Armenian and Indian genocides

Obama was just in Turkey, which got people talking about the Armenian genocide again. Here are some thoughts on the subject:

Telling the Truth About the Armenian Genocide

We must resist Turkish pressure to distort history.Even before President Barack Obama set off on his visit to Turkey this week, there were the usual voices urging him to dilute the principled position that he has so far taken on the Armenian genocide. April is the month in which the Armenian diaspora commemorates the bloody initiation, in 1915, of the Ottoman Empire's campaign to erase its Armenian population. The marking of the occasion takes two forms: Armenian Remembrance Day, on April 24, and the annual attempt to persuade Congress to name that day as one that abandons weasel wording and officially calls the episode by its right name, which is the word I used above.

President Obama comes to this issue with an unusually clear and unambivalent record. In 2006, for example, the U.S. ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, was recalled for employing the word genocide. Then-Sen. Obama wrote a letter of complaint to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, deploring the State Department's cowardice and roundly stating that the occurrence of the Armenian genocide in 1915 "is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence." On the campaign trail last year, he amplified this position, saying that "America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides. I intend to be that president."Obama's Unique Diplomacy:  Look at Me[Obama] urged Turkey to come to terms with the Armenian genocide and to normalize relations with Armenia. "Each country must work through its past." he said. And he indirectly pointed to himself:

The United States is still working through some of our own darker periods in our history. Facing the Washington Monument that I spoke of is a memorial of Abraham Lincoln, the man who freed those who were enslaved even after Washington led our Revolution. Our country still struggles with the legacies of slavery and segregation, the past treatment of Native Americans.

Then when Obama called for good relations between the West and the Muslim world, he did the same thing:

I also want to be clear that America's relationship with the Muslim community, the Muslim world, cannot, and will not, just be based upon opposition to terrorism. We seek broader engagement based on mutual interest and mutual respect. We will listen carefully, we will bridge misunderstandings, and we will seek common ground. We will be respectful, even when we do not agree. We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world--including in my own country. The United States has been enriched by Muslim Americans. Many other Americans have Muslims in their families or have lived in a Muslim-majority country--I know, because I am one of them.

The Turkish legislators applauded.Comment:  I bet the Turkish legislators wouldn't have applauded if Obama's comments hadn't been so oblique.

The last part of this posting isn't about genocide per se. But it shows that Obama has a multicultural perspective. He's willing to see the good (Islamic contributions to civilization) and bad (Turkish genocide of Armenians) in different cultures.

Of course, Obama hasn't been that forceful in denouncing the genocide of Native Americans. He usually couches it in terms of "treatment," "wrongs," or "tragedy." In fact, I'm not sure he's ever explicitly said the US was guilty of genocide against its indigenous inhabitants.