Monday
Feb272012
Turkey Special: The Government Supports a Hyper-Nationalist --- and Threatening --- Protest
Monday, February 27, 2012 at 14:14 | Ali Yenidunya in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
On Sunday in Taksim Square in Istanbul, there was a large demonstration organised by various NGOs, syndicates, and political parties and supported by the Turkish government. The vision was that tens of thousands of Turks would commemorate the anniversary of the Khojaly massacre, committed against Azerbaijanis by Armenian armed forces in Nagorno-Karabagh in 1992.
The reality turned out to be somewhat different.
The memorial became a charged nationalist occasion, not only emphasising Turkish and Azerbaijani identity, but also displaying hatred and racism towards Armenians and those Turkish citizens, mostly left-wing intellectuals, who have been discussing the Armenian genocide/massacre of the early 20th century.