Turkophilia

The Armenian genocide resolution (H.Res. 106) is due for a committee vote today. Last week the Turkish government took out a full-page ad in section A of the Washington Post in an attempt to throw sand in everyone’s eyes, and today the Post again dished out its Realpolitik garbage in support of its good friend Turkey.

I left these rambling comments at the Post:

It’s ironic that, given the amount of aid we send to Turkey (millions and millions of dollars), U.S. citizens are in effect subsidizing Turkish meddling in our own democratic processes. As for the objections of the former secretaries of state: these are the same “wise old men” who basically sat on their thumbs during the run-up to the Iraq invasion, the greatest foreign policy disaster of our time. They are so used to being blackmailed by Turkey, I think they might actually enjoy it by now. Putting the Armenian genocide in scare quotes—talking about it as if it is merely an “accusation”—is disgusting. The death marches and massacres happened; they were ordered by the central government of Turkey; they culminated decades of abuse against the Armenian population by the Turkish government. Year after year nonbinding resolutions are passed about the Holocaust, without a peep from the Post. Why? What makes them not “frivolous”? What makes them so special? Turkey needs to face its own past honestly (and the Post needs to stop enabling it to avoid that). It can’t help but lead to better things in the present.

Thomas Nephew rips the Post a new one—he has more patience (and a stronger stomach) than I do.

Addendum—8:30 pm: The Foreign Affairs Committee approved H.Res. 106 by a 27–21 bipartisan vote. The pressure is bound to increase as the measure heads to a vote by the full House. Slate has a nice roundup of blogger reaction to the Administration’s efforts to squelch the resolution. One link of particular interest goes to Joey Kurtzman’s post at Jewcy: “Denying the Armenian Genocide should be the last atrocity perpetrated by the ADL chief [Abe Foxman].” One of the comments (defending Foxman) notes that Israel’s only military airbase outside Israel is in … Turkey. However, the story is old (July). In August, the ADL decided to acknowledge the Armenian genocide as genocide (sort of). And, for good measure, here’s an article from October 2006 by the inestimable Robert Fisk.

Addendum: 2007.10.19: Finally, after letting the despicable Washington Post dominate the discussion for weeks with a steady stream of slipshod, slippery, and downright slimy op-eds and articles, the New York Times publishes a piece that makes the case for why American Jews need to support the Armenian genocide resolution—how it is a moral imperative for them, as victims of a genocide, to recognize genocide when it involves others, regardless of the short-term consequences, real or imagined.