Essel: Holocaust Denier?
The LA Weekly is reporting that CD2 candidate Chris Essel recently attended a fundraiser for her held by the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, an organization whose official position is that the Armenian Genocide never happened. The Armenian Genocide was an extremely tragic event in which nearly 3/5th of the Armenian population at the time (over 2.5 million people) was butchered, massacred, and killed by the Ottoman Turk government in 1915-1916. To this day, the Turkish government denies this Holocaust - rivaled only by the Holocaust of Nazi Germany - ever happened, despite the fact that historians say it did. As well the US and many other governments are officially on the record that the genocide took place.Essel says that she herself is on record as acknowledging that the genocide is historical fact yet she justifies that she attended the event because she does not discriminate against supporters. Also attending the event were leaders of the Azerbaijani community who lead an effort in the State Legislature - and defeated by Essel's opponent Paul Krekorian - to condemn the Armenian government. The event was promoted on local Turkish and Azerbaijani websites showing videos denying the holocaust, praising Essel and condemning Krekorian.
Though the Armenian Genocide is less known by Americans than the slaughter of six million Jews by the Hitler regime in Germany, it is rated as a holocaust on the same level and is viewed as so by Holocaust scholars and organizations such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center. For Essel to attend this event it is truly on par with a politician attending an event sponsored by the Institute for Historical Review, a prominent Holocaust denying organization.
We can accept her at her word that she acknowledges the Armenian Genocide. However for a politician in a city and council district with a significant Armenian community - or any community for that matter - Essel's attendance at the Assembly of Turkish American Associations was an extraordinary poor choice.
Labels: armenian genocide, Chris Essel, holocaust denial
Posted by Michael Higby @ 10/21/2009 09:31:00 PM
86 Comments:
As we say in Armenia, Essel is "Rabiz".
Why are you surprised? If Essel the empty vessel does not know where S/T is located, how do you expect her to know world history and geography. I`m sure she does not know where Turkey is located and DEFINITELY she has no clue of what`s the fuss of the genocide. The only thing she knows is $$$$$$$$$$$$. She is a "Pretty woman".........
You might be right. I heard that Shallman told Essel she was going to an event for Turkey and she said "John, its not even Halloween yet!"
Wow.
Higby has really gone off the deep end here.
He is attributing the beliefs of some of her supporters directly to Chris Essel.
Tar them all with a wide brush, I guess.
This is an outrage and a direct ethnic assault by Chris Essel against Paul Krekorian as an Armenian. She participates in a fundraiser by the Assembly of Turkish American Associations? It was expected that she would play this ethnic card, and her defense that she doesn't discriminate against donors is absurd and insulting to all thinking people. So she would attend a Klu Klux Klan rally if they were donors? Get real, if you swallow this line of b.s. then you deserve her and the continuation of the selling out of CD2 which started under Wendy Greuel, the Mayor's puppet.
Why does this post by Higby surprise Phil?
Highby posted many comments comparing Obama to Hitler, Higby is a joke.
This is disgusting, Essel should drop out of this race.
Raising money from Genocide deniers? how low will she go?
Essel has no business running for public office.
"He is attributing the beliefs of some of her supporters directly to Chris Essel."
Question for you Jennerjahn:
What if she had a fundraiser at David Duke's house or with some other Neo Nazi? Would you say you cant attribute their views to her?
Please explain?
Is Essel's campaign run by idiots?
Morality aside, this is a stupid move in a district with so many Armenians.
How do you say lights out in Armenian.
Never been a fan of Krekorian.
But this is real gutter stuff that no decent person can defend.
Essel should apologize and return the blood money.
What an idiot.
So then Pauls support and hosting of a CAIR fundraising event last month, an organization that has been identified as a front for HAMAS by the FBI should then be considered that Krekorian somehow is anti -jewish and supports terrorism? Whats his defense of hosting a dinner to raise money for terrorists? I can see this campaign is gonna get ugly.
Brilliant move on Essel's part.
The Al Quada fundraiser must be scheduled for next week, or would that just be a meet and greet.
Lets see, you have no endorsements from the district. Your wrong on all the issues people care about, and you just pissed away a quarter of the folks in your district.
