The Turkish crisis

I am of Greek decent so I am definitely biased on this but if Turkey does not learn to accept historical truths about its past, they'll never be considered a western democracy. You do not hear Germany deny the holocaust or protest when people condemn it. Would the US be afraid to declare the holocaust as a historical fact if it offended our German allies? Why should the US be bullied by an ally who didn't even let us use their bases in 2003? They are bluffing and congress should call them on it. Turkey should accept its past and move on. Germany and Japan committed attrocies too but accepted responsibility for them and look where they are now.

Two things bother me with what you wrote Phil.

1. This has to do with real consequences for American soldiers. Some of them are my friends.

2. These kind of stuped resolutions really are meaningless. How does this resolution help one Turkish citizen decide to admit to the genocide?

"Way to go, Democratic Congress!"

Hey, as long as they win the White House next year, who gives a s--t? That's what this is all about. If the economy is good, and the situation in Iraq is better next year, it dampens their chances for a win. Hence, they have to hope the economy goes south (but not too far south) and that the Iraqi situation stays the same or gets worse (but not too much worse) in order to win the White House. Be prepared to witness myriad attempts to bring about these results in the next year.

1. Will there ever be a good time to acknowledge the genocide?

2. I don't see the same zeal in apologizing for the crimes against humanity meted out against African Americans.

3. Maybe the House should put its energy into making noose-hanging a federal crime.

This is timely for me since I just finished a horrible book about this genocide called, Not Even My Name by Thea Halo. More than 3 million Pontic Greeks, Assyrians and Armenians were killed by Turkey early in this century. The Turks wanted ALL Christians out of their country. In this non-fiction book a young girl loses her entire family to this genocide I think the truth should be told and Turkey should accept the blame if they wish to be allies with the West.
By the way I am a disappointed Republican.
Colleen

As a conservative Republican, I don't trust the Democrats to do what is right. But when is it ever wrong to proclaim a truth? Yes, it is inconvenient. Yes, the Turks will claim they will do this and that. Which makes them no more reliable as an ally than any third-world cesspool, if they are so fragile that they will invade Iraq because they've been insulted by the American Congress.

But here is what could make it stop: Turkey to simply acknowledge the massacres, and stop trying to explain them away. Germany stepped up and admitted its guilt. That's all that is needed at this stage of history.

Turkey is supposedly our friend. This is the "realist" school of foreign policy. With friends like these, we continue to lose our war against global jihad by Islam.

I prefer the truth.

Either we stand on principle (as we claim) or we do not, only doing so when it is convenient (*cough* gay marriage *cough*) is hypocrisy. If not now, then when? When? In five years? In ten? In twenty? Fifty?

This is important... Turkey must not, can not be admitted into the "west" unless they acknowledge this. It's a litmus test. Would we let the Germans get away with denying the holocaust? The Japanese and their atrocities in China? Heck no.

As others have noted, it hasn't been 'a good time' to pass a resolution like this for 60 years. Turkey's always been our 'almost ally', balancing on the knife edge, and there's always been some good reason not to pass this resolution. We'll never have a 'good time' to condemn Turkey's behavior as long as the middle east, except for Turkey, hates us.

And, incidentally, elizabeth, the US has denounced both 'our history of enslavement of Africans' and 'genocide and relocation of the Native peoples'. We admit they happened, we call them a 'dark chapters in our nations's history', we've passed resolutions talking about them, we've tried to undo some of the harm we did. We teach them to children, everyone acknowledges they happened, it's been long enough that we can even, somewhat, make jokes about them.

Turkey, OTOH, pretends it didn't happen at all. Which, in my book, is worse than, say, Iran's president's holocaust denial which everyone on the right seems to be yammering about...Iran at least isn't denying their own behavior. (And I'm sure there is something Iran did, at some point, which they're currently denying, but I doubt it's attempted genocide.)

And Turkey's mistreatment of Christians continues to this day, and that is due in a large part because they refuse to admit this happened. Turkey must acknowledge their behavior to be taken seriously in the modern world, and, what's more, stop their behavior.

In fact, this resolution, in only condemning the historical acts of a government that doesn't even exist anymore, was a good deal toned down from what it could have been, a condemnation of modern Turkey's treatment of Christians and other religious minorities.

If we need Turkey to deal with its treatment of Christians now, let's address that directly. How does a resolution about a 90 year old atrocity do that?

As for the US addressing our own history - yeah, well, some folks are still not comfortable with how well we've done that or how well we have addressed the lingering problems that stemmed from it. But what, exactly, does this resolution do for the Armenians? And isn't it Armenia's place to demand this, or the European Union's, seeing as how Turkey wants in so badly?

I am no more interested in empty congressional grandstanding over this issue than I was in the MoveOn ad in the NY Times a few weeks back. The work of the people is not getting done and there is plenty to do. I may even agree with Dubya on something this once.

Ouch. That hurt.

"If we need Turkey to deal with its treatment of Christians now, let's address that directly. How does a resolution about a 90 year old atrocity do that? ... isn't it Armenia's place to demand this, or the European Union's...?"

To your first question, that's my question as well. To your second, Armenia and the Armenian diaspora have been demanding acknowledgment of the sins committed against them for decades, of course. And the EU appears to be quite adamant in its demand for Turkey to come to terms with and atone for its past. The only possible good I can imagine in the proposed resolution is that it's a signal that we will no longer in the name of realpolitik block the efforts on this issue of the Armenians and the EU. Of course, failure to pass the resolution may well say exactly the opposite.