My Thoughts About The 1915 Armenian Genocide, The Turks, The Jews, America, Israel and Perhaps a Way Out…by Robert M. Katzman
THE PROBLEM: (My perspective on this intense topic was first written on 10/23/07 and briefly updated on 12/16/08. In 2/20/12, I added significant and unexpected thoughts about where things are going and ought to go. I was originally totally neutral. Now, less so.The entire article remains intact, including critical commentary toward me, etc. I don’t matter, but I do care about increasing political insanity. Written 14 years ago, i just wanted to help.
As Theodore Roosevelt once said (at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on April 23, 1910) in effect,”If a person wants to express an opinion, get into the arena and be willing to expect the blows that follow.” Not an exact quote. Ok, I’m in the arena. Where are you?
(Original Article:)
I was wondering about the complex issue of where American Jews should stand in regards to the 1915 genocide of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks; Israel’s very good current military and economic relationship with Turkey; America’s military vulnerability if the Turk’s withdraw their use of Turkey as a staging area for resupplying our troops in Iraq and how can we demand the world must remember our slaughtered families and not acknowledge the Armenians frustration, anger and pain with little international recognition of their people’s losses?
Personally, I find it to be a conundrum because of the vastly evolved current circumstances from what they were 92 years ago. All positions are effectively, correct.
If we antagonize the Turks, everybody loses and the benefit to the Armenians is something that can’t be measured. If we ignore the Armenians, it undermines the Jews’ moral foundation that the World should recognize and deplore all national, religious, racial, etc. slaughter. The debate is dividing Jews from Jews and all sorts of other combinations in this country.
POSSIBLY, A SOLUTION:
Not that anyone asked me, or anything like that, but after deliberating about the Turkey / Armenia nexus, I decided that the only viable way out (if I was in a position to mediate) that would leave the US –Turkey relationship intact and all that that entails and not risk American Jews causing a rift between Israel and Turkey by their support of a congressional resolution condemning Turkey for genocide in 1915, known as Nahadagas Or (Genocide Day, in Armenian) would be to drop the House resolution as a sop to Turkey, disengage the US Government from any further criticism of our current and strategic ally and have top US leaders meet in a bi-partisan effort to assuage the politically powerful and wealthy Armenian/American community.
Then what? (Read on …)