Last week the House Foreign Relations Committee passed a non-binding resolution that declared the killing of more than 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in the years following World War I to have been a genocide. The issue is a particularly sensitive one to Turkey, which despite strong international consensus that the atrocities should be labeled as such, has vociferously resisted classifying the killings as a genocide. Accordingly, if the Foreign Relations Committee's resolution is passed in the House of Representatives, the Turkish government has threatened that U.S.-Turkish relations will be deeply and negatively impacted, and Turkey has already recalled its ambassador to Ankara for "consultations." While the United States has an important moral obligation to acknowledge genocides where they have taken place, and recognizes the massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman-Turks as such, The Miami Student editorial board agrees that this resolution threatens U.S. geostrategic interests in the Middle East and should not be passed.
It is important to note that the United States has a moral responsibility to acknowledge the events, victims and culprits of genocide wherever it has taken or is taking place. The history of the 20th century has demonstrated that despite the international community's ostensible commitment to ensuring that genocide does not take place again, time and again it has lacked the political will to follow through on this duty. Accordingly, the United States must recognize the Armenian genocide, and this is all the more necessary because survivors of these events will soon be lost to old age.
Nevertheless, the timing of the resolution jeopardizes U.S. interests in the region, particularly with regard to Iraq. Turkey has served as an important supply hub, allowing the U.S. to ship fuel and cargo through its airbases. Indeed, roughly 70 percent of U.S. supplies destined for Iraq pass through Turkey. Moreover, Turkey has been considering sending troops into the northern Kurdish regions of Iraq. While the Kurdish areas in Iraq have up till now been among the most stable in the country, Turkey has lost tens of thousands of troops over the course of the past two decades fighting Kurdish separatists within its own borders. Ankara has been increasing its military presence on the Iraq border, and the United States must do everything in its power to prevent a major Turkish military intervention into northern Iraq.
Ultimately, Turkey's strong reaction to the committee's resolution appears to be in part bravado.
Ankara has made it clear that the recall of its ambassador did not indicate the severing of diplomatic relations, and the mutually dependent strategic interests of Turkey and the U.S. hint that, contrary to recent statements from General Yasar Buyukanit, military relations could indeed be reconciled between the two countries.
Nonetheless, in light of the plethora of challenges the United States' faces in Iraq, risking even a temporary breakdown in U.S.-Turkish relations at this critical point in time is not in our interests.
Read More
How one professor and her classes are preserving Oxford’s Black history
By Sean Scott | March 20, 2024Jazma Sutton, an assistant professor of history, teaches The Black Midwest (HST 350Q) and Black Women in America (HST 450D) classes. In both courses, she has students working with the Smith Library of Regional History and Miami’s archives to document and preserve Black history in Oxford.
Miami faculty members recount Freedom Summer in new documentary
By Luke Macy | February 25, 2022After seven years of work, “Training for Freedom,” a documentary highlighting Oxford’s involvement in the Freedom Summer of 1964, premiered on PBS Western Reserve on Valentine’s Day.
“Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic”: History in the making
By Alice Momany | August 29, 2021In March 2020, Miami University’s archives launched “Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic,” a collection focused on life during the COVID-19 pandemic.