Obama And The Armenian Genocide

A full page ad in the Saturday Times from newsmaker Rabbi Shmuley caught my eye. The Facebook pic is not for the faint of eye but the rabbi also presents his argument at this blog.

The gist - why did Obama lie about his willingness to publicly recognize the Armenian genocide?

Last Sunday, Pope Francis showed moral courage in openly calling for recognition of “the first genocide of the twentieth century.” Turkey, run by the increasingly brutal dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan, immediately recalled its ambassador, as befits a bully.

Why won’t President Obama recognize the genocide, especially since he promised as a presidential candidate that he would do so?

CNN’s chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper captured the president’s failure succinctly: “For the sixth year in a row President Barack Obama has broken his promise to the Armenian community, made when seeking their votes as a senator and a presidential candidate, to use the word ‘genocide’ to describe the massacre of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire a century ago. He did this in deference to the government of Turkey, which – historical revisionism aside – the Obama administration regards as a more crucial ally.” 

President Obama won’t recognize the genocide of the Armenian people for fear of provoking the Turkish tyrant. 

Jake Tapper was writing in April 2014, so Obama can roll a lucky seven any day now (April 24 is the international commemoration day). The situation is fraught because, in addition to the recent pronouncement by the pope, the European Parliament has (again) chimed in:

ISTANBUL — The European Parliament adopted a resolution Wednesday commemorating the centennial of the Armenian genocide and urged Turkey to recognize that event.

Turkey has pledged to disregard the European Parliament, the European Union’s legislature, which has passed similar measures twice before.

But this one was particularly likely to add fuel to the historical debate over the characterization of the genocide, which began in 1915 and took place over several years during World War I and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. The debate gained momentum on Sunday after Pope Francis referred to the event as “the first genocide of the 20th century.”

Obama now has his own pre-election rhetoric plus political cover from the pope and the patriarchy of Europe. But wait! A plot twist...

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s prime minister on Friday accused Europe of showing signs of racism after the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on his government to recognize the mass killings of Armenians in the collapsing Ottoman Empire as genocide.

Although Turkey vowed to disregard the resolution, government officials have lashed out at the European Parliament, the legislature of the European Union, accusing it of contriving obstacles to relations with Turkey. But the remarks by the prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, went further.

“The European Parliament should not take decisions that would result in hatred toward a certain religion or ethnic group if it wants to contribute to peace,” Mr. Davutoglu told reporters in Ankara. “This issue is now beyond the Turkish-Armenian issue. It’s a new reflection of the racism in Europe.

Hmm - is Obama willing to risk an accusation of racism?

Since you ask, back in 2008 John McCain was declining the use of the word "genocide", in contrast to Obama. However, McCain evolved in 2009, recognizing the genocide and adopting Obama's declared position. Of course, Obama also evolved - this is from the Armenian National Committee of America, Veterans Day 2009:

WASHINGTON, DC – The Republican Party’s 2008 Presidential nominee, Arizona Senator John McCain, has publicly and properly recognized the Armenian Genocide, breaking with his longstanding silence on this human rights issue and, in the process, dramatically underscoring the post-election retreat by his campaign opponent, President Barack Obama, from his high-profile pledge to properly condemn and commemorate this crime, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“I believe that genocide was committed against the Armenian people, and I think there is ample documentation of that,” Sen. McCain told the Voice of America Georgian language service in an interview focusing on the Caucasus as well as Armenia-Turkey relations.

Interesting - so many more questions for the press to not ask Obama or especially Hillary. For the record, Candidate Hillary in 2008 matched Barack in the empty promises area, then backed her boss as Secretary of State; this is from Jan 2012:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday said the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the US “opens a door that is a very dangerous one to go through.” This is the same Hillary Clinton who, four years ago, pledged that she would recognize the Genocide as President of the United States.

Responding to a question from a participant of a Town Hall Meeting on Thursday, who asked why the US does not recognize the Genocide, Clinton characterized the Armenian Genocide as an historical issue and not a political one.

