Armenians' truth denied by Claudia Sonea

During the government of the Young Turks from 1917 and 1919 over 1.5 million Armenians were deported or killed in the Ottoman Empire. It was the first modern, systematic extermination. To this point twenty-one countries officially recognized it as genocide, but the government of the Republic of Turkey rejects the allegations and description of the event as genocide. The US postponed for long time the recognition and despite the reactions of the main ally Turkey, on Wednesday the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee finally approved a resolution, which was proposed by a lawmaker with many Armenian-Americans in his district, admitting that the event of 1915 was genocide. This resolution will go to the House floor, where Democrats say it will be a vote by mid-November and a companion bill will be in the Senate. However, they are both mostly symbolic and don't need president's signature. As it was to be expected, Turkey felt offended and threatened that both diplomatic and military relations between the two countries will be severely damaged if the Congress passes the bill, backed by many Western historians. The key role of Turkey cannot be underestimated; especially in the Iraq war due to the fact that supplies for troops pass through the Turkish air-base Incirlik and Turkey provides thousands of truck drivers and other workers for U.S. operations in Iraq. Nevertheless, it is also important to acknowledge history and how well California Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, the chief sponsor, put it, the alliance it's important for both US and Turkey and should not be affected to easily. The White House and the Republicans through their representative Dan Burton made an appeal to the Congress saying that it might upset the only ally they have in Iraq, while Representative Gregory Meeks, a black Democrat from New York stated that the Congress should take more interest on what happens in its own backyard (slavery, killing of American natives). Turkey's ambassador to the United States, Nabi Sensoy, expressed his government disappointment and did not want to make any predictions on its upcoming reactions. There were many similar resolutions over the years, but were always blocked due to the fact that the Republicans had the power. Still now Democrats are in the majority and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a committed supporter of such measures. Schiff has 225 co-sponsors, which mean more than half the House. Will military aid weight more than the acknowledgement of the truth? Will the lives of the Iraq soldiers weight more than that of those that are no longer among us? Don't go away…the epilogue is about to come.

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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