The line to get into this afternoon's House committee hearing on whether to say Turkey committed genocide during World War I was down the hall and around the corner.
When staffers opened the door, the room filled with Turks wearing white stickers saying, "NO to H.R. 106," and Armenians wearing green stickers that said, "Yes to H.R. 106."
A staffer had to start kicking people out, sending them to an overflow room, and another staffer fought with a Turkish man over seats.
Four older women in wheelchairs sat at the front of the room, wearing stickers that said, "I am a survivor of the Armenian genocide."
Sirarpi Khoyan, wearing a green jacket and skirt, was 102 years old and sat in her wheelchair eating yogurt.
"Mine is a very important story," she said.
Mrs. Khoyan was born in Istanbul, and told the story of helping to pick lice out of a boy's head whose village had been massacred.
In 1918, when she was 13, her father brought her and her siblings to America for a vacation. Her brother warned her father not to come back, and they stayed in America.
Was Turkey's persecution of the Armenians from 1915 to 1923 genocide?
"Of course it was. There's no two ways about it," said Mrs. Khoyan.
Abrurrahman Bezirkan, president of the Young Turks Cultural Aid Society, Inc., felt differently.
"The whole country of Turkey is waiting for this hearing," said Mr. Bezirkan, who lives in New Jersey.
He said it was important to the country to remain allies with the U.S., and said the idea of genocide was "propaganda" and a blackmail scheme by "the Armenian lobby to get some money."
-- Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times
Comments (5)
The genocide did happen and it's time to teach a lesson to Turkey that they can't blackmail us. Because of their denial to let our troops open the northern front we have more casualties amongst our troops. They did commit a genocide and they must recognize it, apologize for it and move on, for Christ's sake.
Posted by Jack | October 10, 2007 3:44 PM
Yes, the Turks have committed genocide, killing 1.5 million Armenians as well 1m Greeks in Asian Minor during the years of 1915 to 1923 and currently are abusing the freedoms of non-Muslim religious such the Catholic Christians as well the Orthodox Christians.
Posted by Basil L Joannou | October 10, 2007 3:57 PM
Finally!!!! It's about time this was recognized!!!
Posted by Steph | October 10, 2007 5:42 PM
it was a war and not a genocide.
Posted by newyorks | October 10, 2007 9:44 PM
With due deference to the Armenian genocide issue, the legislation itself is a red herring. The timing of the vote on HR 106 is concurrent with the escalating tensions between Turkey and the PKK faction in northern Iraq. The main stream media will never connect the dots, but this is a provocation by NATO to induce Turkey to cross the Rubicon and occupy the Kurdish area of Syria, northern Iraq and northern Iran. Once this accelerates and intensifies it effectively cuts the land re-supply line from Iran to Syria and Lebanon. With the massive NATO armada massed in the Eastern Mediterranean in response to UN Resolution 1705 and the Anglo-American navy presence in the Gulf of Oman, it's a safe bet that the chessboard has been set for an aerial bombardment campaign against Iran. HR 106 has been invoked to galvanize Turkish sentiment to support a military engagement in northern Iraq.
Posted by PJ | October 14, 2007 9:24 AM