Turkey: Between Iraq & A Hard Place

THEY JUST HAPPEN TO LOOK LIKE DEAD ARMENIANS

When you're the U.S. and the biggest and baddest dog in the global junkyard, you can say whatever you damned well please. But when you're Japan and deny the Rape of Nanking or Turkey and deny that you slaughtered 1.5 million Armenians, you're going to catch a lot of flak -- and deserve to.

It's again Turkey's turn to take heat for an ugly chapter in its history that it simply cannot wish away: The deaths of all those Armenians as a result of deportations and systematic killings in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Apparently having nothing better to do than looking back incessantly, Armenian-Americans have beaten the drum for years in trying to get the deaths recognized as genocide, as if that will bring back Uncle Aram. With the Democrats more or less having the upper hand in Congress, they now also have some electoral clout to push that agenda.

Turkey's response has been that all those Armenians, or at least a goodly number, died in slip-and-fall accidents, choked on chicken bones or did each other in. In a word: ludacrious.

In any event, the Greatest Deliberative Body in the Universe has big footed into the nearly century-old dispute despite President Bush imploring these congressfolk -- and appropriately so -- to butt the heck out.

In a 27-21 vote this week engineered by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has a large Armenian-American constituency, the House Foreign Affairs Committee declared that the Armenian slaughter was indeed genocide. The non-binding resolution now goes to the full House. (When a House approved a similar resolution in 2000, President Clinton persuaded Republican Speaker J. Dennis Hastert to withdraw it.)

Turkey's response to the vote was predictable: It recalled its ambassador for consultations and is considering limiting logistical support to U.S. troops in Iraq by restricting access to U.S. bases on its soil.

That is no small matter, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates was quick to note that 70 percent of all air cargo sent to Iraq passes through or comes from Turkey, as does 30 percent of fuel and virtually all the new armored vehicles designed to withstand mines and bombs. (Turkey also is making troubling noises in its long battle with Kurdish rebels who use northern Iraq as their base.)

When all is said and done, the uproar puts Turkey between Iraq and a hard place.

It wants to earn its keep as a full-fledged NATO member in the worst way but needs to save face at home. The Turkey-U.S. crisis also doesn’t exactly cover those congressfolk in glory since Turkey has made enormous strides toward becoming a full-fledged democracy, is one of the few Muslim states to recognize Israel and has been a bulwark against Muslim radicalism.

There are no winners in this one:

Armenia, which historically has gotten the short end of the stick, and Armenian-Americans need to make peace and move on.

The Turks, whose denials about what happened to those Armenians seem more childish with every passing year, need to finish growing up.

And Nancy Pelosi and others who support the resolution need to stop vote counting, which is only making a bad situation worse, and consider the big picture.

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Meanwhile, Jeb Koogler at Foreign Policy Watch laments the bad timing of the resolution, David Schraub at The Debate Link provides a good overview of the background and foreground on this one, while Dave Schuler at The Glittering Eye recommends that everone open their archives so the world finally can know what really happened.