Armenian Genocide Resolution in the U.S. Congress — Righting a Historical Wrong?
It's not often that Armenia makes international headlines across the globe, but when it does it's usually because of one issue that remains fiercely debated until this day — the massacre and deportation of as many as 1.5 million Armenians from Ottoman Turkey in 1915-17. 22 countries recognize the events that occurred towards the end of World War I as genocide, a charge that the modern-day Republic of Turkey refuses to accept even though the term was devised by Raphael Lemkin in 1943 with the Armenian and Jewish experience in mind.
Most scholars also recognize the Armenian Genocide as such, but for the large and influential Armenian Diaspora, recognition by the United States is considered to be the main objective of its continuing international campaign. It's no wonder then, that when a U.S. Congressional House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a resolution to recognize the Armenian Genocide by 27 votes to 20 on 10 October, not only did the news make international headlines, but it also defined conversation in much of the blogosphere.
Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
Writing on Cilicia.com’s Life in Armenia immediately after the resolution was passed, Yerevan-based American-Armenian, Raffi Kojian, noted the prominence of the story as a leading item in the international media.
What was very interesting for me this morning, was reading all the news articles, and there was definitely no shortage of them. I opened Google News to search for “Armenian Genocide” to see if it passed, but instead was greeted with “Armenian Genocide Resolution Passes Committee” as the top headline, with 650 stories already on the topic. That’s big news! The coverage and points being raised were quite varied, from the sickening editorial in the Washington Post to widespread calls for doing the right thing. Lantos, head of the committee, summarized the vote beforehand as choosing between acknowledging a genocide, and appeasing Turkey for military reasons. Basically, do the right thing, or give in to the questionable arm-twisting of a supposed ally – though he did not put it in those undiplomatic terms.
Although such resolutions are not new in the United States, with past experience showing that national security concerns and foreign policy objectives eventually prevent such acknowledgment from passing into law, reaction from Diasporan bloggers was ecstatic. Writing on Cilicia.com's Life in the Armenian Diaspora, Lori wrote an entry in pretty much the same vein.
I’ll never forget this day! How monumental is this? Sitting in California unable to watch the House Foreign Affairs Committee meeting I had my father calling me from Armenia to provide periodic updates since he was able to watch the session live. I can’t even begin to express how I’m feeling right now, I’m happy, proud, relieved, ecstatic, encouraged, hopeful…..Finally, our efforts weren’t in vain. Finally, a president didn’t succeed in shooting this resolution down. I must say that as a Clinton supporter I was disappointed in him, but I expected it from Bush and it feels SO GOOD seeing his efforts to stop this resolution from passing fail. I want to find the 27 members of the committee who voted and shake their hands. I want to thank them for not buying into the threats Turkey made and for not allowing themselves or their ethics to be bought by the Turkish lobby, for not bending over and being Turkey’s puppets.
Reaction in the Turkish blogosphere, however, was obviously very different. Even 92 years after what most people do consider to be Genocide, the Republic of Turkey as well as everyday Turks deny that the event took place. Moreover, they blame the Armenian Diaspora rather than the modern-day Republic of Armenia for attempts to have the Genocide recognized in the United States. As the Turkish government responded to the passing of the resolution by threatening to withdraw logistical support for American troops in Iraq, Erkan’s Field Diary was one of the first Turkish blogs to react to the news.
27 members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who are the representatives of American citizens are meddling into a past they have no f***** idea, acting as peons of a genocide industry… Well done dudes, this shows very well that a Democrats-controlled Congress is even worse for Turkey. I hope you can do any good for your own people after making Middle East even messier with your anti-Turkish attitude…
Armenian-Turkish border, Khor Virap, Ararat Region, Republic of Armenia
Yet, given that the resolution first and foremost concerned Armenia and Turkey, two countries which share an albeit closed border and which have not established diplomatic ties mainly because of the international campaign for Genocide recognition, the bulk of posts on this subject primarily came from American and English bloggers. To begin with, this was because prior to the vote by the House Committee, U.S. President George W. Bush attempted to intervene to prevent its passage.
The blogosphere was set alight by critical posts from American citizens protesting that fact. 1 Boring Old Man was particularly angry, pointing out that Bush is hardly the most appropriate person to offer his opinion on “crimes against humanity.”
I doubt that Mr. Bush knows where Armenia is unless someone briefed him recently, or knows anything about the Turks and the Ottoman Empire, or knows who Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was or of his place in Turkish history, or has read anything [even Wikipedia] about the Armenian/Turkish struggles, or cares much about any of these things. All he knows is that it is not politically expedient for our country to acknowledge the Armenian mass killing as a genocide because it will infuriate the Turks who are NATO Allies. His deepest understanding is to do the politically expedient thing.
