EU-DIGEST

Labels: Armenians, EU

Michael Rubin on Armenian Genocide - it's amateur hour in the US Congress

Last week, a congressional committee passed a resolution condemning the Armenian genocide. There is no doubt that up to a million Armenians died during World War I, although historians still debate whether their deaths constitute deliberate genocide or are collateral casualties of war.For Congress, though, the resolution was less about rectifying history than grandstanding. House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Lantos (D., Cal.) called a vote. It passed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) pooh-poohed the episode. This was not about Turkey, she explained, but rather “about the Ottoman Empire.” Unclear, though, is why congressional Democrats felt the urgent need to condemn an entity that hasn’t existed for 85 years.

The resolution, while important to the Armenian-American community — perhaps less so to Armenians living in Armenia who worry much more about economic development — also raises a host of questions about how Congress picks and chooses which atrocities to weigh in on.Will the House Foreign Affairs Committee condemn Beijing for the millions who perished during the Cultural Revolution? Or bring Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Masud Barzani to justice for ordering the disappearance and summary executions of perhaps 3,000 Kurds during the 1994-1997 Kurdish civil war. This is not to suggest that such cases should not be pursued. But, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is not the place to pursue such historical investigations; universities are. It’s amateur hour in the US Congress.

Labels: Armenians, Turks, US Congress

Turkey Punishes France for Recognizing Armenian Massacre

Turkey, reacting to a French bill on the World War I massacre of Armenians, has suspended talks with Gaz de France (GDF) on the French firm's possible participation in a major pipeline project, the Anatolia news agency reported Thursday. Turkey's energy ministry and the state-owned oil and gas company BOTAS, which is part of the Nabucco consortium building the pipeline, refused to comment on the report.

The five-company consortium plans to build a 3,300-kilometre (2,000-mile) pipeline that will carry natural gas from the Middle East and Central Asia to the European Union via Turkey and the Balkans, bypassing Russia. The other partners in the venture are Austria's oil and gas group OMV, Hungary's MOL, Bulgaria's Bulgargaz and Romania's Transgaz.

Labels: Armenians, EU, France, Gas Supplies, Pipeline, Turkey