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IT'S LONG PAST TIME FOR FORMAL RECOGNITION
Burbank Leader (Glendale, California)
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
April 26, 2014 Saturday
April 26--Somber events commemorating the 99th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide were held this week, complete with reflections on the
1.5 million people who were slaughtered at the hands of the Ottoman
Empire. We are greatly disappointed that it appears we'll all mark
the centennial of the atrocities next year without the United States
formally declaring the genocide and pressuring the Turkish government
to do the same, given the glacial pace of action in that regard.
Last year, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), who has waged a long,
lonely battle in Washington to set this situation right, introduced
Resolution 227, which awaits approval by the House Foreign Relations
Committee. This month, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee
approved on a 12-5 vote Resolution 410, written by committee chair
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL). The full Senate
has not yet put it on the agenda; we hope Sen. Majority Leader Harry
Reid (D-NV) takes it up before this session ends. As we reported
in recent days, Schiff hopes the Senate committee's vote will help
jump-start his legislation. "It does put pressure on the House when
the Senate acts... only time will tell," he told the News-Press.
Although the Turkish narrative of those horrendous years has
appeared to soften at least to a small degree recently, with that
country's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday offering
his condolences to descendants of the massacres, not enough has been
said or done to properly admit and atone for the genocide. And it looks
like the U.S. president is still loath to say the G-word out loud.
We understand he has diplomatic concerns -- the U.S. needs Turkey as
a steady ally in that turbulent part of the world -- but, despite all
the evidence that's been presented over the years, it's fundamentally
ridiculous that our country has not yet recognized what happened to the
Armenians at the hands of the Turks in 1915. We can't ignore atrocities
of our allies any less so than we could ignore those of our enemies.
Burbank Leader (Glendale, California)
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
April 26, 2014 Saturday
April 26--Somber events commemorating the 99th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide were held this week, complete with reflections on the
1.5 million people who were slaughtered at the hands of the Ottoman
Empire. We are greatly disappointed that it appears we'll all mark
the centennial of the atrocities next year without the United States
formally declaring the genocide and pressuring the Turkish government
to do the same, given the glacial pace of action in that regard.
Last year, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), who has waged a long,
lonely battle in Washington to set this situation right, introduced
Resolution 227, which awaits approval by the House Foreign Relations
Committee. This month, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee
approved on a 12-5 vote Resolution 410, written by committee chair
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL). The full Senate
has not yet put it on the agenda; we hope Sen. Majority Leader Harry
Reid (D-NV) takes it up before this session ends. As we reported
in recent days, Schiff hopes the Senate committee's vote will help
jump-start his legislation. "It does put pressure on the House when
the Senate acts... only time will tell," he told the News-Press.
Although the Turkish narrative of those horrendous years has
appeared to soften at least to a small degree recently, with that
country's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday offering
his condolences to descendants of the massacres, not enough has been
said or done to properly admit and atone for the genocide. And it looks
like the U.S. president is still loath to say the G-word out loud.
We understand he has diplomatic concerns -- the U.S. needs Turkey as
a steady ally in that turbulent part of the world -- but, despite all
the evidence that's been presented over the years, it's fundamentally
ridiculous that our country has not yet recognized what happened to the
Armenians at the hands of the Turks in 1915. We can't ignore atrocities
of our allies any less so than we could ignore those of our enemies.