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.