"End Turkey's Gag Rule" Campaign

After hearing about the “genocide” bill that is being passed before Congress, yesterday in class, I browsed through a few online news articles and came across an interesting organization, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). Just yesterday, ANCA launched a range of grassroots, media, advertising, and advocacy projects to encourage Congress to pass the Armenian Genocide Bill. ANCA started its “End Turkey’s Gag Rule” campaign to advocate the U.S. government to learn from the Armenian Genocide in order to prevent crimes against humanity. On the other side, the Turkish government fights with as much vigor as ANCA to, instead, prevent the passing of the “genocide” bill. Turkey has warned the U.S. of the damage that would be inflicted on their relations if the bill were passed. Interestingly, Turkey stated that the bill would also be damaging towards the efforts by Turkey and Armenia to normalize ties. However, in reality, the least the Turkish government could do to reconcile with the Armenians would be to acknowledge and stand accountable for their past actions. In addition, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said, “We want to believe that the Committee members will act responsibly.” This issue raises the conflict of choosing between political and moral goals. In my opinion, the statements released by Turkey have a tone of intimidation. Turkey is trying to use political threats to prevent the U.S. from making a moral stand. As ANCA’s slogan states, “Who decides when America speaks on genocide? You should…not a foreign government.” As we have seen in numerous works of literature this year, making the morally right choice can interfere with one’s personal interests, and in many cases, it is harder to do the right thing.

Sources: http://www.anca.org/endthegagrule/

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6202CB20100301?type=politicsNews