By promising to bring a vote on the Armenian genocide to the floor of the US House of Representatives at this time, have Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership in Congress in fact hindered the broader project of Turkish-Armenian reconciliation?
The (possibly imminent) vote again raises the issue of the “who, what, where, and when” of official recognitions of historical injustices by foreign countries. As in 2005, the “what” (the act of recognition of the Armenian genocide by the US) is an important and welcome event, but the “who” (a state with its own unrecognized genocide against Native Americans, not to mention diminishing moral standing in the world), the “where” (Washington, DC rather than Ankara or Istanbul), and the “when” (October 2007, just as Turkey readies a deployment of troops against Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq) threaten to alienate Turkey, destabilize an already volatile region, and undermine the prospects of a honest, bilateral confrontation of the tragedies of 1915-17 and beyond.
What can we learn from these developments?
The (possibly imminent) vote again raises the issue of the “who, what, where, and when” of official recognitions of historical injustices by foreign countries. As in 2005, the “what” (the act of recognition of the Armenian genocide by the US) is an important and welcome event, but the “who” (a state with its own unrecognized genocide against Native Americans, not to mention diminishing moral standing in the world), the “where” (Washington, DC rather than Ankara or Istanbul), and the “when” (October 2007, just as Turkey readies a deployment of troops against Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq) threaten to alienate Turkey, destabilize an already volatile region, and undermine the prospects of a honest, bilateral confrontation of the tragedies of 1915-17 and beyond.
What can we learn from these developments?
I am Armenian, 29, and I want to live my life in Armenia. When I look at the world map (contemporary), it becomes evident that it's inevitable to live in peace and cooperation with this huge machine called Turkey, otherwise I will be soon residing in Los Angeles or elsewhere - as millions of my "happy" compatriots do, to ensure security for my family. But I surprisingly love my country, and it harms me a lot - seeing how we are jumping again and again into some "big businesses" like those of US and Turkey. I also understand very well that the process of Genocide recognition is one of those severe questions that can trouble nationalistic powers in Turkey, those of so-called "Eurasian" thinking, and force Turkey turn back from his European path to the "other world", making serious shakes in the contemporary history and maybe the world map. I wouldn't like Armenia to be guilty for it.
I doubt if the Genocide discussion in the Congress is of our use. I'm so unhappy to see how the history repeats - we are again observing the "international community worrying so much" about the Armenian Question, and again it costs us the loss of our neighbors - we are again replacing the definite neighbors with an indefinite "international community". I wonder what can I do, and I know that I can do nothing to change the mentality of a "dream country" into that of a REAL one.
(originally posted on 17/10/07 @ 1:52pm)