Mozart and the Armenian genocide
The most Interesting Issue in the past weeks, regarding the Armenian genocide issue, has been how the American media behaved.
Washington post to my idea completely was against the resolution. it published an editorial which was mentioned during the committee hearing and it clearly asked the congress committee to vote against resolution. Washington post even a few days ago published another story called Armenians Who Need Help Today from Editor of Editorial page and criticized the Armenian diaspora for their effort on genocide issue.
Fred Hiatt says: “Imagine what the Armenian diaspora might have accomplished had it worked as hard for democracy in Armenia as it did for congressional recognition of the genocide Armenians suffered nearly a century ago. It’s even possible that modern Armenia would be as democratic as modern Turkey.”
I completely agree with the democracy thing in Armenia. We are far from it. It seems Armenian Diaspora doesn’t care about what is happening Inside and i believe there should be done more,a lot more,although i don’t like his tone and how he puts Turkey as a model for democracy.
Nytimes was more balanced, it published a few articles about turkey’s past. It first published its first story about the resolution with the photo of turks in committee,who all were wearing big NO on their chest,but when it updated the story, the photo changed and they published the big photo of Armenians, some in wheelchair.
At the same time, most of local newspapers,specially where there is an Armenian population, were strongly in favor of resolution.
in U.K, like always Economist and FT were strongly against resolution. There are things that never change.
meanwhile:
Mozart and the Armenian genocide
Armenian PM and Possible president! in LA Times
an open letter to Armenian diaspora from Turkish daily news
Can we discuss the Armenian question?
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1673273,00.html
Speaking of American media coverage, I wanted to point out this really great article that Time magazine published.
Comment by Alene — 11/2/2007 @ 12:40 pm
I must say that the media in the US, once the Armenian Genocide was brought forth first focussed on the issue at hand and reporting what was going on. There were many articles for and sadly many articles against the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. But after a few days, people started to write in and participate in the dialogue intitiated and I saw that a lot of the dialogue seemed to divert attention away from the Armenian Genocide and start to focus on what genocide recognition means to America, which is really a question that will lead away from the Armenian Genocide. The treatment of slaves was brought up as well as the genocide against the Native Americans. These issues are important to the US and should be addressed, but I was upset that we weren’t able to control the attention of the media and public enough to keep them focussed on the Armenian Genocide and the current debate to recognize it. It’s good to have some issues through which the Armenian lobby can engage a larger audience and get them educated about what’s going on, but not, inevitably, at the expense of the Armenians’ own cause: to have the US government officially recognize the Armenian Genocide. I hope that this post brings some new perspective to the table. It’s something to think about for next year’s war plan when the Armenian lobby brings the bill forward yet again.
Comment by Haig Alexander — 12/20/2007 @ 3:32 am
It makes complete sense. I applaud Bush for making the only positive foreign policy stance in his whole presidency.
I understand the Armenian anger over the genocide. I too believe that it was genocide. But please… I invite you to think about it rationally, not emotionally. The vicious cycle must end.
1) The Ottoman Empire does not exist. Why should Turks living today have to take this blame for a dead country that no longer exists? Because Armenians hold hatred toward Turks and want them to suffer for the past. It serves Armenia no purpose to push this — closed borders with Turkey, grievances with Azerbaijan, Iran. Armenia’s only friend is Russia — not good for such a poor, landlocked country.
2) The US has no business making this into law. Then Turkey, Russia, etc. could pass a law declaring that the US slaughter of Native Americans in the 19th-20th centuries was also genocide (which it was). But it begs the question. So what? What will a law do?
3) The law only pacifies the Armenian diaspora in California and the powerful lobbyists in Washington. I understand that lawmakers need to represent their constituency. But it does not serve the interests of the US as a whole, which lie in Turkey & Azerbaijan and not in Armenia.
Therefore, this issue is an issue for the diaspora (comfortably living in Fresno far both in time and distance from the motherland), not for ordinary Armenians.
Armenia needs to solve this issue directly with Turkey, not drag the world’s policeman into this century-old fight.
P.S. I think the Turks are in denial. I lived in Istanbul for a month. All my new friends that I met randomly were Kurds and Armenians. Cool people — we got along so well because I’m an American and not stuck up. The Turks I met were living in a bubble about history. But it proves my above points. Armenia needs to work bilaterally with Turkey to overcome this, not drag the US and Europe into it.
Comment by Adrian — 1/11/2008 @ 8:56 pm