Twitter
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Delicious
Digg
Newsvine
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiObama Falls Short on Armenian Pledge
It was clever, crafty - artful, even - but it was not the truth. For in the end, Barack Obama dishonoured his promise to his American-Armenian voters to call the deliberate mass murder of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in 1915 a genocide. How grateful today's Turkish generals must be.
Genocide is what it was, of course. Mr Obama agreed in January 2008 that "the Armenian genocide is not an allegation... but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian genocide... I intend to be that President." But he was not that President on the anniversary of the start of the genocide at the weekend. Like Presidents Clinton and George Bush, he called the mass killings "great atrocities" and even tried to hedge his bets by using the Armenian phrase "Meds Yeghern" which means the same thing - it's a phrase that elderly Armenians once used about the Nazi-like slaughter - but the Armenian for genocide is "chart". And even that was missing.
Thus once more - after Hilary Clinton's pitiful response to the destruction of Palestinian homes by the Israelis (she called it "unhelpful") - Mr Obama has let down those who believed he would tell the truth about the truth. He didn't even say that Turkey was responsible for the mass slaughter and for sending hundreds of thousands of Armenian women and children on death marches into the desert. "Each year," he said, "we pause to remember the 1.5 million Armenians who were massacred or marched to their death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire." Yes, "massacred" and "marched to their death". But by whom? The genocide - the deliberate extermination of a people - had disappeared, as had the identity of the perpetrators. Mr Obama referred only to "those who tried to destroy" the Armenians.
Instead, he waffled on about "the efforts by Turkey and Armenia to normalise their bilateral relations" - a reference to the appeal of landlocked Armenia appeal to reopen its border with Turkey thanks to Swiss mediation (via another of America's favourite "road maps") - and the hope that Turkish and Armenian relations would grow stronger "as they acknowledge their common history and recognise their common humanity". But the only real improvement in relations has been an Armenian-Turkish football match.
Turkey is still demanding a commission to "investigate" the 1915 killings, a proposal the poverty-broken Armenian state opposes on the grounds (as Obama, of course, agreed before he became President) that the genocide was a fact, not a matter in dispute. It doesn't have to be "re-proved" with Turkey's permission any more that the Jewish survivors of their own genocide have to "re-prove" the crimes of the Nazis in the face of a reluctant Germany.
Armenian historian and academic Peter Balakian - speaking as he stood by a 1915 mass grave of Armenians in the Syrian desert - was quite frank. "What is creating moral outrage," he said, "is that Turkey is claimed to be trying to have a commission into what happened - when the academic world has already unanimously agreed on the historical record." So much, then, for one-and-a-half-million murdered men, women and children.
10 Comments so far
Show AllDespite some posts here, the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Turks is a historical fact. Obama's real-politic position just helps to enable future massacres.
Hitler is said to have written, "Who will remember the Armenians," for instance.
I hope some Obama-voting Americans will remember this moment, but alas, they can't seem to recall anything past a few Obama sound bites.
By the way, for the poster here who wrote that the United States was just going through the motions back in 1915, there's a book called "The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response" that takes a different view. It's written by the guy quoted in Fisk's article, Peter Balakian.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Burning-Tigris/Peter-Balakian/
e/9780060558703/?itm=1
How shameful for Obama to further move the United States in the wrong direction.
-TIA
"I intend to be that President."
They can put that on your headstone.
Obama's campaign pandered to anyone who would pay for the ticket. In the case of Hye-US diaspora, it was the ANCA's willingness to unconditionally support Obama after Obama went directly to their DC offices and solemnly pledged. His about face isn't anything new except for the fact that he won by telling everyone he was different than all other political players. In respect to Armenians in Lebanon, Obama's platitudes don't resonate beyond shallow entertainment.
Today's justifications to once again suspend the US government acknowledgment of the Genocide is nothing new. The current slippery slope is that 1) potential border relations between Turkey and Armenia will be thwarted; 2) It is better to let the past die. After all, modern Turkey isn't the Young Turks, and you Anglo-Americans (UK-US) are guilty as accessories for the cover up (France already came clean).
In the meantime, the current Armenian government has taken out its own stipulation as part of the negotiation process with Turkey.
Additionally, Azeribaijan, Turkey, and Armenia have been 'working' on relations in recent years. Last year, Russia brokered an accord between Azeribaijan and Armenia. Note how Russian influence between Turks and Armenians isn't hampered by Russia's 1995 recognition of Armenian Genocide. This appears to contradict the standard slippery slope argument.
Nonetheless, a key goal of US interests is to connect Baku to Bosporus while thwarting Russian influences. Georgia proves too costly. US new, old focus is Armenia. NATO and CIS are figuratively battling out in the Caucasus Region and Central Asia and Obama(US) is afraid of losing influence if Turkey (and Azeribaijan) try and stalemate US plans. Stalemated plans could also include losing vis-a-vis relations with Russia to influence Iran. But you have to buy into Domino effect to make it all functional and you also must believe Turkish political power and influence goes beyond its geographical significance.
Additionally, I think Anglo-American corporate desire to have regional control at the fall of the Ottoman led to the selling out of the Armenians, Greeks, and Syrians, and Kurds. These decisions continue to haunt America in many forms, from Armenian diaspora's annual march for recognition of Genocide to the slippery politicians selling us empire.
For those interested in American influence post Young Turks, read up on Admiral Bristol's influence as well as Dulles.
Oh but it is the powers that be that prevent him from doing the right thing.
On most everything. Other than that he is doing a great job.
Holding post-Attaturk Turkey (1923-present) responsible for Ottoman era crimes is tantamount to holding the US Government responsible for acts committed by the British colonial government prior to 1776.
Although there will be individuals who support a prior government's evil actions in any nation, the nation as a whole should not be held responsible.
Well, then, I guess we can stop hearing about the Jewish holocaust?
That will never happen. By the by, how many people did the British Empire Kill? Please get back to me.
And yet, if you look carefully into the circumstances of the genocide, one sees immediately that the European powers were not entirely innocent in the affair. They controlled the purse-strings of the corrupt and failing empire of the Ottomans and were eagerly developing railroad transits across the ancient silk routes to the east and bargaining for control of Turkey in the advent of war. Britain, in particular had just cancelled - on fairly obvious racial and religious grounds if you follow the Parliamentary debates-a long standing contract for delivery of a warship which was expected to be recieved in an atmosphere of great national pride.
When the Ottomans suggested the possiblility of unleashing attacks on the Armenians ( who occuppied a position analogous to the jews in Russia),in order to mollify rising popular discontent with their regime and the grinding poverty of the masses taxed to the limit to pay-off foreign loans- the Europeans turned a blind eye. The U.S. did remonstrate, but mostly just to keep the formal record clear- they offered no real sanction.
Furthermore it ought to be recognized that it occurred under "the ancient regime", the present Republic of Turkey was not established until, what, 1923?
So there would be a good deal of hypocracy in pressing the "recognize genocide" movement to the limit. It would stress the reapproachment that is now in process in regards to Turkey and Armenia itself and needlessly, unjustifiably alienate an ally whose cooperation along a number of fronts is quite important and who is in the process of several liberal reforms which could be threatened by the negative reaction to the usual one-sided, fundamentally misinformed proclaimations of the U.S. Congress.
It is unfortunate that I have to point to Obama's circumspection with respect to this issue as one of the few encouraging new developments in his Administration.
Fisk, of course, is up to his usual antics.
Am i the only one on Common Dreams who thinks that after 94 years it is time to move on, and stop obsessing over a statement?
Ah, the Newspeak of realpolitik!
Truthfulness becomes "hypocrisy", and hypocrisy, mendacity and fecklessness become "circumspection".
No wonder you have such little regard for instigators and mischief-makers like Fisk, a whirlwind threatening your carefully-constructed house of cards.
In any case, the article did not pretend to be a definitive analysis of the massacre itself, or even the political relationship between Turkey and Armenia. The article touches upon the issue as one more example of Obama adapting his words to appeal to specific audiences, and ultimately veering away from the bold and unequivocal statements he made on the issue while campaigning in favor of mushy and ambiguous pseudo-diplomacy.
Shorter Fisk: Obama, of course, is up to his usual antics.
· Yr Obd't Servant