 NOVEMBER 14 • 2019 | 17

Historic 
Vote

House of Representatives votes to 
recognize the Armenian Genocide.
I

t has only symbolic value. 
It comes too late to protect 
the persecuted minority. It 
comes too late to punish the 
perpetrators. The Armenian 
Genocide happened more 
than a century ago, in 1915. 
And yet it was a defiant act, 
when, on Oct. 29, the House of 
Representatives voted 405 to 11 
on a non-binding resolution to 
“commemorate the Armenian 
Genocide through recognition 
and remembrance.
” 
Turkish President Recep 
Tayyip Erdogan promptly 
declared Turkey would not rec-
ognize the House resolution, 
continuing intense Turkish 
opposition to the terminology. 
In 1915, during World War 
I, Ottoman forces destroyed 
whole communities of 
Armenians. According to the 
Jewish-run Combat Genocide 
Organization, Ottoman sol-
diers and civilians drove neigh-
borhoods of Christians into the 
desert, where they were shot or 
left to die of thirst or hunger. 
Estimations of the dead are 
1-1.5 million. 
The modern state of Turkey 
makes it a crime to defame the 
Turkish people; in the course 
of a world war and a local 
rebellion, many civilians of all 
communities died.
In 1948, one of the first 
official acts of the United 
Nations was to establish a 
Convention for the Prevention 
and Punishment of Genocide. 
Former U.N. Ambassador 
Samantha Power describes 

in her book, A Problem from 
Hell, countries have trouble 
acknowledging the crime or 
acting against perpetrators. 
The government of Israel 
does not describe the destruc-
tion of Armenian communities 
as genocide. Zvi Gitelman, 
professor emeritus of political 
science and Judaic studies at 
the University of Michigan, 
explains why: “
At first, Turkey, 
a secular state since 1923, was 
the only majority-Muslim 
country that had normal rela-
tions with Israel.
” Israel avoided 
upsetting its powerful neigh-
bor. “Under Erdogan, Turkey 
has become less secular and 
less friendly to Israel.
” 
Even so, Israel continues to 
avoid the term “genocide.
” Two 
professors at the University 
of Michigan, Ronald Suny 
(history) and Fatma Muge 
Gocek (sociology), have pub-
lished studies of the Armenian 
Genocide. Suny, who comes 
from an Armenian family, said 
about the House vote, “The 
passage of the resolution recog-
nizing the Armenian Genocide 
is particularly important, not 
only as a challenge to the 
deniers.
” 
Gocek, a Turkish scholar 
who cannot return to her 
native country because of her 
published research, says, “By 
denying what happened, you 
prevent healing from hap-
pening, We need that healing 
to happen not only for the 
Armenians but for the Turks by 
taking responsibility.
” 

LOUIS FINKLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Two visitors stand 
next to the eternal 
flame at the 
Armenian Genocide 
Memorial in 
Yerevan, Armenia. 

