Dark side of a dream
The BBC’s Jonny Dymond (who normally reports from Istanbul and Ankara) has ventured to the east of the country to bring us this look into Turkey’s EU bid.
Kars is a miserable place. Once it was rich; its broad boulevards and the few remaining grand Russian and Armenian traders’ houses are a reminder of days when the city was a prized possession of the Russian empire and trade brought wealth and style.
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The people of eastern Turkey who look to the EU to sort out their problems are in for a rude, he says. The article is devoid of anything but the above passing mention of Armenians, which I find rather disturbing. The BBC reporter in Brussels mentioned the Armenian protestors outside when the Turkish leader was there for the recent agreement on starting accession talks, but he only mentioned “hundreds of thousands of Armenians massacred” which is basically the official Turkish line. It’s shameful when normally the BBC can be pretty forthright, in their coverage of the Israel/Palestine conflict, for example

