Friday, March 05, 2010

Obama Seeks to Block Genocide Bill

The White House is right here.

The Obama administration has said it will seek to block a controversial bill describing as genocide the World War I killing of Armenians by Turks.

A congressional panel on Thursday approved the resolution, paving the way for a possible vote by the House.

But US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the administration would “work very hard” to prevent this.

Turkey voiced strong protests after the vote and recalled its ambassador from Washington for consultations.

The truth is that it was genocide by any reasonable definition of the word.  History recognizes it as such.  But passing a resolution to this effect won’t change the history and serves to tick off a very critical ally.  It would be better for the Congress to stay out of it and let the history books worry about what we call the Armenian genocide.

(7) Comments
Posted by Owen at 2221 hrs
Foreign Affairs + Politics + Politics - General

  1. Turkey (Ottomen) history should be a matter of public history and not covered up because it offends the offending nation.

    Can you imagine if we excused other super powers like Germany, Russia and China for what they had done? Or is it because Turkey was a Muslim super power that we should excuse them.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 06, 2010 at 0846 hrs


  2. Congress doesn’t write history.  It’s already written.  The fact that Congress doesn’t pass a resolution on something doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.  The whole world knows it was genocide.  I don’t need a resolution from Congress to tell me that.

    Posted by Owen on March 06, 2010 at 0935 hrs


  3. Ever hear that “evil increases when good men do nothing”.

    We should always condemn evil.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 06, 2010 at 0951 hrs


  4. It was actually the Ottoman rulers that perpetrated these act, not modern Turkey. Unfortunately, modern Turkey continues to repress the Armenians. If Congress really wanted to do something useful, maybe they should address the repression that is going on right now rather than something that occurred nearly a century ago.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 06, 2010 at 1001 hrs


  5. Doesn’t Congress have more important things to do at the moment?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 06, 2010 at 1018 hrs


  6. Modern Turkey also represses Kurds.

    I understand why State doesn’t want us saying things, but Turkey has to understand that there is zero chance that it will get into the EU as long as it remains in denial about history or even current treatment of minorities.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 06, 2010 at 1036 hrs


  7. Turkey wrote our policy long enough regarding this, its time we write our own.

    I agree with Free Lunch that Turkey will not be allowed into the EU.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 06, 2010 at 1142 hrs


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