Why is Nancy Pelosi trying to hurt our relationship with Turkey?

Question

nancy and other liberals are trying to pass this genocide bill so that turks would be pissed off and end the basing rights we have in their country......going after the president is one thing but now these liberals are trying to hurt our relationships with other nations.......not to mention that it would be extremely hard to keep turks out of northern iraq after this sh*t hits the fan. How come we don't hear about this on CNN and CBS so liberals know whats going on.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/071014/usa/us_politics_turkey_armenia_iraq_genocide_1

Answer 1

Maybe you aren't aware that the Congress has tried to pass similar resolutions a number of times in the past, including times when the U.S. was not conducting operations in Iraq, and times when Bill Clinton was in office (who was also opposed to the resolution). The difference now is that the Turks have something big to hold against the U.S.: basing and overflight rights in support of the Iraq war, and an interest in conducting their own operations in northern Iraq (to the detriment of the U.S.). This resolution is not an attempt to undermine the war; rather, it's business as usual: members of Congress who are trying to please their constituents, who are opposed to the Armenian genocide in particular or genocide in general. Some of these constituents are liberal humanists, others are members or supporters of the Armenian diaspora. You don't have to be a liberal to oppose genocide. (Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) on this issue: "Friends don't let friends commit crimes against humanity.")

Countries only become allies because of cultural ties and/or mutual interest. With the Turks and the U.S., it's the latter. The Turks allied with the U.S. during the Cold War because the Americans protected them from the Soviets. In return, the Americans got a forward military presence right at the southern gate to the Soviet Union. Even now, the U.S. desires an ally at the gates to the Middle East. In return the Turks get money and weapons. But don't believe for a second that their alliance with the U.S. trumps their own self-interest in suppressing the Kurdish rebellion. They have been looking for an excuse to do it, and now they can claim they're doing it because of the genocide resolution. But a resolution is just words, and that claim is just politics. It's just an excuse for the Turks to do what they wanted to do all along (and likely would have done, sooner or later), and throw the blame back at the U.S.

The real question is whether the U.S. is powerless against Turkey, or whether the U.S. is willing and able to play hardball too.

Answer 2

There are still people alive who survived genocide, and in almost every Armenian family ancestors were killed. That's what they want; the more time passes, the less people are alive, the more far away event it seems. The world was trying to make us forget it, well, we tried, but we can't. We don't have graves, we don't have houses, we don't have the land our ancestors lived and were killed in. We are either facing mountain Ararat, our symbol, which is now in Turkey, or we are spread all over the wolrd becauase of Genocide, so we can't forget. Neither should you. We want fairness, we seek justice, we don't want revenge. Yeah, it was long time ago, and yeah, now it is other govenemnt in Turkey, but the fact it denies what happened, if it misleads its own nation and still raises hatred, makes us wonder if it will plan to repeat it some day again, to finish its "business". We were the victims, the world knows what happened, but the Turkish government doesn't want to admit it, it backs up its past criminal government, and backing up as well as being silent to the crime is a crime as well, isn't it? The world didn't prevent it, the world was pretty much silent after Soviet Union was formed (part of Armenia was forcibely joined to SU), now it awakenes little by little, since genocidal events keeps taking place all arounf the world.
I don't know the real reason behind nowdays activity in US, although I hope it's because at least half of the people governing US still have high moral standards besides practical rationalism.
Also if new government is not in charge at all for the things the previous one did, then what if some state will decide to attack some country or massacre other nation, and then it will change its governemt (by "orange revolution" or military coup, whatever) and say, we are clean, that's not we. The killer who changed its name, is still a killer, right? But the killer, who admits its guilt and sincerely is sorry for what happened can be forgiven, although what happened can't be forgotten.
There should be some international supressing factors limiting freedom of governments/states to act however way it wants with other nations/states. And US, being one of the powerful countries in the world, and the carrier of high values, should show strictly its position. Truth is truth, and one should be able to say it both to enemy and friend, no matter how painful it is. And if it is really friend with common sense, it should not blackmail instead by hitting as painful as it can.
Hey, remember the founding fathers of yours, it seems that nowdays you are forgetting the rootes and the meaning of your country. Just walk and read the few things your best governors and citizens said, written in the memorials and monuments in DC; maybe you will also be enlightened...