[…]
He’s no person to be entering the debate about the Armenian Genocide. First, he doesn’t know anything about it. Second, the issue is way too close to home for him to be objective. He cites his “War on Terror.” What he doesn’t mention is his own Terrorism…
Winter Patriot agreed.
[…] As far as I can tell, it boils down to a question of language. We’re not supposed to call a historical crime against humanity by its rightful name because that would put a crimp in the current crime against humanity, which we are also not supposed to call by its rightful name.
Two days later, the conversation changed as the White House continued to apply pressure to prevent the resolution from being put to the U.S. Congress for a full vote in November. With Turkey continuing to make threats to prevent U.S. troops in Iraq from being supplied via its territory, and with the Turkish Ambassador being “temporarily withdrawn, “opponents of the resolution started to accuse U.S. Congressional Speaker Nancy Pelosi of supporting House Resolution 106 in an attempt to scupper the war effort. Blogs such as The Hill’s Pundits Blog took the same line in cyberspace.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has picked the worst time to play politics when it comes to Iraq, Turkey and Armenia.
[…]
We are now in a real war with terrorists. We have more than 100,000 troops in Iraq. We have the Turks threatening to invade Kurdistan, just as Joe Biden talks about creating Kurdistan out of the ashes of Iraq. We have a more Islamic-leaning Turkish government. We are a fighting a global war on terror, where we need the help of the Turks more than ever.
And Nancy Pelosi has decided to bring the same resolution to the floor, threatening our national security by playing politics.
[…]
This is a bad time to play politics, Madame Speaker, especially on this issue, follow the lead of your predecessor. Choose American national security over domestic politics.
The Simi Valley Sophist went further and effectively accused Pelosi of treason.
Despite the Turkish threat, Pelosi is pushing forward with the resolution. What is Pelosi’s political imperative? It surely is not Armenian votes. And, it surely is not a fear of additional American service personnel deaths.
[…]
Now, you go ahead and tell me that Pelosi cares about the welfare of our troops. And, you go ahead and tell me that Pelosi actually cares about the memories of Armenians. I’ll submit to you that Pelosi has simply found another mechanism to throw a monkey wrench into the Iraqi war effort. I’m sorry, but I don’t find that patriotic. I hark back to the Vietnam War era traitor, Jane Fonda.
This Ain’t Hell… concurred.
[…] Historians will remember that the Democrat “leadership” (using the term loosely) are a traitorous bunch of double-dealing, back-stabbing punk-ass sissies who can’t summon the fortitude to stand up to a few squeakywheels on the internet. That’ll be their legacy.
Faced with such an outcry domestically, perhaps it was no wonder that many of the same Congressional Representatives that supported the resolution started to back away from HR 106. Interestingly, though, few of those bloggers which opposed the resolution actually denied that the Armenian Genocide took place. Instead, once again, national security and foreign policy objectives took precedence over what most Armenians consider to be the quest for “historical justice.” Cribs and Ranting was one of them.
It was a grand and appropriate gesture, befitting statesmen, by the US House of Representatives to officially dub the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks as “genocide”. The US need not have made the first move on this, but it did it in line with its assumed role as a global leader, as a beacon of freedom to the rest of the world.
Unfortunately, reality hit the House representatives, real hard. It is not the truth that prevails, even if it is a genocide. Usually it are the hard, cynical ground realities that win.
[…]
Worried about antagonizing Turkish leaders, House members from both parties have begun to withdraw their support from a resolution backed by the Democratic leadership that would condemn as genocide the mass killings of Armenians nearly a century ago, reports The New York Times.
[…]
Turkey has promised to turn over documents and support a conference to determine whether there was a genocide of Armenians. That conference would take years to convene, and maybe years to arrive at any conclusion. But it may now provide the House of Representatives a fig-leaf of an excuse to get out of the embarrassment their idealism got them into.
Deja vu — the same happened in 2000 when another resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide was about to be put to a full Congressional vote. It wasn't long before Armenian bloggers such as ArtMika at Unzipped started to write more on developments which to be honest, shouldn't really have come as much surprise to anyone.
It seems that Bush + Turkey & co ‘succeded’ again. A number of House members panicky withdrew their support as co-sponsors of the resolution. To get majority seems unlikely now, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may be forced to shelve or postpone it. I felt kind of disgust when read the news (below, via iararat). They used us or got used and then threw away… as usual. Pure ‘moral dimension’ in politics.
