Bill would recognize Armenian deaths as genocide

Memorial in Yerevan, Armenia

Democrats and Republicans introduced a resolution in the House calling for U.S. recognition of the 1.5 million Armenian deaths at the end of World War I as genocide.

The measure will likely anger Turkey who claim the deaths were not the result of genocide. President Bush opposes such a move saying even congressional debate could damage relations with Turkey, a Muslim ally and host of Incirlik Air Force Base -- utilized by American forces for missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sponsors of the resolution say the newly controlled Democratic Congress make it more likely that it will make the House floor for a vote. Similar measures have failed in the past with congressional leaders keeping it from vote.

Blogian states:

Israeli scholar Yair Auron’s “Banality of Denial: Israel and the Armenian Genocide,” which I finished reading last week, states that the resolution was pulled out in 2000 because Shimon Perez had written a letter to Clinton saying that Jewish lives in Turkey would be under danger if it passed. But more recently, a former Turkish FBI translator has claimed that then House speaker Hastert pulled out the resolution because he was bribed by nationalist Turkish groups in America.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who supports the resolution, will likely get a call from the President asking for a no vote on grounds of national security.

Bush issues a statement every year commemorating what happened to the many Armenians at the end of the first World War, but has come just short of declaring it genocide. In Turkey it is a crime to use the word to describe what happened while in France it is just the opposite -- denying that the killings are genocide is a crime.

Mizgîn of Rastî has lost hope with Turkey:

So much for the concepts of sin and shame. What a bunch of losers.

Well, there you have it. There really isn't any hope. If Turkey cannot come to terms with the Armenian Genocide, which happened almost 100 years ago, it cannot come to terms with its continuing Kurdish genocide. No, there really isn't any hope at all.

Prof. Dr. Norman Barry (found here) differs:

First there is the alleged “Armenian genocide,” then the problem of Kurdish separatism and the abiding complaint that in Turkey the military has too great a say in politics. I deliberately say “alleged” Armenian genocide since there is genuine disagreement among reputable historians about what exactly took place in World War I. Undoubtedly there was harsh treatment of the Armenian minority, but was it a genocide? Probably not, and we must remember that it also took place in extraordinary times: Turkey was fearful of Russia and a potentially subversive minority posed a serious problem.

In closing, a quote from colleague Tim Showers:

I believe passing this bill is the right thing to do; not speaking out against the Turkish government's position is akin to implicitly supporting it, which we would no more do than supporting Holocaust deniers. The timing, however, is unfortunate, given the politically charged near future with Turkey, so the question becomes does the pragmatism of international relations override the principle of human rights support.

-Dippold

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