Turkey recalled (for "consultations") its US ambassador today, in reaction to a House committee resolution condemning the 1915-1917 genocide of Turkish Armenians. The resolution is non-binding, and will, itself, have almost no effect on Turkish-US relations, but the symbolism of the act seems to have strained the relationship between the two countries to the breaking point. Pres. Bush has been urging the House committee to set aside the resolution.

The question is why? Why condemn an event that happened nearly 100 years ago? The U.S. knows the genocide has painstakingly stood out so negatively as far as Turkish history is concerned, so WHY?

Here in the 21st century countries can simply not act so brash and unreasonable over issues regarding their country's pride. It's a deadly dance to play these days. In the end I think Turkey is mainly making a statement of their thoughts on U.S. actions. I can't imagine Turkey actually involving themselves with the Kurds, mainly because of the 3500+ U.S. troops in their country. (Not to mention the 500 troops that are stationed at the Ankara depot, five kilometers from the center of Ankara, the Turkish capital.)[/i]

VM, there are two reasons that I can see.

1. The Turkish authorities refuse to acknowledge and have imprisoned people just for suggesting it happened. By recognising the holocaust, we show our solidarity with those people.

2. When a people are oppressed by another, it can be helpful to recognise this, especially when there are those would hope to portray in a positive like and when the victims of that oppression still find themselves victims of less severe form. By recognising the holocaust, the debate about whether or not it happened is effectively ended. It is only from that point that you can hope to go forward.

Imagine for a moment that the German government made it a crime to claim that their had been a Jewish Holocaust? Imagine if there was no official recognition of the events that lead to the deaths of so many.

No one will read this post since almost 5 months have passed sine the last one. Anyway it was idiotic for the House to make its condemnation--there was no upside for the USA. We need Turkey. We need a secular Muslim democracy. Turkey represents what Islamic countries can be: modern, democratic, secular, westward-looking............ An excellent novel that might put the Turk/Armenian situation into perspective is _The Bastard of Istanbul_ by Elif Shafak http://www.amazon.com/Bastard-Istanbul- ... 132&sr=1-1

Hello Kenneth,

Any discussion can be revived, and I'm glad you brought up this one.
If somebody posts in an "old" thread, it shows in the scroll to the right of the main page so somebody may pick it up.


I've checked the book you mentioned at amazon, and it does look interesting.

Here is an extract from the reviews:

The novel deserves to reach a wide readership, for reasons not entirely literary. By putting into the mouths of her characters explicit reference to these events, for using the word "genocide," Shafak fell afoul of Article 301 of the Turkish penal code and was tried on a charge of "insulting Turkishness," which carries a prison sentence. It is only a few months since this charge was finally dropped. The case received wide press coverage both in the United States and in Europe and has served as a highly public -- and highly salutary -- example of the lengths to which an insensate nationalism can go in the suppression of elementary freedoms. It has also, of course, acted as an extreme example of the denial that is a central theme of the novel.

Whenever I feel like complaining in my journal about amnesia in France about some aspects of our past I can think about Turkey: at least we never went this far, for example there have been films about the Algerian war since the 1960's-- they just did not reach a wide audience.
And France has apologized for slavery, but not colonialism (yet).

I think the House of Representatives was right to condemn Turkey, for the reasons Niall mentioned. But such condemnations must of course be thought out very carefully-- the blind do not like to be made to see by force, and this could trigger a backlash.
One could also argue that, having voted to fund to war in Iraq, Congress is hardly in a position to give lessons in good behaviour, but still, better a recognition of the genocide by them a little late in history than nothing at all.

One country that seems to escape any criticism at all is Putin's Russia for their past and present behaviour in Chechnya.
Everybody is keen not to ruffle Putin's feathers it seems-- in Europe the Russian government controls the gas they sell to us, and we don't want that to be turned off.