[…]
ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos reports: “According to Congressional and Bush administration sources, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is now unlikely to bring a resolution which would label the deaths of Armenians in a conflict more than 90 years ago as “genocide”.
Yet, while history looked set to repeat itself with another resolution about to be blocked because of concerns about the war in Iraq and U.S.-Turkish relations, some interesting precedents did occur in the blogosphere. Firstly, and as was the case with the murder earlier this year of ethnic Armenian journalist and editor Hrant Dink in Istanbul, the Armenian blogosphere was defined more by numerous posts from non-Armenians.
Truly, the conversation was global and the media also sought to solicit opinions from bloggers and internet users. One of those was Inside Higher Ed which ran an interesting article on the role of academia in the debate over the Armenian Genocide. The online article allowed commenting in the same way as a standard blog post.
More significantly, perhaps, and although Armenian and Turkish bloggers avoided discussing HR 106 together online, some Turks attempted to reach out to ethnic Armenians via their blogs. One of those was Turkish writer, Mustafa Akyol, at The White Path.
A few days ago a new friend of mine who happens to be an American Armenian played some beautiful songs for me that come from the deepest roots of her ethnic tradition. While I enjoyed the numinous rhythms of that magnetic Armenian music, I realized how similar they were to the tunes of the Turkish classical music that I have grown up hearing. “Despite all the political warfare,” I said to myself, “alas, look how similar we are.” I actually have a similar feeling when I drive along the magnificent mosques and palaces of Istanbul, some of which were built by Armenian architects – men in fez who devoutly worshiped Christ and proudly served the Sultan.
Well, we were the children of the same empire, weren't we? We actually lived side by side as good neighbors for centuries until the modern virus called “nationalism” descended upon us. And then hell broke loose.
[…]
Convey your message calmly, in other words, and it will be heard. But don't try to impose it onto us. We are not a nation of monsters, but we do have a stubborn side. When foreigners start to dictate our history to us, we tend to revert back to our grandmothers’ stories. And if we will start listening to your narrative, that will not be because we are pushed into a corner by the politics of a powerful lobby, but because our hearts are touched by the memoirs of a terrible tragedy.
Apart from Raffi Kojian at Cilicia.com and myself, few Armenian bloggers chose to participate in what can be considered an invitation to discuss and debate. In general, the Armenian and Turkish blogospheres remained polarized and isolated from each other although both Talk Turkey and Blogian were notable exceptions. Hopefully, as the resolution continues to be discussed in American political circles, there will be more examples of Armenian and Turkish bloggers communicating with each other on this and other matters.
Certainly, and even though the fate of House Resolution 106 remains uncertain, Global Voices will continue to keep readers up to date on the latest developments. Until then, the latest posts from the blogosphere represent the two main views in circulation — that the Armenian Genocide happened and it should be recognized, or that it happened, but the resolution in the United States is not the way to right what most consider to be a historical wrong.
While I understand the need to maintain good relations with an Islamic democracy, NATO member, and strategic ally, we cannot play along with Turkey’s policy of whitewashing history and suppressing dissent. The United States cannot be a moral leader in the world if we only stand up for human rights issues when economic and strategic interests aren’t at stake.As the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Adam Schiff (CA-29) asks:
“How can we take effective action against the genocide in Darfur if we lack the will to condemn genocide whenever and wherever it occurs?”
Georgetown University College Democrats
Is there an example of more extreme, hypocritical arrogance than the U.S. Congress, and other politicians, as well as newspapers columnists and human activists attempting to have a resolution passed acknowledging the Armenian genocide by Turkey?
[…]
The fact that the U.S. Congress wants to pass a resolution regarding the genocide that Turkey has committed, but has not said anything about the genocides the United States is responsible for, shows that passing these type of resolution is completely meaningless.
Two days ago, I lauded George Bush for having the courage to meet publicly with the Dalai Lama. Today I am embarassed to note that the American Congress has succumbed to the pressure exerted upon it by the Bush White House by refusing to recognize the Armenian Genocide. […]
[…]
We are not talking here about a compromise on a tax treaty, a trade-off on a bill to support pork producers if someone supports your wheat farmers. We are talking about the killing of 1.5 million people. Recognizing genocide for what it is will not bring the dead back. But it will do justice to their memory and let others know that there will be no negotiating or compromising on the issue. Shame on Bush and shame on the US Congress.
