Turkey is typically overshadowed in the press by its Middle Eastern neighbors, but it has recently dominated headlines and newscasts.
Turkish officials have expressed an overwhelmingly negative reaction to the proposed U.S. House of Representatives’ resolution to condemn the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Empire, which began in 1915.
There is no doubt that the recognition of genocide worldwide serves as an important collective warning against future offenses. But was the timing right in this case?
The House definitely made a diplomatic leap in the wrong direction and the concerns President Bush expressed last week raise a valid point: “With all these pressing responsibilities, one thing Congress should not be doing is sorting out the historical record of the Ottoman Empire.”
Addressing the killing of Armenians during WWI in this highly visible, political way is a cause best championed another day. Turkey is a valuable ally, both because of its geographical location and its political climate in the current worldwide campaign for stability in the Middle East.
Furthermore, Turkey will necessarily be called to resolve this issue in the near future as it continues to gain worldwide importance and seek membership in the European Union.
Turkey lies at the geographical crossroads between East and West. In many ways, the country has much more in common politically with the West than with its Middle Eastern neighbors, founded as it were on Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s campaign for a modern, secular state.
Turkey, a NATO member, has continued to serve as a strategic ally for the United States in the Iraq war, in particular through maintaining thousands of U.S. Air Force personnel at Incirlik Air Base and holding key supply routes open across the Turkey-Iraq border.
Given the widespread unpopularity of western politics and culture in the Middle East, it seems highly imprudent to now antagonize a key ally.
This is not to say that the Armenian genocide issue should not be raised ““ it absolutely must be addressed ““ but at the right time and through the appropriate diplomatic avenues.
Inevitably, as Turkey continues to develop importance politically and economically, it will have to tackle issues of human rights.
House members anxious to address the concerns of their Armenian-American constituents will likely not need to be patient for long.
Turkey continues to actively seek European Union membership, a process that will surely provide opportunities for U.S. commentary. This will then hopefully be perceived as encouragement for Turkey to conform to the European Union and western ideas about human rights.
Tingstad is a graduate student in the geography department.