It's that time of the year (again). The U.S. House gets to vote (in what seems to be an annual hell-bent exercise of least meant intentions) on the 'Genocide' claims of Armenian (Turks) against their then country of citizenship, Turkey, without any regard to any atrocities and injustices committed by the opposing party in self-defense or preservation of its sovereignty against its own citizens conspiring with the enemy during times of war. Who perpetrated and provoked first? Does it matter? Why so one-sided and one-dimensional at best and delusional at worst?
As Henri J. Barkey writes in The Washington Post, "The Turks, Armenians and the United States all dilute the meaning of the word genocide by playing politics with it." So true!!! Hypocrisy at its best!
Mr. Barkey also adds, "while some U.S. lawmakers feel strongly about the Armenian genocide resolution, most realize that no moral good can come from a label applied almost a century later. They support the resolution only to score points with the highly organized Armenian-American lobby."
Although some people will even stoop to pointing out the conflict then and now is a Muslim vs Christian or Islam vs Christianity issue, it's rather not.
The Ottoman Empire is known for its 'tolerant' policy of federating ethnic and religious groups under the 'Turkish' umbrella, whether it's the Jews escaping massacre against them by the 'Christians' in Spain or being entrusted as the 'Keeper of the Key' to Christianity's most holy sites in Jerusalem.
Nationalistic idealism was a spreading force to be reckoned with at the time of WWI. And Turkey was no exception. However this secession movement was not just limited to the Balkan Christians but applied to the Muslim Arabs as well. Just take a look at them today; Arabs with their multiple states, each with their own 'identity' but no collective voice and interaction, and Balkan states, most recently Greece, at the point of financial bankruptcy, while Turkey is enjoying its interdependence. This is by no means a Muslim vs Christian undermining. It's the political truth of today.
However, it's also wrong to assume (we have a tendency to do that a lot in Turkey) that major US CEOs warn against Armenian 'Genocide' Bill should come to mean 'for political truth reasons' and not for what it really is. Upsetting the financial and political balance of the region and a great US ally Turkey. In fact, most opposers of 'Genocide' in the US Congress and/or The White House whom Turkey aligns itself with is so with reservations about the real truth but real concerns about Turkey's response to any US action, which would in effect affect US-Turkish relations from the standpoint of US interests solely. Although the writer of the referred news article did not mean for it to be taken that way, any other assumption, no matter how much money Turkey throws away in lobbying efforts, would be nonsense, as well as a real stretch.
Just as I write this, an article in World Politics Review with the title 'Wrong Time for Armenian Genocide Bill' appears; "While there is little doubt outside of Turkey that genocide was perpetrated against the Armenians in the 1910s, the resolution threatens to undermine U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and South Caucasus at exactly the wrong time." I rest my case!
One thing for sure, as Turkish President Gul says, "Keeping a record of history is not the business of politicians or parliaments; it should be the business of historians and scholars."
