Pressure on Turkey

Fresno Bee
December 19, 2004

I was pleased to read of the continued effort of the European Union
as well as (dare I say) the French in stepping up to the plate on
Turkey’s human rights issue. The EU urged Turkey to “promote the
process of reconciliation with the Armenian people by recognizing
the genocide perpetrated against the Armenians” in 1915-1923.

The European Parliament also called on Turkey to reopen its border
with Armenia “as soon as possible.”

Turkey should comply, or simply be left behind. Turkey can continue
to have a plummeting economy, or it can do the right thing to embrace
the European economic community.

Turkey can show, through proper genocide acknowledgment, that it can
move toward respect toward humanity rather than defacing it as it
has for close to 90 years.

Self-interest foreign policy is something the United States, in
particular, has hidden behind long enough. What about the interests of
all the other countries in the world? What did they lose by doing the
right thing and holding Turkey accountable for its misdeeds? Turkey’s
“special relationship” with the United States didn’t count for much
when we needed them most. Our soldiers were left to double back on
our ships when they were forbidden to cross Turkey during the initial
invasion of Iraq.

I hope U.S. foreign policy can follow the international community’s
lead on human rights, because we definitely haven’t shown such
leadership thus far.

Richard Sanikian

Fresno

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress