House Committee Condemns WWI Armenian Genocide

There’s a war in Iraq-Nam and another in Afghanistan. There’s a squelched rebellion in Burma and there’s a humanitarian disaster in Darfur. North Korea still has nuclear weapons and a sociopathic regime. Pakistan is on the brink of major political upheaval, and China and Russia are flexing their muscles around the world. Meanwhile, the House Foreign Relations Committee voted 27-21 on Wednesday to label the Ottoman Turkish murders of 1.5 million Armenians during World War I as “genocide,” thus annoying the Turks and not bringing much help to Armenia. The words “stupid,” “foolish,” and “moronic” come to mind.

That is not to deny that there was a mass killing that started in 1915. At that time, the Moslem Ottoman Empire was at war with Orthodox Tsarist Russia, and the Christians in Armenia were considered a potential weak spot (one might call them a Fifth Column, but that term wouldn’t exist for another 20 years). So, like any good dictatorial empire, the Ottomans decided to kill those who wouldn’t leave. By any reasonable understanding of the term, it was a genocide.

Ignoring the fact that it occurred 92 years ago, a large number of Americans of Armenian extraction have made this something of a crusade. In 2000, the House Foreign Relations Committee passed a similar measure, but President Clinton convinced then-Speaker Dennis Hastert to keep the full House from voting on it. The Armenian National Committee of America has also lined up Jewish pressure groups to back this current effort. The Armenian Assembly of America commended the move, “It is long past time for the US government to acknowledge and affirm this horrible chapter of history.”

In 2006, the French Parliament voted to make denial of the Armenian genocide a crime. In response, Turkey severed all military links with France. Of course, France needs Turkish military ties far less than the Americans do, bogged down as they are in Iraq-Nam, which lies directly east of Turkey. Can America afford to annoy the Turks right now? “Yesterday some in Congress wanted to play hardball,” Egemen Bagis, foreign policy adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told CNN. “I can assure you Turkey knows how to play hardball.” The Turks recalled their ambassador to the US yesterday.

It is rare when this journal agrees with George W. Bush on matters of foreign relations, but in this particular instance, he is entirely right to oppose this resolution. “This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings, and its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror.”

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Home