Was Armenian Genocide Res. attempt to get Hastert off the hook?

[cascadiance]

Yesterday the House International Relations Committee just passed on a bipartisan basis the Armenian Genocide resolution that had earlier gotten tabled when Dennis Hastert had pulled it off of the table "since he received a letter from Clinton asking him not to in interest of keeping good relations with Turkey". Armenians were very excited about this passage...

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.culture.armenian/browse_thread/thread/5ea1c6acc63eb81a/32d99b3bd15ae946?lnk=st&q=&rnum=1&hl=en#32d99b3bd15ae946

News report on this:

http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_3034642

Last month, a Vanity Fair article on Sibel Edmonds alleged that Hastert didn't pull this legislation off of the table at an earlier time during the Clinton years because of a concern for Turkish relations, but because he'd been bribed to do so by a certain group of Turks that put in potentially close to $500,000 of small amount undocumented contributions to persuade him not to do so.

Well, in my mind an Armenian Genocide resolution by the U.S. Congress is a separate issue and has its own merits and concerns to deal with, and I'm not sold one way or the other on it as I have concerns on both sides with it.

However, what concerns me is that I wonder if this is an attempt by the Republicans to later be able to say that "Now everything is OK! We've gotten the vote done now that everyone was concerned about. Dennis Hastert has now redeemed himself." should Hastert let it go through. I would hope that we DON'T accept this cheap attempt to perhaps brush Hastert's bribery wrongdoing under the table and still look into it for what it is... Making this government "for sale"! It's perhaps a cheap attempt to take Armenian pressure off of this investigation (since now they have more what they want and don't view Hastert as a big evil that needs to be brought down any more). Earlier, some articles such as this one:

http://www.azg.am/?lang=EN&num=2005090601

indicated growing Armenian activism against Hastert, and indicated that their documentation and knowledge of what went on during the earlier vote would be useful in pursuing a more comprehensive investigation of Hastert's actions. Now I wonder if this activism may have been "bought off" by giving Armenians a greater prize than Hastert's head in their attempts to get this to pass congress now. I hope not, and I'd challenge the American Armenian community to continue to help us pursue the wrongdoing in this earlier case with equal fervor, which in my mind is just as much or more important than passage of the genocide resolution itself (though they might disagree with me on this)... Shutting down corruption in our government now is SO important! Especially given the chance that Bush and Cheney might be impeached, the man in question behind these allegations might even become our president in the coming year or two makes it that much more important!

Please do NOT let Dennis Hastert off the hook! If possible have your congressmen on the floor discussing this resolution bring up their concerns about the earlier rumors of bribery and that a separate investigation should be made in concert with passage of this bill and NOT have any investigation be tabled as a result of passage of this bill!

[eissa]

1. I can tell you with 100% certainty

that there is nothing "more important" to the Armenian community than the passage of this bill. For those of us affected by the genocide, this is nearly a century overdue. Having said that, I'm almost positive that the community would still STRONGLY support an investigation into the accusations against Hastert as this has been a common practice for the Turkish government (bribing American politicians.)

[cascadiance]

2. Thanks...

I know the genocide resolution has been a very high priority item for Armenians, and I'm sympathetic to their concerns in that area... Certainly over time, one can see how this is "the" momentous issue for Armenians that they've worked on for years. But I do feel that bringing Hastert to justice for his earlier actions is perhaps even more important tactically for the moment in ensuring the survival of our Democracy in the wake of the onslaught against it by those in power now here. In talking with at least one Armenian yesterday (who's perhaps not as to the left politically as the rest of us here are), I'm concerned about losing the resolve from people like him to continue to pressure Hastert on the issue of his bribes. Hopefully there are many Armenians out there like yourself that won't be sidetracked in their pursuit against seeking justice against Hastert by this legislation getting passed. We need more people like yourself emphasizing that to your Armenian friends and family and other non-Armenian friends as well!

[eissa]

3. Just make it a Turkish issue

rather than a left vs. right issue. Most of the Armenians and Assyrians that I know are politically conservative. So I just stress the Turks' role in all this by emphasizing how they have attempted to buy off votes in the past, which held up this legislation that they have fought so hard for. And now they have been exposed.

[cascadiance]

4. As someone who lived in Turkey as a child...

and who knows quite a few decent Turkish people too, I try to not make it an issue like that where everyone Turkish is "indicted". Sibel Edmonds is an example of someone who's decent and puts doing what's right ahead of getting overly partisan in these issues. I think from the sounds of the Hastert incident, that the Turks and their government, much like our corrupt government now (as well as Israel, which has been implicated in many related issues here with the AIPAC spy investigation, etc.) there are a lot of bad apples in control and part of a large "crime organization" menace that needs to be cleaned out for all of our benefit.

I would think if you cleaned out the criminal elements here as well as Turkey, that you might be able to build momentum to have more constructive resolution towards issues for Armenians too, since one would hope getting rid of the bad apples in Turkey might pave the way for more constructive dialogue with less corrupt people in both governments. But I'd like to avoid labelling Turks and Israelis all being bad based on the actions of a number of bad apples we've been seeing recently (which we publicly still don't know the extent of these bad apples in these governments yet), just like I hope the rest of the world community can forgive us once we expose the crimes of the Bush family and their cronies once we get rid of them too and let us work with the world more later when this is done.

[eissa]

5. Perhaps I should have clarified

by saying "Turkish government" rather than just "Turks" as I do share your sentiments regarding the Turkish population. It's not the fault of the people that their government only teaches their version of events in schools, and therefore they've never learned the truth of what happened during the early days of WWI. My cousins recently visited Turkey and enjoyed it immensely -- said it's a beautiful country with friendly people.