The Pueblo Chieftain, Colorado CO
Oct 19 2007
Genocide Vote strikes raw nerve with Turks, Armenians
By PETER ROPER
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
When a House committee approved a nonbinding resolution this month
denouncing Turkey for alleged genocide in the death of possibly 1.5
million Armenians during World War I, lawmakers touched a raw nerve
with both Turks and Armenians, who remain bitterly divided over what
happened 90 years ago during the last years of the Ottoman Empire.
"Turks understand that many Armenians died in this tragedy, but so
did many Turks," said Huseyin Sarper, a Turkish engineering professor
in Pueblo. "But to call this a genocide? There was no plan to
exterminate the Armenians. I don’t believe that. No one wants to be
compared to the Nazis (in Germany). That’s why we care about this
resolution in Congress."
Turkey is a key U.S. ally in the Middle East, allowing war supplies
to be sent to U.S. troops in Iraq through air bases in Turkey. So
that nation’s anger over the congressional resolution drew the
attention of House lawmakers this week.
While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she will bring the genocide
measure to the floor for a vote, some key Democrats, such as Rep.
John Murtha, D-Pa., have said it lacks the votes to pass and support
is dwindling as Turkey’s supporters urge the House to back away from
the divisive measure.
"Why Congress thinks that now is the time to address this, I don’t
know," said political science professor Robert Lee of Colorado
College. "Certainly, Turkey still has to come to terms with what
happened to the Armenians. Right now, anyone who talks about Armenian
genocide in Turkey can be arrested."
At issue is what took place in eastern Turkey between 1915-18, during
World War I, when the Ottoman Empire was allied with Germany and
Austro-Hungary in fighting Russia, France, Great Britain and later,
the U.S.
Historians agree that Sultan Hamid authorized the deportation of
Armenians from their traditional home in eastern Turkey, afraid the
Christian minority would join ranks with the Russians on that border.
Armenian refugees and European observers said the deportations turned
into massacres as refugees were driven from their homes toward the
desert country of what would become Iraq.
Henry Morganthau, the U.S. ambassador in Istanbul at the time, sent
dispatches to the State Department in 1916, saying he was getting
witness reports of thousands of Armenians being massacred in the
east. Similar dispatches were received by the British government. An
Internet search on the topic Armenian genocide will produce Web sites
devoted to photographs and personal accounts of the victims, which
Armenians have labeled the First Genocide of the 20th Century.
Morganthau, in his autobiography, called it the "murder of a nation."
Sarper said the West overlooks the fact that Turkey was engaged in
fighting Russia in the east, and Britain on the Gallipoli coast and
in Palestine. "The Armenians were not just helpless victims. They
were armed and were in revolt. That’s how Turks feel about what
happened. It was a tragedy for both sides."
President Woodrow Wilson wanted to establish a large Armenian nation
in eastern Turkey following World War I, but the post-war national
government of Mustafa Kemal did not allow it. The current Armenia, on
Turkey’s northeast border, has cold relations with Turkey and the
border usually is closed. Small Armenian terrorist groups killed
Turkish diplomats in the 1970s.
Mark Gose, an associate professor of international relations at
Colorado State University-Pueblo, was an Air Force political adviser
in Europe in the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
He said Turkey is extremely sensitive on the subject of Armenia.
"Just look at what happened last year when France approved a
resolution recognizing the genocide and making it a crime to deny
it," Gose said. "Turkey cut off some major business relationships
with France and a sizable number of Turks are now soured on the idea
of joining the European Union."
Gose said the U.S. depends on air bases in Incirlik and Izmir,
Turkey, to provide support to forces in Iraq. To jeopardize that
supply route with a congressional resolution on the Armenian genocide
right now seems "asinine" to Gose.
"You noticed the Turkish Parliament this week voted to authorize
military attacks into northern Iraq against Kurdish rebel groups," he
said. "We certainly don’t want that to happen but I think the Turks
are using this confrontation to get our attention."
Earlier this year, an association of Turkish historians announced
their intentions to meet with their Armenian counterparts in order to
review the historical facts around what happened. Gose said the
country is trying to come to terms with what was done to its Armenian
minority during the first world war.
Lee noted that Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel
Prize for literature, was charged with insulting the nation when he
told a Swiss interviewer that Turkey had killed 1 million Armenians.
"Turkey is a society where this can’t be discussed yet, but it is
moving that way," he said.
Sarper, who grew up in Instanbul, said Turks are not taught about the
Armenian deportation in school.
"Turks should be but we aren’t," he said. "The U.S. did things that
were terrible, too, such as slavery and how Indians were treated. But
the difference is, Americans talk about that. We can do that in this
country."
Photo: A boy pauses in front of a wall-sized poster depicting the
faces of 90 survivors of the mass killings of Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire, in Yerevan, Armenia, in this April 20, 2005, photo.
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