White House Set to Block Armenian Genocide Resolution

[tekisui]

Source: No Invite

The Obama US administration will seek to block a controversial bill that describes as genocide the 1915 killing of Armenians by Turks.

The US Congress Committee had narrowly approved the resolution on March 4, by 23 to 22 votes. This had paved the way for a possible vote by the House, something that the administration would seek to prevent.

Turkey reacted strongly to the vote, recalling its Ambassador from Washignton, and threatening further diplomatic protest. Turkish citizens took to the streets to voice their anger at the decision.

"We are against this decision. Now we believe that the US Congress will not take any decision on this subject," Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, stated on Friday.

During his campaign for the 2008 election, Barack Obama had promised to brand the mass killings genocide.

However, Clinton has acknowledged his administration's change of opinion on the issue, saying that circumstances had "changed in very significant ways".

Turkey is a major partner in US efforts to stabilize Afghanistan and Iraq, and lies on a key route taking oil and natural gas to Western markets.

more: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=113914

[AnOhioan]

1. The US enables the Turks to rewrite history....

over oil.

[tekisui]

2. More folding from the Obama administration.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. What is incredibly sad is that headlines like these are no longer surprising.

Hope - not much any more.
Change? You gotta be kidding.

[tekisui]

4. Obama's change is from his campaign positions.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

5. Rewriting history to appease the Turks! Sad, just sad...

[Wilms]

6. .

[tekisui]

7. That hurts. But there it is in black and white.

Shameful and sad.

[snagglepuss]

15. Powerful. nt

[hulka38]

16. Maybe he really intended to be that President but

you know, circumstances got in the way.

[newblewtoo]

18. Ouch, that hurts

Nice post though. I am regretting my primary vote more and more.

[CBR]

8. This is very disappointing. nt

[tekisui]

9. But, no longer surprising.

[loudsue]

10. The Turkish gov't has the U.S. by the short hairs...bought and paid for. Sibel Edmonds

tried to warn us about it.

By the way....where is Sibel now?

[tekisui]

11. Being discredited by Obama lovers.

[loudsue]

13. Now that's just down right spooky.

WTF are they thinking? She should have had a hearing a long time ago.

[Kitsune]

12. It's like he WANTS to be a one-term president.

Mind you, I got into politics in 1996, so I don't exactly have a lot of experience with one-term presidents, so I don't know if going out of your way to break every campaign promise you can correlates with it, but I do know that almost every day that goes by makes it less likely that I'll ever be able to justify voting for Obama ever again.

[karynnj]

14. How can the circumstances of what happened in 1915 change in very significant ways

I wish the statement were more honest - simply saying that a resolution at this time would complicate the situation is Afghanistan and Iraq.

The fact is it still was genocide - and it was used by Hitler and aides to back their believe that no one would care about their genocide. (Given that, it is appalling that Israel also will not call in genocide as Turkey has often been one of the few countries they had relations with in the area.)

"In October 2009, Turkey and Armenia signed a historic accord normalising relations between them after a century of hostility, but successive Turkish governments have refused to accept responsibility for any suggestion of genocide."

In October, Hillary Clinton played a major role in pressuring Armenia to sign when they got cold feet the day of the signing. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/world/europe/11armenia.html?_r=1&scp=9&sq=Clinton%20Turkey%20armenia&st=cse

[boppers]

20. FWIW, there's some doubt about the Hitler link

Details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_quote

[karynnj]

21. Weak defense - even if it is myth that Hitler said that there still

is the connection that both people were subjected to genocide. The genocide is no better if Hitler did not say that.

[boppers]

23. It's not a defense. It was mean as a statement of fact, and a way for people to learn more.

As I said in another thread on this topic, this isn't a simple issue. It's a combination of civil wars, holy wars, ethnic cleansing, national revolutions, genocides, war crimes, etc.

More details (with tons of footnotes and resources, because issues like these are heavily worked on in Wikipedia):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial_of_the_Armenian_Genocide

[cherokeeprogressive]

24. Circumstances changed on Election Day 2008. Once the count was taken

it was time to decide which promises to keep and which to quietly discard.

[VMI Dem]

17. This too will be excused and defended.

Sad.

[chrisa]

26. The critics will say that we have to appease other countries.

Somehow, pretending events in history never happened, and ignoring all logic is part of this process.

[denimgirly]

19. Pres. Obama is consistent -- If it involves big money/big business he will always flip.

Seeing as turkey is a partner AND on a route involving big money in the form of oil it is a predictable move by Obama to once again lie about his promises. This makes it much easier to know where he stands and where he intends to go in future issues. So his decision here is nothing but predictable.

[Igel]

22. There's only one circumstance I can think that's signficantly changed.

Instead of an issue used to beat political opponents, it's an issue that would create a problem or two for Obama.

As a weapon, making the promise is a cool thing to do. But as soon as it creates a problem, the promise is really quite nasty.

The real problem isn't that he lied. It's that he didn't think about the implications of his position in a realistic way--which is something that his opponents had to consider and which limited their wiggle room quite a bit--or he assumed that others wouldn't understand that he and his opponents were subject to different constraints. He's done that on a few issues, and always "circumstances have signficantly changed," although he seldom names any that aren't trivial and most often names none.

[chrisa]

25. Congress then said "Yes sir!"

Real history is too offensive. We have to pretend things never happened just to appease our oil suppliers.

The US is like a junky, and oil is the drug. Pull the oil away, and the US will fall to your feet and kiss them.

[QC]

27. Changealicious! n/t

[Name removed]

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[SimonPhoenix]

29. Disgusting- the Turks got away with mass murder

And because we like using their bases to conduct bullshit wars, we go along with their crap. They are really no different from any other shithole country in the Middle East.

The Armenians suffered greatly at their hands.

[Name removed]

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