Turkish government is fearful of the truth

 April 24, 2011 - 15:53 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Every year on April 24, the President of the United States issues a statement commemorating the annihilation of the Armenians that began on that evening in Constantinople (now Istanbul) with the arrest of 250 of their cultural leaders. They were sent to prison to be tortured, and most were killed, Peter Balakian writes in the article titled “Don't forget Armenia: On anniversary of genocide, President must press Turkey to admit to its crimes.”

“Every year, Armenians around the world look to the American President to use the accurate term for the mass killing of the Armenian population: genocide. Every year, a President says everything he can about the meaning of the event, but stops short of using that word because the Turkish government, fearful of the truth, employs every possible tactic to dissuade the President from speaking it,” says the article published by NYDailyNews.

“Coercion works, because Turkey is a consequential ally, and our government has not been able to muster the moral courage to do what many countries around the world have done: Make an official statement of recognition of the Armenian genocide. Such statements - by Canada, Uruguay, France, Russia, Poland, Greece, Lebanon, Sweden and so on - have been made not to legislate history, but only to affirm what is a clear, resolved historical record and to make what might be called a redress to official Turkish denial. It seems perfectly clear that the 21 countries that have made such resolutions find Turkey's aggressive efforts of denial ethically repugnant and unacceptable for a NATO member that also aspires to European Union admission.”

Balakian is the author of "The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response." He teaches at Colgate University.