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TURKEY'S PRESSURE ON AMERICAN JEWISH COMMUNITY CONCERNING RESOLUTION ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IS HEIGHT OF CHUTZPAH
Arminfo
2007-03-01 14:35:00
Turkey's pressure on the American Jewish community concerning the
resolution on the Armenian Genocide is the height of chutzpah, the
editorial staff of the Jewish press daily writes. We are certainly not
insensitive to the significance of Turkey's support of Israel. But
the Turkish government's attempt to capitalize on that support by
pressing the American Jewish community to oppose a Congressional
resolution that condemns as "genocide" Turkey's murder of a million
and a half Armenians during World War I strikes us as being the height
of chutzpah.
As The New York Sun reported, on February 5 the Turkish foreign
minister met with representatives of several major Jewish groups
and "made a hard sell" against House Resolution 106, which now has
176 co-sponsors. The Turkish official reportedly appealed to the
participants by noting - outrageously, we think - the uniqueness of the
German genocide against the Jews. The Turks do not deny that between
1915 and 1917 they conducted a devastating military campaign against
the Armenians and that thousands of Armenians were killed on forced
marches. They claim, however, that the hapless Armenians were a fifth
column, often armed and working on behalf of the Russian army in World
War I. But the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the time,
Henry Morgenthau, wrote in his memoir, "I am confident that the whole
history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this."
The orders for the deportations of the Armenian families in 1915 "were
merely giving a death warrant to a whole race," he wrote. Anyone who
seriously and objectively considers those events cannot but conclude
that there was a calculated and purposeful effort to exterminate
the Armenians. After all, approximately 1.5 million perished. That
said, we understand that opposition to House Resolution 106 does not
necessarily signify lack of sympathy with the victims, or, indeed,
sentiment against the concept itself. Not buying into an initiative
on someone else's schedule is not always an indicator of nefarious
motives at play. We also have no doubt that some would argue the
Jewish community should oppose the resolution if only to preserve the
aura of uniqueness surrounding the destruction of European Jewry in
the Holocaust. And this, perhaps, was the point the Turkish foreign
minister was trying to make in his presentation to Jewish leaders.
But acknowledging as genocide the systematic murder of a million and a
half human beings of a particular ethnic heritage in no way detracts
from recognition of the Holocaust as a uniquely monumental evil in
the blood-soaked annals of human history.
Arminfo
2007-03-01 14:35:00
Turkey's pressure on the American Jewish community concerning the
resolution on the Armenian Genocide is the height of chutzpah, the
editorial staff of the Jewish press daily writes. We are certainly not
insensitive to the significance of Turkey's support of Israel. But
the Turkish government's attempt to capitalize on that support by
pressing the American Jewish community to oppose a Congressional
resolution that condemns as "genocide" Turkey's murder of a million
and a half Armenians during World War I strikes us as being the height
of chutzpah.
As The New York Sun reported, on February 5 the Turkish foreign
minister met with representatives of several major Jewish groups
and "made a hard sell" against House Resolution 106, which now has
176 co-sponsors. The Turkish official reportedly appealed to the
participants by noting - outrageously, we think - the uniqueness of the
German genocide against the Jews. The Turks do not deny that between
1915 and 1917 they conducted a devastating military campaign against
the Armenians and that thousands of Armenians were killed on forced
marches. They claim, however, that the hapless Armenians were a fifth
column, often armed and working on behalf of the Russian army in World
War I. But the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the time,
Henry Morgenthau, wrote in his memoir, "I am confident that the whole
history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this."
The orders for the deportations of the Armenian families in 1915 "were
merely giving a death warrant to a whole race," he wrote. Anyone who
seriously and objectively considers those events cannot but conclude
that there was a calculated and purposeful effort to exterminate
the Armenians. After all, approximately 1.5 million perished. That
said, we understand that opposition to House Resolution 106 does not
necessarily signify lack of sympathy with the victims, or, indeed,
sentiment against the concept itself. Not buying into an initiative
on someone else's schedule is not always an indicator of nefarious
motives at play. We also have no doubt that some would argue the
Jewish community should oppose the resolution if only to preserve the
aura of uniqueness surrounding the destruction of European Jewry in
the Holocaust. And this, perhaps, was the point the Turkish foreign
minister was trying to make in his presentation to Jewish leaders.
But acknowledging as genocide the systematic murder of a million and a
half human beings of a particular ethnic heritage in no way detracts
from recognition of the Holocaust as a uniquely monumental evil in
the blood-soaked annals of human history.