(salon.com) US Armenian group blasted Obama admin. as “leading international enabler of [Turkey’s] campaign of genocide denial”
By BEN NORTON,
Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, made history on Thursday by voting in a landslide to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide.
The historic decision renewed calls for the U.S., which has long remained silent on the issue, to do the same. On the eve of entering the White House more than seven years ago, Obama promised to recognize the genocide, yet has failed to do so.
In response to Germany’s recognition, an Armenian American advocacy group blasted the Obama administration for its silence, dubbing it the “leading international enabler of [Turkey’s] campaign of genocide denial.”
April 2015 marked the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Armenian Genocide, a campaign of systematic killing and ethnic cleansing of the Armenian minority population of the Ottoman Empire, in modern-day Turkey.
Historians estimate between 1 million and 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the genocide, out of a previous population of just 1.7 million to 2.3 million. Some scholars say the number of Armenians who survived the genocide may have been as low as 100,000.
There is essentially no disagreement among experts that there was a genocide of Armenians Genocide and that it was premeditated and intentional.
The term “genocide” itself was in fact coined by Holocaust survivor and lawyer Raphael Lemkin to refer to not just the crimes of the Nazis, but also those of the Turks in World War I.
Today, however, the Turkish government continues to deny that the atrocities that took place constitute a genocide. It downplays the severity of the crimes and claims they were an unfortunate product of World War I.
Within hours of the Bundestag’s historic vote on Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan withdrew his country’s ambassador in Germany back to Ankara.
Turkey’s ruling right-wing AKP party subsequently issued a joint statement condemning the vote, calling it a “decision which is against history,” and insisting it “will no doubt have an impact on German-Turkish relations and will damage bridges of friendship between the two countries.”
Germany was an ally of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, while the U.S. was an enemy. Yet, more than a century later, the U.S. government continues to let politics trump history. It continues to refuse to recognize the Armenian Genocide, in order to avoid alienating its close ally Turkey, which is a NATO member.
The Armenian National Committee of America condemned the Obama administration in a statement on Thursday for its continued unwillingness to take action.
Germany’s historical decision “shines a global spotlight on U.S. President Obama’s continued complicity in Turkey’s denial of this still unpunished crime,” the group said.
The Armenian National Committee of America noted that the Bundestag’s vote is “made all the more powerful by its honest reckoning with Germany’s own role in this still unpunished crime,” adding that it “further isolates Turkey, while shining a global spotlight on the Obama Administration as the leading international enabler of Ankara’s campaign of genocide denial.”