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> > Obama and the Denial of Genocide > Stephen Zunes > Huffington Post > March 11, 2010 > > clip -- > > The Obama administration, citing its relations with Turkey, has pledged to > block the passage in the full House of Representatives of a resolution > passed this past Thursday by the Foreign Relations Committee acknowledging > the 1915 genocide by the Ottoman Empire of a 1.5 million Armenians. Even > though the Obama administration previously refused to acknowledge and even > worked to suppress well-documented evidence of recent war crimes by Israel, > another key Middle Eastern ally, few believed that the administration would > go as far as to effectively deny genocide. > > Following the committee vote, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced > that "We are against this decision," and pledged that the administration > would "work very hard" to prevent the bill from coming to the floor. Despite > widespread support for the resolution by House Democrats, she expressed > confidence that the > administration would find a means of blocking the resolution, saying, "Now > we believe that the U.S. Congress will not take any decision on this > subject." > > As candidates, both Clinton and Barack Obama had pledged that their > administrations would be the first to formally recognize the Armenian > genocide. Clinton acknowledged that this was a reversal, but insisted that > circumstances had "changed in very significant ways." The State Department, > however, has been unable to cite any new historical evidence that would > counter the broad consensus that genocide had indeed taken place in the > waning years of the Ottoman Empire. The official excuse is that it might > harm an important rapprochement between Armenia and Turkey. However, there > is no indication the Armenian government is at all concerned about potential > negative fallout in their bilateral relations over a resolution passed by a > legislative body in a third country. > > More likely, the concern is over not wanting to jeopardize the cooperation > of Turkey, which borders Iran, in the forthcoming enhanced sanctions against > the Islamic republic. > > full - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-zunes/obama-and-the-denial-of-g_b_495548.html ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
