ARMENIAN RESOLUTION TAKES US-TURKEY RELATIONS HOSTAGE – 2
By Mehmet Kalyoncu*
Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Sept 27 2007
‘Will Turks lose the battle they have never fought?’
Both psychological and contextual reasons lay behind the somewhat
incomprehensible ready support for the Armenian allegations in both
public and political circles in the United States.
First of all, the primary reason for the relevant representatives’
introducing the HR-106 bill was not their own convictions about
the Turks or the Ottoman Empire, but the insistence of their
Armenian-American constituency for them to do so. After all, the
representatives are supposed to be the voice of the very constituency
who has elected them, be they right or wrong. A legislative aide
to one of the chief sponsors of HR-106 noted that "we do not have a
commitment to pass this bill, but to bring it up and keep it alive."
Similarly, conversations with both members of Congress and their
political advisors reveal that the majority of co-sponsors of the
HR-106 bill are not even aware of its content, but have pledged
their support due either to the request of their fellow colleagues
who introduced the bill, or most likely to get rid of the ceaseless
pressure of the Armenian lobbyists, which in some case appear in the
form of the threat of lost votes in the next elections.
Secondly, as explicit in the relentless attitude of the Armenian
diaspora, those members who do not acknowledge the so-called Armenian
genocide, let alone call for an objective investigation of it, are
readily accused of being on the payroll of the Turkish government,
as if, as some would argue, those who acknowledge it are not on
that of members of the wealthy Armenian diaspora. Thirdly, under
the influence of the constructed "Terrible Turk" image, just like
any ordinary American, the Congress members are inclined to believe
that the Turkish Ottoman state may well have carried out genocide
against the Christian Armenians. One should not undermine the impact
of the "Terrible Turk" image; especially so given that movies such as
"Lawrence of Arabia" and "Midnight Express," are still screened in some
movie theaters across the United States. Finally, the silence of the
Turkish-Americans in the whole genocide debate and their sluggishness
to even call their representatives to express their objection to the
HR-106 only encourages Congress members to support the resolution
and move on.
The very fact that the battle of ideas in the so-called genocide
debate has been fought by the official Turkey, meaning primarily
Turkish diplomats and the Foreign Ministry, vis-a-vis the allegedly
"underdog" people of the Armenian diaspora has undermined the
credibility of the Turkish theses on what happened in 1915 and
Turks’ commitment to finalize this prolonged debate. Illustrative
of the general Armenian diaspora, in his article titled "Armenian
Patriarch of Turkey in US on Turkish Propaganda Tour Once Again," and
published in the California Courier, Harut Sassounian alleges that His
Beatitude Mesrob II Mutafyan’s visit to the United States and speaking
engagements at various prestigious institutions such as the Capitol
and Georgetown University is organized by the Turkish government to
prevent the possible voting on the infamous HR-106 genocide bill in
the House of Representatives. He continued to proudly explain how
the Armenian-American Church had previously pressured the Southern
Methodist University administration, a co-sponsor of a conference
titled, "Turkish-Armenian Question: What to do now?" to withdraw
its sponsorship, and succeeded in its endeavor. Yet, with almost
complete denial or disregard of how the Armenian diaspora inhibits
"free speech," Sassounian accuses the Turkish government of inhibition
of "free speech." Apparently, according to him as well as a marginal,
but noisy, political faction within the Armenian-American community,
"free speech" is allowed only if what is to be said is what they want
to hear.
However, not only the American public and members of Congress, but also
the majority of the Armenian-American community is fed-up with and sick
of the militantly hostile attitude of certain Armenian organizations,
such as the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), and with
their efforts to inhibit a possible reconciliation between Armenians
and Turks. The Turkish-American organizers of the conference held in
Dallas note that most of the Armenian scholars invited to speak at
the conference had to decline the invitation, complaining about the
likely attack on them to be launched by organizations such as ANCA
and other militant Armenian-American groups. Similarly the members of
Congress who have not signed on to support the infamous HR-106 bill
complain about the Armenian lobby’s manipulation of the US Congress
and about some members falling prey to such manipulation while the
country is faced by much more severe problems ranging from healthcare
to the war in Iraq.
Moreover, the intellectuals are raising their opposition to the
one-sided story of the so-called genocide. In his article titled
"Tawdry genocide tale," The Washington Times columnist Bruce
Fein disputes the alleged analogy between the Holocaust and the
Turkish-Armenian atrocities which took place during World War I by
pointing at the real causes of those atrocities, "As Bernard Lewis
has observed, an analogy would have been if Adolf Hitler had left
Jews in Berlin, Frankfurt and Vienna exempt from the Final Solution.
For more than three centuries, under the Ottoman millet system,
Armenians enjoyed religious, cultural and social harmony. Conflict
with the Ottoman Empire was largely provoked by Armenian terrorism and
plotting secession comparable to the Confederate States of America, not
by a late-blooming desire to destroy Armenians as a group." Similarly,
Jerusalem Post columnist Lenny Ben-David notes that not only did
Armenians massacre 2.5 million of the Muslim population of Armenia
between 1914 and 1920, but also that some contemporary Armenians hold
Jews to be accountable for the killings of Armenians in 1915.
The bottom line is that there is already great suspicion within the
political and intellectual communities about the Armenian allegations
of genocide. Yet the third parties, be they intellectuals or members
of the US Congress, have either preferred to remain silent about it,
or seemed to have supported it mainly to get rid of the Armenian
lobby’s pressure. The absence of the Turkish grassroots within the
whole genocide debate has only made it easier for US Congress members
to rightly justify their support by asking this simple question,
"If there was no genocide and the passage of this genocide bill
is so detrimental to the Turkish interests, why does no single
Turkish-American call our office to express his or her objection
while we are overwhelmed with letters, emails, faxes and telephone
calls from Armenian-Americans?" It is time for the Turkish grassroots
to take over the task of tackling the Armenian allegations, and it
takes only a few dedicated nongovernmental organizations to help
the American public realize how they are being manipulated. Once the
Americans realize it, they would certainly deliver justice.
* Mehmet Kalyoncu is an international relations analyst and can be
reached at [email protected] 27.09.2007