The following article by Bruce Fein, was published in The Journal of
\nTurkish Weekly on January 27, 2009.<\/p>\n
Armenian Issue: Moving Forward<\/p>\n
During the Senate confirmation hearings of the newly confirmed
\nSecretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senator Robert Menendez (D. N.J.)
\nlobbied the Obama administration to characterize the tragic events of
\nWorld War I as a “universally recognized” Armenian “genocide”. \u00a0That
\nofficial verdict was said necessary to “move forward.” The Secretary
\nof State demurred on the characterization question, but concurred with
\nthe idea of moving beyond the contentious status quo.<\/p>\n
Moving forward, however, requires recognition of facts, not fiction:
\nthat the Armenian “genocide” is disputed by reputable scholars and
\nhistorians; that politicians are ill-equipped to deliver “genocide”
\nverdicts on matters light years beyond their ken; that Ottoman Muslims
\nalso suffered horribly during WWI at the hands of Armenians fighting
\nas armed belligerents; and, that voicing sympathy for Armenian
\nsuffering while ignoring the suffering of those whom Armenians
\nslaughtered and terrorized would reflect the Christian bigotry of
\nyesteryear.<\/p>\n
The Armenian “genocide” is hotly disputed within the universe of
\ngenuine Middle East scholars versed in the Ottoman Empire, the
\ncircumstances of World War I, and otherwise. \u00a0An inexhaustive list of
\ndoubters would include: \u00a0famed Middle East expert Bernard Lewis of
\nPrinceton University, the late Stanford Shaw of U.C.L.A., Guenter Lewy
\nof the University of Massachusetts, Justin McCarthy of the University
\nof Louisville, Norman Itzkowitz of Princeton University, Brian G.
\nWilliams of the University of Massachusetts, David Fromkin of Boston
\nUniversity, Avigdor Levy of Brandeis University, Michael M. Gunter of
\nTennessee Tech, Pierre Oberling of Hunter College, the late Roderic
\nDavison of George Washington University, Michael Radu of Foreign
\nPolicy Research Institute, \u00a0and military historian Edward J. Erickson.
\nOutside of the United States even more scholars have endorsed a
\ncontra-genocide analysis of the history of the Ottoman Armenians,
\namong them Gilles Veinstein of the College de France, Stefano
\nTrinchese of the University of Chieti, Augusto Sinagra of the
\nUniversity of Romae-Sapienza, Norman Stone of Bilkent University, and
\nthe historian Andrew Mango of the University of London. \u00a0In addition
\nto these and other scholars, the United Nations, Great Britain, and
\nSweden have refused to endorse the “genocide” label.<\/p>\n
Politicians, including Members of Congress or the President, are
\nill-suited to decide the issue pivoting on century-old happenings that
\nsharply divide experts. \u00a0They have neither the time nor inclination to
\nundertake intellectual labors commensurate with the importance of a
\n“genocide” charge. \u00a0And they do not sit like members of a jury to
\nlisten to both sides present their respective cases. \u00a0Senator Menendez
\nexemplifies why politicians should shy from deciding ancient
\nhistorical controversies. \u00a0He rendered judgment without examining all
\nthe credible evidence and analyses.<\/p>\n
Moving forward on the “genocide” question requires placing the
\ndecision with an international commission of impartial experts with
\naccess to all relevant archives. \u00a0The most important archives that
\nremain closed belong to Armenian organizations. \u00a0Turkey’s Prime
\nMinister has agreed to the international commission solution to the
\nArmenian “genocide” issue.<\/p>\n
Moving forward further requires reciprocal apologies by both Turks and
\nArmenians for the mutual devastation wrought upon each other. \u00a0What is
\ncustomarily ignored are World War I’s harrowing Ottoman Muslim deaths
\neffectuated by numerous bloody Armenian revolts; raids and slaughters
\nby Armenian extremist revolutionaries; treasonous defections in the
\nhundreds of thousands to fight for invading Russian and French armies;
\nand, austere wartime conditions that occasioned starvation, disease,
\nepidemics, and deaths from acute shortages of medical personnel and
\nmedicine. \u00a0According to research reports, nearly 524,000 Ottoman
\nMuslims perished from the actions of Armenian revolutionaries during
\nthe war.<\/p>\n
Armenians have never acknowledged any culpability for their side’s
\natrocities of World War I. Instead, they apotheosize to this day those
\nArmenians who murdered scores of Turkish diplomats in the 1970’s and
\n1980’s.<\/p>\n
William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” descried the bigoted
\nhierarchy of human suffering that would be reflected by expressing
\nmoral outrage over historical Armenian suffering or killings while
\nremaining silent over the counterpart suffering and deaths of Ottoman
\nMuslims or Turks. To paraphrase from an immortalized passage: \u00a0“Hath
\nnot a Turk eyes? \u00a0Hath not a Turk hands, organs, dimensions, senses,
\naffections, passions? \u00a0fed with the same food, hurt with the same
\nweapons, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same
\nwinter and summer, as a Christian is? \u00a0If you prick a Turk, does he
\nnot bleed? \u00a0If you tickle a Turk, does he not laugh? \u00a0If you poison a
\nTurk, does he not die?”<\/p>\n
In sum, to honor her pledge to move forward on the Armenian “genocide”
\nquestion, Secretary Clinton should promote the ideas of an
\ninternational commission of experts and reciprocal apologies. \u00a0It is
\nalso the best formula for Turkish-Armenian reconciliation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The following article by Bruce Fein, was published in The Journal of Turkish Weekly on January 27, 2009. Armenian Issue: Moving Forward During the Senate confirmation hearings of the newly confirmed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senator Robert Menendez (D. N.J.) lobbied the Obama administration to characterize the tragic events of World War I as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":774848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/774848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}