US should not compromise on Armenian Genocide debate

By Aladdin Elaasar – Turks should not be angry about the US’s Congress condemning the mass killing of Armenians in 1915 as genocide. Well, that was during Ottoman times. And the Ottoman times are long bygone. But for the sake of history, we need to acknowledge that yes, Armenian were ethnically cleansed and almost a million and half perished. They were forcefully removed from their villages and disposessed, and the trauma was carried with them through generations to follow.

Turks should not shy away from that, find excuses, resort to denial, or get angry about the whole thing. We are not blaiming nowadays Turks for what their Sultan ordered almost a hundred years ago. But the problem is that the whole issue has been so politicised. The military generals in Ankra have exploited the whole issue and as usual turned it into a matter of national pride and have been beating the drums of war with Iraq. Is this what friends and allies do to their patron, America, in time of war? This is all too familiar. The Generals in Ankra have always wanted to go into Kurdish territories rich with oil. Their timing could not be better, or worse for their ally, the US.

The generals have ruled Turkey with an iron fist since the days of Ataturk, and claim to be the protectors of secularism in Turkey; a Muslim nation that for centuries ruled many countries under the banner of Islamic caliphate. As usual, in a military dicatorship, they maintain a hyper-nationalistic fascist rehtoric to marshall and control their masses. They do not even allow the millions of Kurds in Turkey to use their language, have their ethnic schools and newspapers. The result was the creation of rebel Kurdish movements who are equally nationalistic about their Kurdish heritage. Every action has a reaction. Saddam could not Arabicise the Kurds and they fought him for decades.

But the facts are: Armenians suffered under Ottoman rule, so did the Greeks, the Arabs, Christians and Muslims, alike. Other people also did. Most immigrants to America from the Middle East were fleeing the Ottoman yoke. They fled to America about a hundred and fifty years ago. The Ottoman’s heavy hand, heavy taxes and compulsory conscription into the Sultan’s army made them detest the idea of a caliphate and fought with British against their own co-religionists to overthrow the Ottomans. The generals in Ankra need to get over the Armenian issue, accept and tolerate the Kurds as they are, and above all give the Turkish people true democracy, in order for them to be accepted in the European Union.

As for America, Congress did the right thing condemning the Armenian genocide. Many Armenian-Americans were relieved that a part of their ancestors’ history was not compromised or forgotten. Remember Elia Kazan’s movie “America, America”? It depicts the plight of the many under the Ottomans. America Should not Compromise its Values. The whole world looks up to us as beacon of freedom and democracy. We should hold a higher moral ground. We should practice and enforce what we say and not be blackmailed by our so called allies in Ankra.

History should teach us that shaking hands with dictators is not the right thing to do. Soon they will turn to be a liability than an asset. Not more than a marriage of convenience. Remember Marcos in the Philippines, Suharto of Indonesia, the Shah of Iran, Sadat and Mubarak of Egypt, and Musharaf of Pakistan. These were once considered strong allies of the US. But these countries are rife with anti-Americanism! Why? Conspiracy theorists and bashers of America would cry double standards and hypocrisy: we call for democracy while we support oppressive militaristic regimes! If congress would retract its decision, that would send a mixed dangerous message that America can be blackmailed and does not practice what it preaches.


ALADDIN ELAASAR is an award winning Arab-American journalist and author of several books including “Silent Victims: The plight of Arabs and Muslims in Post 9/11 America.” He can be reached at omaraladin [at] aol.com