Demagogue

I haven't been posting much here lately, but thanks to this shockingly moronic Washington Times editorial, I've decided that I am going to try and follow developments related to Congressional efforts to pass a resolution declaring the death and displacement of some 2 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923 to be genocide.

This resolution comes up just about every year, and just about every year Turkey makes a huge fuss and this year is no different

The speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has scheduled a vote in April on a resolution that accuses Turkey's Ottoman Empire of perpetrating "genocide" resulting in the death or displacement of nearly 2 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923. Turkey is one of America's closest allies in the Islamic world and is also a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

Turkish-Americans have launched a campaign against the resolution saying that it ignores most experts on the Ottoman Empire who reject the Armenian allegation of genocide. They say that the resolution is an attempt to pass judgment on a controversial piece of history and it unfairly defames an entire people on discredited evidence.

The resolution never passes, thanks primarily to Turkey's willingness to make a variety of threats

Turkey’s prime minister said the US Congress would harm bilateral ties if it backs a resolution recognising the 1915 mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as a genocide, the state Anatolian news agency said on Sunday.

The Democratic-controlled Congress is widely expected to back such a resolution in April, but the Bush administration is opposed to it, fearing the impact on relations its Nato ally.

Ankara strongly denies claims by Armenia and others that its forces committed a systematic genocide against Armenians during World War One. But many parliaments around the world have backed similar resolutions recognising the killings as genocide.

‘We do not expect Congress to make such a decision. But if it surprises us, I am worried this would cast a shadow over our strategic partnership in the future,’ Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as telling American businessmen.

He did not say what Turkey might do in such a case. In the past, it has temporarily frozen trade and other ties with countries that backed the genocide claims.

Since, literally, no US papers seem to be covering this, I'm going to have to rely on foreign sources and whatever I can find on Google News as I try and keep track of developments and watch to see whether the Democrats in Congress will finally manage to pass this.

If you are interested in this issue, you might want to check out The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response or A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility.

You can read the resolution here.