Rethinking Turkey's past
Nearly a dozen House members from both parties have withdrawn their support for a resolution calling World War I-era killings of Armenians genocide. Everyone agrees a million Armenians died, said National Review Online, but damaging relations with Turkey
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
What happened
Nearly a dozen House members from both parties this week have withdrawn their support for a resolution calling World War I–era mass killings of Armenians genocide. A group of senior Democrats plan to ask House Speaker Nancy Pelosi not to put the matter to a vote this week as planned to soothe Turkey’s government, which has threatened to cut logistical support for the Iraq war. “Turkey obviously feels they are getting poked in the eye,” said Rep. Allen Boyd, a Florida Democrat.
What the commentators said
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The “frustrating” thing about this kerfuffle is that nobody disputes that more than 1 million Armenians died, said Travis Kavulla in National Review Online’s PhiBetaCons blog. Turkey’s leaders merely assert that their predecessors in charge of the Ottoman Empire weren’t trying to “exterminate” all Armenians, which would be genocide. Lawmakers are actually contemplating jeopardizing the war effort not over “whether killings occurred, but what the killers were thinking when they did it.” How irresponsible.
“Bewildered” lawmakers can’t be expected to sort this out, said historian Norman Stone in the Chicago Tribune. If Armenians could prove their case, they would have taken the matter to “a properly constituted court.” They haven’t, because much of the evidence—including alleged interior ministry telegrams ordering that all Armenians be wiped out—turned out to be forgeries. The best thing for Congress to do is drop the whole thing, and “let historians decide” whether this was genocide.
Washington should concentrate on soothing the Turks, said The Christian Science Monitor in an editorial. “Now is not the time to sacrifice an essential ally in a current war,” especially not over something that happened 90 years ago, “however worthy the reason.”
Congress should drop this “ill-timed and unnecessary resolution” altogether, said the Baltimore Sun in an editorial. Turkey’s threat to crash into Iraq’s oil-rich North to chase Kurdish separatists has already sent oil prices skyrocketing into record territory. Washington should focus on getting Iraqi Kurds from sheltering separatist terrorists to keep the war from spreading, and fueling a new energy crisis.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
Trancoso: a bohemian beach town in Brazil
The Week Recommends This isolated seaside town has an off-the-beaten-track charm
By The Week Staff Published
-
Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 1 October 2023
The Week’s daily digest of the news agenda, published at 8am
By The Week Staff Published
-
Crossword: October 1, 2023
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published