Armenians' Political Genocide

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright March 5, 2010
All Rights Reserved.                                

             Setting the historic record straight after 95 years, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted [23-22] March 4 that the 1915 massacre of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks was indeed “genocide.”  Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu reacted harshly that the Congressional vote would hurt ties with the Obama administration.  “Each interference by a third party will make this normalization impossible,” said Davutoglu, referring to the current internationally-brokered  reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia.  Turkey closed its border with neighboring Armenia, a former Soviet state, while the impoverished southern Caucasus nation battled neighboring Azerbaijan, Turkey’s oil rich ally.  Modern day Turkey, a secular Muslim state, descended directly from Ottoman Turks, [1299–1923]—an empire dissolved after WW I.

            Today’s Republic of Turkey, while having some continuity with the Ottoman Empire, was a new creation after WW I.  Turkey’s current government doesn’t take responsibility for the historic massacre of 1.5 million Armenians toward the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1915-17.  When the same House panel voted the same way in 2007, the Turkish government threatened to recall its ambassador and prevent the U.S. from using its Incirlik Air Force Base in Turkey during the Iraq War.  “The Turks say passing this resolution could have terrible consequences on our bilateral relationship, and indeed perhaps there will be some consequences,” said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), knowing it would never reach the House floor for a full vote.  Berman, and others on the committee, sympathize with Armenians seeking historic justice.

            Turkish leaders blame the Obama administration for not reining in Congressional Democrats from taking the committee vote.  “The Obama administration strongly opposed the resolution that was passed only by one vote by the House committee and will work very hard to make sure it does not go to the House floor,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters in Guatemala City.  Armenian lobby groups can’t understand Turkey’s reluctance to acknowledge the genocide.  Despite some Holocaust denial, Armenians don’t see the difference between the recognized and accepted German genocide of Jews during WW II and Turkish genocide of Armenians before WW I.  Turkey accounts for the Armenian massacre as random lawlessness at the end of the Ottoman Empire, not comparable to Adolf Hitler’s systematic and methodical mass murder of European Jews.

            Turkey rejects any comparison to what happened to Armenians during the waning days of the Ottoman Empire.  Whether the genocide is denied by the Turks or not, the International Association of Genocide Scholars concluded in 2005 that the “Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire began a systematic genocide of its Armenian citizens—an unnamed Christian minority population.  More than a million Armenians were exterminated through direct killing, starvation, torture and forced death marches,” condemning Turkey’s denial.  Calling the Armenian deaths due to “deportations” or “relocation,” the Turkish government rejects the genocide label.  Voting to set the record straight, the House Foreign Affairs Committee ignored the highly sensitive political consequences.  Turkey simply can’t get beyond its current political efforts to establish diplomatic ties with Armenia.

            Turkey blames the current House committee vote on Armenian lobbying groups.  “On the one side of the scale, there is the Congress under the influence of ethnic lobby groups, and on the other, there are greater United States’ interests in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Caucasus,” said Sedat Ergin, a foreign policy analyst at Ankara’s Hurriyet newspaper, blaming the committee vote on pressure from Armenian groups.  Ergin doesn’t quite get that pro-Israel groups, like the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee [AIPAC], have great sympathy for genocide victims, especially Armenians  on whom the term “genocide” was coined by Polish law professor Raphael Lemkin in 1943.  Turkish authorities are too busy quibbling about semantics, than accepting unfortunate historic events.  Armenians, whether living in Turkey, Armenia or the diaspora around the globe, deserve the truth.

            House Foreign Affairs Committee understood the political consequences of voting to set the historic record straight about the Ottoman Turks' massacre of Armenians before WW I.  Contrary to Turkish reports, pro-Armenian lobbying groups didn’t influence the close House vote.  State Department officials, like Secretary Clinton, are too busy smoothing ruffled feathers than standing on principle and accepting historic fact.  Turkey shouldn’t punish Armenia one minute by delaying diplomatic reconciliation, regardless of objections by Azerbaijan.  There’s nothing shameful about facing historic facts, only perpetuating the same denials that rob an aggrieved population of its rightful dignity and human rights.  It’s not OK for Turkey to accept the Jewish Holocaust and, simultaneously, deny the Armenian genocide.  Accepting the unvarnished truth is always the best step forward.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.