NOW IS NOT THE TIME

Dallas Morning News, TX
Oct 11 2007

There’s a time for Congress to be idealistic, to stand up for truth
against the dark forces of ethnic cleansing and historical denial. In
the case of Turkey and the 1915 Armenian massacres, now is not the
time. The companion bills now before the House and Senate, nonbinding
resolutions condemning the killings as "genocide," would be a colossal
foreign policy blunder that could set off an international crisis.

To be clear, the fact of the Armenian massacres, deportation
and starvation are not seriously in dispute, except by Turkish
nationalists. From 1915 through 1917, the Turkish government forced its
native Armenians to leave the country, in part because Turkish Muslim
authorities believed the Christian Armenians sided with neighboring
Russia in World War I. As many as 1.5 million Armenians perished in
this systematic ethnic cleansing.

To this day, Turkey refuses to come to terms with its government’s
crimes and even takes legal measures against Turks – such as novelist
and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk – who publicly say Armenians were
wronged. This is bizarre, despicable and shameful.

Nevertheless, the issue is extremely emotional for Turkey, a secular
Islamic democracy and key NATO ally whose government the United
States can scarcely afford to alienate. Anti-American sentiment is
overwhelming among the Turkish populace. If this resolution passes,
Ankara threatens to cut off American access to Incirlik air base,
a key hub in conducting the Iraq and Afghanistan operations.

Moreover, Turkey is on the brink of launching a war against Iraqi
Kurdistan after repeated killings of Turkish soldiers and civilians
by Kurdish guerrillas based there. The United States is pledged to
protect Iraqi sovereignty. We could soon be looking at troops from
two NATO partners shooting at each other.

It is madness for Congress to throw gasoline on this fire. President
Bush wisely opposes the bill, as do eight former secretaries of
state. It would put vital U.S. national security interests at risk,
for no substantive gain. Idealism has real-world consequences.

Congress has not fully grasped what taking this morally correct
but diplomatically imprudent stance could cost this nation and its
military.

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