US APPLIES A DOUBLE STANDARD TO TURKEY
By Linda S. Heard, Special to Gulf News

Gulf News, United Arab Emirates
Oct 15 2007

Whether or not the Turks were guilty of genocide 92 years ago is
an issue for researchers and historians. The Turks say hundreds of
thousands of Armenians died as a result of war. The Armenians put the
figure at between 600,000 and 1.5 million, and contend they were the
victims of genocide. The question is why are the Americans getting
in on the act – and why now?

A resolution that the killings amounted to genocide was passed by the
House Committee last week and is set to be voted upon by the full House
later this month. Turkey is furious. It has temporarily pulled its
ambassador and warns that such a vote risks a breakdown in US-Turkish
relations. These, of course, are already strained by Turkish threats of
launching incursions into northern Iraq to quell PKK guerilla activity.

The Bush administration is working hard at damage control. It senior
officials are pressurising the House not to go ahead with the vote,
which they say could affect national security. And, at the same time,
they are attempting to persuade Ankara not to interfere in northern
Iraq.

On both issues those involved are guilty of humbug.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing for the vote on a moral
platform. But shouldn’t she first take the log out of her own country’s
eye before she tackles the mote in Turkey’s?

Perhaps she has forgotten that her nation was founded on what some
historians refer to as "genocide". For instance, Ward Churchill,
a professor of American Indian studies, who wrote the book A Little
Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas 1492 to the
Present, or Andrea Smith, the writer of Conquest, Sexual Violence
and American Indian Genocide.

They may be wrong, but it is generally believed that only 15 – 20 per
cent of the indigenous American population survived the years between
1492 and 1900. It is also true that the US government approved mass
slaughter of the buffalo, thus depriving the Plains Indians of their
food supply and forcing them into reservations. Incredibly around
300 still exist.

Sensitive

Just as Turkey is sensitive to being accused of genocide, so is the
US, which refused to ratify the 1948 UN Genocide Convention until
1988 with the proviso it was immune from prosecution for genocide
without its consent. And just to remind you, it still hasn’t ratified
the International Criminal Court, established in 2002 to prosecute
perpetrators of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.

Put simply, Pelosi in her capacity as House Leader has no moral
platform from which to throw rocks at Turkey unless she first
institutes a vote on whether the US was built on the genocide of
America’s indigenous population.

Better still, let that alleged genocide be investigated by the UN
and if and when the US is found culpable it should make financial
reparations to the living descendents of those who suffered. It should
also be up to the UN to pronounce on whether or not Armenians were
the victims of genocide. Pelosi, a California Democrat, has a large
number of Armenians in her constituency and rather than acting out
of some deeply held conviction may be playing to the gallery.

President George W. Bush is being similarly hypocritical in his
attitude towards Turkey. He has stood firmly against the vote
condemning Turkey but only because it is an ally in the so-called
"war on terror", a friend to Israel, a member of Nato and, most
importantly, a safe conduit into Iraq for US military supplies.

Bush knows that Turkey isn’t given to making empty threats since it
has already severed military ties with France in response to the
French National Assembly’s bill that criminalises denial of the
Armenian genocide.

Just hours before the vote the President told reporters "We all
deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people" but "this
resolution is not the right response to these mass killings". One
can only wonder whether he would have issued the same response had
Turkey not been an ally and a very useful one at that.

But when it comes to glaring double standards, the Bush administration
is a maestro. This is a government that took its country to war
on false pretexts, is presently occupying another country and is
threatening Iran with military repercussions for allegedly allowing
insurgents and weapons to cross its borders into Iraq.

And it does all this proudly citing its own national security even
though the US is 6,000 miles away.

Stability

Yet when Turkey, an actual neighbour of Iraq, takes measures to
protect its stability and integrity, it is painted as a troublemaker
and warned to stay clear.

Finally, I harbour no intent to undermine the Armenian tragedy or to
defend the actions of the Ottomans during the First World War.

Further, I neither condemn nor advocate a Turkish incursion into
northern Iraq. My distaste is reserved for the US government and
certain American lawmakers who obviously have never heard of the adage
"People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones" or even if they have,
are simply too arrogant to care.

Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She
can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress