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Originally posted at AlterPolitics by Stan (AKA TheCallUp)
The House Foreign Affairs Committee is preparing to consider H.Res.252 — The Armenian Genocide Resolution — this Thursday (March 4, 2010), and it has some key Congresspeople scrambling to kill it.
The resolution calls upon the President of the United States:
(1) to ensure that U.S. foreign policy reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the U.S. record relating to the Armenian Genocide and the consequences of the failure to realize a just resolution; and
(2) in the President’s annual message commemorating the Armenian Genocide to characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide, and to recall the proud history of U.S. intervention in opposition to the Armenian Genocide.
The resolution is basically a formal acknowledgment by the United States of America of the first genocide of the 20th Century. It essentially proclaims that the U.S. government is NOT a Holocaust denier, and it includes quotes from former US Presidents (including Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush) who publicly acknowledged the Armenian genocide in speeches during their respective terms.
One quote included within the body of Resolution 252 was made by none other than Adolph Hitler, acknowledging what he personally had taken from the preceding Armenian genocide:
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.
That quote exemplifies how deranged leaders often look back to previous massacres and genocides in gauging how the international community might deal with them should they too embark on the annihilation of a targeted group. Unfortunately, in Washington, DC, lobbyist threats are far more likely to move politicians than the snuffed out voices of 1.5 million innocent human beings.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek warned of repercussions, if the motion passes:
“Turkey and the United States are two important allies,” he said. “We have a shared history over the past 50-60 years. Adopting this resolution will harm relations.”
In a rare show of unity, a powerful Turkish bipartisan parliamentary group is in Washington to deliver that message.
Three US Congresspeople are leading the charge to squash the resolution, as reported by The Hill:
In a February 22 letter to House Foreign Affairs Committee members obtained by The Hill, Reps. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Kay Granger (R-Texas) and Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) ask their colleagues to reject a resolution that would recognize the killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks during World War I as genocide. [...]
“A vote on this resolution will do nothing to rectify the tragedies of the past, but it will most certainly have significant negative consequences on current and future relations with Turkey,” the letter says. Cohen, Granger and Whitfield are all co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on U.S.-Turkey Relations.
The three lawmakers are also working on a separate letter to Reps. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), the committee chairman, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the panel’s ranking member, opposing the resolution. The trio is gathering members’ signatures and 14 lawmakers have signed onto the letter to Berman and Ros-Lehtinen. Aides are expecting many more to sign on before that letter’s release on Tuesday.
The resolution was aborted the last time it was introduced in 2007, after aggressive lobbying by the Turkish Lobby and the Bush Administration:
In 2007, the resolution squeaked by the panel with a close vote of 27-21 in its favor. But after intense pressure from Turkey, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) decided against bringing the resolution to the House floor after originally promising to do so.
But some believe that this time around the odds are good for its passage. According to Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who introduced the resolution for consideration, there are more favorable conditions today than in 2007.
For one, President Barack Obama was rather vocal on the campaign trail in promising to acknowledge the Armenian genocide:
“I also share with Armenian Americans — so many of whom are descended from genocide survivors — a principled commitment to commemorating and ending genocide. That starts with acknowledging the tragic instances of genocide in world history. As a U.S. senator, I have stood with the Armenian American community in calling for Turkey’s acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide.“
In 2006, Obama was quoted as saying:
I criticized the secretary of State for the firing of U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, after he properly used the term ‘genocide’ to describe Turkey’s slaughter of thousands of Armenians starting in 1915. I shared with secretary Rice my firmly held conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence.”
Asserted Mr. Obama, back then: “The facts are undeniable. An official policy that calls on diplomats to distort the historical facts is an untenable policy.”
Mr. Obama also stated unequivocally that “as President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.”
Of course many will recall that when President Obama finally got the opportunity to make good on his promise in Turkey (April 2009), he opted out. Could you even imagine an American President choosing not to use the word ‘Holocaust’ or ‘genocide’ while in Germany, so as not to offend any German Holocaust deniers in the audience? Could you imagine an American President choosing not to use the word ‘genocide’ in Rwanda or in Cambodia so as not to offend any Hutu or former Khmer Rouge genocidaires?
The good news, as far as this resolution is concerned, is that President Obama (unlike his predecessor) has chosen to remain silent on the measure:
… the Obama administration has taken no public position on the measure, set for a vote Thursday by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Aides to senior lawmakers on the committee say there has been no pressure against the resolution from the White House.
Another factor working in favor of the resolution is the now-strained relationship between Israel and Turkey:
The [House Foreign Affairs] committee is strongly pro-Israel, and prospects for passage could be affected by rising tensions between Turkey and Israel, as well as Turkey’s relatively warm relationship with Iran. In the past, Turkey and Israel had friendlier relations, and Israel had quietly lobbied against the resolution.
But after what happened in 2007, Speaker Pelosi in not about to commit to anything:
A spokesman for Pelosi did not say whether or not the House leader would bring the resolution to the floor for a vote if it passed the committee again.
“It’s important to take it one step at a time and see what the committee does next week. Following their action, we can have a discussion with the chairman and others about next steps,” said Nadeam Elshami, Pelosi’s spokesman.
It is long past due for the United States of America to stand up and be counted in acknowledging the Armenian genocide. To do otherwise is akin to rewarding the genocidaires.
As Thomas Jefferson once eloquently stated, “There is not a truth existing which I fear… or would wish unknown to the whole world.”
36 Comments
I like your post and your argument, up to the point that you say that not adopting a Congressional Resolution about the Armenians is to reward their slaughterers.
That’s a touch hyperbolic.
What about the American Genocide. People are so worried about people all over the world, yet fail to see what’s happening right here in our Country.
We have people dying because of our healthcare system.
People dying because of the unsafe cars we drive.
People killing themselves and dying because of the recession, economy, and the lack of hope in this Country.
The politicians you elected are killing these people, and care just as little about it as leaders in those other Countries.
The American Genocide is hidden and covered up because the American People don’t care about other Americans. They rush to aid people all over the world, while neighbors and friends can be dying around them.
Crooked Brokers and Banks just killed My Mother, because our Courts ruled for them over Her and drove Her to worry to death. Yet no one worries about the people like Her right in this Country.
What more could a genocidaire want than to have the most powerful nation in the world not recognize their heinous acts based on political calculations?
In a sense, it helps facilitate historic revisionism. If there weren’t historic revisionism underway in Turkey at this moment, then this wouldn’t even be an issue. For the United States to formally recognize that genocide occurred in 1915, is to put all their revisionist efforts into question.
Speak for yourself. I feel it’s equally as important to acknowledge America’s historic crimes, and I also worry about what’s going on here presently.
By the way, I’m truly sorry about what happened to your mother.
First off, those “genocidaires” don’t want much any more, being dead.
Secondly, the Turkish government doesn’t get to sweep away the issue because of anything that the US does or doesn’t do.
Turkey has to deal with this as part of obtaining membership in the EU.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4092933.stm
iremembered you fail to realize our Government does not work one thing at a time otherwise it could not function.
Speak for yourself I do care along with thousands of others in the US and across the world on human rights issues. If the American people did not care about human rights we would not be in Haiti, we would not consider healthcare issues, we would not care about people out of work who cant support themselves.
Seriously try reconsidering/re-evaluating your views toward humanity. We are all inclusive not exclusive to others.
Stan,
I also wanted to mention that this was a great article backed-up with quotes, and the right side of humanity!
Mac,
From your own link:
I’m not sure how that is even relevant to the US acknowledging one of the worst cases of genocide in world history.
Yes, the Genocidaires are dead, but they are not remembered as villains amongst their descendants — they are remembered as heroes. The Turks claim these people weren’t slaughtered, but were merely removed from the war zone.
There were no Nuremberg Trials for the Turkish genocidaires. Conversely, Nazi Holocaust denial is a crime punishable by imprisonment today (sixty plus years after the fact) in Europe. The Turkish Genocidaires, after their heinous crimes, lived full and free and privileged lives all over Europe.
The only punishment that can be accorded to the dead is to set the record straight, so they are remembered for what they actually did. Why do you have a problem with this line of thinking. I’m not sure I understand.
Thank you richie, for your kind words.
I’m glad You have such a high opinion of Yourself.
I’m also glad You actually think our Government functions.
I’ll bet You voted for our Politicians, support the wars and our Military, and love foreign aid.
I’ll bet You don’t help out at a food bank, but probably texed a couple dollars to Haiti.
If Your neighbor died You also probably never noticed.
Thanks about My Mother.
If You took it I was speaking for You, {You must feel guilty.}
Worrying does little good if one never put care and actions with that worry.
In fairness to myself, if you say ‘you’ in response to a post, the author of that post probably thinks you’re speaking to him/her.
But, having said that, I guess in many respects I do feel guilty for not doing enough to help those getting crushed in this downturn. I hope to do more — I plan on trying.
As I said at the start of my first comment, I’m pretty much with you, I just think that it’s not the US that needs to acknowledge the crime.
It’s up to Turkey to come clean and the Europeans are the ones to take the lead in seeing that they do so.
(totally unimportantly, Germany’s law making holocaust denial a crime is not one that I can support. Not even if the German’s use it to jail Ahmedinejad. *g*)
So you don’t want the US to acknowledge the Armenian holocaust?
ACK!! twice, I told you that I’m with you on it, but just think that it’s not vital that the Resolution pass as long as the Europeans are after the Turks to own up.
(I liked the post, and meant only to be offering a small point of disagreement)
But Mac,
You said:
Why shouldn’t it be the US that acknowledges the crime? We’re the world’s supposedly last Super Power. Would you say the same thing about the Jewish Holocaust? Are you saying it doesn’t matter if the US recognizes it, as long as the Europeans do?
The whole point is for every country/countryman to ensure THE TRUTH rises to its rightful place.
Why do you want to subjugate your moral responsibility to the Europeans?
Well, my friend, I tried agreeing with you, but if you’re not taking yes for an answer, WTH.
No, NO, No, failure to pass a House Resolution 92 years later is not the equivalent of abdicating moral responsibility. Failure to pass the resolution doesn’t mean that we don’t recognize what our schools teach about the Turks and the Armenians. Failure to pass the resolution doesn’t mean that.
What we think, how we feel, what we say and what we teach our students are the proper gauge of how we’re meeting our responsibility to truth and justice.
Pontificating without provocation or exigent circumstance is less important.
(Not that I usually resist pontificating)
You’re still sidestepping. Why don’t you think it’s important that the Armenian Holocaust — which has been despicably trivialized, and no it isn’t taught in our schools, despite your claim — be acknowledged by the world’s superpower, the United States of America?
I’m really surprised in your lack of sympathy on this matter.
it was certainly taught to me in both high school and undergrad. my kid was also taught about it.
who says it’s not taught?
and who says that I’m not sympathetic? (I sure as hell think that I am, not that I would know what I think as well as you would, but I’m pretty sure, anyway I think that I think that I probably am pretty sure that I think that I’m sympathetic.)
I’m basing it on this:
And I’ll add that I was never taught about it, neither in HS nor college, and I’m sure I’m just one in a million. I was definitely taught about the Holocaust.
To Mac,
But why are you against it? You keep dodging the question. Why don’t you think it’s important for the United States to acknowledge the Armenian Holocaust?
By the way, if any of you — out there — like this diary could you please ‘recommend‘ it, by pressing the link at the top of the comments.
This important issue is coming up for a vote tomorrow, so it would be great if it got promoted onto the front page for better exposure.
“Hitler’s underlying admiration for Marxism was obvious.”
Glenn Beck
I thought that the lunacy emanating from FOX Noise couldn’t possibly get any weirder than it did during the first year of the Obama administration. I was wrong about that. Last week our friends at FOX finally went over the edge of reason. They have reached the point of what can only be described as surrealistic absurdity.
Now these assholes have taken it upon themselves to rewrite history. Their latest effort comes to us in the form of a new “documentary” which aired last week called “Revolutionary Holocaust”. You see, Adolf Hitler wasn’t the right wing nightmare that posterity has portrayed him to be all these years. Au contraire! In fact (I hope you’re sitting down, Russ Feingold) he was a Liberal. That’s right! Der fuhrer was the personification of an elitist, latte sipping, bleeding heart – the ideological soul mate of Howard Zinn and Ralph Nader!
EVERBODY SING!
“Deutschland, Deutschland, uber Al Franken….”
And how about that Josef Stalin, huh? For decades we’ve been led to believe that he was a tyrant and a despot – and indeed he was. But according to Beck and crew, he was a Liberal tyrant; a Progressive despot. We’re talkin’ Teddy Kennedy on steroids here!
Wait! It gets better! If America ever again goes down the road of Progressive enlightenment, the holocaust that was visited upon Europe in the thirties and forties will surely happen here! Millions of innocent Americans will be murdered! According to Beck: “Allowing this to happen one more time would be unforgivable.” OH, THE HUMANITY!!!
