Turkey Miffed For No Reason? Try China!

We may have trouble understanding, despite the fact that over one million Armenians were systematically killed by Turks in the early days of the Turkish nation , why Turkey is pretty well huffed up that we would call their actions genocide ... even 90 years after the genocide mass murders ethnic cleansing event occurred.

But on the scale of pettiness in the face of larger issues, the Turks take a distant back seat to the Chinese, according to this report:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China pulled out of a meeting this week at which world powers were to discuss further action against Iran in protest against the U.S. Congress' plan to honor the Dalai Lama, the State Department said on Monday.

The meeting in Berlin on Wednesday on the showdown with Iran over its nuclear program has been postponed, probably until next week, said a State Department official, who spoke on condition he not be named.

The Berlin meeting had been scheduled on the same day as the U.S. Congress is set to honor the Dalai Lama, the exiled Buddhist spiritual leader whom China shuns as a Tibetan separatist.

"They had indigestion over the presence of certain spiritual leaders (in the United States) and an event with Congress," said the official, who spoke on condition he was not named. "It is extraneous to Iranian issues," he added.

The U.S. Congressional Gold Medal award ceremony at the U.S. Capitol will be the first time U.S. President George W. Bush will have appeared in public with the Dalai Lama, who has visited the White House only for private meetings.

Nuclear devastation on the one hand ... an unintended slight to a nation that has attempted the systematic destruction of another nation on the other. Gee, in the scheme of things the Chinese seem just a tad out of whack.

While the Iran talks are serious (but probably won't lead anywhere, given Chinese and Russian interests in Iran), much more funny is China's cancellation of events in Germany, again over Germany's recognition of the Dalai Lama.

This time, China cancelled the annual German-China human rights dialogue meeting scheduled for December in Germany.

We crushed human rights in Tibet, but won't talk to you about human rights because ... uh ... you're talking to the leader of the nation we crushed.

Apparently the Chinese leadership lacks any sense of humor.

p.s.: Where are the Separation of Church and State crowd by the way? Are they really letting a Congressional medal to a church guy go un-protested? Oh. He's Buddhist. Right.