Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 17 2007
Genocide blunder in US Embassy almanac
While debates continue in the US over a resolution presented to
Congress on the alleged Armenian genocide, an almanac distributed by
the US Embassy in Ankara lists Turkey as a country that has committed
genocide.
"The World Almanac and Book of Facts" was first published in 1868 by
the New York World newspaper and has long been distributed by the US
Embassy in Ankara. However this year’s version contains a reference
to the early 20th century killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
as "genocide," a label Turkey vehemently denies.
The most recent version of the annual almanac, which covers important
events in US and world history, mentioned Turkey in the "Crime and
Terrorist activities; Genocide" section.
The almanac noted that the term "genocide" was first used by Dr.
Raphael Lemkin in 1944 and asserts that the definition of the world
contained the practices of "members of a group being killed, serious
bodily injuries to members of a group, prevention of births and
children being removed from the group."
The almanac continued with the following statements:
"The year: 1915, the event: Armenians being destroyed by Young Turks,
the location: Turkey, the Ottoman Empire, estimated deaths: some 1
million."
Other examples of genocide listed in the 2007 World Almanac of Books
and Facts were the events that occurred in Ukraine in the 1930s, the
experiences of Jews at the hands of Nazi Germany from 1933-1945, the
activities of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia from 1975-1979, the murder
of Iraqi Kurds in 1988, the experience of Bosnians from 1992-1995,
the events that took place in Rwanda in 1994 and the events in
Sudan’s Darfur region ongoing since 2003.