I fail to see the point of House Resolution 106 for Armenians. Is it that we just want to acknowledge history? If so, do we have to do it now while the entire world is embroiled in a war?
This is a hot bed of issues that simply don’t need to be addressed right now. I fail to see the use of it. Everyone with half a brain and knowledge of the incident know that there was a genocide, and there was a massacre of Ottoman Muslims during the Armenian uprising too. Let’s face it, the area is a big mess showing the Religious zealots are alive and well and religious imposition of thought continues from the past to the present day. Everything here in the name of God or Allah, whichever your preference.
So now we have a war, one that we were lied to about. We are there, and acknowledging this prior bad deed is not going to change anything, but could make things worse. I hate to agree with Bush on this one, but I do.
I have a diatribe of conversation in my mind about Armenians. The ones I know are just as volatile as the region around Iraq. I’m wondering if it is a genetic thing with all folks in the region. Raised with strong convictions, whether it be Allah or God and indoctrinated with pride from a young age, the argument is never solved.
Therein lies the problem. Armenians believe in God and Muslims believe in Allah, and the battle began, just as it is today where hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi’s are being killed during the battle of Iraq. Entire populations in the middle east are wiped out systematically by well meaning people who are killing in the name of their Gods, trying to secure a place in heaven.
It’s too sad.
Even if the genocide existed, as it did, forcing a bill in the house to acknowledge it today is a bad idea. It’s like throwing salt in the wounds of the middle east.
Leading the charge for the resolution are grass-roots groups such as the Armenian Assembly of America, with 10,000 members, a budget of $3.6 million last year. This vast fortune of money spent to “acknowledge the genocide” makes me suspicious of the nature of this resolution. Is it going to lead to reparations for Armenians?
One Armenian blog suggested that reparations be in the form of land and a port to the sea. I find this one ridiculous at this point as displacing now hundreds of thousands of Turks to give the land back to Armenians is going to be unfair to modern Turks who had nothing to do with the genocide. Are they all culpable for past deeds just solely based on their heritage, because if that’s the case, I guess I too will be moving to Armenia and owning a bit of that land. If it hadn’t been for the genocide, I would have been a rich Armenian girl today growing olive trees and making pakalava in my homeland. But instead I’m stuck here in the grand old US of A typing up a blog and listening to my Armenian relatives screech at the top of their lungs about how unfair it is that Bush won’t let House Resolution 106 pass during a horrible and ugly war in Iraq.
I say let the war end, and then let’s talk about reparations, and if I’m not going to get a sum of money in settlement, then what good is land in Turkey going to do for those of us who were displaced all the way to America?
3 Responses to “Armenian Genocide – House Resolution 106”
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[...] dissenting voice, however, appears to come from an Armenian-American who argues that she fails to see the point in recognizing the Genocide, especially when the U.S. is engaged militarily elsewhere. To be honest, I don’t think this [...]
[...] dissenting voice, however, appears to come from an Armenian-American who argues that she fails to see the point in recognizing the Genocide, especially when the U.S. is engaged militarily elsewhere. To be honest, I don’t think this [...]
What’s really too sad is that there will never be a good time to address this issue. Turkey has always been adept at playing on its geo-political position and importance to the US and Israel. Now its a war, last time it was something else and so on for the last 90 years. Would you prefer to wait until the last survivors are dead? Not too long now.
Dont worry too much about throwing salt in the wounds of the middle east. Nothing drastic will happen as other countries which have passed similar legislation (France, Canada, Russia etc.) have seen.
The money spent by the Armenian lobby pales in comparison to what has been spent by the Turkish government and its allies. Nothing happens in Washington (or elsewhere) without money being spent.
The issue of compensation and restitution is a complicated one and not likely to go far beyond something symbolic. It could have been worse. Instead of listening to screeching you could have never existed had your family not survived.