I think this lady is a loser.
12:33
Essel staffer.
What nit wit approved this fundraiser in the Essel office?
It is going to be off with the heads at Essel headquarters.
I would expect that AV's people would pick much better candidates than this.
I think they are losing their touch.
CAIR is okay. Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama said so.
Phil would this make Essel a dangerous denier of history?
12:09
Don't waist your time asking Phil a logical question.
He will surely respond by blaming Essel's idiocy on one or a combination of his usual suspects:
1- Budget destroying socialists
2- The Catholic Church
3- Judy Price
4- John Walker
5- George McGovern
6- Liberal Media
7- SEIU
Higby:
Your too harsh on Essel, this is far more ignorance than malice.
She probably has never heard of the Armenian Genocide.
Higby:
Great write up.
I just found out if you do a search using the name of the host of the Essel fundraiser, Mehmet Mustafoglu; he is also listed as the Counsel General for Cyprus.
Can foreign diplomats hold political fundraisers in US elections? I don't think so.
This is getting better and better.
Again the Weekly and Higby beat the LAT to a big story.
Hats off.
This is bizzare.
What does any of this have to do with the CD2 race.
Does any one really need to raise money from these kind of sources.
This woman's already taken money from downtown special interests, fatcat money grubbing developers, and other anti-neighborhood, enemies of freedom. It makes TOO MUCH sense that she would also take money from genocide deniers.
Seriously, she must be stopped.
The woman went to a Turkish-American event and had no knowledge of anything else they might mention in other literature. Krekorian claiming this is somehow about him is him trying to interject the genocide as an issue. Clearly Hacopian is sinking to the Shallman sewer level - gotta say, ever since Shallman has come onto the scene local politics is at a new low so he brought this on himself.
(Using the photo of the corpse from the Holocaust on this thread is a really low tactic.)
Trutanich's fellow Serbians have supported ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia going on now and denied it was genocide. They even his their war criminals. Some American Serbians have justified this and said the charges were trumped up.
Armenian-American Bar Assn. in Glendale is holding a reception for Trutanich - are there ethnic issues that go along with that?
Does this mean Krekorian must shun all Turks? What if someone of Turkish origin, or a Muslim, comes to him for assistance?
Ding Dong the witch is dead.
6:58
Are you nuts?
"The woman went to a Turkish-American event and had no knowledge of anything else they might mention in other literature."
It was a FUNDRAISER for ESSEL not an event she just showed up at. And her FUNDRAISER was at the home of a Genocide Denier.
Like it was not bad enough to be the puppet of CCA and AV. She had to mix in some Genocide Deniers in her very toxic soup.
Awesome.
Good way to start day. Another nail in the Essel coffin.
Hollywood Hills, here she comes.
No comes from Jennerjahn this morning.
Must be waiting for his call from Shallman.
I have no dog in this fight.
But i think Shallman just handed team Krekorian the rope to hang his client with.
They are too skilled of operatives not to use this to the max.
This was a really dumb move.
If i was them, i would return the money fast.
1:08
Funny.
Best shut up job on Phil in a while.
His silence is deafening.
This is the absolute lowest Higby has ever gone. Far from being a denier of Armenian Genocide, Mustafoglu (a Cypriot Turk who is married to a Greek) is a well-known local fundraiser for many causes and also one of Cyprus's best-known friends to Israel locally. The idea of him denying Armenian Genocide is so patently false that it appears it is Krekorian who is getting desperate.
I am voting for Essel, but this was a rookie mistake.
I think Chris needs to shuffle the deck on her campaign team if she is going to win in December.
Essel = No morals or ethics.
No one needs to tell a sixty some thing women that this is wrong.
She should know better than that.
1:34
Foreign diplomats can't raise money for candidates running for office.
8:06
Your a lying Essel staffer.
Mustafoglu was the chair of ATAA and its biggest donor. ATAA is the biggest Genocide denier organization in the United States.
So get your facts straight before attacking Higby.
8:06
My family had to flee Cyprss because of the likes of Mustafoglu and friends.
