Turkey: Between Iraq & A Hard Place
When you’re the U.S. and the biggest and baddest dog in the global junkyard, you can say whatever you damned well please. But when you’re Japan and deny the Rape of Nanking or Turkey and deny that you slaughtered 1.5 million Armenians, you’re going to catch a lot of flak — and deserve to.
It’s yet again Turkey’s to take heat for an ugly chapter in its history that it simply cannot wish away: The deaths of all those Armenians as a result of deportations and systematic killings in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
Apparently having nothing better to do than looking back incessantly, Armenian-Americans have beaten the drum for years in trying to get the deaths recognized as genocide, as if that will bring back Uncle Aram. With the Democrats more or less having the upper hand in Congress, they now also have some electoral clout to push that agenda.
Turkey’s response has been that all those Armenians, or at least a goodly number, died in slip-and-fall accidents, choked on chicken bones or did each other in. In a word: ludicrous.
In any event, the Greatest Deliberative Body in the Universe has big-footed into the nearly century-old dispute despite President Bush imploring these congressfolk — and appropriately so — to butt the heck out.
In a 27-21 vote this week engineered by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has a large Armenian-American constituency, the House Foreign Affairs Committee declared that the Armenian slaughter was indeed genocide. The non-binding resolution now goes to the full House. (When a House approved a similar resolution in 2000, President Clinton persuaded Republican Speaker J. Dennis Hastert to withdraw it.)
Turkey’s response to the vote was predictable: It recalled its ambassador for consultations and is considering limiting logistical support to U.S. troops in Iraq by restricting access to U.S. bases on its soil.
That is no small matter, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates was quick to note that 70 percent of all air cargo sent to Iraq passes through or comes from Turkey, as does 30 percent of fuel and virtually all the new armored vehicles designed to withstand mines and bombs. (Turkey also is making troubling noises in its long battle with Kurdish rebels who use northern Iraq as their base.)
When all is said and done, the uproar puts Turkey between Iraq and a hard place.
It wants to earn its keep as a full-fledged NATO member in the worst way but needs to save face at home. The Turkey-U.S. crisis also doesn’t exactly cover those congressfolk in glory since Turkey has made enormous strides toward becoming a full-fledged democracy, is one of the few Muslim states to recognize Israel and has been a bulwark against Muslim radicalism.
There are no winners in this one:
* Armenia, which historically has gotten the short end of the stick, and Armenian-Americans need to make peace and move on.
* The Turks, whose denials about what happened to those Armenians seem more childish with every passing year, need to finish growing up.
* And Nancy Pelosi and others who support the resolution need to stop vote counting, which is only making a bad situation worse, and consider the big picture.
Meanwhile, TMV co-blogger Jeb Koogler has a post above, co-blogger David Schraub at The Debate Link provides a good overview of the background and foreground on this one, while Dave Schuler at The Glittering Eye recommends that everyone open their archives so the world finally can know what really happened.
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10 Responses to “Turkey: Between Iraq & A Hard Place”
Recognizing the genocide committed upon the Armenians will not un-kill them, but recanting on our recognition that the killing happened and it was wrong just because the killers have something we want and the survivors have no clout at all strikes me as deeply deeply cowardly and cynical.
What would we say if China put the Holocaust into doubt because it wanted good relations with Iran? For shame! How dare they play along with a totally false notion of history just to get into good graces with those unable to admit past atrocities?!
Congress needs to stop with the non-binding resolutions and start with some serious binding ones. I’ve said before and I’ll say again that there are far more important things on the agenda and if we must speak of genocide and past mistakes, recognizing what we’ve done to the American Indians should come first. However, now that they HAVE put this on the table, they should leave it there. Turkey must learn to grow up and that the rest of the world will not play along with their pretend version of history just to make them feel better. Shame on President Clinton for being so cowardly with the truth and shame on the Congress that bowed to him, shame again on Bush for the same thing and shame on Congress if they back down.
Normally I would agree with Lynx. But these are not normal times.
I think the problems of the present need to be adressed before the problems of past can be redressed.
We need the Turks on our side because we have 170,000 troops in the country next-door to them.
I agree with George Sorwell.
There are any number of past horrors not honored by Congressional resolutions. To choose this particular one because of a small constituency is nothing short of shooting ourselves in the foot, and the consequences may be much graver than that.
You don’t argue the finer points of etiquette while crossing a mine field.
It’s too late to kill the resolution.
I hope we can atill stop this endless string of counterproductive resolutions from getting any longer.
Note to Pelosi: What happened to diplomacy as the means of conflict resolution?
Shame, sgame. shame.
Pelosi was wrong earlier to do her Middle East trip and undermine US foreign policy. This was even worse.
And now if Turkey is pushed over the edge and invades Iraq?
DEMOCRAT-ENGINEERED DISASTER IN IRAQ
Somehow I don’t expect to see that headline.
First, it’s not a “Democrat-Engineered Disaster”.
We still have all those targets over their because President Bush decided to fight a war, but didn’t know how.
Turkey has legitimate complaints about some Kurds. But we have our hands full with the Shia and Sunni and can’t do anyhting about that. None of that is the result of any Congressional resolution, no matter how stupid.
The Turks already have troops protecting their borders. It’s already a tinderbox.
Plenty of so-called conservatives want a third war in the Middle East. But they want it with somebody else. They don’t want it with one of our NATO allies.
I haven’t forgotten whose incompetence got us to this point.
Republicans on the committee voted for it as well- because they had a large Armenian contingent in their constituency who they did not want to offend. I agree with the resolution in principle- because no country should be allowed to deny genocide—but the timing is lousy.
If Turkey invades Iraq, won’t tit be because of the actions of the PKK, and not some meaningless resolution passed by a House committee?
If the Turks use their own cultural immaturity in denial of their genocide as a pretext to invade Kurdish Iraq, they are fools. They are not. Bellicosity wins votes at home, and the Turks are doing that.
Then they will muzzle up, grumble as the resolution is passed and blows like an odorless fart, and beg for our help in getting closer to Europe.
“Pelosi was wrong earlier to do her Middle East trip and undermine US foreign policy. This was even worse.”
I really feel labeling her trip to Iraq as underminig US foreign policy is going a bit overboard. Many GOP members in the House have visited over there for the same reasons. They wanted to see what was going on for themselves, and considering the administrations level of bs, I can’t blame them.
The genocide resolution however actually does undermine our foreign policy and its a stupid, stupid move. Nebulous gestures are fine as long as they have nebulous consequences, but this has concrete consequences for no gain.
“Pelosi was wrong earlier to do her Middle East trip and undermine US foreign policy”
I try to ignore unsubstantiated assertions like this, but this particular one has been repeated too many times to get free passage.
Many Republcans have alos gone to Syria, and Pelosi did no more ‘undermining ‘than they did
She said nothing in Syria to dispute Bush’s policy.
Any claim to the contrary is just a political shot in the dark.
I could say, for example, that Bush personally gets a cut from every barrel of oil imported from SA, but I don’t say that, because I have nothing to substantiate such a claim. For the same reason, I don’t say that the Cheneys have a transverstitie son who is kept chained in their attic.
This is nothing but baseless supposition and fools no on but the person making it.