Please.
FOX Noise is trying to make us swallow the utterly false assertion that Hitler and Stalin were not, as history has led us to believe, bitter enemies. The plain truth of the matter (in their minds) is that they were in bed with one another – ideologically speaking, that is. At one point in this silly program, Jonah Goldberg says, “The Nazis and the Bolsheviks in Germany was really a case of Coke vs. Pepsi.” That is why when the Nazi Party was formed in the nineteen-twenties, they decided the swastika at the center of their flag needed to be surrounded by a bold field of red. They were trying to attract the Socialists, whose flag was the same color.
What is conveniently omitted is the fact that Hitler wasn’t trying to forward the Socialist cause, he was trying to convert them or – at the very least – confuse them. According to Beck, the only reason Herr Hitler opposed Communism was because he disagreed with its “internationalism”. This is utter nonsense which can be debunked by a cursory examination of every comment Hitler ever made (public and private) on the subject of Soviet Russia and Marxism.
HISTORICAL FACT: Here is something else Glenn Beck neglected to mention. It was not only the Jews who were consigned to perish in the Nazi death camps. Also marked for extermination were Gypsies, homosexuals – and Communists. Liberal my eye!
One segment of the program is subtitled, “THE GENOCIDE YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF”. What genocide might this be, you may ask? It is the fact that millions of Russians were murdered by Stalin’s regime. The Liberals, says Beck, don’t want you to know about this and have deleted it from the history books. This segment might more accurately have been called: “THE GENOCIDE THAT GLENN BECK AND YOUR AVERAGE VIEWER OF FOX NOISE HAS NEVER HEARD OF”. I don’t know about you but I’ve known about the mass murder carried out by Josef Stalin ever since I started reading history in my early teens. What books (or book) is Glenn talking about? “My Life, My Loves” by Eddie Fisher perhaps? Come to think of it, old Eddie did omit that nasty little fact from his text. Coincidence? I wonder. He’s hiding something, I know it!
For me, the highlight of this utterly ludicrous (and screamingly funny) program is when they show an ancient film clip of George Bernard Shaw. He is seen advocating a system whereby people would be forced – once a year – to stand before a committee to prove their worth to society. If they are unable to do so, Shaw implies that they should be eliminated. He then says that a humane, “gentlemanly” gas should be devised to do the job.
Here is as good an example as anything I can conjure how the propagandists at FOX operate: Shaw is described as an avowed admirer and Supporter of Communism. He is not described as what he really was: an aging play write who, even as a young man, was known for his profound eccentricities. But by his eighties the author of Pygmalion had grown beyond eccentric – he was down right dotty! And yet in this clip, Beck gives the impression that he is some kind of statesman of reputation.
The fact is that by the end of his life, George Bernard Shaw was widely dismissed by almost everybody as a harmless and amusing old curmudgeon. Certainly by the time the Nazis seized power in 1933, no one was taking him seriously as a social commentator. And it should be noted that Shaw also had a fondness for making outrageous statements for no other purpose than to shock polite society – tongue planted firmly in cheek. Who knows what the old bugger was really thinking.
Here’s a little experiment you can perform. If you know someone who gets his or her information primarily from FOX, ask them this one, very simple question:
Who was George Bernard Shaw?
I’m willing to bet you dinner and a movie that he or she will not have a clue. Or, if they happened to catch the Beck program, their answer will be: “George Bernard Shaw? He was a Communist. Why, everybody knows that!”
Now it can be told. Glenn Beck has exposed the Progressive movement for what it really is: a cabal of blood-thirsty, despotic maniacs whose only plan is to bring a genocidal rain of death and destruction down upon the good and decent citizens of this grand and glorious land of ours. Be afraid. Be very afraid. WE’RE COMING FOR YOUR CHILDREN….
But seriously, folks….
The “Far Left” that the Far Right loves to whine about so much does not even exist in this country any longer. You don’t believe me? The next time you’re in any big city, try finding the local chapter of the American Communist Party. Happy hunting!
Last month it was revealed that Glenn Beck was the second most popular television personality in the nation (second only to Oprah Winfrey). The very fact that this nitwit has been able to commandeer a huge chunk of this country’s political conversation and that so many people take him seriously is all the proof one needs to conclude that stupidity is running rampant in America. The program which aired on FOX last week ignored all the good that has been done for this country in the last century by Liberal policies and politicians. Not surprisingly, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal were not mentioned – not even in passing.
