A Congressional committee votes tomorrow on whether to recognize the Armenian genocide. Adam Schiff (D-CA) from the heavily Armenian area of Glendale / Pasadena is a primary sponsor of the bill. Meanwhile Jane Harman (DINO-CA) has done another of her usual flip-flops to the conservative side by now opposing the bill she once supported.
Turkey is an ally of Israel and the US, which explain much of the opposition to the bill. Let’s hope it passes.
What is the point of labeling it as genocide? Do they get extra scholarships if their ancestors were killed in a genocide vs. war? Do the Turks get fined? What good comes from this resolution?
The same good that comes when, for example, the legislatures of some southern states apologized for slavery. It’s the recognition of a historical fact that had been deliberately obscured and minimized by those who don’t want to admit what happened.
The critical supplies needed by our children in Iraq are traveling through Turkey at this particular moment in time. As the Armenians have already waited a century for whatever redress may be due them, it seems that raising this issue at this moment on the specific grounds you have cited is everything from crazy to treasonous.
Knowing that the wheels of justice are churning towards their inevitable conclusion would probably be more than enough to satisfy the Amenians (few of whom were even alive at the time) until our children are safely out of the area. Only the selfish issues of political pandering and journalistic opportunism insist that we wholly abandon our interests and good sense.
So I must respond to your sanctimonious blather with a hearty go-to-hell.