GUEST PERSPECTIVE

Beginning 96 years ago, 1.5 million Armenians were killed at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of the modern Republic of Turkey. In the first genocide of the 20th century, unarmed Armenian men, women and children were massacred and forced on death marches.

On Sunday, Barack Obama issued his annual statement in commemoration of the killings but stopped short of calling the killings “genocide,” an assertion that would have finally held the Ottomans accountable for their actions. Obama instead asked for “full” acknowledgement of the “horrific events.” The Turkish government maintains that the Armenian deaths were the result of regional strife and that there were an equal amount of Turkish deaths. In response to Obama’s statement, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu issued a statement condemning Obama for what he called “one-sided” remarks in favor of Armenians.

This is one example of Turkish efforts to deny the truth about the Ottoman killings of Armenians from 1915-1923. Forty-three state governments in the United States and more than 20 countries around have recognized the Armenian genocide. Experts from both nations have called for global recognition of the killings, from Armenian scholar Vahakn Dadrian to Turkish historian and author Taner Akcam.

Intellectuals and historians around the world increasingly question the Turkish government’s official line by campaigning against racism and nationalism and even scheduling Sunday evening commemorations for the victims of the killings. However, these types of commemorations are rare occurrences. In 2006, Turkish Nobel Prize in Literature winner Orhan Pamuk told a Swiss magazine that “one million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in these lands and no one but me dares talk about it.” For this “crime,” Pamuk was charged with “insulting” the Turkish Republic and was threatened with three years in prison. Pamuk later rescinded his statement.

What we seem to have in America is a president who, due to political pressure from the Turkish government, refuses to acknowledge the horrific killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks as genocide. Turkey is a friend to the United States and entered NATO in 1952. The country is particularly important to our country and NATO because, among other factors, it controls the straits leading from the Black Sea to the Aegean and has some important neighbors.

Turkey’s political pull has caused Obama to rescind a promise he made to describe the events in Armenia. On the campaign trail, he said “America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides.” It isn’t that politicians making false campaign promises should surprise anyone but this broken promise should be especially worrisome.

If these killings were genocide, we have a leader of the free world who is putting our nation’s political interests before the murder of more than one million humans. By not acknowledging the genocide of the Armenians, the U.S. government is saying that it will speak out against the killing of millions of human beings unless the killers are important to our national agenda. Last year, the U.S. Congress House Foreign Affairs Committee scheduled a vote for a bill to finally recognize the Armenian genocide. However, the Obama administration asked the House to cancel the vote. As an explanation, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the chairman of the House committee that such a bill would impede progress on improvements in the relationship between Armenia and Turkey. She likely didn’t mention the falling out that occurred after the landmark signing of a 2009 peace agreement between the two nations.

Sure, we have all been caught in difficult situations between two fighting friends. Taking sides between two passionate and important sides is never easy. And of course, there would be negative political ramifications if Obama used his office to formally call out the Ottoman killing of Armenians as genocide. But whatever happened to taking the high road? Shouldn’t we be more worried about the precedent Obama’s inaction sets than the political backlash such a statement would incur? Do we want to reassure future mass murderers that they will not be held accountable for their actions as long as they hold enough political sway?  I don’t think so.

The United States should call the mass murder of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks what it was: genocide. In doing so, they will prevent future monstrosities from occurring.

–Ben Noble, SMG ‘11