He does not represent "Cypress", he represents Turkish occupied Northern Cypress which is not recognized by the United States.
Get your facts straight before defending this guy.
Essel raised a few grand at the cost of bringing out a few more thousand Armenians to vote against her.
She is a moron who deserves to lose.
There goes her Times endorsement.
The Armenian Genocide is a big issue for the LA Times, they write about it a few times a year.
So does Wendy drop Essel now?
Before this Wendy was holding the weaker hand, but now Essel's empty vessel is going to be sinking fast.
http://www.ataa.org/reference/index.html#armenian
Check this out, these are the folks Essel is in bed with.
DISGUSTING.
Just hears a story about this on the radio, boy this is getting around.
Kudos to Higby for breaking the story.
The post head line should be changed to "Fundraisers Gone Wild".
Dumb fundraisers, just killed their own candidate.
This is over but the counting.
The Assembly of Turkish American Associations is a 501(C)3 nonprofit according to their website, therefore, it is illegal for them as a tax-exempt organization to endorse a candidate or to use funds to campaign for a candidate. This is a serious violation of the tax code and should be reported.
Krekorians pimps are working overtime on the blogs, I see.
When your candidate is in trouble, throw in a little ethnic conflict into the mix and start pointing fingers.
And they say politics is Los Angeles is boring....
Jennerjahn:
How is Krekorian in trouble?
He won the primary, he has all the endorsements and has an idot of an opponent.
Is guess your memo from Shallman has yet to arrive this morning.
If this becomes a big story, Essel's endorsers will start hitting the road one by one.
Phil:
So by your logic, don't you think that raising money from Genocide deniers is what is bringing a "little ethnic conflict" into the campaign.
So i guess your going to be blaming the victim here.
This is going to become a big story i am afraid. And it will take away focus from the real issues in the district.
Essel should apologize for her mistake and we should all move on.
This is what happens when you have a low IQ candidate.
Shallman can't be blamed for this, Essel should know enough not to hand an issue like this to her opponent.
Wendy is going to drop her like a bad habit.
What is the old line about lying with dogs and waking up with fleas.
That pretty much explains where Essel's campaign is at this point.
Hacopian is going to kill her with this.
I would not be as harsh as Higby.
But this does display terrible judgment on Essel's part.
With all the Hollywood and CCA connections she has for fundraising, she has to go to Turkish genocide deniers for money?
I think this will blow over if Essel moves fast.
She has to say she is sorry, and donate the Turkish money to an Armenian charity.
If she does not do something dramatic, this will haunt her all the way to Election Day.
This is disgusting.
Best example why we need complete public financing of campaigns.
Do you really think Essel wanted to raise money from these low lives?
Essel could not tell you three things about half the neighberhoods in CD2.
And you expect her to know about something that happened in 1915?
Higby: You have unreasonable expectations.
Why would any candidate give their opponent an issue like this?
I hope Essel drop out to bring this campaign to a merciful end.
Sick of reading about it.
10:20, Essel has a treasure chest full of money. She outspent Krekorian at least 2 to 1 in the election. This is not about campaign finance reform, it's about ethics and judgement. Essel fails on all counts.
I guess no one should be surprised by how ignorant Essel is.
If you look at her endorsement list, she has all the CCA whores and low voltage types (hi Janice) listed as supporters.
She is one less idiot we can do with out.
Go Paul go.
10:47
Your right.
But she needs more money since Shallman is robbing her blind and she is way too dumb to know it.
I can see AV in his office now as his latest project hits the dust.
Jimmy is going to get an earful.
Has Wendy said any thing about this?
Was Essel not her project?
If you cant win a race in your own district against a state assemblymen, how are your going to win a mayoral race?
11:12
Wendy was lucky to run against Tony Cardenas, and the only reason she won is because Tony is Latino.
If she was up against some one far more popular like Paul, she would have had her behind handed to her.
What really is driving this is consultant greed. Shallman just wants to get paid. He would have her do an event with Bin Laden if it would bring in a few bucks.
Chris is a better person than this.
This will have a huge impact on this race. It is going to be a lot easier for Paul to bump up turn out in his own community.
