Dead reckoning: the Armenian genocide and the politics of silence (The New Yorker)

"On September 14, 2000, Representative George Radanovich, Republican of California and David Bonior, Democrat of Michigan introduced a House resolution—later to be known as H.R. 596—on the slaughter of the Armenians. The measure urged the President in dealing with the matter, to demonstrate “appropriate understanding and sensitivity.” I further instructed him on how to phrase his annual message on the Armenian Day of Remembrance: the President should refer to the atrocities as “genocide.” The bill was sent to the International Relations Committee and immediately came under attack. State Department officials reminded the committee that it was U.S. policy to “respect the Turkish government’s assertions that, although many ethnic Armenians died during World War I, no genocide took place.” Expanding on this theme, Secretary of Defense William Cohen, in a letter to Dennis Hastert, the Speaker of the House, wrote that while he in no way wanted to “downplay the Armenian tragedy . . passing judgment on this history through legislation could have a negative impact on Turkish-Armenian relations and on our security interests in the region.” After committee members voted, on October 3rd, to send H.R 596 to the floor, Turkish officials warned that negotiations with an American defense contractor, Bell Textron, over four and a half billion dollars’ worth of attack helicopters were in jeopardy. On October 5th, the leaders of all five parties in the Turkish parliament issued joint statement threatening to deny the U.S access to an airbase in Incirlik, which it was using to patrol northern Iraq. Finally, on October 19th, just a few hours before H.R. 596 was scheduled to be debated in the House Hastert pulled it from the agenda. He had, he said, been informed by President Clinton that passage of the resolution could “risk the lives of Americans."

Robert Fisk: Let me denounce genocide from the dock

The Independent, 14 October 2006 "This has been a bad week for Holocaust deniers. I'm talking about those who wilfully lie about the 1915 genocide of 1.5 million Armenian Christians by the Ottoman Turks. On Thursday, France's lower house of parliament approved a Bill making it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered genocide. And, within an hour, Turkey's most celebrated writer, Orhan Pamuk - only recently cleared by a Turkish court for insulting "Turkishness" (sic) by telling a Swiss newspaper that nobody in Turkey dared mention the Armenian massacres - won the Nobel Prize for Literature. In the mass graves below the deserts of Syria and beneath the soil of southern Turkey, a few souls may have been comforted. While Turkey continues to blather on about its innocence - the systematic killing of hundreds of thousands of male Armenians and of their gang-raped women is supposed to be the sad result of "civil war" - Armenian historians such as Vahakn Dadrian continue to unearth new evidence of the premeditated Holocaust (and, yes, it will deserve its capital H since it was the direct precursor of the Jewish Holocaust, some of whose Nazi architects were in Turkey in 1915) with all the energy of a gravedigger."

A bold message, lost on Turkey - Vartan Oskanian (International Herald Tribune)

"The message from France is clear: So long as Turkey refuses to confront its own history, others will feel impelled to do so. If, on the other hand, Turkey embarks on the difficult road of acknowledgement and reconciliation, then others will have reason to step aside and let the process take its course. Instead, we note with dismay that this very strong message is being lost on Turkey. It continues to surround itself with myths, evade the past, and thus elude the future. As we observe the reactions in Turkey, we find it disingenuous for a country that itself doesn't allow free speech and criminalizes even the exploration of certain areas of its own (and therefore our) history to be so indignant over a law that criminalizes the rejection and denial of that same history. After all, the actual, difficult discourse must evolve in Turkey, and not in France, or Switzerland. It is in Turkey that a free and open dialogue is deeply needed, and sorely absent. Those who cry "leave history to the historians" have gagged the historians."

Sunday Times: Armenians most successful minority in Britain

"Armenian immigrants and their descendants are the most successful ethnic group in the country, according to an analysis of “melting pot” Britain. They are followed by the Japanese, Dutch and Greek Cypriots among the groups who are economically and socially most successful." "The new analysis places the 42.2m adults registered to vote in mainland Britain in 200 ethnic groups — on the basis of a person’s surname and first name. The information is linked to a marketing database to rank the socioeconomic status of each group. The system, Origins Info, is used by hospitals, retailers and charities to tailor their services to individual ethnic groups. Its developers claim it is reliable even though most married women adopt their husband’s name and some immigrants may have changed their surname to avoid discrimination. Richard Webber, a professor of spatial analysis at University College, London who developed Origins Info, said: “The patterns that this analysis have uncovered are striking. We are hoping it will prove a valuable tool for government and business.”

Aliev Vows To ‘Fight’ Armenian Diaspora

President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliev, vowed today to fight Armenian diaspora around the world. No doubt Azerbaijan is bound to support their big Turkic brother in continuing the campaign of denial and intimidation, however, to paraphrase Churchill, they have much to be humble about and Azerbaijan's humble assistance is more of a symbolic than practical nature. In a characteristically simplistic way of describing geopolitics, Aliev said: "Azerbaijan is a country that will supply Europe and world markets with energy resources. Imagine Azerbaijan on one side of the scale and Armenia on the other." If Azeri political thought stays at this distinguished level Armenia and Armenians have nothing to fear - at least politically.

"From now on, it won't be Turkey that loses but France"

Turkey's foreign minister continues unprecedented barrage of threats directed at France after the French National Assembly has passed a bill criminalising denial of the Armenian Genocide, while the Turkish parliament issued the following statement: "Armenia's use of lobby efforts in France and in other countries and its hostile policies against the rights and pride of the Turkish nation will cost dearly to them." It is telling that less than a century after the Armenian population of Western Armenia was nearly exterminated by the Ottoman government in an organised genocide, present-day Turkish government shows no hesitation in blackmailing France for alleged colonial misrule.