University of Alabama Faculty of Law
There seems little historical doubt that the Armenian massacre was indeed genocide. The eye-witness accounts of the time are overwhelming, and Ottoman government documents talking openly about eliminating the Armenians as a people group are plentiful from the period 1915–1917. But with the U.S. dependent on the friendship of Turkey to support a difficult war in Iraq, it seems at the very least an ill-timed notion to rub Turkey’s face in the judgment of history. True, all Armenians and American-Armenians will feel affirmed by official American national recognition of the injustice they suffered. But isn’t it more important that the Turks themselves should finally come to acknowledge the truth of what happened to the Armenians 92 years ago? That may yet take decades to come to pass. Assuredly, it won’t be hastened by this week’s Congressional resolution. And what if resupplying American troops in Iraq is seriously compromised by a Turkish curtailment of U.S. base usage in Turkey? To rephrase Congressman Lantos’ well-stated dilemma: “Is the gratification of wounded Armenian sensibility worth the possibly serious risk that could ensure to American forces in wartime?” […]
The Armenian Observer also carries a summary of what Armenian bloggers in the Republic as well as the Diaspora wrote on the resolution, and there is full coverage on the Oneworld Multimedia blog. For now, the story looks set to continue.
Genocide Survivor, Arax, Armavir Region, Republic of Armenia
All photographs © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2005-6
33 comments
Nadia: With all due respect, please read my comment (or my blog posts) more carefully. I never said that the Armenian ‘Genocide’ issue was about religion.
I claim that the resolution has not much to do with the ‘Genocide’ issue but of deeper issues with the general direction (and provocation) in the Middle East, involving Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Kurds, Turks, Persians, and Arabs, who for the most part happen to be Muslim.
Your argument is about whether the Genocide vs. ‘Genocide’ issue is relative to religion. I agree with you it is not. You seem to have missed my point.
The factors borne out of the resolution (which is now so passe) is gaining more attention than the Armenian pleas of recognition of their plight.
This is about the roadmap to the ‘New’ Middle East. One that has nothing to do with Armenia, or the Armenian Diaspora.
I wish to add, herein, my opinion of the matter of the Armenian Genocide and House resolution 106. I am neither Turkish nor Armenian, although I have a daughter by a Turkish mother) who lives in Istanbul.
To wit: I can offer no better opinion than that expressed by Barin Kayaoglu, a Turkish doctoral candidate currently studying history at the University of Virginia. Read his balanced and perceptive article (the best I’ve read on the subject)published in the online Turkish Weekly:
http://www.turkishweekly.net/comments.php?id=2737
He opines, in summation (if I am interpreting him correctly), that it is unimportant whether the horrors of 1915 meet the precise definition, formal or informal, of ‘genocide,’ but that the Turks and the Armenians have a history of shared suffering and that the questions arising therefrom are best left to be discussed and resolved by the Turks and the Armenians themselves.
My own opinion is: I am uneasy about the American congress “condemning” anything, these buffoons having enthusiastically supported Bush’s war crimes in Iraq! Moreover, the resolution does not memorialize and condemn the events which provoked the Genocide (yes, it was a genocide!): Attacks, provoked by the other European empires wanting to speed the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, by Armenian insurgents, who had justified dissatisfactions with Ottoman rule)resulting in the Ottoman Empire’s horrific overreaction. Truly, this was not a case of ‘bad guys’ against ‘good guys,’ but, rather, victims against victims.
Resolution 106 is a stupidly simpleminded, myopic, cynical, and unbalanced caper that contributes nothing, absolutely nothing to the welfare of two magnificent peoples and frank discussions between them!
James Dwyer,
You are missing the point. This is not a dispute between ‘two magnificent peoples’ just as Rwanda was not merely a dispute between Tutsis and Hutus. This was a crime against humanity and humanity, as a whole, must express its condemnation as it must each time such a crime is committed. Nations express this condemnation through their elected officials.
Whether or not Turkey does so is up to Turkey and its citizens and no one else. Turkey has had 90 years to have ‘frank discussions’ and even now that is not possible given Turkish law and attitudes.
Darfur anyone?
Richard,
You are right(1) and you are wrong(2)!
(1)Yes, the Armenian Genocide was a crime against humanity, and Turks (and others) who continue to deny it occupy the same justifiably despised moral and intellectual backwaters as the deniers of the Holocaust.
(2)The Armenians were NOT, in Peter Balakian’s words, “a defenseless,unarmed, Christian minority,” but were themselves (some of them, anyway) war criminals.
The ‘official’ Turkish view has been that the Armenian deaths were the result of the conflicts accompanying the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (which was, like all empires, based on plunder and subjugation; although, to the extent that such things can be measured, less murderous and oppressive than the other empires of the era, and less so than the American – unofficial – Empire of the past few decades (sorry, my Marxism is peeking out from under my hat!).
