Contributors
Donald Kirk: U.S. House’s hypocrisy about Turkey
01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, October 18, 2007
SEOUL
TURKISH sensitivities regarding affronts to the country’s name,
policies and history are legendary. Some years ago in Tokyo, the
Turkish ambassador lodged a formal protest with the Japanese foreign
ministry after a taxi driver, when ordered to take him to the Turkish
embassy, took him instead to a "Toruko" – Japanese pronunciation for
the word "Turkish," synonymous in Japanese-English with Turkish bath,
a euphemism for massage parlor or brothel. The protest was enough for
Japanese authorities to get Turkish baths in Japan to call themselves
"soaplands," pronounced "So-poo-lan-doh," which sounds a lot closer to
what’s going on inside.
Now the Turkish government is infuriated on a more significant level,
this time by approval by the U.S. House’s foreign-affairs committee of
a bill denouncing the slaughter and expulsion of Armenians 90 years
ago as "genocide." Armenians put the death toll on the order of at
least 1.5 million. Turkey says 300,000 died, most of them in battle or
in freezing weather or of starvation and disease. The
Democrat-dominated committee, sending the bill for a vote by the full
House, has embarrassed the U.S. government, which needs bases in
Turkey to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and sees Turkey
as a stable NATO ally.
Without minimizing the atrocities that occurred, the question is what
is an American legislative body doing passing judgment on a tragedy
and a conflict that happened nearly a century ago that had nothing to
do with the U.S.
The claims of members of the House committee that they cannot gloss
over the horrors of the Armenian massacre represent the last word in
political hypocrisy. All that’s on their minds is that many if not
most Armenians are Orthodox Christians while the Turks are Muslims,
and the political brains on the committee see votes in righteously
defending Christians while offending Muslims. And House Democrats have
no qualms about undermining the policies of the Bush government,
already under fire for the war in Iraq. Nor do they seem concerned
about Turkey’s problems with a restive Kurdish minority that’s in
close contact with Kurds in northeastern Iraq, even though the Iraqi
Kurdish region has escaped most of the war that rages elsewhere.
But if the House committee is so eager to immerse itself in an ancient
conflict, why does it not show similar concern about North Korea?
Congress three years ago passed the North Korean Human Rights Act over
a great deal of opposition from critics, Korean and American, who
believed the act would anger North Korea in the midst of the ongoing
crisis over its nuclear weapons. Since passage of that act, however,
the U.S. has done little to turn it into an effective instrument for
combating abuses in North Korea. Although options appear limited when
it comes to getting North Korea to close down its vast gulag system or
to stop torturing and executing prisoners, the U.S. could begin by
raising the human-rights issue, assisting refugees from North Korea
and linking aid to the North to improved human-rights conditions.
Nowadays U.S. policy calls for dropping references to "human rights"
from all contacts with North Korea. The term is so offensive to the
North Korean regime that U.S. negotiators fear the North Koreans would
walk out of talks on nuclear weapons the moment they heard the words.
North Korea’s "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il was upset by South Korea’s
suggestions of "reform" and "openness" in the summit with the South’s
President Roh Moo-hyun early this month; think of how furious he would
have been if Roh had dared ask about the "human rights" of North
Koreans.
If members of House International Affairs Committee were brave enough
to join in condemnation of Turkey for what happened 90 years ago,
surely they should have the courage to go after North Korea for more
than half a century of persecution in which millions have been killed,
died of disease or starvation or froze to death, the same fates that
befell the Armenians in Turkey.
It’s unlikely, however, that the House committee will display such
courage. Democrats would prefer to berate the Bush administration for
not moving swiftly enough to open "dialogue" with North Korea, and
they are happy to denounce Bush for having spoken ill of North Korea
in the early years of his presidency. Maybe they’re waiting for time
to pass before addressing the lessons of history. Perhaps, half a
century or a century hence, Congress will look back on the suffering
of North Koreans and pass another righteous resolution. By that time,
maybe so many Koreans will have fled to the U.S., escaping abuses in
North Korea, that opportunistic members of Congress will salivate over
the votes that they’ll get from a bold resolution spanking Kim Jong-il
for his naughtiness.
Donald Kirk, a frequent contributor, is a long-time foreign
correspondent and editor.
Source: CT_kirk18_10-18-07_D07G545.787428.html#
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
