[Acrylic-bob]

The first point I want to make clear is that my post had little to do with the religion of the countries involved. That they happen to be Moslem and Christian is in terms of that particular conflict significant, but of little relevance to the discussion in hand.
I fail to see how the recounting of historical fact could be construed, however obliquely, as insulting to muslims. Surely the twentieth century has taught us that the way that such events are properly dealt with is first by owning them, accepting ones part in them, expressing remorse for ones actions and then by taking steps to ensure that it never happens again, which is what Germany and Japan have done. It is not properly dealt with by the consistent denial of responsibility and attempting to sweep it under the carpet.
Yes I agree that these events happened close on a hundred years ago, but does the interval of time make them any less repulsive? The slaughter of the Western Front happened shortly afterwards but as a nation we still mourn the loss of those men and in many households throughout the kingdom that loss is still keenly felt. Do you suppose that the Armenians feel the murder of one and half million of their compatriots, for no other reason than the fact of their ethnic origin, any less keenly? I can tell you, from personal experience, that they do not. Touch on the subject of this massacre in any Armenian household and you open up a world of sorrow that is so palpable as to be almost insupportable, that is, if you can persuade them to talk about it all. Indeed their sorrow is compounded because, unlike the Jewish Holocaust, they are compelled to bear it in isolation in a world that apparently knows little of it and cares even less.
There is also this to consider; Turkey has been actively lobbying for admission into the EU for the last forty years. I cannot imagine that at some time during that period that Brussels would not have appraised them of the criteria, both social and economic, that are required for admission. And yet they are still ten years and Billions of Euros in economic aid away from qualifying.
My point is that there is another agenda at work here, one that is not being openly discussed. The decision to admit Turkey to membership of the EU is based solely on the fact of it’s geographic, and hence strategic importance. Such considerations place little importance on the social or economic repercussions of admitting to membership what is still, to all intents and purposes, a third world country.
As if to prove that point, it was necessary, in the face of Turkey’s refusal to recognise Cyprus, to bend the rules and use a fudge to get the agreement signed at all.