The Moderate Voice
Oct 13 2007

Turkey: Between Iraq & A Hard Place

By Shaun Mullen

Photo: They just happen to look like dead Armenians

When you’re the U.S. and the biggest and baddest dog in the global
junkyard, you can say whatever you damned well please. But when
you’re Japan and deny the Rape of Nanking or Turkey and deny that you
slaughtered 1.5 million Armenians, you’re going to catch a lot of
flak – and deserve to.

It’s yet again Turkey’s to take heat for an ugly chapter in its
history that it simply cannot wish away: The deaths of all those
Armenians as a result of deportations and systematic killings in the
waning days of the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Apparently having nothing better to do than looking back incessantly,
Armenian-Americans have beaten the drum for years in trying to get
the deaths recognized as genocide, as if that will bring back Uncle
Aram. With the Democrats more or less having the upper hand in
Congress, they now also have some electoral clout to push that
agenda.

Turkey’s response has been that all those Armenians, or at least a
goodly number, died in slip-and-fall accidents, choked on chicken
bones or did each other in. In a word: ludicrous.

In any event, the Greatest Deliberative Body in the Universe has
big-footed into the nearly century-old dispute despite President Bush
imploring these congressfolk – and appropriately so – to butt the
heck out.

In a 27-21 vote this week engineered by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has
a large Armenian-American constituency, the House Foreign Affairs
Committee declared that the Armenian slaughter was indeed genocide.
The non-binding resolution now goes to the full House. (When a House
approved a similar resolution in 2000, President Clinton persuaded
Republican Speaker J. Dennis Hastert to withdraw it.)

Turkey’s response to the vote was predictable: It recalled its
ambassador for consultations and is considering limiting logistical
support to U.S. troops in Iraq by restricting access to U.S. bases on
its soil.

That is no small matter, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates was quick
to note that 70 percent of all air cargo sent to Iraq passes through
or comes from Turkey, as does 30 percent of fuel and virtually all
the new armored vehicles designed to withstand mines and bombs.
(Turkey also is making troubling noises in its long battle with
Kurdish rebels who use northern Iraq as their base.)

When all is said and done, the uproar puts Turkey between Iraq and a
hard place.

It wants to earn its keep as a full-fledged NATO member in the worst
way but needs to save face at home. The Turkey-U.S. crisis also
doesn’t exactly cover those congressfolk in glory since Turkey has
made enormous strides toward becoming a full-fledged democracy, is
one of the few Muslim states to recognize Israel and has been a
bulwark against Muslim radicalism.

There are no winners in this one:

* Armenia, which historically has gotten the short end of the stick,
and Armenian-Americans need to make peace and move on.

* The Turks, whose denials about what happened to those Armenians
seem more childish with every passing year, need to finish growing
up.

* And Nancy Pelosi and others who support the resolution need to stop
vote counting, which is only making a bad situation worse, and
consider the big picture.

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress