Two resolutions, one introduced in the House in January and in the Senate in March, seek to recognise the events of 1915 as genocide, but the passage of either could jeopardise the US\u2019s political relationship with Turkey. The resolutions are pending approval from committees in both houses.\n<\/p>\n
\nTurkey, as an American ally, has allowed the US to use its military bases and has played a significant role in American efforts in Iraq. Both the Bush administration and the Turkish government have condemned the move, and though the resolutions are non-binding, if passed, they could be interpreted by Turkey as acts of hostility.\n<\/p>\n
\nTurkey, in its quest for EU membership, has denied that what happened between 1915 and 1923 to the country\u2019s Armenian population is genocide. Some things, however, are undisputed: in 1915, during the rule of the Ottoman Empire, authorities forced the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Turkey\u2019s 1.75 million Armenians. The estimated number of Armenians that died ranges between 300,000 and 1.5 million.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe Armenian National Committee of America is one of the most outspoken campaign groups in support of the resolution. ANCA spokeswoman Elizabeth Chouldjian said the issue at hand is a moral one. \u2018America needs to be on the right side of the issue,\u2019 she said. \u2018Not characterizing genocide as genocide is dangerous. We have to take every precaution to end the cycle of genocide.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\nThe hope, she said, is that if the US recognises the killings as genocide, Turkey would be forced to take a more open and honest approach in re-examining its history.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u2018Recognition is not going to change the facts of what happened, but it can certainly relieve the emotional burden on Armenians and other victims of genocide,\u2019 said Ronald Suny, a professor and historian at the University of Michigan. \u2018We think of recognition as the first step of clearing the air and letting historians and politicians deal with the issue.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\nBut Andrew Finkel, an Istanbul-based journalist, said that the issue of addressing Armenians\u2019 sense of injury and grievance won\u2019t eradicate problems that hinder a discussion from taking place within Turkey. \u2018It would provoke a tit-for-tat counter reaction,\u2019 he said.\n<\/p>\n
\nIn fact, he said, a US resolution would make the struggle for human rights and free expression in Turkey more difficult. Within this overtly political debate lies the question of historical accuracy and historians\u2019 and scholars\u2019 ability to have open discourse about contentious issues within the country. Free expression in Turkey is curbed by draconian articles in the country\u2019s penal code, but pressure from the US won\u2019t effect the sort of change that the country needs. \u2018The more important resolution is that Turks themselves face up to their history,\u2019 Finkel said.<\/p>\n
The Bush administration takes a similar stance. The state department has said the administration doesn\u2019t want to politicise an issue that should be resolved through discussion within Turkey. On 11 April, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried said: \u2018The United States doesn\u2019t deny any of the killings. They\u2019re an established historical fact, but historians need to discuss the details of what happened, why it happened, who did what. This needs to happen, and it needs to happen as a process of genuine national reconciliation.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\nTo date, 38 states in the US and 19 countries worldwide have officially recognised the genocide. The resolution in the House of Representatives is pending a decision from the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the resolution in the Senate is pending in the Committee on Foreign Relations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two resolutions, one introduced in the House in January and in the Senate in March, seek to recognise the events of 1915 as genocide, but the passage of either could jeopardise the US\u2019s political relationship with Turkey. The resolutions are pending approval from committees in both houses. Turkey, as an American ally, has allowed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79864,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions\/79864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}