Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Bruce Fein, Turkey and the Armenian Genocide.

Last week I wrote an article highlighting the fact that the otherwise respected Bruce Fein is in the pay (and company) of the Turkish Lobby, and that he is apparently willing to write articles denouncing the notion of the Armenian genocide for money.

Now comes news via Inside Higher Ed, that one of Fein's organizations, the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund, has launched a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for having the audacity to criticize a book by genocide-denier, Guenter Lewy.

The SPLC is known "for its studies of hate groups -- a focus that has led the center to criticize Holocaust deniers" - and as far as I know, is highly regarded (although there may be some evidence to the contrary).

The Inside Higher Ed article states that:
"Two quotes in the Southern Poverty Law Center article are cited as defamatory. One states: "Lewy is one of the most active members of a network of American scholars, influence peddlers and website operators, financed by hundreds of thousands of dollars each year from the government of Turkey, who promote the denial of the Armenian genocide. ...”

The other states: “Lewy makes similar revisionist claims in his 2005 book The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide and in frequent lectures at university campuses across the country. ... Revisionist historians who conjure doubt about the Armenian genocide and are paid by the Turkish government provided politicians with the intellectual cover they needed to claim they were refusing to dictate history rather than caving in to a foreign government’s present-day interests.
[]
Further the suit says that the statements "individually and taken as a whole in context of the article ... are defamatory because they falsely impute to Plaintiff academic corruption, fraud and deceit. ..." As a result of the accusations, the suit says that Lewy has had his "scholarly credibility" hurt and has lost book sales and speaking engagements.

"The acute stigma attached to failures to disclose the receipt of money or its equivalent that could distort academic or professional judgments finds expression in a welter of government conflict-of-interest regulations and financial disclosure standards...”
Funny. Yes, there is an acute stigma about failure to disclose the receipt of money. And there's a good reason for it. Inside Higher Ed asked Fein whether Lewy ever received money from the Turkish government or its subsidiaries, and Fein said he didn't know the answer... Inside Higher Ed should have asked the same question of Fein himself. How much is Fein getting from the Turkish government and its subsidiaries?

You might remember from my previous article that Fein is co-founder and Chairman of a group called the American Freedom Agenda. One of their ten founding articles is "Stopping threats to prosecuting journalists under the Espionage Act of 1917." This is obviously a defense of AIPAC's Rosen and Weissman - but there is a certain irony in the fact that while Fein is keen on defending journalists, he is also filing multi-million dollar harassment suits against journalists.

One further point: the Inside Higher Ed article notes that:
"In an interview two years ago, Lewy said that (his) book -- which was criticized by some scholars of genocide -- had been rejected by 11 publishers, including 4 university presses, before the University of Utah Press published it."
Lo and behold, the University of Utah recently announced a "new Turkish studies project titled "The Origins of Modern Ethnic Cleansing: The Collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the Emergence of Nation States in the Balkans and Caucasus."" The four year project will be "funded in part by the Turkish Coalition of America."

As I discussed in my previous article, Bruce Fein is 'resident scholar' at the Turkish Coalition of America, which incidentally shares an address with Bruce Fein & Associates. The president of TCA is Lincoln McCurdy who headed the American Turkish Council (ATC) for fifteen years. The ATC is at the heart of Sibel Edmonds' claims about Turkish corruption in the US.

In a related issue, Inside Higher Ed reminds us that when a scholar at the Institute of Turkish Studies at Georgetown University dared to mention 'genocide,' he was forced to quit, at risk of the Institute of Turkish Studies being shut down. As a reminder, the Executive Director of the Institute of Turkish Studies at Georgetown University is Sabri Sayari, named in Sibel Edmonds' Rogues Gallery.

Don't expect the University of Utah to publish anything critical of Turkey in the near future.

Summary
Bruce Fein is on the Turkish payroll. He wants to defend journalists (and, implicitly, lobbyists) when it comes to Israel, but he files spurious multi-million dollar lawsuits against those who criticize Israel's second-best friend, Turkey. This frivolous lawsuit against an anti-hate group, the SPLC, argues that it is wrong to allege that people like Lewy receive money from the Turkish government who deny the Armenian genocide, while the Turkish government, through Fein's TCA, gives money to the only university willing to publish Lewy's denialist book. And Lewy & Fein have the audacity to claim that criticizing his denial hurts his book sales!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Everyone approving your cause is correct, everyone who is against your cause is on "someone's payroll". How convenient?!

Why is Armenian govt against opening national archives for Turkish and Armenian scholars who are willing to do reseach together on the alleged genocide issue? Is Armenian govt afraid of the truth?

Hold on, let me guess, I am on the payroll as well. lol

Anonymous said...

How is there supposed to be open research in Turkey when the Turkish government prosecutes anyone who even discusses the Armenian Genocide under Article 301of the Turkish Penal Code? If anyone even discusses the Armenian Genocide in Turkey, they are subject to assasination like the journalist Hrant Dink!

Anonymous said...

I wonder what your reaction will be for today's agreement between Turkey and Armenia. Oh, let me guess Armenian officials are on payroll too, lol. Actually it is quite obvious who is on payroll by taking their donation money and using the good intentions of American Armenians!

