A RESOLUTION TOO FAR: HOUSE SHOULD SHELVE DECLARATION THAT WILL ALIENATE TURKEY
Rocky Mountain News, CO
Oct 17 2007
The Ottoman Empire slaughtered Armenians between 1915 and 1923 with
a systematic savagery that qualifies for the word "genocide." Of that
there can be no little doubt, although modern-day Turkey, which has no
responsibility for the slaughter, steadfastly refuses to acknowledge
its magnitude or motives.
Turkey’s attitude is sad but unsurprising. What is surprising,
however, is an action taken last week – 90 years after the Armenian
catastrophe – by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. It approved,
27-21, a nonbinding, wholly symbolic resolution condemning the Armenian
deaths as genocide.
The question is what accounts for this belated declaration in the face
of a furious Turkey – a nation that happens to be a vital NATO ally,
a necessary partner in the war on terror, a rare Islamic state that
is both democratic and generally pro-U.S., and the site of an American
airbase critical to supporting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Other
than placating their Armenian-American constituents, it’s hard to
tell what committee members thought they were up to.
Some conservative commentators have claimed that Democrats pushing the
measure actually mean to sabotage the war effort by provoking Turkey
into retaliatory action that will shut off a major avenue of troops
and supplies into Iraq. But this explanation is far too feverish for
our taste. More likely, proponents discount Turkey’s warnings and
growls as mere political bluffs.
Yet Turkey could do far more damage than merely restrict American
access to Iraq through its territory. They are amassing troops,
helicopter gun ships and armor near the border of Iraq. So far they
have only attacked Kurdish rebels on their own side of the border but
they are threatening to go after facilities in Kurdish Iraq that they
say support the rebels. This would destabilize the one tranquil part
of Iraq.
James Fallows, a national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly (and
no conservative), dubs the committee’s vote "insane" and wonders,
sarcastically, why the House doesn’t condemn "China for the millions
who suffered in the Cultural Revolution and the tens of millions
starved during the Great Leap Forward – right as we’re seeking China’s
help on Burma, North Korea, the environment, etc? . . . Why not one
denouncing Russia for the Czarist pogroms, to accompany efforts to
reason with/rein in [Vladimir] Putin? Maybe another condemning England
for its subjugation and slaughter of the Scots, to say nothing of the
Irish – while also asking Gordon Brown to stay the course in Iraq? What
about Australia for its historic treatment of the Aborigines? Or the
current nations of West Africa for their role in the slave trade?"
The genocide resolution should be allowed to quietly languish in the
clerk’s office, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seems determined to
bring it to a vote in the full House. So far, however, no vote has been
scheduled, and it’s possible that some Democrats may be getting cold
feet. If the House could wait 90 years, it can wait a little longer.
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