POINT/COUNTERPOINT: PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH
By Melissa Garber
The Massachusetts Daily Collegian, MA
Oct 18 2007
The Ottoman Turks committed genocide against the Armenian people.
This is a fact that cannot be denied or argued over by reasonable,
intelligent people. As many as 1.5 millions Armenians were
systematically massacred from 1915-1917 by the Young Turks, a group
of revolutionary leaders who rose to power within the Ottoman Empire.
Modern day Turkey refuses to discuss – much less acknowledge –
that this genocide had ever occurred. And, in order not to tarnish
military affairs with Turkey, members of the Bush administration have
been obstinately against officially recognizing the genocide as well.
The House, being as productive as they know how to be, is now trying
to pass a non-binding resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide.
The Turkish government has threatened that if this resolution passes,
Turkish ties with the United States will never be the same.
"If this resolution passed in the committee passes the House as
well, our military ties with the U.S. will never be the same again,"
Gen. Yasar Buyukanit told the daily Milliyet newspaper.
On Oct. 8, Kurdish rebels killed 13 Turkish soldiers. The Turkish
government could send troops into northern Iraq at any moment. Two
of our only allies in the Middle East, the Kurds and the Turks,
are ready for war; the only thing stopping Turkey is the United States.
If we lose diplomatic and military ties with Turkey, it will send
Iraq into even more chaos. Turkey will invade northern Iraq and go
to war against the Kurdish resistance.
According to NPR, 70 percent of supplies for U.S. troops in Iraq
travel through Turkey. How can Congress be so careless to think that
a non-binding resolution is more important than some semblance of
stability in Iraq and the well-being of our already overworked troops?
Nancy Pelosi argued that "because many of the survivors are very old,"
the bill needs to be passed. But this same bill was almost passed by
the Republicans in Congress during Clinton’s administration and the
survivors were very old then as well. Where was Democratic support
of it then?