Turkey Quotes
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Turkey is taking advantage of the war in order to thoroughly liquidate its internal foes, i.e., the indigenous Christians, without being thereby disturbed by foreign intervention.
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More Turkey Quotes
Some Englishmen, of whom Kitchener was chief, believed that a rebellion of Arabs against Turks would enable England, while fighting Germany, simultaneously to defeat Turkey. Their knowledge of the nature and power and country of the Arabic-speaking peoples made them think that the issue of such a rebellion would be happy: and indicated its character and method. So they allowed it to begin...
thomas edward ("t. e.") lawrence— Introduction: Foundations of Revolt
There is now evidence to suggest that Santa's grotto lies not in icy Lapland, but among Mediterranean olive groves on Gemiler, a tiny island off Turkey.
Roger Highfield— 1998 Can Reindeer Fly? The Science of Christmas.
I have traversed the seat of war in the Peninsula, I have been in some of the most oppressed provinces of Turkey; but never under the most despotic of infidel Governments did I behold such squalid wretchedness as I have seen since my return, in the very heart of a Christian country. And what are your remedies? After months of inaction, and months of action worse than inactivity, at length comes forth the grand specific the never-failing nostrum of all state physicians from the days of Draco to the present time; death. Is there not blood enough upon your penal code that more must be poured forth to ascend to Heaven and testify against you?
lord byron— 1812 Maiden speech given to House of Lords, 27 Feb, against a proposal to introduce the death penalty for machine wrecking.
"Turkey must show its teeth to Armenia." "What harm would it do if a few bombs were dropped on the Armenian side by Turkish troops holding maneuvers on the border?"
turgut Özal— The New York Times, (April 18, 1993)
— Said when discussing the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
I'm putting it to you and to all of my critics, if you can find any Asian leader in any Asian country of whatever political persuasion who doesn't subscribe to the immigration views of New Zealand First, then name that person now. None of you can, all the way to Turkey.
winston peters— Interview with the 7:30 Report, ABC TV, Australia.
Manuel Rivera-Ortiz’s photographs of people living in poor villages in Turkey and Thailand, Bolivia and India don’t falsely romanticize their subjects’ poverty nor do they explicitly critique the political or economic systems that create such conditions. By focusing purely on the people who populate the poor global villages he visits, he captures the entire range of human emotion: mistrust, fear, curiosity, friendliness, happiness. Social critique may simmer below the surface of his work, but the primary message of Rivera-Ortíz’s images seems to be that hope and creativity are not mutually exclusive to poverty.
manuel rivera-ortiz— Nick Stillman, editor, New York Foundation for the Arts, 2005 in Current
I'm glad to tell you Mr President that our relations with our neighbors is improved very well with Turkey, with Syria, with Iran with the Arab countries. The relation is normal now and we have no problem with any of those countries. In contrary, many many new ambassadors are coming to our country from Arab countries.
jalal talabani— Statement made to U.S. President George W. Bush at a meeting at the White House — reported in Agence France-Presse staff (September 10, 2008) "Talabani: Iran, Syria pose 'no problem' for Iraq", Agence France-Presse,
We are not denying that Turkey has a right to defend itself from extremists but some of its actions are not serving any democratic purpose in Turkey or in Iraq. This will not benefit the relations between the two countries.
jalal talabani— Abdel Hamid Zebari (December 25, 2007) "Turkish planes strike inside Iraq: Kurdish official", Agence France-Presse.
I always tell the Kurds who defend independence: Let's say we declared the independent Kurdish state and Syria, Iran, Iraq and Turkey imposed sanctions on us, without waging a war. How would we survive under those circumstances?
jalal talabani— Turkish Daily News staff (September 14, 2007) "Talabani: War against Turkey equal to war against democracy", Turkish Daily News.
Moving to Turkey was the turning point in my life.
tarkan— Tarkan Q & A. Tarkan Translations. Retrieved on April 10, 2003.
England must...have the mask of Christian peaceableness torn publicly off her face...Our consuls in Turkey and India, agents, etc., must inflame the whole Mohammedan world to wild revolt against this hateful, lying, conscienceless people of hagglers; for if we are to be bled to death, at least England shall lose India.
— Marginal note in a telegram from the German ambassador in St Petersburg, Count Friedrich von Pourtalès (30 July 1914), quoted in Fritz Fischer, Germany's Aims in the First World War (New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 1967), p. 121.
I wish Europe would let Russia annihilate Turkey a little--not much, but enough to make it difficult to find the place again without a divining-rod or a diving-bell.
mark twain— Ch. 42. (The Innocents Abroad (1869))
The winter oak... is very useful in buildings but when in a moist place it takes in water to its centre... and so it rots. The Turkey oak and the beech both... take in moisture to their centre and soon decay. White and black poplar , as well as willow , linden , and the agnus castus... are of great service from their stiffness. ...they are a convenient material to use in carving.
vitruvius— Chapter IX, Sec. 9
In France, the characteristic attitude of newcomers from North Africa, Turkey, and sub-Saharan Africa is predominantly one of alienation, confrontation, rejection, and hatred.
