USA Today
Oct 19 2007

Is old Armenia issue worth riling Turkey?

The Cincinnati Post in an editorial: "Other than placating (its)
Armenian-American constituents, it’s hard to tell what interest the
House Foreign Affairs Committee thought it was serving when it
approved, 27-21, a non-binding, wholly symbolic resolution condemning
as genocide the deaths of over a million Armenians when the Ottoman
Empire expelled them from eastern Turkey between 1915 and 1923. …
The resolution infuriated modern Turkey, which, as President Bush and
eight former secretaries of State of both parties pointed out, is a
vital NATO ally. … If the Turks are … truly angry they can
legitimately cause us a lot of trouble in Iraq. … The expulsion of
the Armenians is a part of its history that Turkey has never come to
grips with, and even today reconciliation talks between Turkey and
Armenia are moving very slowly – but nonetheless moving – unless this
resolution impedes them."

(Photo – Pelosi: The House speaker, whose district has a large
Armenian population, pushed for the resolution. / By Tim Sloan,
AFP/Getty Images)

Portland (Maine) Press Herald, in an editorial: "Modern Turkey is an
important ally, a moderate Muslim country with a secular government
in one of the most sensitive areas of the world. It has a border with
Iraq, and its airspace and bases have been used to supply our forces
in that country. … Why should Congress act now, when it is clearly
upsetting to the present Turkish government? The answer is simple. We
should call it genocide because that is the truth. … The
(committee) was right to pursue this issue now. Given Turkey’s place
on the globe, there will probably never be a good time. If genocide
is a charge that can only be applied to our enemies, it loses all
meaning. The United States must be willing, when appropriate, to use
it against its friends if our country is to retain any moral
authority in matters of international law."

Chicago Tribune, in an editorial: "There is no shortage of pressing
issues deserving of congressional attention. … But (this) week,
some members were fixated on the distant past, examining terrible
events that occurred some 90 years ago during the disintegration of
the Ottoman Empire. … A political stunt like this will not bring
back the dead or punish the guilty. All it does is antagonize the
people and government of Turkey, who have been of crucial help to our
efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. … It suggests that Congress is
fundamentally unserious."

Richard Cohen, columnist, The Washington Post: "I would feel a lot
better about condemning this resolution if the argument wasn’t so
much about how we need Turkey and not at all about the truthfulness
of the matter. … It was done by a government that no longer exists.
… Even in 1915, it was an anachronism. … Its troops were
starving, and … indigenous peoples were declaring their
independence and rising in rebellion. Among them were the Armenians.
… By World War I, they were aiding Turkey’s enemy, Russia. Within
Turkey, Armenians were feared as a fifth column. … So contemporary
Turkey is entitled to insist that things are not so simple. If you
use the word genocide, it suggests the Holocaust – and that is not
what happened in the Ottoman Empire. But Turkey has gone beyond mere
quibbling with a word. It has taken issue with the facts and in ways
that cannot be condoned. … Call it genocide or call it something
else, but there is only one thing to call Turkey’s insistence that it
and its power will determine the truth: unacceptable."

The Boston Globe, in an editorial: "A resolution before Congress has
provoked an upsurge of nationalism that threatens U.S. interests and
would do nothing to lift Turkey’s willful amnesia. It should not be
pursued at this time. … The Turks need to begin an honest dialogue
about the birth of their nation. … Others can help by reminding
Turkey, in non-governmental settings, about the reality of the
genocide and by supporting Turks willing to examine their past.
Europeans are positioned to take the lead because of Turkey’s
aspirations to join the European Union. The House resolution, by
inciting the worst aspects of Turkish nationalism and creating
government-to-government friction, would delay a reckoning with
history."

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