The Armenian view, on the other hand, has been that the conflict amounted to a genocide, totally unprovoked. The truth lies in between, but, obviously, closer to the Armenian ‘side.’
I see the same irrationality and dishonesty on the part of, collectively, the Israelis and the Palestinians, both of whom have come down on the wrong side of history.
As for the Turks: The Genocide is finally being discussed openly by a new generation of Turks. When Hrant Dink, the Turkish-Armenian editor of the bilingual Istanbul newspaper ‘Agos,’ and an energetic and widely admired activist for democracy as well as for frank discussion of the Genocide, was murdered last January by a Turkish nationalist, a huge crowd of more than 100,000 people (the vast majority of them ethnic Turks!) massed in Taksim Square, many carrying placards saying in Turkish ‘Today We Are All Armenians!’ Indeed, the young assassin’s own father and uncle, apparently decent chaps, after seeing the slaying on television turned him in!
My point is: The Turkish conscience is evolving, as has the German conscience in the decades since the Holocaust; and Resolution 106 contributes nothing to that evolution. It simply exploits Armenian grief. The only good thing about 106 is that it has driven a wedge between Washington and Ankara, causing Ankara to consider withdraw it tactical support for the U.S. military in Iraq.
And, as I said in my earlier posting: The American Congress is in no position to be condemning anything!
A final note, Richard: The Genocide and the Rwandan civil war have nothing in common. Shame on you for grasping that particular straw!
James Dwyer,
The Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, Rwanda, and others were a continuum of atrocities. What distinguishes the Armenian case from the others is the effort put in to its denial.
Metin, I’m still not entirely sure I follow you then. Why would this be a part of the US’ aims in the Middle East when they rely heavily on their base in Turkey, and congress is now terrified that Turkish incursion into Kurdistan will hamper their war effort and many now feel the genocide resolution was a mistake? Not to mention the strength of the Turkish/Israeli relationship.
I find some of the things you are saying are irreconcilable with each other, I’m a little confused.
James Dwyer, that the killing and uprooting of Armenians during WW1 was systematic and genocide is pretty much the consensus among academics.
The Genocide is finally being discussed openly by a new generation of Turks.
This is an outright lie. Turkey has passed laws that make “insulting Turkishness” illegal, this includes calling the massacres of Armenians a genocide. People have gone to jail for publishing books on the subject, a woman was even charged for writing a work of fiction in which the characters mention the genocide.
People are even subject to harassment and intimidation for discussing it outside of Turkey. Turkish government lobbyists have been successfully stifling the issue for a very long time before they were calling for debate. That is the issue.
To Richard and Nadia et al,
I’m not sure what we are arguing about!
Yes, the Armenian Genocide happened!
Yes, it was a crime against humanity!
Yes, for generations Turkish governments and officialdom have denied it!
Yes, there are indeed laws (such as the notorious Article 301) making it illegal to publicly discuss the Genocide; the Turkish authoress to whom Nadia refers is Elif Safak, who mentions the Genocide in her novels; and, of course, author and Nobel-winner Orhan Pamuk; and Turkish sociologist and civil-rights activist Haluk Gerger, who has called the Genocide “the black stain on the Turkish soul” – I have a pen-pal relationship with Dr. Gerger.
But, a national soul-searching is happening at street-level (my daughter, born to a Turkish mother and living in Istanbul, is part of that; she is engaged to a PKK activist and she is a member of the TKIP, the Turkish Communist Workers’ Party, one of many such organizations encouraging this process), and that must be acknowledged and applauded.
One of the only things uniting the Turkish Right and the Turkish Left (although, for totally different reasons)is: Opposition to House res. 106; that, and opposition to Turkey’s admission to the European Union (neither wants to see Turkey become for Europe what China and Mexico have become for the United States: An impoverished ____hole supplying slave-labor and cheap products to consumer-nations!).
And, it is laughable that the American Congress, an aide-er and abet-er in Bush’s war-crimes against Iraqui humanity, would dare have the effrontry to voice an opinion on the subject of mass-murder!
So, relax. Shakespeare (and Marx!) were right: The truth will out! Leave it to the Turks and the Armenians!
And, to Richard, Nadia, and the others: Peace, Love, and tie-dyed T-shirts!
Condoleezza Rice: Drop Armenian Genocide Bill…
It should come as no surprise to anyone that the big guns are still out against House Resolution 106 recognizing the Armenian Genocide which is or was scheduled to be put before the U.S. Congress for a full vote next month. As has been mentioned on th…