Smoke and mirrors of Kemalism

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), Nov 15, 2012 at 11:31

cuneyt wrote referring to :

>>The AKP government also reversed Atatürk's legacy of looking to the West for inspiration and leadership.<<

Ataturk looked at the west for leadership? He kicked british behinds all his life. Come on now!"

Exactly! Dr. Pipes is repeating uncritically Turkish hagiography. Non only did Kemal deceive the Brits but he also hornswogled the Americans! The swindle he used to exploit the greedy Yankees for his purposes was simple and effective.He enticed them into backing him at the Lausanne Conference with false promises of the so called Chester Concession - one of the biggest scams of the first half of the 20th century. I mentioned it a few years ago. The expected profits from the deal seemed staggering indeed. The "Ottoman-American Development Company" was to construct and operate 2,700 miles of railroad, to exploit all mines and minerals found in a 25-mile zone along the right of way of this road, including 1/ the famous Mosul and other oil fields, aggregating from 4,000,000,000 to 8,000,000,000 barrels potentially, or between one-sixth and one-tenth of the world's total oil resources;2) Copper deposits comprising over 400,000,000 tons of rich ore. 3) About 500 gold, platinum, silver, manganese, iron, tin, zinc, salt, coal and other mines and deposits.

The deal was signed early in 1923 at the outset of the Lausanne Conference where the Yankees did their best to find favor in Kemal's eyes. But when Kemal got what he really wanted at Lausanne he showed his true colors as he had done with another great ally of his - Lenin's Russia. Like no one else he knew to whom, how and when to lie. At Lausanne he had Americans on his side and although already estranged and antagonized by the suspicious Soviets he frightened the Western powers with a spectre of the Soviet-Turkish alliance !

The Grand National Assembly he controlled simply cancelled after merely four months (!) the concession on trumped-up grounds and the greatest Western "democracy" that cares about and praises Kemalism more than the shameful and bloody historical truth Kemalism stands for was duped out of its Turkish profits. But while America sent troops to wreak havoc upon Iraq when Saddam cheated it in a similar way, Kemal's American swindle is never even mentioned by the official historiography sponsored by the Turkish-American Council and other outlets of the Turkish lobby in the States. But frankly, why should it be mentioned and widely known ? It would raise too many inc onvenient questions which no one wants to hear, let alone answer.

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