“I think it’s fair to say that this has always been viewed, and I think properly so, as a matter of historical debate and conclusions rather than political. And I think that is the right posture for the United States Government to be in, because whatever the terrible event might be or the high emotions that it represents, to try to use government power to resolve historical issues, I think, opens a door that is a very dangerous one to go through. So the issue is a very emotional one; I recognize that and I have great sympathy for those who are just so incredibly passionate about it,” Clinton told the audience.

And the response from those pesky (but passionate!) genocide non-deniers:

WASHINGTON, DC–The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) sharply criticized remarks by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who on Jan. 26 dismissed the murder of 1.5 million Armenians as a “historical debate,” and argued that U.S. affirmation of this crime would open a “dangerous door.”

“The Obama-Biden Administration–with Secretary Clinton’s latest remarks–continues to dig itself deeper and deeper into a hole of complicity in Turkey’s genocide denial,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.

“It’s a sad spectacle to see Secretary Clinton hiding behind cynical appeals to scholars–the overwhelming majority of whom have already spoken forcefully against Turkey’s denials of the Armenian Genocide–to divert attention from President Obama’s, Vice President Biden’s, or her own promises to properly recognize this crime and, more broadly, to divert attention from the White House’s failure to meet its moral obligation to stand up against a foreign government’s veto of our defense of human rights,” Hamparian said.

...

Clinton’s remarks are diametrically opposed to her statement issued almost four years ago, to the day, as a Senator. In this statement, she boasted that she was “alone among the presidential candidates” to have been a co-sponsor of the Armenian Genocide Resolution and pledged “as president, I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.”  The statement went on to stress, “Our common morality and our nation’s credibility as a voice for human rights challenge us to ensure that the Armenian Genocide be recognized and remembered by the Congress and the president of the United States.”

Obama and Biden made equally clear and unequivocal statements regarding the U.S. affirmation of the Armenian Genocide during their years in the Senate and as candidates for the White House. “America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian Genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides. I intend to be that president,” said Obama in a Jan. 19, 2008 campaign statement. Biden explained his support for pending Armenian Genocide legislation to the LA Times Editorial Board in May 2007, as follows: “I support it, and the reason is simple: I have found in my experience that you cannot have a solid relationship with a country based on fiction. It occurred. It occurred.”

Yeah, yeah - if you like your genocide you can keep your genocide. FWIW, McCain followed an interesting path here - as a candidate, he was honest about what he would do as President (based on the flip-flops of Obama et al). Then, as a free agent he took a path that makes sense for an individual but *maybe* not for a country.

April 24 is the big day, so there is still plenty of time for Obama to check with the pollsters and fundraisers to see if he needs to evolve on this. Of course, Turkey is a key to Obama's plans for stability in the Middle East, so he might need to keep them on board to build on his many successes there.

 

Comments

[Jane]

First? No way! (this is a stupid tradition)

[Jane]

My best friend in HS was Armenian, and the denial of the genocide was so painful to her family.

[You think I'm joking.]

Ever again.

[Miss Marple]

Brought over from end of other thread, but seems appropriate here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-in-afghanistan-group-claims-responsibility-for-jalalabad-suicide-bombing-that-killed-30-10186561.html

[Truthbetold]

Maher Confronts Judith Miller: Why Weren’t You More Skeptical About Iraq?

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/maher-confronts-judith-miller-why-werent-you-more-skeptical-about-iraq/

[Truthbetold]

The truth about the Valerie Plame case. (10 years later)

http://illinoispaytoplay.com/2013/01/01/the-truth-about-the-valerie-plame-case-10-years-later/

[Miss Marple]

@lukaslowinski Huge scandal now in Polish media. FBI director said that poles are responsible for the holocaust .
12 retweets 8 favorites

The administration continues to make friends around the world. What an ass.

[All I see is Comey platitudinously elevating apple pie.]

Just what offended? I can't tell from brief news reports.

[If wishes were horses Fitzgerald could ride.]

Ernie, sometimes I wish you were credible.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Oh good, I flew out of bed and came rushing down to the laptop thinking I really needed to get a new thread up.

But The Man is on it.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

I presume ValJar is the guiding force in all of this. She must be a big Turkey fan, now that it's turned Islamist.

