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Raising Sand Radio host Susan Galleymore interviewed Armenian American freelance writer and activist David Boyajian in a program titled “The Truth Will Out” that was broadcast on August 24. The interview was prerecorded. Raising Sand is a weekly hour-long show that originates KZSU-FM Radio at Stanford University in California and is aired by radio stations in the U.S. and Canada.
Galleymore is a reporter and the author of the recently published book “Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak about War and Terror” (Pluto Press).
Following are edited excerpts of remarks by Boyajian in the interview, which covered a range of American political topics:
Raising Sand Radio host Susan Galleymore interviewed Armenian American freelance writer and activist David Boyajian in a program titled “The Truth Will Out” that was broadcast on August 24. The interview was prerecorded. Raising Sand is a weekly hour-long show that originates KZSU-FM Radio at Stanford University in California and is aired by radio stations in the U.S. and Canada.
Galleymore is a reporter and the author of the recently published book “Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak about War and Terror” (Pluto Press).
Following are edited excerpts of remarks by Boyajian in the interview, which covered a range of American political topics:
“Georgia and Armenia form a wall between East and West. The U.S. wants to establish Western-bound pipelines, and it has, but doesn’t want those pipelines to go through Iran or Russia. There are only two countries, therefore, that can serve as pipeline hosts: Georgia, which is currently serving as a host, and Armenia, that cannot presently serve as a host because its East/West borders are closed with Turkey and Azerbaijan. The Georgian – Russian war cast doubt upon Georgia as a present and future host of Western pipelines. What country is left? Armenia. So there’s much more concentration now by the U.S. on opening the Armenian border with Turkey and Azerbaijan.”
Samantha Power:
“I’m asking Samantha Power – who is on President Obama’s National Security Council but has just been appointed to be the chief U.S. person in charge of Iraqi refugees – to resign in protest because President Obama has not acknowledged the genocide. She promised Armenians that he would. He promised he would. If she’s a woman of principle, she will say, ‘I cannot serve under this Administration anymore. They went back on their word.’“
The U.S. War on Terror:
“It’s mainly a cover for geopolitical goals. Americans are being sent to fight and die, and they’re being told it’s for patriotic reasons. There are such reasons, but mainly it’s about establishing American influence in other parts of the world.”
Armenian American goals:
“One focus is to encourage Armenia to democratize more, to respect human rights more. We’re also asking the U.S. government to stop applying so much pressure on Armenia and start applying it on Turkey. The U.S. has been trying to force a solution between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Karabagh. The United States wants open borders so it can penetrate the region with pipelines.”
The Sibel Edmonds case:
“[Former FBI translator] Sibel Edmonds claims that the neoconservatives [and some] members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, along with Turks, are involved in some sort of illegal venture to bribe Congressmen [and] to steal nuclear secrets from the United States. Edmonds has implicated Marc Grossman [former U.S. ambassador to Turkey] in nuclear espionage.”
Genocide denial by Turkey:
“The founding of the new Turkey in 1923 was only possible because Ottoman Turkey committed genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks. It cleansed Asia Minor of all its Christians. That is the only way that an ethnically homogenous Turkish state could be established. To admit the Armenian genocide is to admit that the Turkish Republic was founded on genocide. So Turkey does not want to open up this Pandora’s box.“
Turkey and the Jewish lobby:
“In the 1990’s and even before that, Turkey asked Israel to get certain Jewish American lobbying groups to lobby on behalf of Turkey in the United States, because Turkey felt it didn’t have enough lobbying muscle here. Groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee signed on to oppose Armenian genocide recognition in the United States. So this is a triangle: Turkey, Israel, and some Jewish American lobbying groups all being against Armenians.”
The U.S. war in Afghanistan:
“The Afghanistan war is about more than the Taliban and catching Osama Bin Laden. It’s about oil and natural gas, in Afghanistan and in the country just north of Afghanistan: Turkmenistan. During the Clinton and Bush administrations, the U.S. was actually negotiating with the Taliban to get natural gas – huge amounts – out of Turkmenistan south through Afghanistan. The U.S. is working not just to get Caspian gas and oil out through the West – through Georgia and Turkey – but it’s also trying the Eastern route.”
Turkish nuclear espionage:
“A note to Congress that President Bush sent on January 22 of 2008 – ‘Message to the Congress Transmitting the Turkey – United States Agreement Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy’ – came out after a Sunday Times of London article titled ‘For Sale, The West’s Deadly Nuclear Secrets.’ Turks apparently were conducting some sort of nuclear espionage for several years in the U.S. Bush effectively pardoned any illegal nuclear proliferation activities that ‘Turkish private entities’ were conducting.”
This was Susan Galleymore’s second interview with Boyajian this year. Both interviews can be heard at RaisingSandRadio.org. Their transcripts are on David Boyajian’s web page on Armeniapedia.org.
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