Answer 3

I LOVE how these naive liberal parrots on here just come in and say "it was genocide" and "they need to feel bad about what they did"

First of all.. it was nearly 100 years ago.
NO ONE IS ALIVE TODAY THAT WAS IN TURKEY THEN!

I'm so sick of this 'apologizing for one's ancestors' crap. Get over it, already. What happened centuries ago, happened. There is no changing it.
NO ONE owes an apology for something THEY didn't do!

Comparing Saddam to Turkey, therefore, is STUPID!
Saddam DID do the killing.
None of the Turks alive today DID the killing.
Get it?
I hope so. I don't know how much clearer I can make it.

But then again, if you're dumb enough NOT to see WHY this was done and that it has NOTHING to do with Armenians... and everything to do with crippling the supply lines to the troops...

I move for a vote of no confidence in the House and Senate Democrats and call for a recall of them all. Nancy Pelosi should have been forced to resign after she committed treason by taking an unsanctioned trip to Syria under the guise of being authorized to represent the US and delivered a lie about Israel. Harry Reid should be made to resign for using his position in Congress to misquote a private citizen and then try to get a resolution passed to condemn him.
Funny thing is, even with a majority in the Senate, he couldn't get a majority vote. Pathetic, that one is.
Get rid of the moveon.org radical idiots and bring in some sensible people or just dissolve the Democratic Party altogether.
At this point, it's either a joke or a travesty of Democracy.

Answer 4

Admittedly the Armenian Genocide was long ago, but Turkey continually denies that it even happened, saying it was only a war and was massively blown out of proportion. Ask a German if the Holocaust was true and they will admit it right off and say it was a horrible thing. Turkey is just trying to deny it and even is hiding and changing evidence of the crime. It was long ago, (But not 100 years) but still very wrong. If they cannot admit their mistake, it only makes it more likely to happen again, this time the Kurds maybe. Hurting relations based on this is very appropriate.

Answer 5

And exactly what does this resolution about a 93-year old situation solve? History books already call it a genocide; do we really need our worthless Congress to pass a non-binding resolution just to piss the Turks off?

I don't think I've ever seen a better indication of how clueless the Democrats in Congress really are.

Sure we can't find something to condemn the Holy Roman Empire and the Hanseatic League?

Answer 6

How do you hurt a relationship with a bought friend? Turkey is their own worst enemy. do you realize that Turkey has tried to wipe out the Kurds for years,Kurds even fought along side the Armenians.

added. There are Kurds alive today that are victims of attempted genocide and have seen famoly killed by Turks. Saddam killed kurds,we accpted it as long as he was our ally. Once we invaded he got the death penalty for it. Turks have killed more Kurds than Saddam did.

Answer 7

Turkey is an important ally in the Iraq war. Pelosi wants to undermine the war effort and then blame it on Bush, is how I see it. The Dem's hatred for Bush is more important than the troops, the country, or the world.

Answer 8

Because she is not a hatchling, although she regularly lies. She is not of the planet Brain Surgery. She prefers less saratonin.

Pelosi must be stopped.

All invaders from the planet Brain Surgery and their hatchlings must lie, cheat and steal to stop Pelosi from lowering the Earth's saratonin level.

Ronnie god is Great!

Answer 9

OK 1 more time
The B**** is a freaking idiot willing to ruin a relationship with an Allie to get some votes.
Somebody really needs to check the water out there

Answer 10

Passing meaningless nonbinding resolutions is congress's way of ducking important issues and screwing around to give people the impression they're actually doing something useful.

Congress should listen to this advice, either lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way.