Calling a spade a spade

This just in from the BBC.

Melancholicus is pleased that the US House of Representatives has voted to recognize the brutal slaughter in 1915-17 of one and a half million Armenian men, women and children for what it was: genocide.

Congress has not received the support of the White House. In declaring itself “very disappointed” by the congressional vote, the Bush administration has chosen instead to sacrifice human rights and the truth of history for the sake of short-term political expediency, as the US military relies upon Turkish co-operation and the provision of logistics for its operations in Iraq.

The Turks, needless to add, are frothing with fury. They have already recalled their ambassador from Washington, and further petty acts of disgruntlement are sure to follow.

Turkey would win our respect — and that of many throughout the world, both nations and individuals — by simply admitting its fault and acknowledging the truth of what was done. She would not even have to apologize — Melancholicus takes a low view of such apologies anyway, since no-one in the present Turkish administration bears any personal responsibility for the genocide, and one cannot apologize on behalf of someone else. Simply to acknowledge the truth would be sufficient.

But instead, the Turks are howling and protesting with indignation. It is a most distasteful spectacle. In Germany, to deny the Nazi holocaust is a crime. But in Turkey, one may not even allude to the terrible fate suffered by the Armenian people ninety years ago without drawing down on oneself the unfriendly attention of the authorities and a spell in a Turkish jail.

The Daily Mail has an excellent article on the Armenian genocide here. [Warning: graphic content]

That this unrepentant nation is being considered for possible admission to the European Union is most alarming. Should the foolish politicians that govern the EU proceed with such an insane scheme, the consequences will be calamitous. It can have no more dire effect than to further the islamicization of Europe. What the Mohammedans failed to achieve by military might in 1683 and 1917 they can now accomplish by dint of diplomacy and the steady pressure of demographics.