— Jean-Francois Revel, "Europe's Anti-American Obsession" (2003), The View From Abroad, The American Enterprise.
While the death toll in the trenches of Western Europe were close to 2 million by the summer of 1915, the extermination of innocent civilians in Turkey (the Armenians, but also Syrian and Assyrian Christians and large portions of the Greek population, especially the Greeks of Pontos, or Black Sea region) was reaching 1 million.
— Peter Balakian, The Burning Tigris, p. 285-286
It should be borne in mind, however, that it was not until after the declaration of the constitution that the idea "Turkey for the Turks" took definite shape and developed into the scheme of accomplishing its purpose by the final extinction of all the Christian populations of that blood-soaked land...
— George Horton in The Blight of Asia (1926). Horton was the American General Consul in Smyrna from 1911 until 1917, then again after the war until 1922 - and was a direct eyewitness to the city's destruction and the massacreing of the city's Greeks and Armenians by the forces of Kemal Ataturk
The destruction of the Armenians was undertaken on a massive scale...This policy of extermination will for a long time stain the name of Turkey.
— Richard Kuhlmann, German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire 1916-1917, Forieign Minister 1917-1918. German Foreign Ministry Archives
Thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in Turkey. Almost no one dares speak but me, and the nationalists hate me for that.
— Orhan Pamuk, Internationally recognized Turkish author, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (2006) in an interview with Swiss newspaper Tagesanzeiger (2005)
Pamuk has made groundless claims against the Turkish identity, the Turkish military and Turkey as a whole. He should be punished for violating Articles 159 and 312 of the Turkish penal code. He made a statement provoking the people to hatred and animosity through the media, which is defined as a crime in Article 312.
— Orhan Pekmezci, Kayseri Bar Association Attorney upon filing charges against Pamuk for violations of Turkish Penal Code (2005)
The partisans of Ittihad are unabashedly conceding that their ultimate aim [Endziel] is the total annihilation (ganzliche Ausrottung) of the Armenians of Turkey, adding, "After the war we no longer will have any Armenians in Turkey."
— Dr. Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter, German Vice Consul, Erzerum, 28 July 1915
It can no longer be denied that the Turks... have undertaken the extermination of the Armenians race and it appears that they have largely succeeded in it. With certain air of gleefulness Talaat recently told me that in Erzerum, for example, there should be remaining not a single Armenian... Turkey today is under a maniacal spell due to the realization that she carried out the extermination of the Armenian race with impunity.
— Karl Count zu Trautmansdorff-Weinsberg, Temporary Ambassador to Turkey, (30 September 1915) Austrian Foriegn Ministry Archives
As to the territorial limits of Europe, they may seem relatively clear on its seaward flanks, but many island groups far to the north and west Svalbard, the Faroes, Iceland, and the Madeira and Canary islands are considered European, while Greenland (though tied politically to Denmark) is conventionally allocated to North America. Furthermore, the Mediterranean coastlands of North Africa and southwestern Asia also exhibit some European physical and cultural affinities. Turkey and Cyprus in particular, while geologically Asian, possess elements of European culture and may be regarded as parts of Europe.
— Encyclopædia Britannica, Europe
All Christian powers that are still neutral would be impelled to rise up against Turkey and cry anathema against her |inhuman Government and her ferocious 'Committee of Union and Progress,' and they would extend the responsibility to Turkey's Allies .
— "Armenian Genocide", in The Armenian Herald, Volume 2, p. 223
A rich compost of Turkey manure and wood shavings.
bill allred— Radio From Hell (April 12, 2006)
My mother is a great hunter — she usually shoots our Thanksgiving Turkey.
kirsten gillibrand— Saratoga.com
He's had a tough life. As is not unusual in Jewish families - if you've ever seen the movie Avalon - I think somebody's cut the Turkey on Uncle Louis a few years ago... That doesn't change my view of him when I was young and he was a detective.
howard safir— Safir, reponding to the disparaging comments made about him by his uncle, Louis Weiner (who captured the bandit Willie Sutton)Russ Baker and Josh Benson (1999-05-16). "The Commish Bites Back: Howard Safir Explains His Life to His Critics". The New York Observer. Retrieved on 2007-12-20.
I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; like those among men who live by sharking and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. The Turkey is a much more respectable bird.
— Benjamin Franklin, letter to Sarah Bache (January 26, 1784).
Try this: say the words "global, global, global" aloud several times, as fast as you can. You'll find yourself sounding like a Turkey ("gobble, gobble, gobble").
— Part 4, Chapter 21, Globalization, p. 254