Anonymous said...

First, judge your own genocide, slavery and Indians.
Second, I ask how long Armenian lived under Ottoman Empire. 600 years! So if Ottoman Empire had an interest any kind of genocide, there would have been no living Armenians today. Besides, Armenians traited the Empire by helping the British and its allies during the WWI, and they attacked the local Turkish people, killed them, rapped them. This is the truth! You create photoshop pictures, or hire artists to draw scenes...
Armenian's signed the agreement as they are afraid of reaveling the truth!!! If they kept their language, their culture, if they still live as Armenians it is because Ottoman's ruled them equal. And you western people have been afraid of Turkish people so badly since 1500s, even your art history prove this fear in poems, in music, you can make up stories like that to cover your fear.

Anonymous said...

What about Nobel Prized author Orhan Pamuk? No body assasinated him, and he is Turkish. Are you sure Hrant Dink was not killed by some other powers whose intention was to create a war in the area?
What do you really know?
What abut Armenian lobby in America?
What do you really know about your own far and decent history? Or it is just easy to believs what you are told to belive?

Anonymous said...

April 24 1915 is the date these alleged massacres are supposed begin. Do you know that this date is actually the date of closure of two Al Kaida-like Armenian terror organizations? Believe it or not, the two organizations have killed tens of thousands of innocent people, some from their own to extort money, during a 30-year terror campaign against the Ottoman Empire. Yet the Ottomans gave them permission to have dozens of their offices inside the Empire. Armenia and the Armenians in the United States don't want to open their archives to public scholars, with good reason. They used to show a picture of a pyramid of human skulls saying they were those of Armenians'. But, it proved out to be a painting by a Russian painter that died 30 years earlier than the alleged events. British Blue book against the Turks, written at the time of First World War, proved to be, admittedly, a wartime propaganda book written to defame Turks, whom they were in war with. There were only several American Historians who could read the old Turkish and understand it. Armenians attacked and threatened these scholars (Professors Shaw, Bernard Lewis, Justin McCarthy). They were the authority on that part of the World History. They were saying there was no genocide. Yet, Armenians wrote many books based on their own prejudices and those of the missionaries accounts. The latter never wrote about any Turks or Kurds being killed by the Armenians; not once, so far for their impartiality. Yet, the Russian/Armenian co-op armies killed about 2 million Muslims (Mostly Turks and Kurds). When the Armenians talk about these events, they never forget to mention that Turks are Muslims, and Armenians are Christians; this approach obviously assumes that the audience includes a lot of prejudicial Americans. What I just described is the tip of the iceberg of the case against the so-called genocide. This is the only genocide allegation where victims have killed 2-4 times more presumed perpetrators.

Anonymous said...

The ASALA and PKK Armenian Terrorist organizations :
the ASALA killed 42 Turkish diplomats worldwide. and the PKK killing our people and soldiers since 1980.

The Genocide ? WHAT ? The Ottoman Empire's archives says : Find Those Rebel Armenians and send them to syria because of their riot in the country. They are killin' Turkish people with the Europe's weapons which are comin' to churches.

600 years.. yes 600 years.. The Armenians lived under Ottoman Empires governement for 600 years.. and why does ottoman empire start killin' them while all the country is under attack by France, England, Italy, Greece, Russia. Also the army fighting in The Northern Africa ( Trablusgarp and Egypt ) and in Balkans ( Bulgaria )

After Mustafa Kemal Atatürk died in 1938 the armenians and all the USA, EU and ISRAIL's eyes on the Republic of Turkiye. Why ? because of the Boracs and Contorium. and now with the media power they made the uneducated people select the AKP ( Recep Tayyip Erdoğan - The President of Republic of Türkiye that is absolutely sellin' the country ) using their religion.

sorry but all the europe and usa writers are tellin' american and european people the LIE. because of the truth makes people ask theriselves : "What kind of bad people are we ?!" and this question can change all the world. as i said : we are absolutely managing by a usa agent president and as lucids we are going crazy here. the Republic of Türkiye's telecomunication systems, energy systems, ports and banks all sold to Israel, USA, and EU.. these events are same with 80 years ago ones.. the ottoman empire died with the same plan. but ATATÜRK changed the history and the future. now we are going to see what will happen in 3 years. know that : ATATURK'S TURKISH YOUTH NEVER DIE. AND READY TO FIGHT..

sorry for bad english.. im turkish thats the best i can do...

Anonymous said...

IS EVERYONE WORKS FOR SOMEBODY? Or people here who comment this article own their company make millions. Even lawyers has to get paid by someone as like you guys are. I am working for somebody then i get paid end of the month. lawyer work for turkish goverment he gets paid. Like armenian was paying senators lawyers lobbyist .

yeşim said...

There is nothing like a genocide. it was a civil war started with the attack of armenians. the armenians were told by Russia that they will be given their sovereignty but it never happened. Russia used armenians as pions at that time.

see the poverty in Armenia today.
they are pennyless because if U.S. helps them they will deny the genocide. U.S. is happy that they are hungry so the fake genocide discourse continues.

Turkish history and archive is open for a recounter. so where is the rest of the world? why is everybody play 3 monkeys?

Think. why do armenians do not open their archieves?

think about it.