To this day, Turkey denies the Armenian genocide.

Not only that, it punishes its citizens who speak of the Armenian genocide.

And it also rails against those outside its borders who dare to speak the truth about the Armenian genocide.

Turkey reacted angrily Thursday to a House committee vote in Washington to condemn as genocide the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey that began during World War I, recalling its ambassador from Washington and threatening to withdraw its support for the Iraq war.

In uncharacteristically strong language, President Abdullah Gul criticized the vote by the House Foreign Relations Committee in a statement to the semi-official Anatolian News Agency, and warned that the decision could work against the United States.

“Unfortunately, some politicians in the United States have once more dismissed calls for common sense, and made an attempt to sacrifice big issues for minor domestic political games,” President Gul said.

Sorry, but the shameful thing here is that it has taken over two decades for even one committee in Congress to say what Ronald Reagan did some twenty years ago -- that the Armenians were systematically murdered by the Turks, including the beloved hero and founder of secular Turkey, Kemal Ataturk. No president since that time has had the intellectual honesty and moral courage to stand up and repeat the truth uttered by the greatest president of the twentieth century -- and his successors have actively discouraged officially acknowledging that truth.

Does this vote come at a bad time, in terms of our military and diplomatic relations with Turkey, a valued ally in NATO, which has provided, albeit inconsistently, assistance in the War on Terror? Yes, it does -- because for the Turks, any time that anyone attempts to set the historical record straight is a bad time. The current threats and rumblings are therefore irrelevant.

But those who support the resolution can count their blessings on one score -- no longer are those who publicly proclaim th truth about the Armenian genocide subject to death threats and untimely deaths at the hands of Turkish nationalists and intelligence agencies.

Posted by: Greg at 10:49 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 355 words, total size 3 kb.