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Santa Barbara Independent, CA
April 6 2013
Legislating Allegation of Genocide
Friday, April 5, 2013
By Omer Komili, Goleta
As a member of the Pax Turcica Institute, I share the pain of innocent
Armenians who perished during World War I. But I am disappointed that
the Assembly Joint Resolution 2 (AJR2), recently amended in the Rules
Committee, seeks to legislate an allegation of crime against humanity
which has never been tried in any court.
All recognized genocides, such as the Holocaust, Srebrenica, and
Rwanda, have been determined by a tribunal in accordance with the 1948
United Nations Convention on Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.
But the atrocities in the Ottoman Empire were never assessed by a
competent court and the intent to exterminate Armenians was never
established. Bernard Lewis, a renowned Princeton scholar of Ottoman
history, described the genocide claim as `the Armenian version of
history.' In 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that the
Turkish-Armenian issue is a matter of historical debate by scholars.
Neither the federal government nor Congress recognizes the alleged
Armenian genocide. In December 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Ninth Circuit overturned the California court decision in the
Movsesian vs. Victoria Versicherung AG case of controversial insurance
claims based on California's recognition of genocide. The Ninth
Circuit argued that a state law which conflicts with a federal statute
or executive branch policy is `unconstitutional under the foreign
affairs doctrine'.
Finally, between 1914 and 1922, an estimated 523,955 Turks, Kurds,
Azeris, and other Muslims were mass murdered by the Armenian
nationalist groups that sought to create a state in Anatolia and the
Caucasus. The figure does not include those missing or buried in mass
graves. AJR 2 is insensitive of this suffering, instead illicitly
accusing Turkey of a grave crime. As such, I find AJR 2 to be
unethical, ethnocentric, and contrary to Turkish-Armenian
reconciliation.
http://www.independent.com/news/2013/apr/05/legislating-allegation-genocide/?on
April 6 2013
Legislating Allegation of Genocide
Friday, April 5, 2013
By Omer Komili, Goleta
As a member of the Pax Turcica Institute, I share the pain of innocent
Armenians who perished during World War I. But I am disappointed that
the Assembly Joint Resolution 2 (AJR2), recently amended in the Rules
Committee, seeks to legislate an allegation of crime against humanity
which has never been tried in any court.
All recognized genocides, such as the Holocaust, Srebrenica, and
Rwanda, have been determined by a tribunal in accordance with the 1948
United Nations Convention on Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.
But the atrocities in the Ottoman Empire were never assessed by a
competent court and the intent to exterminate Armenians was never
established. Bernard Lewis, a renowned Princeton scholar of Ottoman
history, described the genocide claim as `the Armenian version of
history.' In 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that the
Turkish-Armenian issue is a matter of historical debate by scholars.
Neither the federal government nor Congress recognizes the alleged
Armenian genocide. In December 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Ninth Circuit overturned the California court decision in the
Movsesian vs. Victoria Versicherung AG case of controversial insurance
claims based on California's recognition of genocide. The Ninth
Circuit argued that a state law which conflicts with a federal statute
or executive branch policy is `unconstitutional under the foreign
affairs doctrine'.
Finally, between 1914 and 1922, an estimated 523,955 Turks, Kurds,
Azeris, and other Muslims were mass murdered by the Armenian
nationalist groups that sought to create a state in Anatolia and the
Caucasus. The figure does not include those missing or buried in mass
graves. AJR 2 is insensitive of this suffering, instead illicitly
accusing Turkey of a grave crime. As such, I find AJR 2 to be
unethical, ethnocentric, and contrary to Turkish-Armenian
reconciliation.
http://www.independent.com/news/2013/apr/05/legislating-allegation-genocide/?on