Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)
October 12, 2007 Friday
SOONER EDITION
RECKLESS RESOLUTION;
A TURKISH-ARMENIAN FEUD HAS NO PLACE IN CONGRESS
The United States is in the regrettable position of having a
92-year-old problem, genocide waged against Armenians in 1915 in the
old Ottoman Empire, creating a serious foreign policy and defense
problem with Turkey today.
The source of the problem is the folly of the House Foreign Relations
Committee, which voted 27-21 Wednesday to pass a nonbinding
resolution condemning Turkey for the early-20th century massacre. It
did so at the behest of some of the country’s 385,000 Armenian
Americans, who put pressure on the members who represent their
districts.
There is no question that the 1915 genocide took place. It included
ethnically and religiously based killing of civilians and was
deplorable. At the same time it is important to look at historical
context. The killing occurred in the dying days of the Ottoman
Empire, eight years before the Turkish Republic, of which modern
Turkey is the embodiment, was established in 1923. Describing
Armenian Americans lobbying for passage of the resolution as
"Armenian genocide survivors" is a misuse of words: a person born in
1915 would be 92 now.
Here is what is at stake in 2007. The Turkish government has deemed
the congressional resolution "unacceptable." Turkey, a NATO ally
since the Korean War, permits the delivery of 70 percent of U.S.
military air cargo and 30 percent of the fuel that goes into Iraq
through its facilities. Virtually all of the new anti-mine armored
vehicles transit Turkey. Also, Turkey rarely bluffs; last year it
broke all military ties with France when the French parliament passed
legislation making denial of the genocide a crime.
In addition, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after the
holiday at the end of Ramadan, plans to ask his parliament to
authorize a military incursion into the Kurdish region of Iraq, in
response to the recent killing by Kurds there of Turkish soldiers and
officials in Turkey.
The United States is asking Turkey not to take that action. The
United States has consistently favored and protected Iraq’s Kurds,
starting in 1991 after the first Gulf War. American oil companies are
now also seeking to take advantage of the absence of an Iraqi
national oil law to sign contracts with the Kurdish regional
government. Turkish military action in Kurdish Iraq would in general
upset the U.S. apple cart in that part of the country.
Some anti-war Americans might think Turkey would help end the
fighting in Iraq if it shut down deliveries of U.S. military
equipment through its territory to Iraq. That is, however, entirely
the wrong reason for passing the Armenia resolution.
Responsible congressional leadership should quietly but effectively
shut down action on the resolution now. The administration of
President Bush could then go to the Turks, point to that action,
pledge to control the Kurds in Iraq who are attacking the Turks and
ask Turkey to stay its hand rather than carry out cross-border
attacks into northern Iraq.
The House committee’s resolution on events in the Ottoman Empire 92
years ago is a clear case of the tail wagging the dog. It should not
be allowed to occur.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress