South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale)
October 18, 2007 Thursday

EDITORIAL: Current humanitarian disasters should take priority over
Armenian genocide resolution

Oct. 18–ISSUE: House Committee passes genocide declaration.

By any reasonable person’s definition, what the Ottoman Empire
practiced during World War I against its Armenian minority was
genocide. The nations of the world have long acknowledged the
ruthless massacre in the second decade of the 20th Century, a century
marked by widespread massacres on numerous continents.

Now, the U.S. House Foreign Relations Committee has voted to
officially declare the 1915 attack as genocide. The resolution
gratifies the Armenian-American community, which has justifiably
sought such a designation for decades. Well-meaning as it may be,
however, the resolution would deeply offend Turkey, one of America’s
strongest allies in the Middle East.

Fortunately, a number of House members are rethinking their original
positions in favor of the measure, possibly forcing House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi to table it.

Proponents of the resolution rightly believe that the way to prevent
future holocausts is to acknowledge and condemn those that have
occurred in the past. Nonetheless, the unfortunate fact is that this
country is currently embroiled in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The
cooperation of Turkey is essential for the logistics of prosecuting
those wars.

U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Delray Beach, a member of the House
Foreign Relations Committee, has taken the pragmatic step of voting
against the measure, a position supported by the White House, to the
dismay of many of his constituents. He has chosen to focus on the
broader picture of our nation’s present needs, rather than the narrow
issue of redressing the inhumanities of a near-century ago, however
worthy that goal might be.

A better way to make a meaningful statement is for Americans to
dedicate their efforts to heading off and mitigating unfolding
humanitarian disasters, like those in Darfur and Myanmar.

Yes, the world must know how the Armenian people suffered. The best
way to honor them, however, is to prevent more massacres, and to do
so in their name.

BOTTOM LINE: Now is not the time for a genocide measure.