The Young Turks

   And what about the Assyrians who were living in Urmia in what was then northern Persia. Ottoman Turks destroyed their villages and murderd thousands. My grandfather lost most of his family. My mother was born in a British refugee camp fleeing the massacre.

    Oh yeah, that's right we had an empire that controlled most of the known world ruthlessly with chariots at the point of a spear. Never mind.

    The roman alphabet is limiting, but here goes. Shlamaluch... yo. Surai!

No one goes around denying the Holocaust. No one denies whatever terrible thing the Armenians did in the past. But it has always been denied that the Armenian Genocide took place, and that's foolish. It another historical event that the American government hides in light of their precious political allies.

I would love to see the YOUR reaction if someone wrote a blog insisting that we don't recognize the holocaust. You would freak out because that's an incredibly ignorant, careless, and hateful notion. It's something that DID happen in the past and people recognize. So what makes your blog any different? It's just as ignorant and careless.

And before you go around putting Armenians on blast...do your damn research and see what they are asking for. You act as though passing the bill will effect you in some uncalled-for negative way...which is not the case.

Don't let us yank your chain Ana (remember how Contessa gripes about her song and Jayar keeps playing it?).  Lawmakers seem to have a great deal of trouble labeling certain events as "genocide," just like they can't call what our economy is doing "a recession."  Why is that exactly?  I admit that I am completely ignorant of this part of history, but I still have this gut feeling that this type of thing exacerbates division and nationalistic impulses, and that the list of horrible events humans have done to each other is limitless.  I feel the same about Israel using the Holocaust to justify everything they do.  And I KNOW the Holocaust now--I just finished watching the seven-hour Shoah documentary.

I am open to being educated on how this might help repair relations between these peoples.  Maybe I just don't have any personal experience in something like this.  I have no real knowledge of what my European ancestors went through.  But the whole demonstration thing against Turks sounds wacky to me, and not likely very productive to peace.  Enlighten me!  

David

Of course Turkey should acknowledge the deaths, but was it genocide? The Armenians were not entirely innocent victims. They had the Russian army behind them.

The history is much more complicated than the 20 ft hot air balloon I see every year in front of the Armenian old folks' home, with a banner saying "1 million Armenians killed by the Turks". There were nearly that many Turks killed too. It was during the last throes of their empire, which was falling apart all around them--a hellish time for all sides. Perhaps when Armenians and Turks can talk about the entire history and can empathize, then both will resolve their ongoing antipathy. After all they're mostly the same people anyway.

Turkey has been a crossroads for thousands of years. Many Turks and Armenians have intermarried. They're separated by religion more than anything--ethnically they are very similar, whether they want to admit it or not (and they don't). Nothing should be forgotten, but both sides can build a safer future by putting the hostilities aside while learning from them.

Blood feuds seem to go on forever, like in a Doonesbury comic earlier this year.

Pelosi will perfectly point out whether or not what happened to the Armenians was genocide.

http://youtube.com/watch?v= T3Y96DzaniA&feature=rel ated