In a low turn out race, that could be all he needs to win.
10,000 local Armenians showed up a few weeks ago to the Century Plaza Hotel to PROTEST THEIR OWN PRESIDENT for getting too cozy with the Turks.
Don't you think they're going to show up big time now to vote against Essel for an insult on this level?
Essel palling around with Armenian Genocide Deniers is a BIG DEAL. Its as big as if she was hanging out with David Duke. The ADL would be all over that.
Seriously this is not only a moral outrage but a major tactical error. A simple Googling of the organization and viewing their website would tell them all they needed to know.
This was not worth at all whatever money they got from the event.
Been e-mailed this link by 5 different NC people today.
Wow, what fire works.
I guess Essel really screwed up.
Higby is right.
Even if you put way all morality, this is a stupid place to put yourself politically.
http://www.tallarmeniantale.com/
This is one of the links on the website (http://www.ataa.org/) whose former chair held the Essel fundraiser.
You tell me she is not in cahoots with Genocide deniers.
Chris Essel - It's okay to admit this was a mistake and return the money. I have no horse in this race, just observing. I would also re-evaluate my fundraisers.
Has Essel released a statement on this issue?
Does any one have it?
This was the last thing Essel needed. She was already telling people she is having trouble raising money. This cant be helpful.
As with public topic there are two sides to this issue.
Mr. Higby, I think you owe Chris Essel an apology. She needs to be commended for taking an even handed position on this "so called genocide issue".
I would advise you to educate yourself on the topic before commenting on it again.
The website below is a good place for you to start.
http://www.ataa.org/reference/facts-ataa.html
This is nothing but an Hacopian trick. He is an expert on staging fake attacks on his clients to win sympathy votes for his clients.
In this case he is using one of the guy on his payroll, Michael Higby to do the dirty work for him.
People are up to his tricks, it is well know that a few of the posters on this site are on his payroll.
I am sure Higby and Joe B. are on top of the list.
Hacopian and his dirty tricks must be stopped.
More factual information on this topic.
http://www.ataa.org/reference/tragedy_dewey.html
Shallman don't you feel kind of yucky hanging out with those bigots?
Armenians love any excuse to bitch (anti-Turk protests at the Fed blg.), cause trouble (Armenian mafia laundering $$ thru houkah bars) and NOT assimilate (refusing to speak English, putting those stupid "evil eye" thing-ies up in all their shops.) They're just as bad as the illegal alien Mexicans in this respect, if not worse. And by the way, many Aremenian lurking around these parts are illegal aliens themselves. When you emmigrate to America you're supposed to leave the disputes you had in the "old country" w/ other tribes and other cultures AT THE DOOR. By perpetuating their little historical beef w/ Turkey the Armos demonstrate nothing but ingratitude to America.
Big freaking mistake!!!!
Mess with the Armenians and you get destroyed!!!!
*Reagan acknowledges genocide, cruises to re-election in 1984
*LA Times editor squashes genocide story, gets fired
*Azeris attack Nagorno-Karabagh, but Armenians take it back and hold for 10 years and counting
*Obama endorses genocide resolution, beats McCain
DON'T FUCK WITH THE ARMENIANS!!!!
THIS CHRIS ESSEL THING I TOLD YOU SO YOU HAVEN'T HEARD ABOUT THE OTHER GUY YET. AS I SAID CD2 YOU BLEW IT. THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR GOING WITH BOUGHT AND PAID FOR CANDIDATES WHO SEND YOU GLOSSY ADS WITH BOUGHT ENDORSEMENTS IN YOUR MAIL. WAKE UP!! I TOLD YOU TO CONSIDER LESS POLISHED BUT MORE SINCERE CANDIDATES. MAYBE YOU'LL LEARN NEXT TIME TO GET BEHIND SOMEONE WHO LIVES AND CARES FOR YOUR DISTRICT NOT HIGH PRICED WONTEBEES.
Mr. Mustafoglu is not the "Honorary Consul General" of Cyprus. He is the Honorary Representative of Turkish Cyprus in Los Angeles. He is an American citizen and has every right to exercise his civil rights to host whomever he pleases in his home.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home