[Truthbetold]

Feds getting ready to announce Blago's release

Korecki: If any part of Blagojevich case reversed, Fardon 'conflicted' out of decisions

http://chicago.suntimes.com/natasha-korecki-2/7/71/528373/appeals-court-reverses-part-blago-case-u-s-attorney-fardon-conflicted

[Jeff Dobbs]

The Obama quotes from that Tapper piece linked in the post:

"I shared with Secretary Rice my firmly held conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence.”

“The facts are undeniable,” Obama said then, though today he denied them.

“America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian Genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides,” he said in 2008. “I intend to be that president.”

The larger issue here beyond broken promises can be seen in a January 2008 letter to the Armenian Reporter, in which Obama said he shared “with Armenian Americans — so many of whom are descended from genocide survivors — a principled commitment to commemorating and ending genocide. That starts with acknowledging the tragic instances of genocide in world history.”

If you like your firmly held conviction and principled commitment, you can keep you firmly held conviction and principled commitment. Doesn't mean Obama will, tho.

[Truthbetold]

The Betrayal Papers: Who is Barack Hussein Obama?

http://www.dcclothesline.com/author/coalition-of-concerned-citizens/

[DebinNC]

We have a friend whose family had fled Armenia during the genocide and settled in the Armenian sector of "Old" Jerusalem. While working in a gift shop there as a young man, he met a little old lady from Alabama who led him to the Lord and eventually sponsored his coming to the U.S. to attend Duke U. Divinity School.

[Eric Rasmusen]

It is curious how people go on about how outrageous it is when some crank denies the Holocaust, yet nobody cares when a major political figure refuses to admit the Armenian genocide.

[Rick Ballard]

How much does Turkey owe in reparations to the Armenians, not just for the genocide but also for enslavement? The Ottoman Empire (Turkey et al until 1923-24) never abolished slavery and there were Armenian slaves who escaped during the diaspora and arrived in America bearing their slave brands. On their foreheads.

One might wonder when ISIS will re-institute the practice of branding the Christian slaves being taken today. Obama's affinity for Mahometan slavers and savages is rather understandable. It would be quite unsurprising to find slave takers and sellers in his Kenyan forebears even closer than were Affleck's.

[Ben]

He's just tamping down the Israeli anger toward his anti-semitic disagreements with Likudists. Genocide is their word first and foremost.

[Truthbetold]

Did Speaker Hastert Accept Turkish Bribes to Deny Armenian Genocide and Approve Weapons Sales?

http://www.democracynow.org/2005/8/10/did_speaker_hastert_accept_turkish_bribes

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

There's a simple way to get Barry on board;
invite the Kardashians to the WH.

A couple of selfies with Kim and that huge ass she is always exposing us to....Kanye....and then a game of hoops with Bruce in a dress and stilettos and he'll be stuffing that Turkey in no time.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Tim McGraw, currently on his Shotgun Rider tour, is headlining a show to benefit an anti gun group in Sandy Hook.
Last year his agent saluted Beretta for moving to a gun friendly state in an obsequious effort to get them to allow McGraw to use the name Beretta for a gun toting character he wanted to play in some insipid movie.

How do I hypocrisy? Let me count the ways.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

I see TM has been linked at Memorandum for this thread.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

#bringbackourArmenians

[Miss Marple]

TM's explanation of the disgraceful waffling on a statement about the Armenian genocide is pretty somplete. I don't have anything productive to add, so I am going to get some yard work done ahead of the bad weather heading our way.

Will check in later.

[clarice]

When ever Obama says something is his "firmly held conviction" you know it'll be held to for about a nanosecond.

Ecellent post, TM. Glad to see you back and in fighting trim.

[Jane]

Me too, and I love having your guest host too. I bet it takes the pressure of your 10 zillion fans begging to attention down a notch.

[clarice]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=10&v=8k1-PdKfKX0

[Jane]

Hit, I originally called you a "Guest hose". I had to decide whether to change it.

[clarice]

Turkey is geographically and strategically important, which explains a lot of the reluctance to correctly acknowledge the genocide. But I think it should be done--should have been done long ago--and Turkey will have to grow up and face the undeniable facts.

