Ninety-two years ago, a group of fervent Turkish nationalists tried to wipe out the Armenian Christian community. The estimated death toll ranges from 500,000 to 1.5 million. After the Holocaust, it is the most widely recognized incident of genocide. This was not motivated by religion: it was carried out the the avid nationalists who went on to found the modern Turkish state on the grounds that the Armenians were collaborating with the Russians. No, it was secular nationalism that killed them, the pseudo-religion that exalts the Turkish nation. And today, that nationalism still holds sway, making it a crime to simply state the historical facts and to even mention the word “genocide”. The criminal code forbids “insulting Turkishness.” Recently, Hrant Dink, an Armenian Turk, after criticizing Turkey’s genocide denial, was prosecuted three times, and eventually assassinated by nationalists.
A proposed House resolution would ackowledge this genocide, which (willing with connivance of the Turkish state) has been buried in the annals of history. It has majority support. In response, the Turkish government is going to ferocious lengths to derail the resolution, spending $300,000 a month in lobbying. But the Bush administration opposes the resolution, so as not to upset Turkey, an ally in the Iraqi occupation.
Where’s the outrage among those who lambaste Carter, who, after all, called what is happening in Darfur, “crimes against humanity”?
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