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CENK UYGUR AND HIS ASSOCIATES MISLEAD THE PUBLIC ON THE YOUNG TURKS

Posted on May. 26. 2021

By Alexandre Kebabdjian

Are Cenk Uygur, Ben Mankiewicz and Dave Koller trying to sow the seeds of doubt among their audience regarding the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide?

In 2002, Cenk Uygur, Ben Mankiewicz and Dave Koller have created the Young Turks, a « daring, funny, and brutally honest show that covers politics, entertainment, movies, sports, and pop culture. » In 2007, Ana Kasparian rejoined this program. Since 2002, it has aired on various radio and tv networks, such as Sirius Satellite Radio, Air America, YouTube, Roku, Hulu, Current TV, Pluto TV, or YouTube TV.

What is the meaning of the Young Turks, according to the creators and producers of this program?

«Young Turk (n), 1. Young progressive or insurgent member of an institution, movement, or political party. 2. Young person who rebels against authority or societal expectations».

The guiding minds of this show are using the derived meanings of « Young Turks ». Cenk Uygur, Ben Mankiewicz and Dave Koller forget to mention the main meanings of « Young Turks »: The Young Turks were a Turkish nationalist reform party, officially known as the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) — in Turkish Ittihad ve Terakki — whose Ittihadist leaders led a rebellion against Sultan Abdul Hamid II.

These Young Turks Ittihadists committed the Armenian Genocide, despoiled the Armenian population, and co-founded the Turkish Republic alongside their political ally Mustapha Kemal.

In the absence of any international justice (Britain set free dozens of Young Turks criminals in a prisoner exchange in 1921), these genociders got their free pass to become politicians again in the new Turkey and continue the old hate against Armenians.

Turkey’s minions and faux-nez have always attempted by perverted means to infiltrate foreign audiences in order to glorify Turkey, badly influence the general perception regarding the Armenian diaspora, deny the genocide, justifiy this crime against humanity, criticize, defame and deshumanize Armenians.

Turkey is frantically trying to portray the Ittihadists as fraternal and smart individuals, pseudo-heroic co-founders of the Turkish state, who allied themselves with some naive Armenians back in 1907. These Young Turks genociders were nothing like heroic or smart, just crooks and looters, child-killers and rapists.

Cenk Uygur, Ben Mankiewicz, Ana Kasparian, Hasan Piker (nephew of Cenk Uygur) and Dave Koller certainly took notice of the genocide carried out by the Young Turks, Turkey’s worlwide propaganda of denial, and the financial exploitation of the Armenian Genocide by Ankara. By the way, Cenk Uygur himself has been a denialist of the Armenian Genocide.

Yet, those individuals are using the names of the real Young Turks since 2002, hiding their bloody origins, cleansing their genocidal image with tips and tricks, overriding and postdating the real Young Turks.

This devious strategy constitute a crude act of fraudulent manipulation and charlatanism, an apology for a crime against humanity.

Even more, Cenk Uygur, Ben Mankiewicz, Ana Kasparian, Dave Koller and their associates have recycled some of the ideological components of the Young Turks that carried out the genocide, like the so-called « Progress » and the « rebellion » against authority. They claim to be « progressive » and/or « rebellious ». Indeed, that’s how they define their cheap program and try to lure their misleaded audience.

In a video on Israel-Palestinian conflict titled « Trump bucks UN on Israel », Cenk Uygur, Ben Mankiewicz, Jimmy Dore and Ana Kasparian were discussing peace negociations in the Middle-East, and also including references to the pro-Israel lobby in Washington. Then, out of the blue, Cenk Uygur said that the Armenians do lobby against Turkey because « they have money ». Cenk Uygur couldn’t resist using the occasion to revive the morbid obsession with Armenians. Let’s recall that the jealousy towards our welfare was a serious motivation for the 1915-1923 Armenian Genocide committed by the ignorant, ruthless and fanatical Young Turk government and their mobs, who not only assassinated our ancestors in Western Armenia and the Ottoman provinces, but also seized their houses, lands and properties, desecrated and demolished their monuments.

What is also striking is the complicity of many medias and companies with this Young Turks program. Google’s YouTube, Facebook, Amazon’s Twitch, Netflix and the others that are airing this program, spreading its title, talking positively about it (e.g. The Guardian’s April 26, 2010 article on the Young Turks), or selling their products and siding with them, are all involved in an apology of a crime against humanity.

The heavy silence of our organizations is shocking. Do they still care about undignified and spoliated Armenians?

Cenk Uygur’s fallacious program is rubbing salt in the Armenian wound, adding insult to injury.

Paris, France Author: Alexandre Kebabdjian (vice-president of Armenian Diaspora Memory and Innovation, graduate of ILERI’s international school, Master of International Relations)