“Geopolitics trumps genocide”
Our views in brief
Opinion Section B8
Wednesday, June 2, 2004

Fresno Bee Editorial Board:
Ray Steel Jr.
Jim Boren
Edward R. Jimenez
Russell Minick
Gail Marshal

House Speaker Dennis Hastert was in Fresno on Friday for a fund-raiser
that drew a protest from the local Armenian community. Hastert has
refused to allow a resolution that recognizes the Armenian Genocide
come to the floor for a vote.

Hastert is carrying water for the Bush Administration on the touchy
issue. Like administrations before it, the Bush administration,
especially the State Department, is afraid of offending the Turkish
government by designating the savage events of early last century as
a genocide.

But the genocide did occur, and that must be recognized by
our government. Between 1915 and 1923, and estimated 1.5 million
Armenians were killed at the hands of the Ottoman Turkish empire and
its successor regime.