"Chutzpah' is a useful word, which is why it is now common coin in a variety of languges. I used to believe that it was of Yiddish origin. I am now not so sure. Indeed, I tend to think it might be Turkic in provenance. Certainly, if there is any justice in this world, it should be chalked up to the credit of a handful of brazen, chuckling sages in Istanbul. They win the laurels, hands down, no contest.
In January 2009, at Davos, Switzerland, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told fellow panelist Israeli President Shimon Peres: "When it comes to killing, you know well how to kill,” before rushing off the stage in (pretend) anger. He was protesting against what he saw as Israel's unacceptable behavior in that month's brief war with the Hamas in Gaza.
A year later, in May 2010, Erdogan charged Israel with violating "international law" and implementing "inhumane state terrorism" over its raid on the Turkish ship "Mavi Marmara," which was trying to run Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. (The Hamas seeks Israel's destruction and Israel refuses to allow free passage of arms to the Hamas-controlled strip.) Nine Turks, who attacked the raiders with guns, iron bars and knives, were killed by the Israeli commandos.
Now let's look for a second at Turkish behavior.
The Turks no longer dispute the fact that they deported and murdered hundreds of thousands of Armenians (and Greeks) during World War I (they continue to dispute the number "1.5 million" Armenian dead and that the killings were a result of a systematic policy of "genocide,” orchestrated by Istanbul), forcibly converted many thousands of Christians to Islam, and kidnapped, raped and virtually enslaved many thousands of Armenian (and Greek) girls.
But this was (mainly) during Ottoman times. Old history, you may say.
Let us look at some facts of more recent vintage. The European Commission of Human Rights in its report of 10 July 1976 concluded, after a lengthy investigation, that the Turkish troops invading northern Cyprus in 1974 killed Cypriot Greek civilians en masse. Turkish "troops were responsible for wholesale and repeated rapes of women of all ages from 12 to 71." After the fighting, according to the report, "the aim [of Turkish behavior] was to terrorise, destroy and eradicate the Greek population of the Turkish occupied area"; "the atrocities were deliberate tactics"—and resulted in the flight of hundreds of thousands of Greeks southwards.
In the 1980s and 1990s, according to Wikipedia, Turkish security forces levelled "3,000" Kurdish villages in Turkey—3,000!—leading to the displacement of close to 400,000 Kurds. Thousands of Kurdish villagers were killed and tortured as Turkish troops tried to suppress Kurdish demands for a measure of autonomy.
And Erdogan pretends fury when nine aggressive Turkish militants, set on provoking Israel, are shot dead by Israeli troops in self-defence. I challenge anyone to match, let alone surpass, this display of chutzpah, and hypocrisy.
I wonder whether the Turks actually use the word "chutzpah.” Or do they have an equivalent word? Or don't they—and if not, why not?
(Image by Segafredo18)
Comments
Whatever the Turks may have done in the distant past or the less distant past, this does not excuse the Israeli attack on civilians in international waters. Neither does it excuse Israel's colonization of Arab land in the middle east.
Dear Mr. Morris: Contrary to what you wrote, the Turkish government does not acknowledge that it "murdered" Christian Armenians from 1915 – 1923 (or even in the 1890's and earlier), much less that it ever committed genocide against Armenians. Turkey claims, quite absurdly, that the Armenians died due only to the effects of weather, "wartime conditions," and, perhaps occasionally, at the hands of renegade Turkish (or Kurdish) forces. But I appreciate your bringing the subject up. I do hope that you are not trying to get Turkey (and, perhaps some other people?) off the hook for past denials of the Armenian genocide. For information about the Armenian genocide, I recommend this authoritative, DC-based website: www.Armenian-genocide.org. The National Interest may also wish to visit that website since I have noticed that many of its ilk like to wrap themselves in "Christian" and "Judeo-Christian" values while ignoring the Christian genocides (Assyrian, Greek) committed by Turkey. Concerning chutzpah: As you may know, the leading Jewish American lobbying organizations such as the ADL, AJC, JINSA, and AIPAC have long actively helped the Turkish government deny the Armenian genocide and defeat Armenian genocide resolutions in the US Congress (even as many, many principled Jews have long supported the acknowledgment of that genocide). This is a known fact, and those Jewish American organizations no longer even bother to deny it. See below for proof. I submit that it is the very definition of chutzpah for groups such as the ADL to ask America and the world to continually acknowledge and commemorate the Holocaust while at the same time working alongside Turkey to deny the genocide of Christian Armenians and defeat its recognition. I suspect that you agree. Please visit www.NoPlaceForDenial.com to see the campaign against the genocide denials of the ADL. Over a dozen Massachusetts cities (and the Massachusetts Municipal Association) and others cut ties with the ADL's so-called "No Place for Hate" program due to the ADL's stance against Armenians. The issue made international news. Please also visit this page ( http://npfdinfo.blogspot.com/2007/10/press-kit-history-of-opposing.html ) to read news reports on how groups such as the ADL, by working with Turkey to stifle recognition of the Armenian genocide, have acted in an unprincipled, hypocritical way that is surely the very definition of chutzpah. And, by the way, contrary to what people may have heard, the national ADL has not forthightly acknowledged the Armenian genocide. Its statement of August 21, 2007 actually contravened the definition of genocide in Article II of the UN Gencide treaty of 1948. Another thing: The Polish Jewish jurist, Raphael Lemkin, who coined the word genocide, did so because of the Armenian genocide. He said so in a CBS television interview in 1949:http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Lemkin_Discusses_Armenian_Genocide_In_Newly-Found_1949_CBS_Interview You know, it’s interesting that long-time supporters of Turkey (that includes The National Interest), as well as people who have ignored the plight of Kurds and the few remaining Christians in Turkey, suddenly become critical of Turkey when its relations with Israel turn sour. I am sure that you would agree that a more principled position would have been for these people to have been critical of Turkey all along. Here's an article of mine you might peruse ("Turkey’s Henchmen: Mass Media Butcher The Armenian Genocide"):http://www.countercurrents.org/boyajian100410.htm Thank you.
I am a Turkish citizen. I cannot defend either Erdogan's Davos remarks or his "(pretend) anger. The Armenian and Cyprus issues are all very complicated and it's obvious that all parties involved have dirty deeds and also suffered a lot. But why offend all Turkish people on behalf of Erdoğan summing up all these disputes as typical Turkish behaviour?
Huh. So because the secularist, Israel-allied Turkish military violated the human rights of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Kurds over the past forty years, we should now...um...do what, exactly, Mr Morris? Join the Turkish military in its bitter opposition to the efforts of Erdogan and the AKP to shift power away from the secularist establishment that committed these acts?? That's great logic...I guess what you really want us to do is just hate Turks of all stripes.
Morris is something of an authority on the Nakba itself, so there's no way he could not know Armenian survivors of the Turkish genocide were among the Palestinian refugees in 1948. It's even possible to make the same point about Erdogan without an aim to defending Israel. An Armenian in solidarity with Palestine can recognize a) Just because the Mavi Marmara was from Turkey is no reason to cheer on Israel; b) Erdogan has ulterior motives to walking out on Peres; and c) Israel is just no good for the Armenian cause.http://www.sawtalniswa.com/2010/06/euh-e...