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CONGRESS IFFY ON GENOCIDE VOTE
St.Louis Jewishlight.com, MO
http://www.stljewishlight.com/commentaries/2901 33876895995.php
Oct 25 2007
Just two weeks ago, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted
out a resolution declaring the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians
from 1915-1917 in the Turkish Ottoman Empire to be a "genocide." The
resolution has been long sought by the Armenian-American community
to officially express horror at one of the early 20th century's most
notorious examples of the mass murder of an entire population. The
Armenian massacre, which has been fully and amply documented, provided
a horrific precedent for later humanitarian calamities, including the
Holocuast and the infamous "ethnic cleansing" in the former Yugoslavia,
Bosnia and Kosovo, among others.
While the non-binding resolution seemed assured of passage with the
support of leaders of both major parties, sudden and increased pressure
on Congress by representatives of the current Turkish government
have caused several of the initial supporters of the resolution to
withdraw their support.
Because of current geo-political realities in the Middle East, Turkey
is in a strong position to use its leverage against the resolution,
which it regards as interference in Turkey's internal affairs, event
though the Armenian massacre took place nearly a century ago under
the Ottoman Sultans who preceeded modern Turkey. Turkey shares a long
border with Iraq, and the Turkish military has threatened to intervene
directly to attack members of the Kurdish community in northern
Iraq. Turkey, like Iraq, has a large Kurdish community, and its regime
fears that an independent Kurdish state in Iraq could inspire the
Kurds in Turkey to attempt to secede and join the new state.
Because of the above realities, it is perhaps politically unwise to
press for adoption of the Armenian genocide resolution at this time,
but from a moral point of view the resolution fully deserves to be
passed. Suppose 50 years or more from now a German government attempts
to pressure the U.S. Congress not to pass a resolution referring to
the Shoah as a "genocide," event though the term genocide was coined
by a Polish Jewish attorney who himself survived the Holocaust?
It is also sad to note that while the arguments over definitions drag
on for decades or even close to a century, the mass killings in Darfur
in Sudan go on unabated. When will they ever learn?
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
St.Louis Jewishlight.com, MO
http://www.stljewishlight.com/commentaries/2901 33876895995.php
Oct 25 2007
Just two weeks ago, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted
out a resolution declaring the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians
from 1915-1917 in the Turkish Ottoman Empire to be a "genocide." The
resolution has been long sought by the Armenian-American community
to officially express horror at one of the early 20th century's most
notorious examples of the mass murder of an entire population. The
Armenian massacre, which has been fully and amply documented, provided
a horrific precedent for later humanitarian calamities, including the
Holocuast and the infamous "ethnic cleansing" in the former Yugoslavia,
Bosnia and Kosovo, among others.
While the non-binding resolution seemed assured of passage with the
support of leaders of both major parties, sudden and increased pressure
on Congress by representatives of the current Turkish government
have caused several of the initial supporters of the resolution to
withdraw their support.
Because of current geo-political realities in the Middle East, Turkey
is in a strong position to use its leverage against the resolution,
which it regards as interference in Turkey's internal affairs, event
though the Armenian massacre took place nearly a century ago under
the Ottoman Sultans who preceeded modern Turkey. Turkey shares a long
border with Iraq, and the Turkish military has threatened to intervene
directly to attack members of the Kurdish community in northern
Iraq. Turkey, like Iraq, has a large Kurdish community, and its regime
fears that an independent Kurdish state in Iraq could inspire the
Kurds in Turkey to attempt to secede and join the new state.
Because of the above realities, it is perhaps politically unwise to
press for adoption of the Armenian genocide resolution at this time,
but from a moral point of view the resolution fully deserves to be
passed. Suppose 50 years or more from now a German government attempts
to pressure the U.S. Congress not to pass a resolution referring to
the Shoah as a "genocide," event though the term genocide was coined
by a Polish Jewish attorney who himself survived the Holocaust?
It is also sad to note that while the arguments over definitions drag
on for decades or even close to a century, the mass killings in Darfur
in Sudan go on unabated. When will they ever learn?
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress