It Is Time For Turkey To Come Clean
October 12, 2007, 
In the summer of 1914 while much of Europe was at war, the ruling Young Turks decided it would be an opportune time to rid themselves of the 2.5 million Armenians living within the borders of the Ottoman Empire. On the 24th of April, 1915, nearly 300 Armenian leaders, politicians, and academics were rounded up, arrested and promptly slaughtered. Thus began the Armenian genocide.
In order to render Armenian villages defenseless, all Armenian men between the ages of 15 and 50 were called up for military service. When they reported for duty they were disarmed, dispossessed, and sent off to die in labor camps. The Ottoman Army set upon systematically razing and looting hundreds of Armenian villages, driving out the elderly, the women and children, who were then marched into the Der-El-Zor desert, located in what is now known as Syria. Along the way they were raped, robbed, and murdered. Those who did not die by violent means succumbed to the intense heat, thirst and starvation. Others were forcibly put onto ships that were sunk into the depths of the Mediterranean. Before 1917 some 1.5 million Armenians perished at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.
Amazingly, stunningly, unbelievably, despite mountains of documented proof, first hand accounts, photographic and forensic evidence, none of this ever happened…
If we are to believe the Turkish government…
And on Thursday, much the chagrin of the Turks, the United States House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee voted in favor of House Resolution 106 27-21.
What is this House Resolution 106…?
Well, it calls upon President Bush “to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide, and for other purposes.”
In April 2006, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper became the first Canadian prime minister to publicly declare that the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians during the First World War constituted a genocide. To date 22 countries have officially recognized the Armenian genocide. And yet the Republic of Turkey steadfastly rejects the characterization of the events as genocide. Unfortunately the President of the United States is in complete agreement with the Turkish government.
What was the Bush administration’s official response to House Resolution 106?
“We remain opposed to House Resolution 106 because of the grave harm it could bring to the national security of the United States,” said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council.
uh huh… I see… recognizing a historical event that happened 92 years ago could bring grave harm to the national security of the United States?
Defense Secretary Robert Gates was far more “honest” in his assessment, saying that the measure damages relations at a time when U.S. forces in Iraq rely heavily on Turkish permission to use their airspace for cargo flights.
Ahhhh… now I understand…
Apparently somewhere around 70 percent of U.S. air cargo headed for Iraq goes through Turkey as does about one-third of the fuel used by the U.S. military there.
Condi Rice also piped in saying “This is not to ignore what was a really terrible situation and we recognize the feelings of those who want to express their concern and their disdain for what happened many years ago, but the passage of this resolution at this time would indeed be very problematic for everything we are trying to do in the Middle East because we are very dependent on a good Turkish strategic ally to help with our efforts.”
Oh really? For the sake of argument, what if denying the Holocaust was to help us in our foreign policy endeavors? Would we be down with that as well?
No…?
I didn’t think so…
Congressman Brad Sherman, a Democrat who represents California, said the U.S. should not retreat from the resolution in order to placate Turkey. “We cannot provide genocide-denial as one of the perks of friendship with the United States,” he said. Republican congressman Dan Burton of Indiana had a different opinion, “If that area blows up because we don’t handle this right, we will rue the day that could lead to a war much wider than we’ve seen.”
Oh really? Hey asshole, If WE had handled things right there wouldn’t be a war in the first place.
Turkey’s response?
They recalled their ambassador to Washington and warned of serious repercussions if Congress labeled the killing of Armenians by Turks a century ago as genocide. Predictably, they also threatened to “cut logistical support to the U.S. military”.
Turkey could also send troops into northern Iraq to hunt Turkish Kurd rebels, a move vehemently opposed by the Bush Administration because it would throw another match into the puddle of gasoline that is present day Iraq. Turkey has complained that the U.S. hasn’t done enough to stop the Kurds from using bases in northern Iraq to stage attacks in southeastern Turkey, a predominantly Kurdish region where tens of thousands have died fighting for an independent state since 1984.
There are a couple of variables to acknowledge…
Turkey wants to join the EU badly and it may take acknowledgement of the Armenian genocide to win Europe’s favor. Also, Turkey depends heavily upon U.S. military aid. In short, all this huffing and puffing by the Turks may be nothing more than a big circus sideshow to impress the folks back home, as there is much money to be made here, and while money has no race or color, it is often stained with blood.
So the question remains, what would the Turks prefer it be called? A simple misunderstanding? A boo boo? An ouchy?
Earlier this week I wrote about the irony of celebrating Columbus Day, a day which should perhaps be more accurately remembered for what it truly represents, the beginning of a holocaust of monumental proportions. The point I attempted to make was that the whitewashing of history is dangerous, and can lead to the justification of future criminal acts. I believe we live in a culture which does not invite question or revision. We scrub, we clean, we make nice…
“History is what we say it is” becomes the foundation upon which future generations may commit crimes of imperialism or genocide in perpetuity, based upon falsehoods of their forefathers. We base the justification of our current crimes upon the lies of the past. The only way to bring this insanity to a halt is to tell the unvarnished truth.
In the Wannsee Conference of 1942, Nazi politicians and military brass joked about how the Armenian genocide had been completely ignored by the rest of the world, thereby justifying (to them) their “final solution”…
One only need read the words Hitler uttered to understand the impact the Armenian genocide had upon the Third Reich. He used it to further his disdain for the Poles, which led to their eventual slaughter.
Quite simply, they figured they could get away with it… and for a while, they did…
No one is blaming the present citizens of Turkey for the crimes of their elders, but their fervent desire to deny their unsavory past almost makes them symbolically complicit…
While those who committed the unspeakable atrocities against the Armenians in 1915 are long gone, shouldn’t the victims be given recognition so that their descendants can finally draw some closure and have their grief validated? Is that so wrong?
Give the Armenians the recognition they deserve…
It is time for Turkey to come clean, even if we have to drag them kicking and screaming…
Below is House Resolution 106 in its entirety —
HRES 106 IH
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
H . RES . 106
Calling upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 30, 2007
Mr. SCHIFF (for himself, Mr. RADANOVICH, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. KNOLLENBERG, Mr. SHERMAN, and Mr. MCCOTTER) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
——————————————————————————–
RESOLUTION
Calling upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide, and for other purposes.
Resolved,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This resolution may be cited as the `Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The House of Representatives finds the following:
(1) The Armenian Genocide was conceived and carried out by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulting in the deportation of nearly 2,000,000 Armenians, of whom 1,500,000 men, women, and children were killed, 500,000 survivors were expelled from their homes, and which succeeded in the elimination of the over 2,500-year presence of Armenians in their historic homeland.
(2) On May 24, 1915, the Allied Powers, England, France, and Russia, jointly issued a statement explicitly charging for the first time ever another government of committing `a crime against humanity’.
(3) This joint statement stated `the Allied Governments announce publicly to the Sublime Porte that they will hold personally responsible for these crimes all members of the Ottoman Government, as well as those of their agents who are implicated in such massacres’.
(4) The post-World War I Turkish Government indicted the top leaders involved in the `organization and execution’ of the Armenian Genocide and in the `massacre and destruction of the Armenians’.
(5) In a series of courts-martial, officials of the Young Turk Regime were tried and convicted, as charged, for organizing and executing massacres against the Armenian people.
(6) The chief organizers of the Armenian Genocide, Minister of War Enver, Minister of the Interior Talaat, and Minister of the Navy Jemal were all condemned to death for their crimes, however, the verdicts of the courts were not enforced.
(7) The Armenian Genocide and these domestic judicial failures are documented with overwhelming evidence in the national archives of Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia, the United States, the Vatican and many other countries, and this vast body of evidence attests to the same facts, the same events, and the same consequences.
(8) The United States National Archives and Record Administration holds extensive and thorough documentation on the Armenian Genocide, especially in its holdings under Record Group 59 of the United States Department of State, files 867.00 and 867.40, which are open and widely available to the public and interested institutions.
(9) The Honorable Henry Morgenthau, United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1916, organized and led protests by officials of many countries, among them the allies of the Ottoman Empire, against the Armenian Genocide.
(10) Ambassador Morgenthau explicitly described to the United States Department of State the policy of the Government of the Ottoman Empire as `a campaign of race extermination,’ and was instructed on July 16, 1915, by United States Secretary of State Robert Lansing that the `Department approves your procedure . . . to stop Armenian persecution’.
(11) Senate Concurrent Resolution 12 of February 9, 1916, resolved that `the President of the United States be respectfully asked to designate a day on which the citizens of this country may give expression to their sympathy by contributing funds now being raised for the relief of the Armenians’, who at the time were enduring `starvation, disease, and untold suffering’.
(12) President Woodrow Wilson concurred and also encouraged the formation of the organization known as Near East Relief, chartered by an Act of Congress, which contributed some $116,000,000 from 1915 to 1930 to aid Armenian Genocide survivors, including 132,000 orphans who became foster children of the American people.
(13) Senate Resolution 359, dated May 11, 1920, stated in part, `the testimony adduced at the hearings conducted by the sub-committee of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations have clearly established the truth of the reported massacres and other atrocities from which the Armenian people have suffered’.
(14) The resolution followed the April 13, 1920, report to the Senate of the American Military Mission to Armenia led by General James Harbord, that stated `[m]utilation, violation, torture, and death have left their haunting memories in a hundred beautiful Armenian valleys, and the traveler in that region is seldom free from the evidence of this most colossal crime of all the ages’.
(15) As displayed in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Adolf Hitler, on ordering his military commanders to attack Poland without provocation in 1939, dismissed objections by saying `[w]ho, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?’ and thus set the stage for the Holocaust.
(16) Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term `genocide’ in 1944, and who was the earliest proponent of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, invoked the Armenian case as a definitive example of genocide in the 20th century.
(17) The first resolution on genocide adopted by the United Nations at Lemkin’s urging, the December 11, 1946, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 96(1) and the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide itself recognized the Armenian Genocide as the type of crime the United Nations intended to prevent and punish by codifying existing standards.
(18) In 1948, the United Nations War Crimes Commission invoked the Armenian Genocide `precisely . . . one of the types of acts which the modern term `crimes against humanity’ is intended to cover’ as a precedent for the Nuremberg tribunals.
(19) The Commission stated that `[t]he provisions of Article 230 of the Peace Treaty of Sevres were obviously intended to cover, in conformity with the Allied note of 1915 . . ., offenses which had been committed on Turkish territory against persons of Turkish citizenship, though of Armenian or Greek race. This article constitutes therefore a precedent for Article 6c and 5c of the Nuremberg and Tokyo Charters, and offers an example of one of the categories of `crimes against humanity’ as understood by these enactments’.
(20) House Joint Resolution 148, adopted on April 8, 1975, resolved: `[t]hat April 24, 1975, is hereby designated as `National Day of Remembrance of Man’s Inhumanity to Man’, and the President of the United States is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe such day as a day of remembrance for all the victims of genocide, especially those of Armenian ancestry . . .’.
(21) President Ronald Reagan in proclamation number 4838, dated April 22, 1981, stated in part `like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the genocide of the Cambodians, which followed it–and like too many other persecutions of too many other people–the lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten’.
(22) House Joint Resolution 247, adopted on September 10, 1984, resolved: `[t]hat April 24, 1985, is hereby designated as `National Day of Remembrance of Man’s Inhumanity to Man’, and the President of the United States is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe such day as a day of remembrance for all the victims of genocide, especially the one and one-half million people of Armenian ancestry . . .’.
(23) In August 1985, after extensive study and deliberation, the United Nations SubCommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities voted 14 to 1 to accept a report entitled `Study of the Question of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,’ which stated `[t]he Nazi aberration has unfortunately not been the only case of genocide in the 20th century. Among other examples which can be cited as qualifying are . . . the Ottoman massacre of Armenians in 1915-1916′.
(24) This report also explained that `[a]t least 1,000,000, and possibly well over half of the Armenian population, are reliably estimated to have been killed or death marched by independent authorities and eye-witnesses. This is corroborated by reports in United States, German and British archives and of contemporary diplomats in the Ottoman Empire, including those of its ally Germany.’.
(25) The United States Holocaust Memorial Council, an independent Federal agency, unanimously resolved on April 30, 1981, that the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum would include the Armenian Genocide in the Museum and has since done so.
(26) Reviewing an aberrant 1982 expression (later retracted) by the United States Department of State asserting that the facts of the Armenian Genocide may be ambiguous, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1993, after a review of documents pertaining to the policy record of the United States, noted that the assertion on ambiguity in the United States record about the Armenian Genocide `contradicted longstanding United States policy and was eventually retracted’.
(27) On June 5, 1996, the House of Representatives adopted an amendment to House Bill 3540 (the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 1997) to reduce aid to Turkey by $3,000,000 (an estimate of its payment of lobbying fees in the United States) until the Turkish Government acknowledged the Armenian Genocide and took steps to honor the memory of its victims.
(28) President William Jefferson Clinton, on April 24, 1998, stated: `This year, as in the past, we join with Armenian-Americans throughout the nation in commemorating one of the saddest chapters in the history of this century, the deportations and massacres of a million and a half Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the years 1915-1923.’.
(29) President George W. Bush, on April 24, 2004, stated: `On this day, we pause in remembrance of one of the most horrible tragedies of the 20th century, the annihilation of as many as 1,500,000 Armenians through forced exile and murder at the end of the Ottoman Empire.’.
(30) Despite the international recognition and affirmation of the Armenian Genocide, the failure of the domestic and international authorities to punish those responsible for the Armenian Genocide is a reason why similar genocides have recurred and may recur in the future, and that a just resolution will help prevent future genocides.
SEC. 3. DECLARATION OF POLICY.
The House of Representatives–
(1) calls upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide and the consequences of the failure to realize a just resolution; and
(2) calls upon the President in the President’s annual message commemorating the Armenian Genocide issued on or about April 24, to accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide and to recall the proud history of United States intervention in opposition to the Armenian Genocide.
