Obama administration pledges to block passage of resolution in full House

13.03.2010 16:53 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Obama administration, citing its relations with
Turkey, has pledged to block the passage in the full House of
Representatives of a resolution passed this past Thursday by the
Foreign Relations Committee acknowledging the 1915 genocide by the
Ottoman Empire of a 1.5 million Armenians, `Obama and the Denial of
Genocide’ Huffington Post article said.

Even though the Obama administration previously refused to acknowledge
and even worked to suppress well-documented evidence of recent war
crimes by Israel, another key Middle Eastern ally, few believed that
the administration would go as far as to effectively deny genocide.

Opponents of the measure argue that they’re worried about harming
relations with Turkey, the successor state to the Ottoman Empire and
an important U.S. ally. However, the United States has done much
greater harm in its relations with Turkey through policies far more
significant than a symbolic resolution acknowledging a tragic
historical period. The United States clandestinely backed an attempted
military coup by right-wing Turkish officers in 2003, arming Iraqi and
Iranian Kurds with close ties to Kurdish rebels in Turkey who have
been responsible for the deaths of thousands of Turkish citizens. The
United States also invaded neighbouring Iraq. As a result, the
percentage of Turks who view the United States positively declined
from 52 percent to only 9 percent.

Failure to acknowledge the genocide, however, is a tragic affront to
the rapidly dwindling number of genocide survivors as well as their
descendents. It’s also a disservice to the many Turks who opposed the
Ottoman Empire’s policies and tried to stop the genocide, as well as
the growing number of Turks today who face imprisonment by their
U.S.-backed regime for daring to publicly concede the crimes of their
forebears.

Some opponents of the resolution argue that it is pointless for
Congress to pass resolutions regarding historical events. Yet there
were no such complaints regarding resolutions commemorating the
Holocaust, nor are there normally complaints regarding the scores of
dedicatory resolutions passed by Congress in recent years.

`For deniers of the Armenian Genocide, it’s always a "bad time." As a
result, the Obama administration’s position on the Armenian Genocide
isn’t simply about whether to commemorate a tragedy that took place 95
years ago. It’s about where we stand as a nation in facing up to the
most horrible of crimes. It’s about whether we are willing to stand up
for the truth in the face of lies. It’s about whether we see our
nation as appeasing our strategic allies or upholding our longstanding
principles,’ the article emphasized.