Akron Beacon Journal (Ohio)
October 18, 2007 Thursday

EDITORIAL: Nine decades later

Oct. 18–Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership have yet
to explain the compelling reason why the House must vote on a
resolution that has the real potential to complicate vastly matters
for the United States in Iraq.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a resolution last week
that condemned as genocide the mass killing of Armenians in 1915
under the Ottoman Empire. Pelosi and company want to move the
resolution to the floor for a vote. To what purpose?

The Turkish government has left little doubt such a stamp of
recognition would be costly, particularly with regard to Turkey’s
cooperation in the war in Iraq. It isn’t a bluff. President Bush
knows it, and so do many members of Congress.

Turkey is a critical base for American military supplies to Iraq.
Turkey could also scuttle U.S. efforts to maintain relative stability
in northern Iraq if Turkish military forces initiated raids across
the border in pursuit of Kurdish separatist groups.

The instinct is right to condemn genocide whenever and wherever the
facts justify such a step. There is no disputing the horrors
Armenians endured, an estimated 1.5 million killed. Nine decades
after the fact, it is obvious emotions still run very high on both
sides about where guilt falls.

Still, in this instance, the timing of the Democratic leadership in
pushing forward with a measure that is nonbinding and largely
symbolic reflects a certain blindness to the potential ramifications.

Fortunately, support in the House for the resolution is waning as
lawmakers rethink the wisdom of tossing a symbolic resolution into a
volatile situation. The retreat is an embarrassment the House brought
upon itself. The sooner Speaker Pelosi pulls the resolution, the
better for everyone.