I ASKED OBAMA ABOUT GENOCIDE
Christian Van Gorder
Waco Tribune Herald
pinion/stories/2009/03/30/03302009wacvangorder.htm l
March 30 2009
What question would you ask if you had one chance to ask Barack
Obama something? Last October while campaigning in the swing state
of New Mexico for his presidential campaign (we also traveled to
Pennsylvania), my wife and I were told we would have a chance at a
$1,500 fundraiser we’d be attending to meet Obama for a few moments.
After days of thought, I decided to ask if he would pledge to recognize
the Armenian genocide if he became president. When I met him I asked my
question, and he said that he had already acknowledged this reality. He
is repeatedly on record that he would.
Why this question? In a world filled with evils there is no more evil
imaginable than genocide.
My German ancestors filled the sky with the ashes of millions of Jews,
gypsies, homosexuals, communists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons and
Slavs. In 1915, between 1 million and 2 million men, women and children
of Armenia were systematically massacred by the Ottoman Turkish Empire.
British postwar trials set the number at more than 1 million. Yet, the
Turkish government denies genocide and admits only that thousands of
Armenians died randomly in the midst of the paroxysms of World War I.
This is a blatant, revisionist lie.
The argument in favor of avoiding the recognition of the facts
of history is that the United States lives in a real world where
pragmatic solutions must address actual, present problems.
The United States values Turkey’s support for its wars and its
military bases there. Turkey threatens to remove assistance if we
acknowledge genocide.
This is bullying, pure and simple. Who needs whom more?
When France faced this same question, it acknowledged the facts of
the genocide, and, after months of feuding words, the two countries
returned to strong relations based on mutual self-interests.
This should be America’s path: Do not lamely kowtow to damnable
Turkish attempts to bully our great nation from recognizing Armenia’s
brutal genocide. Admit to the facts of history, then move on in a
constructive partnership.
Yes, it is important to be pragmatic; but at the cost of truth? I
campaigned for, and donated money to, a candidate for the first time
in my life because I was hoping for "change that we can believe in."
Friends told me I was naïve and that Barack was just like every
other snake-oil salesman. On April 24, the anniversary of the murder
of 1.5 million Armenians, we will find out exactly who is right about
Obama’s moral compass.
I pray our president will do the right thing and, with integrity,
honor his commitment to recognize the horrific Armenian genocide.
Christian Van Gorder is an associate professor of religion at Baylor
University.