Hartford Courant
Oct 11 2007
Acknowledge The Genocide
October 12, 2007
Imagine a president opposing a congressional resolution condemning
the Holocaust. Imagine today’s Germany denying there was a Holocaust
and warning of retaliation if Congress approved a nonbinding
statement denouncing Nazi atrocities against Jews in World War II.
Such denial at the highest level of government would be unbelievable
and grotesque. Yet it’s happening today with the first genocide of
the 20th century.
The Bush administration has denounced a resolution approved Wednesday
by the House Foreign Affairs Committee that calls the massacre of
Armenians in Turkey during World War I "genocide."
Turkey’s government vehemently protests the claim that the Ottoman
Empire adopted a policy of eradicating Christian Armenians beginning
in 1915, before modern Turkey was born in 1923.
Armenians constituted one of the largest minorities in the empire at
the time. Even bringing up the subject is considered a crime in
Turkey punishable by a long prison sentence.
President Bush acknowledges the "immense suffering" of Armenians and
supports "a full and fair accounting of the atrocities that befell as
many as 1.5 million Armenians," but he opposes the House resolution.
The president of the United States fears that passage of such a
statement in Congress would damage relations with Turkey, whose
government has threatened unspecified retaliation. So much for the
self-described "Decider" sticking to high principle.
Acknowledging genocide shouldn’t be controversial, given the
extensive State Department archives and voluminous news accounts
during that dark period. President Theodore Roosevelt called the
Armenian slaughter "the greatest crime of the war." President Ronald
Reagan described the killings as "genocide."
Twenty countries and organizations, including the European Parliament
and the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, recognize the Armenian
genocide.
Modern Turkey’s refusal to acknowledge the obvious reflects an
insecurity that doesn’t suit a nation that calls itself great. Why
the Bush administration is being held hostage by the government in
Ankara is worse than puzzling. It’s immoral.
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