Sure enough, while surfing through the right wing blogosphere yesterday, I found more-than-a-few sites that had picked up the “Adolf as flaming Lefty” flag and run with it. It sort of makes you wonder, doesn’t it? It really is an amusing thing to behold – and not a little unnerving.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
AFTERTHOUGHT:
What I just wrote may sound like wild exaggeration but it isn’t – and I’ll prove it to you. To watch this wondrous piece of historical nonsense in it’s entirety, go to the You Tube site and type in the words, “Glenn Beck, Revolutionary Holocaust”. You’ll be able to view it in its nutty entirety. Here’s a link:
http://www.youtube.com
Seriously, it has to be seen to be believed.
“historic crimes” the “history” of American genocides is not so far in the past. Hundreds of thousands dead, injured and millions displaced in Iraq is not so long ago. Still going on. Not that our MSM cares to remind the American people that they are responsible for that genocide
Good point. It’s true that the US launched an illegal and unnecessary war which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the displacement of millions. And the architects/leaders should stand trial for war crimes for that.
But to qualify for what’s considered ‘genocide’ a group needs to be systematically and deliberately targeted for extermination, in whole or in part. US leaders are obviously guilty of war crimes, but not necessarily genocide, as it’s generally defined.
Not trying to make light of US crimes against humanity, just trying to distinguish what happened to the Armenians versus what happened to the Iraqis (as it relates to the US’s illegal war).
UPDATE: Horrible News!
It looks like Obama has once again shown a lack of spine, and broken yet another campaign promise:
How shameful! I’m disgusted, once again, at Obama — what a spineless, non-principled, sell-out he is!
Anyone who cares to see the House Foreign Affairs Committee Mark-Up of the Armenian Genocide Resolution can watch it live HERE.
I don’t think we have enough information or that its any of our business to make this kind of decision. Turkey has been trying to open dialogue with Armenia recently, and the Armenians are still after reparations. People seem to ignore that both countries suffered civilian casualties and that many many Turkish women, children, and villages were massacred as well. Not to mention that it was still the Ottoman Empire at the time, not modern Turkey. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern day Turkey, was in fact fighting against the Ottomans.
How would the US react if a country not related in any way to US history/development wanted to make a formal recognition of the US genocide of Native Americans?
Here’s Richard Goldstone’s explanation regarding the international community’s responsibility over crimes as grave as genocide, and how the Holocaust in particular changed the fundamentals of international law:
In other words the world views genocide as a crime against “humanity as a whole,” and therefore it is in fact OUR BUSINESS — the business of the international community. It is not just a private dispute between the perpetrator and the victims.
So even though the genocidaires all died evading both prosecution and even vilification during their lifetimes for slaughtering 1.5 million men, women and children, the world still owes it to these victims to set the public record straight — to help thwart Turkish historic revisionism.
Regarding your statement that this is not “our business”. Do you believe the Holocaust is our business? After all we have Holocaust museums here in the US (taxpayer subsidized) and yet that was a crime committed by Germans against Jews, Poles, Gypsies, gays, Russians, etc. Why should that incident be our business, but not the Armenian genocide?
Do you believe the Rwandan genocide is our business? How about Cambodia? How about Sadam Hussein’s genocide against the Kurds? How do we pick and choose which are to be acknowledged? How do we determine which genocide deniers are to be imprisoned (Holocaust deniers), and which ones are to be placated to (Turkish genocide deniers)?
I would love for the US or others to acknowledge the crimes against humanity committed against the native Americans. Why wouldn’t every American want at the very least a just narrative for the public record?
There’s no exceptionalism when it comes to genocide. Genocide against one group is a crime against all of us.
UPDATE: Good News — it once again passed the House panel, but remains to be seen whether Pelosi will do what she did in 2007 and deny a Full House vote:
I just learned from Digg (via email) that this post (submitted to Digg from my site) is now going ‘gangbusters’ in popularity.
I am thrilled that this issue is getting some much needed attention, and I am ecstatic that I have played a small part in helping to get the message out.
Actually, it appears the DIG popularity is off the one submitted from this site, FDL. That rocks! :)
congrats on the exposure for your post. good argument.
Thank you Mac. I appreciate that.