This year, on the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, President Obama missed another opportunity to fully acknowledge the reality of that tragedy. Here is what he should have said:
The United States and Turkey share a long friendship and a common history. Our countries were each founded on an idea - that diverse people could be unified based on the ideals of tolerance and inclusiveness. Our alliance was forged in the crucible of the worldwide struggle against totalitarianism. Our alliance is no less vital today than it was 68 years ago as we face the challenge of ISIS as we once faced Soviet Communism.
Our countries also share a common historical trait where we have not always lived up to our ideals. The founding of the United States is inextricably linked with the displacement of the indigenous people whose story represents 98% of the history of humans on our continent. The Europeans who colonized the Americas systematically destroyed the peoples and cultures they encountered. This was a genocide. This genocide continued after the founding of our nation and the adoption of our constitution. The freedoms therein were not protected for the Cherokee, the Sioux, or any other nation of Native Americans. Instead, they faced genocide at the hands of the elected leaders of the United States government.
One hundred years ago, the Armenian people of the Ottoman Empire faced a similar experience. More than a million were killed by Turkish authorities in a campaign of eradication that began with the arrest and later execution of more than 200 Armenian leaders in Istanbul on April 24, 1915. These leaders committed genocide, just as leaders of the United States did. This is an inescapable fact of history, and Armenians and Native Americans have been coping with the effects of these genocides ever since.
These crimes are dark chapters in the history of both nations. They don't implicate any living leader or citizen, no individual today is responsible, but all of us need to accept their reality. Studying history requires the acknowledgement of the bad and the good in our pasts. No country's history is a fairy tale.
Facing up to the past is important in dealing with our problems today. We need to recognize the forces of human nature that led to these tragedies, as we need to identify and learn from the genocides and mass atrocities in Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur and elsewhere, if we are to effectively confront the challenge of ISIS, who advocate a creed in which mass atrocities are routinely committed and justified. When we are unwilling to acknowledge past genocides, and when those who commit genocide, like Bashir in Sudan, are not held accountable, it emboldens those like ISIS and Assad who would use the same tactics.
We should not get hung up on names and definitions. But neither should we seek to obscure the dark chapters of our past. We both seek to continue the unsteady march toward greater human rights and freedom. Only in facing history can we pave the way toward a more free and just future.
