Un-de-ni-able

Yves Daoudal, using Info-Turk as his source, reveals the thinking of the Turkish Defense Minister:

During the ceremony honoring the 70th anniversary of the death of Ataturk, organized at the Turkish Embassy in Brussels, the Turkish Defense Minister, Vecdi Gönül, launched into an atrocious denial, praising the policy of what he termed the "deportation" of the Armenians, because it allowed the construction of the Turkish nation. And he added: "Would it be possible today to maintain the same national State if the existence of Greeks in the Aegean region and of Armenians in several regions of Turkey had continued as before?"

He went on:

"Remember, before the republic, Ankara was composed of four sectors: Jewish, Muslim, Armenian, and Greek... When I was governor at Izmir I realized that the Izmir Chamber of Commerce had been founded only by non-Muslims. There was not a Turk among them."

No wonder. "Before the republic", Izmir was called Smyrna and it was a Greek city, and stayed that way until 1922, when it was conquered by Ataturk. But he had to deny that Izmir was a Greek city before the Greeks were chased out of it, as he had to deny that the most fortunate deportation of the Armenians was a genocide.

We should explain that if Vecdi Gönül was in Brussels, it was because he was participating in a meeting of ministers of defense of the European Union.

You heard me.

So we have still another example of the unstated, but undeniable, fact - that Turkey is considered by the powers in Brussels (if not by everyone else) as part of the EU. All that is lacking is the cutting of the red ribbon.

Note: In fairness I should add that at the Info-Turk site linked above, there were some cries of outrage in the Turkish press at Gönül's remarks. Info-Turk has both French and English-language items.