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JUDGING GENOCIDE
Economist, UK
Oct 11 2007
Relations between America and Turkey may be badly strained by
Congress's wish to make a ruling on history
"THE Mohammedans in their fanaticism seemed determined not only
to exterminate the Christian population but to remove all traces
of their religion and...civilisation." So wrote an American consul
in Turkey, in 1915, about an incipient campaign by Ottoman Turkey
against its Armenian population. Today, Turkey explains the killings
of huge numbers of Armenians-as many as 1.5m died-as an unpleasant
by-product of the first world war's viciousness, in which Turks
suffered too. But Armenians have long campaigned for recognition of
what they say was genocide.
On Wednesday October 10th America's Congress stepped closer to
endorsing the latter view. The foreign-affairs committee of the
House of Representatives passed a bill stating that "the Armenian
Genocide was conceived and carried out by the Ottoman Empire from
1915 to 1923." The bill has enough co-sponsors that it seems likely
to pass the full House. The speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has a large number
of Armenians in her home district and has promised the measure a
vote on the floor. As a foretaste of the trouble this could stir
up in Turkey, the country's president, Abdullah Gul, immediately
condemned the passage of the bill. He called it "unacceptable" and
accused American politicians of being willing to cause "big problems
for small domestic political games".
Turkey is enormously important to American military efforts in the
Middle East. So leading American politicians past and present have
lined up to oppose the resolution. President George Bush has said
historians, not legislators, should decide the matter. Turkey has hired
Dick Gephardt, a former leader of the Democrats in the House, to lobby
against the bill. All eight living former secretaries of state, from
Henry Kissinger to Madeleine Albright, who lost three grandparents in
the Nazi Holocaust, oppose the bill. So does Condoleezza Rice, who
holds the post now. Jane Harman, a powerful and hawkish Democrat,
initially co-sponsored the measure. But last week she urged its
withdrawal. A trip to Turkey, where she met the prime minister and
the Armenian Orthodox patriarch, changed her mind.
Ms Harman echoed an argument that others have made against the
resolution: that Turkey itself is tiptoeing towards normal relations
with neighbouring Armenia. The resolution could throw that process
off course. But in other ways Turkey has not helped its own case:
its criminal code has been used against writers within the country
who dare to mention genocide.
And other Turkish behaviour has further distanced it from America.
Turkey recently signed a deal to develop oil and gas with Iran,
and has made overtures to Hamas, which runs part of the Palestinian
Authority and continues to refuse to recognise Israel. Such behaviour
has cost Turkey some support among Jewish Americans-formerly ardent
supporters of Turkey as a moderate Muslim republic that is friendly
to Israel. Some even worry that a freshly insulted Turkey will not
heed America's opinion when, for example, it thinks about crossing
the border into Iraq to pound Kurdish fighters.
It is hardly surprising that Turkey is feeling put-upon. Last year,
France's National Assembly passed a bill not only declaring that the
Armenian massacres constituted genocide, but making it a crime to
deny it. Had the bill made it into law this would have resulted in
an absurd situation in which Turkish law forbade mention of genocide
while French law forbade its denial, all during Turkey's application
to join the European Union. Turks complained that the French bill had
less to do with Armenians, and more to do with deterring Turkey's EU
membership. The mood has not improved since. France's new president,
Nicolas Sarkozy, is an outspoken opponent of Turkish membership.
Hurt feelings on both sides are pushing Turkey and the West apart:
Turkey feels mistreated, and acts in such a way. But the deal with Iran
and its pell-mell pursuit of Kurdish terrorists into Iraq antagonise
Americans and Europeans further. At the least, the panicky reaction
of the Bush administration over the genocide resolution shows that
policymakers realise that they can no longer take Turkey's friendship
for granted.
http://www.economist.com/world/na/displa ystory.cfm?story_id=9946751
Economist, UK
Oct 11 2007
Relations between America and Turkey may be badly strained by
Congress's wish to make a ruling on history
"THE Mohammedans in their fanaticism seemed determined not only
to exterminate the Christian population but to remove all traces
of their religion and...civilisation." So wrote an American consul
in Turkey, in 1915, about an incipient campaign by Ottoman Turkey
against its Armenian population. Today, Turkey explains the killings
of huge numbers of Armenians-as many as 1.5m died-as an unpleasant
by-product of the first world war's viciousness, in which Turks
suffered too. But Armenians have long campaigned for recognition of
what they say was genocide.
On Wednesday October 10th America's Congress stepped closer to
endorsing the latter view. The foreign-affairs committee of the
House of Representatives passed a bill stating that "the Armenian
Genocide was conceived and carried out by the Ottoman Empire from
1915 to 1923." The bill has enough co-sponsors that it seems likely
to pass the full House. The speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has a large number
of Armenians in her home district and has promised the measure a
vote on the floor. As a foretaste of the trouble this could stir
up in Turkey, the country's president, Abdullah Gul, immediately
condemned the passage of the bill. He called it "unacceptable" and
accused American politicians of being willing to cause "big problems
for small domestic political games".
Turkey is enormously important to American military efforts in the
Middle East. So leading American politicians past and present have
lined up to oppose the resolution. President George Bush has said
historians, not legislators, should decide the matter. Turkey has hired
Dick Gephardt, a former leader of the Democrats in the House, to lobby
against the bill. All eight living former secretaries of state, from
Henry Kissinger to Madeleine Albright, who lost three grandparents in
the Nazi Holocaust, oppose the bill. So does Condoleezza Rice, who
holds the post now. Jane Harman, a powerful and hawkish Democrat,
initially co-sponsored the measure. But last week she urged its
withdrawal. A trip to Turkey, where she met the prime minister and
the Armenian Orthodox patriarch, changed her mind.
Ms Harman echoed an argument that others have made against the
resolution: that Turkey itself is tiptoeing towards normal relations
with neighbouring Armenia. The resolution could throw that process
off course. But in other ways Turkey has not helped its own case:
its criminal code has been used against writers within the country
who dare to mention genocide.
And other Turkish behaviour has further distanced it from America.
Turkey recently signed a deal to develop oil and gas with Iran,
and has made overtures to Hamas, which runs part of the Palestinian
Authority and continues to refuse to recognise Israel. Such behaviour
has cost Turkey some support among Jewish Americans-formerly ardent
supporters of Turkey as a moderate Muslim republic that is friendly
to Israel. Some even worry that a freshly insulted Turkey will not
heed America's opinion when, for example, it thinks about crossing
the border into Iraq to pound Kurdish fighters.
It is hardly surprising that Turkey is feeling put-upon. Last year,
France's National Assembly passed a bill not only declaring that the
Armenian massacres constituted genocide, but making it a crime to
deny it. Had the bill made it into law this would have resulted in
an absurd situation in which Turkish law forbade mention of genocide
while French law forbade its denial, all during Turkey's application
to join the European Union. Turks complained that the French bill had
less to do with Armenians, and more to do with deterring Turkey's EU
membership. The mood has not improved since. France's new president,
Nicolas Sarkozy, is an outspoken opponent of Turkish membership.
Hurt feelings on both sides are pushing Turkey and the West apart:
Turkey feels mistreated, and acts in such a way. But the deal with Iran
and its pell-mell pursuit of Kurdish terrorists into Iraq antagonise
Americans and Europeans further. At the least, the panicky reaction
of the Bush administration over the genocide resolution shows that
policymakers realise that they can no longer take Turkey's friendship
for granted.
http://www.economist.com/world/na/displa ystory.cfm?story_id=9946751