[Miss Marple]

clarice,

It seems to me if we have to acknowledge slavery here over and over and over again, then Turkey should have to acknowledge the Armenian genocide.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Ig:
There's a simple way to get Barry on board;
invite the Kardashians to the WH.

[clarice]

He is obviously a big ass man.

[Jane]

He certainly is a big ass!

[lyle]

Lol, Clarice.

[daddy]

First? No way! (this is a stupid tradition)

Stupid is as stupid does, Mrs Gump:)

[maryrose]

daddy
You are so funny
Jane
I agree Let him rot in jail
Killing is too easy for him

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

I would have had him looking at Bruce's comely new derriere, Hit.

[Jane]

Harrumph Daddy! What did they do with the bears?

[Jeff Dobbs]

Ig:
I would have had him looking at Bruce's comely new derriere

True, but I had the Kardashian one sitting around from long ago.

[Jane]

I have an announcement!

It's 73 degrees here.

The snow is gone.

Doors and windows open!

[daddy]

When we were stationed at Ft Leavenworth 40 some years ago, the retiring Colonel my dad replaced wound up becoming our best friends.

The dad and the mom were Armenian orphans, somehow transported to the US between about 1915 and 1920, and wound up meeting each other as orphans in some orphanage and eventually getting married and having 3 great sons. The youngest wound up being my best friend. All 3 boys became US Army Officers. The dad had been a Junior Officer in Patton's Army in WW2, and he was a huge fan of that General.

Anyhow, a great family with great values, so the first Armenian's I ever met made a great first impression on me. God Bless the Mirakians of Leavenworth, Kansas!

[daddy]

Great link Clarice at 11:38.

[jimmyk on iPhone]

Israel is taken to task for every transgression it's ever committed, including littering and using the wrong fork at a state dinner, and for many that it didn't commit. Too bad for Turkey if it can't confront its past.

[narciso]

they called it the 'Itijihad' the Cleansing, the significance of which, is what the Iraqis called the DeBaathification efforts, which is an indication of the allowable slanders,

[narciso]

now there are some interesting wrinkles here:

http://www.aina.org/news/20140423133526.htm

but the aforementioned was a nationalist project,
you would think an Ottomanist like Erdogan, would be willing to put the burden where it belongs

[Extraneus]

I know there's a new thread or two, but I had an Armenian best friend many moons ago, and we used to like to say a phrase he got from his father. I saw him again after around 20 years, and the first thing we said to each other, in unison, was:

Eh giddie soch ocht necht!

Anyone know what this means?

[Rich Rostrom]

"President Obama won’t recognize the genocide of the Armenian people for fear of provoking the Turkish tyrant."

That is not correct. It isn't just Erdogan; nearly all Turks have the same attitude. In fact if Obama made a strong statement about the genocide, it would allow Erdogan to posture as defender of Turkish honor. Whatever Obama is doing (if anything) to get Turkey away from Erdogan's anti-U.S. agenda would be damaged.

Which is not to excuse Obama's cowardice, just to expose a complication of the case.

[narciso]

true, but that doesn't stop him from criticizing other country's 'internal affairs' of course Maverick is thoroughly useless, but we already knew that,

[cathyf]

WonderBoy spent a summer in Armenia doing physics. The effects of membership in the USSR are a lot more visible than the genocide. When the Russians left they just abandoned everything -- left construction projects half built, with the cranes rusting in place. Armenia is the oldest continuously-surviving nation in the world (Yerevan was founded before Rome.) Everywhere you dig a hole there is archeology underneath!

It looks like the Armenians in Armenia are more interested in recovering from communism, and the borders that Stalin drew are a gift that keeps on giving (They are still at war with Azerbaijan.) The US embassy in Yerevan is the second largest in the world (after Iraq) because that's where we run diplomatic missions to Iran, Russia, etc. And it seems that Obama is set to screw that up, too.

There are pictures of the Cosmic Ray Observatory in this documentary The Yerevan Physics Institute (YerPhi) ЕРФИ ԵՐՖԻ Pretty impressive scenary...