Canada recognizes the Armenian Genocide:
Canada’s House of Commons rejected appeals from Foreign Minister Bill Graham by adopting a resolution to recognize that Turkey, Canada’s ally in NATO, committed genocide in Armenia in 1915.
The 301-seat House of Commons voted 153 to 68 in favour of the resolution, thanks to support from many members of the governing Liberal Party. Several MPs said Graham had asked them to vote down the measure during closed-door Liberal meetings.
The motion recognized Turkey’s alleged genocide as “a crime against humanity.”
It’s about time.
Tell me something: why is denying the Holocaust a despicable hate crime, but denying the Armenian Genocide “smart politics”?
A million and a half lives were wiped out. Why are governments so afraid to say so?
I know some of you will probably post angry messages and comments here, telling me I’m only looking at one side of the picture and that Turkey’s position is that there was a multi-faction war going on, and that no genocide occurred, and blah blah blah.
Yeah, and the gas chambers were just showers, right?
The fragile situation in the Middle East, coupled with the fact that Turkey is a member of NATO and one of the few countries in the region that has a friendly peace with Israel, has meant that this issue keeps getting pushed back onto the back burner. We can’t piss off our friends cause we have to deal with our enemies, right?
Wrong.
You don’t fight evil in the world by turning a blind eye. You fight evil by denouncing it. And it’s never too late to do the right thing.
The Canadian House of Commons should be commended for this vote of courage. It’s taken far too long. Here’s hoping more governments will follow suit.
Agreed.
It’s nice when the truth gets acknlowledged.
Next move might be to recognize Taiwan. I think the other day, The Dalei Lama was back in Canada and Mr. Martin let China know that as PM, he’ll decide to meet who he wants to.
Now hopefully, Canada will start being a leader again instead of dull apathetic isolationist.
Money makes the world go round, world go round, world go round…Trade sista’ that’s what’s up! Same with Israel, though Canada at least has the backbone not to recognize Israel’s sovereingty over the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.