Yes, there’s no doubt that the Ottoman Empire, based in present-day Turkey, killed an estimated 1.5 million Christian Armenians and drove another 500,000 during and after World War I. Was it genocide? Historians disagree. Some point out that the Armenians had conducted a terrorist war against the Ottoman Empire for 60 years prior to the killing of the Armenians. Still others claim that it was genocide while others claim that it was a matter of bad luck — Turkey issued an order to relocate the Armenians on the very day that the Gallipoli invasion occurred.
For the sake of argument, let’s say that it was genocide.
So why did the Democrat-controlled congress, led by Nancy Pelosi, try to issue a proclamation condemning Turkey’s genocide some 92 years after the fact. On October 11, Pelosi said, “While that may have been a long time ago, genocide is taking place now in Darfur, it did within recent memory in Rwanda, so as long as there is genocide there is need to speak out against it.” So why hasn’t she issued a resolution comdemning the genocide in Darfur, which is happening now, rather than the events of 100 years ago? The Indianapolis Star gets it right — the Democrats little game is an end run around President Bush to try and stop the Iraqi war dead in its tracks:
Why is the U.S. House of Representatives spending so much time deciding whether, in 1915, Turkey committed genocide when it killed up to 1 million Armenians? Almost all Americans, aside from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s affluent Armenian-American constituents, would ignore their pronouncement.
But it wouldn’t be ignored by Turkey. If Turkey is told by the House that it committed genocide, it could get so mad that it would deny us the use of Incirlik airbase, which is crucial to our military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The loss of Incirlik would definitely put the brakes on an unpopular war whose funding the war’s opponents in Congress are afraid to curtail outright.
The Sofia Echo is reporting today that, if the resolution passes, Turkey will cut off US access to the vital Incirlik air base, through which
The US and Turkey, staunch Nato allies for decades, have a strong record of military co-operation, the most notable recent example being the American-led campaign in Iraq. Turkey has been the main supply route for the US, the conduit for 70 per cent of US air cargo, for half the US fuel, food and (among others), the outpost for air carriers at Incirlik air base.
…
Turkey boldly told the US that on passage of the Armenian genocide resolution, Ankara would cut off US supply routes and withdraw access to the Incirlik air base and subsistence and maintenance support.
DEMOCRATIC PATRIOTISM
“The Democrats say that they are patriotic. Let them prove it by their actions rather than their words.”Facing a defiant Turkey, the US – itself with enfeebled support on Iraq – has used all diplomatic means to bridge what appear to be diametrically disparate positions. Within the past week, the US has made multiple attempts to soften the impact of the committee’s “genocide” resolution.
The first came from US president George Bush, who called on the house of representatives to refrain from voting on an Armenian genocide resolution. The second, issued by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in Moscow, urged Turkey to refrain from unilateral action in northern Iraq.
Furthermore, US assistant secretary of state Dan Fried and US undersecretary of defence Eric Edelman were redirected from Moscow to Ankara to conduct emergency talks with Turkey’s leadership. The US officials were reported to have conveyed apologies for the congressional committee’s resolution and to have made assurances that the US president would seek to curb the implications of the decision.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press is reporting that Turkish troops and artillery are headed towards the Iraqi border after Kurdish separatists killed 12 Turkish soldiers and left 8 other soldiers missing:
SIRNAK, Turkey (AP) - Dozens of Turkish military vehicles loaded with soldiers and heavy weapons rumbled toward the Iraq border on Monday after an ambush by guerrilla Kurds that killed 12 soldiers and left eight others missing.
Iraq’s president said the rebels would announce a cease-fire. Turkey’s government, which has rejected similar announcements in the past, said the country will pursue diplomacy before it sends troops across the rugged frontier.
Turkey’s military said it lost contact with the eight soldiers after Sunday’s clash and said 34 guerrillas had been killed so far in a counteroffensive. A pro-Kurdish news agency said the eight were captured — a claim that would make it the largest seizure since 1995, when guerrillas grabbed eight soldiers and took them to northern Iraq.
“Right now, these soldiers are hostages in the hands of our forces,” the pro-Kurdish Firat News Agency quoted a rebel commander, Bahoz Erdal, as saying.
Erdal said the soldiers’ families should not worry about the fate of their sons: “We have not harmed them and we will not.”
The ambush on Sunday outraged an already frustrated public. Demonstrations erupted across the country and opposition leaders called for an immediate strike against rebel bases in Iraq, despite appeals for restraint from Iraq, the U.S., and European and Arab countries.
In Washington, the State Department said the United States has opened a diplomatic “full court press” to urge Turkey not to invade northern Iraq.
The Democrats must not be allowed to destroy our relationship with Turkey, one of the few moderate Muslim states. It would not only distance a valued ally and member of NATO but would also turn Iraq into total chaos, thus paving the way for an Iranian proxy state and an all-out war with Israel.
The Democrats say that they are patriotic. Let them prove it by their actions rather than their words.
Leave a comment