GENOCIDE REMEMBERED

Anniston Star , AL
rials-1015-editorial-7j14v5619.htm
Oct 15 2007

One of the worst crimes in human history happened in Turkey when,
beginning in 1915, some 1.5 million Armenians were killed and hundreds
of thousands were driven out of the country.

It was genocide. History is clear on that point. Most people, however,
have never heard of it and Turkey is fine with that.

While acknowledging that many Armenians were killed, the modern
Turkish state insists it was simply a result of war, that there was
no systematic attempt to liquidate an entire people.

It is an example of denial in the worst way and it has been going on
for the greater part of a century.

And that must change.

Last week, a committee in the U.S. House of Representatives took up
a resolution to condemn the killings of Armenians during World War
I as an act of genocide.

Right away, all hell broke lose. Turkey immediately threatened to
withdraw its support of the war in Iraq if the measure passed on the
House floor and sent in their legion of hired lobbyist and lawyers
in an attempt to derail the whole thing.

The president came forward too, along with some key Democrats,
warning members of both parties not to pass the resolution, that
it would harm America’s relationship with a NATO nation. That is a
valued relationship.

Is it really worth it, they are essentially asking, to jeopardize
a strategic partnership over something that happened 90-something
years ago?

Airing the truth is worth it. If Turkey plans to join the European
Union, it is. If Turkey wants to mature enough to lead on the global
stage, it is.