EDITORIAL: TIME TO ACKNOWLEGE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Fresno Bee
March 4 2010
CA

U.S. must not back away from this important issue.

The Armenian genocide resolution is back before Congress, and it
faces an uphill battle for reasons having nothing to do with whether
a genocide occurred almost 100 years ago. Turkey is opposed to the
resolution and that makes Congress nervous because of that nation’s
strategic importance in the Middle East.

As we have said many times: The facts are clear. About 1.5 million
Armenians were deported, starved and murdered by the Ottoman Empire
in the 20th century’s first genocide. The modern Turkish republic is
not guilty of those crimes, nor are today’s Turkish people. Yet they
reject the idea that this history is formally recognized.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee is set to vote today on a
resolution declaring that "the Armenian Genocide was conceived and
carried out by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923." That measure
is expected to pass the committee, but will have difficulty when it
reaches the House floor.

This is an important issue in the central San Joaquin Valley, home
to a large concentration of Armenian-Americans. The Bee reported this
week that many of them are playing active roles in getting the measure
passed. But Turkey has enlisted high-powered lobbying firms to fight
the resolution. Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, for example,
is a paid lobbyist for Turkey.

Genocide resolution supporters own the moral high ground on this issue,
but Turkey has been able to block past attempts with suggestions
that it would not be cooperative with the United States if such a
resolution passes. This nation should not give in to such threats.

One day, official recognition of the Armenian genocide will come, and
that will confirm on paper what everyone already knows in their hearts.