Democrats on how to make more friends in the world
Written by Benaiah on October 15th, 2007I meant to post this last week, but time ran away from me. This ticks me off.
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey ordered its ambassador in Washington to return to Turkey for consultations over a U.S. House panel’s approval of a bill describing the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians as genocide, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday.
The ambassador would stay in Turkey for about a week or 10 days for discussions about the measure, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Bilman.
“We are not withdrawing our ambassador. We have asked him to come to Turkey for some consultations,” he said. “The ambassador was given instructions to return and will come at his earliest convenience.”
Why on Earth, 90 years later, would Democrats do this? I have an idea.
Relations are already strained by accusations that the U.S. is unwilling to help Turkey fight Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq.
About 70 percent of U.S. air cargo headed for Iraq goes through Turkey, as does about one-third of the fuel used by the U.S. military in Iraq. U.S. bases also get water and other supplies by land from Turkish truckers who cross into the northern region of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Democrats wanted to rock the boat and they succeeded. They will do what they can to thwart the war effort leading into an election year. This is all about political gain. They care nothing about the Armenian plight nearly a century ago.
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The Congress is not the only legislative body in the world to vote on such a resolution. Apparently several European nations have done so also.
Turkey just needs to admit that it committed genocide.
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Well if the Europeans did it, then by golly we should too.
These unnamed European nations wouldn’t also be against the admittance of Turkey into the EU would they?
Why do they need to need to admit this? What good will it do?
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I guess all the Democratic posturing about being the party of diplomacy and international tact has really paid off, eh? Turns out perhaps those talking points were just that - talking points motivated solely by BDS.
Looks like the party of international hugging and rainbows is more than willing to stick an ally in the eye if it will disrupt a war we are currently engaged in, because of course it will benefit them politically. Simply pathetic.
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Such a war would not benefit the Dems politically. It would do more harm to us a nation if war erupts between Turkey and Kurdistan(Iraq).
The strange thing about it, why is Turkey so sensitive about this anyway? That happened over a hundred years ago–and admission of it would probably help their standing among the world nations if it did happened.
Denial of it and a challenge of the proof that it occurred could help end any suspicion.
But this in terms of Kurdish rebels attacking them have no relationship except that the Turks think they can take advantage of the situation.
Look like another nation is going Musharraf’s rout. Create enough trouble to keep political pressure off of you.
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The Ottoman Turks rounded up Armenian women and children, deported them to concentration camps and exterminated them. Interestingly, the Turks don’t even seem to deny what happened, but simply assert that it was in the context of a war and that the Armenians constituted a (perceived) security threat. This is, of course, precisely the explanation that the Germans offered to intern the Jews in World War II. The outrage of continuing to claim that there was a valid justification for exterminating 1.5 million innocent civilians deserves comment from anyone with a moral compass, which hopefully includes the US Congress.
On the resolution itself, my understanding is that this made it out of committee back in the days of Republican control but was never brought to the floor for a vote. It’s not like this is something new that the Dems cooked up.
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If the Democratic point of this was to honor the strife and murder of Armenians nearly a century ago I would agree with you but it is not. This is a purely politically act to disrupt relationship with an ally in a time of war.
Publius, please provide some evidence this made it out of committee under GOP rule?
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the turks just lost 30 soldiers to pkk fighters based out of iraq, its time for them to go in regardless of what the US thinks
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http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/10/us.turkey.armenians/index.html
“A similar resolution passed the committee by a 40-7 vote two years ago, but it never reached the full House floor.”
Your supposition that the Democrats are doing this to disrupt the war is without basis. Nor is it to honor anyone’s strife, as you put it. It’s a response to a large group of people who outrageously claim that there is some justification for rounding up and slaughtering women and children. At least Democrats have the balls to stand up for what’s right even if means upsetting someone.
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Actually, Publius is right on this one. This is a long-time discussion in the making. I agree with the resolution. The reason the Turks are so opposed to it is because for almost a century now, their national “story” has been that it never happened. Countless eye-witness testimonies and historical documentation proves that it did happen. The Turks are wrong to continuously deny the genocide.
All that being said, I think now is probably not the time for this discussion. With our troops in danger, we need to not anger another ally. When things are more stable in Iraq, I think the US should address this more forcefully. We are a country that stands for human dignity and acknowledges history.
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the problem from the turkish perspecitve is that many of the turks invovled in the genoicide played critical roles in establishing the modern turkish republic, so its kinda hard for any country to swollow that pill of having there founding fathers to be accused of genoicide, and they do have a minority of historians such as bernard lewis who agree with their point of view.