This offends Turkey

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan warned that his country's relations with both the United States and Israel could be harmed if the U.S. Congress passes legislation declaring the World War I massacre of Armenians a genocide, according to an interview published Tuesday.

... "The perception in Turkey right now is that the Jewish people, or the Jewish organizations let's say, and the Armenian Diaspora, the Armenian lobbies, are now hand-in-hand trying to defame Turkey, and trying to condemn Turkey and the Turkish people."

... In August the New York-based Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish organization known for combatting anti-Semitism, reversed its position on the issue and labeled the killings as "tantamount to genocide."

... "If we see that Jewish organizations are deliberately and in a very comfortable way using then word genocide in a statement, this is a problem for us. This offends Turkey," Babacan told the paper.

I have three caustic comments to make:

1. Yes, well, one is tempted to say, so what? It might do the Turks a world of good to get offended every once in a while. It might even get them into the EU.

2. Historical truth should not be established by vote. Like global warming, whether it is occurring or not, what causes it if it does, these are specific issues which should be extra-political. By which I mean, they should not be a matter left for politicians to decide. At this rate we are going, soon it will be a matter of popular vote to decide whether a man can give birth to babies if he wants to, absence of such physiological necessities as a womb notwithstanding.

3. In view of Jimmy Carter's recent pronouncement that a genocide is not taking place in Darfur, perhaps Congress should defer to him on determining whether an Armenian genocide actually occurred. Judging by his cautious tiptoeing around the facts as the current genocide is unfolding in front of our eyes, he might even prove useful to the Bush administration.