Voice of America
March 19 2010

US Holds Firm on Issue of 1915 Massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks

Andre de Nesnera 19 March 2010

The mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks beginning in 1915
remains an emotional issue. A major U.S. congressional panel has
described the massacre as genocide. In this report from Washington,
Senior Correspondent André de Nesnera looks at the ramifications of
the congressional action for the Obama administration.

A majority of scholars and historians agree that the massacre of an
estimated one million Armenians during World War I constitutes
genocide as defined by the 1948 United Nations Convention on Genocide.
The text defines genocide as the intentional killing of all or part of
a designated people defined by their faith, their race, their
ethnicity or their nationality.

However as Ronald Suny with the University of Chicago explains, the
Turkish government has a diametrically opposed view.

"Turkey rejects the notion of genocide – actually the word or the term
‘genocide.’ They have acknowledged that there were deportations –
there is no question about that – and that there were massacres and
killings. What they deny is that the massacres and killings were
intentionally organized and carried out by the government – and that
the killings were anything more than collateral damage," he said.

Turkey rejects use of "genocide"

Roger Smith, a co-founder of the International Association of Genocide
Scholars, says many Turks refuse to use the word ‘genocide.’

"I worked with some Turkish scholars and these are people who would be
considered liberals and so on – but even they really kind of shy away
from using the word ‘genocide.’ They will talk about massacres – you
lay all of these things out and they say yeah, yeah, yeah, this
happened, okay – well no, I don’t want to use that word. So there is
this emotional antipathy to pronouncing what people now almost
jokingly call the ‘G’ word," he said.

Smith says Turkey’s position is difficult to sustain. "Turkey’s
persistent denial and inability to face, or unwillingness to face up
to its history is very disruptive in all kinds of ways – in terms of
international relations, in terms of its own internal politics – and
it also prevents it from really recognizing how do you deal with
minorities," he said.

Recently the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee
passed a non-binding resolution recommending that President Barack
Obama recognize the 1915 killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as
genocide.

Obama administration’s position

The Obama administration opposed the resolution. After the measure
passed, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the administration
does not believe the full House of Representatives will or should vote
on the resolution.

Turkey immediately recalled its ambassador to Ankara for
consultations. And Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
indicated he might not attend a mid-April nuclear energy summit in
Washington hosted by President Obama.

About 20 countries – including France, Canada, Russia, the
Netherlands, Sweden – have recognized the Armenian massacre as
genocide.

"What’s startling is that two important countries have not recognized
it – the United States, repeatedly, because of its alliance with
Turkey, its strategic interest in the region, its need for Turkey as a
NATO ally, in its war against Iraq, has not recognized it. And
secondly Israel, even though itself, its people originally suffered a
great holocaust – the great genocide of World War II – has not
recognized it, again for strategic reasons, its connection with
Turkey." said Ronald Suny with the University of Chicago.

Suny and others point out that President Obama has changed his
position. "Every presidential candidate, including President Obama,
when they were campaigning, stated declaratively, clearly, fervently
that they would recognize the genocide. Once they take power, of
course, then these strategic security interests come into play and
historical decisions, the historical truths have to be put aside. It’s
sad, but that’s the case," he said.

Many experts say the resolution by the House Foreign Affairs Committee
puts President Obama in an awkward position. But many analysts also
say that may be a temporary situation, because they don’t expect the
measure to be taken up by the full House of Representatives.