House committee approves Armenian genocide resolution
White House Urges Congress Not to Learn From History
FLASHBACK: In 2000, Candidate Bush Called Armenian Massacre A ‚Äö√Ñ√≤Genocidal Campaign’
White House: Genocide resolution would hurt relations with key ally
White House And Turkey Fight Bill On Armenia: Genocide Label for WWI-Era Killings Has House Support
A House resolution that would recognize the 1915 Armenian Genocide as, well, a genocide is running into some problems: America’s strategic interests! You see, we are best (strategic) buds with the internationally despised Turks, because they let us use an air base. And as we all know, access to air bases trumps symbolic recognition of unthinkable acts of evil every time. Also Turkey keeps almost maybe deciding it’ll help us in Iraq, though they really don’t get along with the Kurds, and would probably round up and “relocate” all of them if it weren’t for us.
It seems like such a no-brainer. In 1915-16, Turkey brutally slaughtered hundreds of thousands of ethnic Armenians. There’s no great mystery to this, nor is the Turkish government denying this part of their history (then again, neither do they want it to be discussed). The American government recognizes the slaughter as a “massacre”, which is, diplomatically speaking, apparently a step below the more intellectually- and emotionally-charged “genocide”. Now that Congress is contemplating recognize the massacre of Armenians as genocide, the Turkish government is upset that their history might actually be recognized for what it is. Really, though, whether you call it a “massacre” or a “genocide”, does it really change the reality that Turkey is responsible for the murders of something like a million of it’s own citizens? And why does recognizing that historical reality cause the Turkish government so much heartburn?
As you might imagine, Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © has waded into the middle of this debate, stating that the Congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian massacre as “genocide” would do “great harm” to Turkish-American relations. Given that Turkey has proven such a loyal ally in The Worst President EVER’s © Excellent Adventure in Iraq (70% of the air cargo and 30% of the fuel used by used forces pass through Turkey), it’s understandable why mollifying Turkish sensibilities might be in order…something about “biting the hand that feeds you”, I suppose. Nonetheless, while I’m not altogether certain what a resolution will accomplish 92 years after the fact, why should it be the responsibility of the US government to paper over Turkish responsibility for the genocide conducted against their own citizens? No resolution will make everything all better, especially 92 years and a million lost lives later, but at least our government can do it’s part to set the record straight. What happened was genocide, and by whatever defintion you might prefer. How else could you possibly define the extermination of a million Turkish citizens at the hand of their own government?
[Rep. Adam B] Schiff [D-CA]…said the deaths so long ago still resonate with Armenians. “It is an insight you get when you have lots of Armenian constituents,” he said, saying it reminded him of conversations he had while growing up Jewish. “But imagine losing the entire family and having the successor state say it never happened.”
Few people deny that massacres killed hundreds of thousands of Armenian men, women and children during and immediately after World War I.
But Turkish officials and some historians say that the deaths resulted from forced relocations and widespread fighting when the 600-year-old Ottoman Empire collapsed, not from a campaign of genocide — and that hundreds of thousands of Turks also died in the same region during that time.
So, in other words, it’s OK, because it all balanced out, right? Sure, a crapload of Armenians died, but so did a whole lot of Turks…and we all know that relative suffering is an argument best left to historians (and, absent them, propagandists can fill in just as easily).
The problem here is that 92 years have passed, which means that there are almost certainly no survivors alive today to tell their story. No one alive today can attest to what happen and how it transpired. There seems little doubt, though, that the government of the Ottoman Empire, decrepit and drawing it’s final spastic breaths as it was at that time, instigated and participated in a coordinate campaign to rid Turkey of it’s ethnic Armenians. Whether or not Congress recognizes that today as genocide is really beside the point, because it changes the reality not a whit.
“This is the greatest accusation of all against humanity,” said Turkish Ambassador Nabi Sensoy, referring to genocide. “You cannot expect any nation to accept that kind of labeling.” He said the reaction in the Turkish parliament would be one of fury, noting that the Turkish military cut contacts with the French military and terminated defense contracts under negotiation after the French National Assembly voted in 2006 to criminalize the denial of Armenian genocide.
The only “labelling” occuring here is an official recognition of what actually happened, and it was genocide, which, for those of you in need of a defintion, is
the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.
By any definition, what the Turkish government orchestrated in 1915 was genocide. The Turkish government and Turkish nationalists may recoil at the thought of an aspect of their history being so labelled, but the reality is what it is. Your country, your government, orchestrated “the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group.” Your righteous indignation and/or ignorance of your own history is hardly a defense. Wanting things to be different does not make it so.
Memo to the Turkish government: It’s your history; isn’t it time you dealt with it openly and honestly?
