AMERICA: FAIR WEATHER DEFENDER
Kristen Becker
Valley Star, CA
s/2007/10/24/Opinion/America.Fair.Weather.Defender -3051872.shtml
Oct 24 2007
For 92 years, survivors of the Armenian Genocide and descendants
of those who died have had to watch Turkey and much of the rest of
the world minimize the deaths and forced relocation of more than a
million Armenians.
Now that Congress is finally considering a resolution that would
officially call the acts what they were – genocide, President George
W. Bush is wrongfully encouraging Congress to continue this country’s
history of silence on the issue.
The House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee approved House
Resolution 106 clearing the way for it to go to a vote in the House
where it has 211 sponsors (out of 435 members). If approved by the
House and Senate, the bill would finally require the president "to
accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation
of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide."
According to the United Nation’s 1948 Convention on Genocide, the
actions that constitute a genocide include "killing members of a
[national, ethic, racial or religious group]; causing serious bodily
or mental harm . . . conditions of life calculated to bring about
its physical destruction in whole or in part."
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) explained his support for the
legislation, saying, "We cannot provide genocide denial as one of
the perks of friendship with the United States."
The House’s resolution says, "The Armenian Genocide was conceived
and carried out by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulting
in the deportation of nearly 2,000,000 Armenians, of whom 1,500,000
men, women, and children were killed, 500,000 survivors were expelled
from their homes, and which succeeded in the elimination of the over
2,500-year presence of Armenians in their historic homeland."
After the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved the legislation,
Bush said that although Americans "regret the tragic suffering of
the Armenian people," the "resolution is not the right response to
these mass killings."
The issue goes far beyond what the Ottomans did to Armenians living
in Turkey in 1915. The United States has long held itself to be the
defender of freedom around the world, yet we have hypocritically
refused to recognize this grievous human rights abuse.
Unfortunately, Bush is not the only U.S. president to feel this way.
In 2000, a similar resolution was denied a vote in the House at the
request of then-President Bill Clinton.
The United States is vocal in condemning other nations when it suits
its interests, yet when our friends commit atrocities, we remain
willfully ignorant.