Look at the bright side

Here's what Turkey's top general had to say about the Armenian genocide resolution that's making its way through Congress:

"If this resolution passed in the committee passes the House as well, our military ties with the U.S. will never be the same again," Gen. Yasar Buyukanit told the daily Milliyet newspaper.

Yes, and just imagine how much harder it would have been without Turkey's assistance for the United States to bomb Iraq for more than a decade (in the name of maintaining the no-fly zones), to attack Yugoslavia, to invade Afghanistan, and to carry out its ongoing siege of Iraq.  What an awful tragedy that would have been.

So there are two good reasons to support this resolution: because it's the right thing to do, and also for the eminently practical reason that it may damage military ties between the US and Turkey and therefore make US aggression against other nations that much more difficult to carry out.

Go, little resolution, go!

BONUS: Let's take a moment to remember those heady days of hypocrisy when at any moment you might have American-made F-16s taking off from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey on their way to protect Kurds in Iraq, or you might have American-made F-16s taking off from Incirlik on their way to kill those same Kurds--and the only difference was the nationality of the pilots:

[Former US Air Force pilot] Horn said that on more than one occasion he and his comrades received a radio message that "there was a TSM inbound"--that is, a "Turkish Special Mission" heading into Iraq. Following standard orders, the Americans turned their planes around and flew back to Turkey.

"You'd see Turkish F-14s and F-16s inbound, loaded to the gills with munitions," he said. "Then they'd come out half an hour later with their munitions expended."

When the Americans flew back into Iraqi airspace, he recalled, they would see "burning villages, lots of smoke and fire."

For outright moral turpitude it's hard to beat the Bush administration, but for really top-notch hypocrisy like this the Clinton administration was second to none.

IRONY BONUS: Look who wrote the article I quoted above.  And then look in the damn mirror!

Comments

[Ahmet]

Turkish F16's are not "American made" they are produced in Turkey. Armenians killed about two millions of those kurds under the name (of armed gangs called) "tashnak" and "hinchak" for the sake of helping Russia against their own "homeland" that is why they were hit back by kurdish tribes for revenge while goverment was trying to relocate them to syria (outside the Turkish-russian war zone). If any armenian talks about genocide ask him what tashnak means. And this is no hidden truth, in fact armenian propaganda was boasting about their civilian killings. Were Jews in any comparable conspiracy in germany? (How can you use the same word genocide) I think this is a German-Wasp operation against Israel and Turkey, dilutes real genocite and also makes America and Germany look cleaner so as that they are not the only ones to commit this crime. If you want to do "the right thing" really dont go that far. Do something about Hiroshima, Vietnam, Red Indians, Black Americans or stop that "War for Petrol"

[SteveB]

If I understand Ahmet correctly, he's not denying that Turkey committed genocide against the Armenians, he's simply asserting that the Armenians committed their own genocide against the Kurds, and that the U.S. has committed genocide against "Red Indians". If true (and the charge against the U.S. is certainly true) none of this is an argument against condemning the Turkish genocide against the Armenians.

Speaking of Turkey, their parliament may vote tomorrow to authorize an invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan. What better testimony is there to the weakened state of U.S. power in the world that Turkey would openly contemplate an invasion of a country that is supposed to be under U.S. "protection"? I wonder: under our U.N. mandate as the occupying power in Iraq, are we obligated to do anything to repel a Turkish invasion?

Some day, we should really erect a monument to Bush as the man who single-handedly destroyed the American Empire.

[John Caruso]

Ahmet: Good point on the F-16s, though they were produced with the cooperation of Lockheed Martin and subsequently outfitted with numerous parts and upgrades from the US, all subsidized or financed by the US--so it depends on what the meaning of "made" is. They're basically American planes whose initial production was outsourced to Turkey. It won't be ambiguous going forward, since Turkey will be purchasing the next group of F-16s outright.

I'd be very happy to see Turkey respond to the Armenian genocide resolution by passing a resolution of its own condemning the genocide of Native Americans, the killing of millions of Indochinese, or any of the other atrocities the United States has committed (and is still committing). Whether or not that happens, though, the severing of military ties between Turkey and the US can only be a good thing.

[Mark Miller]

Ahmet, do you have links to back up your statement that the Armenians committed genocide against the Kurds? I did a search but couldn't find anything about it.

[Mark Miller]

It seems the Kurds participated in the genocide against the Armenians, not the other way around. See this summary: http://www.gomidas.org/forum/af4kurds.htm

But the Turks also slaughtered Kurds.