92-YEAR-OLD GENOCIDE UPDATE

Plenty of recent news on the politics-of-Armenian-genocide front.

First, the White House earlier this month finally withdrew its nomination of Richard Hoagland as ambassador to Armenia, after more than a year of New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Menendez putting a "hold" on it, over outrage at Hoagland's refusal to acknowledge the Armenian genocide. (The L.A. Times editorial board supported the hold 13 months ago, and accused President Bush of letting its foreign policy be "dictated by Ankara nationalists.") California Courier editor and man-about-Glendale Harut Sassounian reacts here; Rep. Adam Schiff chips in here, and for a more Turkish view, try here.

Meanwhile, House Resolution 106, otherwise known as the Armenian genocide recognition bill, just got its 227th co-sponsor. The Times has supported this in the past, but not so our sister paper in Baltimore: This is starting to delve into history, which is another way of saying it's not a question that belongs before Congress in 2007. The verbose, pompous (and, yes, pandering) resolution cheapens Armenian history, not the reverse.

But it's also not a matter over which the White House should be issuing a gag order. History is messy and ugly and is best served by free and robust discussion. Americans as well as Turks and Armenians should have the confidence to recognize that.

For an intriguing Armenian-diaspora take against the recognition bill, I can't recommend highly enough this Washington Times op-ed by Garin Hovannisian. Excerpt: As the great grandson of genocide survivors, the grandson of genocide historians, and the son of Armenian repatriates --
though writing, I'm afraid, without the sanction of the generations --I am insulted by that sticker. That Congress "finds" the genocide to be a fact makes the tragedy no more real than its refusal, so far, has made it unreal. Truth does not need a permission slip from the state.

As an heir, moreover, of an American tradition of limited government, I am annoyed that the legislature is poking into a sphere in which it has neither business nor experience: the province of truth. [...]

Congressional symbols of good faith will not do the job. When Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul flies into Washington to smear the resolution as a "real threat to our relationship" and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice slobbers back that Turkey is a "global partner
(that) shares our values," it isn't House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's problem.

Finally, no story about genocide-politics is complete without craven tales of Capitol Hill muckety-mucks-turned lobbyists, so enjoy the rambling apologia of disgraced ex-GOPer Bob Livingston, watch it again with the Armenian National Committee of America's rebuttal, and then grab some popcorn for this New Republic thumbsucker about the lobbying on Capitol Hill, particularly by Turkey's new best friend, the ex-perennial presidential contender Dick Gephardt. Excerpt: While the Turks and Armenians have a long historical memory, Gephardt has an exceedingly short one. A few years ago, he was a working-class populist who cast himself as a tribune of the underdog--including the Armenians. Back in 1998, Gephardt attended a memorial event hosted by the Armenian National Committee of America at which, according to a spokeswoman for the group, "he spoke about the importance of recognizing the genocide." Two years later, Gephardt was one of three House Democrats who co-signed a letter to then House Speaker Dennis Hastert urging Hastert to schedule an immediate vote on a genocide resolution. "We implore you," the letter read, arguing that Armenian-Americans "have waited long enough for Congress to recognize the horrible genocide." Today, few people are doing more than Gephardt to ensure that the genocide bill goes nowhere.