I have been waiting for Christopher Hitchens to weigh in on the Armenian genocide resolution (H.Res. 106) for weeks now. I used to agree with Hitchens a lot more in the past—back in the days when he thought “terrorist” was a stupid label and “terrorism” a blanket excuse for a brutal but ultimately pointless response, all this “terror” covering up the underlying political, economic, and military schemes and crimes being perpetrated. But over the years he has been remarkably consistent about at least one thing, and that is the Armenian genocide. I remember the time my wife and I met with him in New York City after he spoke at an April 24 commemoration. My mother-in-law went to his house in DC once for a very pleasant chat. (She had coffee. He had the usual.)
So—where was Hitchens? Can he really remain silent in the face of the campaign to kill the resolution, launched by the Turkish government and abetted by countless well-paid Americans of high (or formerly high) standing?
Today, at long last, Hitchens speaks. In true Hitchensian fashion, he gives us a good chunk of history, with Kurds, Jews, and Greek Cypriots added to Armenians in the pot where nothing ever melts. But he puts his finger in the self-inflicted wound that Turkey continues to keep from closing:
So, let us be clear on a few things. The European Union, to which Turkey has applied for membership with warm American support, has insisted on recognition of Kurdish language rights and political rights within Turkey. We can hardly ask for less. If the Turks wish to continue lying officially about what happened to the Armenians, then we cannot be expected to oblige them by doing the same (and should certainly resent and repudiate any threats against ourselves or our allies that would ensue from our Congress affirming the truth). Then there remains the question of Cyprus, where Turkey maintains an occupation force that has repeatedly been condemned by a thesaurus of U.N. resolutions ever since 1974. It is not our conduct that should be modified by Turkey’s arrogance; we do a favor to the democratization and modernization of that country by insisting that it get its troops out of Cyprus, pull its forces back from the border with Iraq, face the historic truth about Armenia, and in other ways cease to act as if the Ottoman system were still in operation.
Precisely.
