of genocide would not have come out
this way, nor would Turks have to face what they do now. Yes, please
excuse me, but I have a complaint about you. The Turkish Republic
would be that much stronger if people would gather to support the
country’s interests, rather than working against them."
General Buyukanit’s planned meeting with the chairman of the House
Committee on Foreign Relations, Congressman Tom Lantos, was cancelled
yesterday due to the heavy snowy conditions in the city.