REMEMBERING GENOCIDE; U.S. LEADERS STILL AFRAID TO RECOGNIZE ANCIENT CRIMES AGAINST ARMENIANS

The Fresno Bee (California)
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
April 24, 2008 Thursday

Just last fall it appeared there might be a breakthrough in the
long-standing reluctance of the American government to acknowledge the
Armenian genocide. That murderous event was begun by the collapsing
Ottoman Turk empire in World War I and carried out with methodical
determination in the next few years. All told, some 1.5 million
Armenian men, women and children were killed outright, or driven into
a brutal and deadly exile.

A resolution calling on the president to use the word "genocide" in his
annual Armenian message passed out of a House committee with strong
support. That message is traditionally delivered on "Martyr’s Day"
— today — which marks the beginning of the genocide in 1915. The
House resolution was symbolic, but sent a strong message.

Too strong for some, it turned out. The weight of past timidity and
decades of geopolitical cynicism came crashing down. One by one,
hundreds of ostensible congressional supporters of the resolution
peeled away. Turkish government officials and hired lobbyists in this
country went to work. Former secretaries of state rallied to the cause
of historical indifference, testifying that America’s relations with
Turkey would be irretrievably damaged if we allowed this insult to
Turkish honor to proceed.

The resolution never reached the House floor for a vote.

Modern Turkey bears no responsibility for the past crimes of previous
regimes. Yet Turkish officials and citizens alike are inflamed by
the subject of the genocide. They insist it never happened, that some
deaths occurred, but they were the natural outcome of civil war and
Armenian support for the Ottoman Turks’ bitter enemy, czarist Russia,
during World War I.

Few people outside Turkey buy that story. The evidence is
overwhelming. The Ottoman Turks organized the massacres and
deportations with great care in advance. They began the genocide
with a classic move: Some 250 Armenian intellectuals — doctors,
lawyers, writers, teachers — were arrested and deported from
Constantinople. Almost all were later executed. And that was just
the tiny beginning of the slaughter.

For decades, American governments of both parties have shied away
from confronting the Turks on their nation’s bloody past. Turkey was
seen as an essential ally during the Cold War, sitting on the Soviet
Union’s southern flank. The Soviet Union is no more, but we’re still
afraid to upset the Turks by asking them to acknowledge the truth.

Turkey pays a price for its intransigence. The Turks want very badly
to join the European Union, but the members of that body have, for the
most part, officially recognized the genocide for what it was. That’s
a big obstacle to Turkey’s cherished dreams of membership.

And yet the Turks continue to preach denial. It’s even a crime in
Turkey to suggest that the genocide was real.

Some day, perhaps, a new generation of Turks will find the courage
to confront their nation’s past. Some day, perhaps, a new generation
of American leaders will find the courage to speak the truth on
this issue.

Some day, but not today. For now, all the rest of us can do is
remember.