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Jewish World Review
Oct. 16, 2007
/ 4 Mar-Cheshvan 5768
Security before belief
By
Ed Koch
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
When I was a child, I read "The Forty Days at Musa Dagh" by
Franz Werfel, a fictionalized account of actual events, which told the
story of how the Turks persecuted and killed Armenians in 1915. From
that time on, I was on the side of the Armenians and against the Turks.
This was back in the days before the word "genocide" had
entered our vocabulary. To this day, I still believe the Turks killed
1.5 million Armenians because of tribalism and their hatred of
Christians. In 1915, during World War I, the Ottoman Empire was on the
side of the German Empire, then led by Kaiser Wilhelm II. At its high
point, the Ottoman Empire stretched from Greece to Egypt and everything
in between, including Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and
the coastal strip of North Africa
When I was in Congress from 1969 through 1977, I joined with
Ben Rosenthal (D-NY), who is now deceased, John Brademas (D-IN) and Paul
Sarbanes (D-MD) as one of those supporting the Rosenthal amendment which
called on Congress to cut off military aid to Turkey unless it removed
its invading army from Cyprus. A coup in Cyprus had endangered the
Turkish minority on that island and precipitated the Turkish invasion
and the establishment of a Turkish controlled area in the north of the
island.
Let me digress for a moment and relate a short anecdote
which appears in my book, "Politics." "When the Rosenthal amendment was
ratified by the House, Rosenthal, Brademas, Sarbanes and me were invited
by the Greek Patriarch of North and South America, Archbishop Iakovos,
now deceased, to his birthday party held in Manhattan and attended by
more than a thousand guests at which Paul Sarbanes and John Brademas
were to be honored. Well, the star was Rosenthal. When he came in, the
place erupted. You had a thousand Greeks in there. It would be like a
thousand Jews on something involving Israel of momentous importance to
them. The Rosenthal Amendment had carried at that point, and I've never
seen such a response for the size of the group. It was wonderful. And
Rosenthal made one of the best speeches I've ever heard. It was a very
short one. He said, 'I was wondering what I would say here tonight, and
I thought I'd tell you a story. You're probably not going to appreciate
it in the way that it's meant, but I'm going to tell you anyway.' He
said, 'I had lunch with my mother, who lives in New York, today; and she
asked me what I was doing tonight, so I said, 'I'm going to a dinner,
Mama, that will honor two of my friends in Congress, John Brademas and
Paul Sarbanes. And, you know, Mama, they're probably the two smartest
men in Congress.' My mother said, 'Are they Jewish?' and I said, 'No,
Mama, they're not Jewish - they're Greek.' My mother said, 'Are you
sure they're not Jewish?' I thought a moment and then I said to my
mother, 'Mama, I think they're half Jewish' And then he said to this
crowd, holding out his hands, 'Tonight I'm half Greek.' And the place
erupted in cheers and applause. I think it's the best story I've ever
heard for an audience of that kind. It was wonderful, just wonderful."
Now back to the present. Last week, the House Foreign
Affairs Committee led by Chairman Tom Lantos, voted 27-21 to denounce
the slaughter of the Armenians in 1915 as an act of genocide by the
Turks. The Turks have always taken the position that the killing of
Armenians on their eastern border - their border with Russia, then on
the side of the allies in World War I - occurred because, they alleged,
the Armenians sided with the Russians, thereby committing treason
against the country in which they lived, the Ottoman Empire. In support
of their defense against committing an act of genocide, they point to
the fact that Armenians living in Constantinople, then capital of the
Ottoman Empire, were not killed.
The Turks now in a newly created country - formed in 1917
led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who secularized a then theocratic Islamic
remnant of the Ottoman Empire, wanting to establish a new Turkey that
included all minorities to be equally treated in a democratic state,
made it illegal to disparage the new state.
The Turkish government, enraged at the action of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee, has threatened retaliation if the Congress,
both House and Senate, passes a final resolution. The retaliation
threatened is to close the port in Turkey which permits the entry of 30
percent of all U.S. fuel used for military vehicles in Iraq and the
closure of the Turkish airport through which a large part of U.S.
military supplies are airlifted for use in Iraq.
On my Bloomberg radio program, I
gave my position on the issue and entered into a dialogue with a young
man who identified himself as Armenian. I said that while I still
believed what the Turks did in 1915 was an act of genocide, I would not
have voted for the resolution, because it endangers the security of
American troops and simply provides the Armenians with a political
victory and nothing else. Therefore, it is not worth the danger the
Congressional action will cause to American troops. While we did not
get into it in this discussion, I have on other occasions stated my
support for using American troops to defend the people of Darfur in the
Sudan from suffering genocide which is occurring today. I also
mentioned on the program that during my tenure as a Congressman, I did
not sufficiently appreciate how valued an American ally the Turks had
become.
I regretted my failure to appreciate their positive role as our
ally, particularly at a time when Greece was hostile to both the U.S.
and Israel, while Turkey was friendly and supportive to both the U.S.
and Israel.
My listener was surprised, he said, at my position on the
resolution. I replied that the paramount duty of all Americans is to
safeguard the wellbeing of American troops in Iraq. That comes before
all other considerations in my judgment. He responded that he did not
believe they would be endangered.
I disagree and don't think we should
chance it.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Edward I. Koch, the former mayor of New York, can be heard on Bloomberg Radio (WBBR 1130 AM) every Sunday from 9-10 am . Comment by clicking here.
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© 2007, Ed Koch
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