Opinion: Early morning, April 24
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As predicted, today President Bush wrapped “his double-talking mouth around one of the most curiously persistent debates in modern geopolitics: Whether to call a 92-year-old genocide a ‘genocide.’’ Here’s how the Leader of the Free World avoided the G-word:
Each year on this day, we pause to remember the victims of one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century, when as many as 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives in the final years of the Ottoman Empire, many of them victims of mass killings and forced exile. I join my fellow Americans and Armenian people around the world in commemorating this tragedy and honoring the memory of the innocent lives that were taken. The world must never forget this painful chapter of its history.
That ‘never forget’ line’s always a nice touch. Other non-’genocide’ phrases included ‘horrific events’ and ‘terrible struggle.’ For a few other tidbits in the terrible struggle over genocide-recognition on this National Day of Remembrance of Man’s Inhumanity to Man, read on after the jump.
* My interview with former U.S. ambassador to Armenia John Evans, who was asked to retire after calling the genocide a ‘genocide.’
* Some letters to The Times.
* The Daily News interviews a survivor in Glendale.
* Column from a South Pasedna daughter of a survivor.
* Turkey places ads in five major U.S. newspapers (including The Times) explaining its point of view.
* Turkish academics dispute ‘genocide’ label.
* Five hundred demonstrators march in Little Armenia.
* Riot police clash with Armenian protesters outside a Turkish consulate in Greece.
* Update on the status of the congressional recognition bill.
* The L.A. City Council passed a recognition resolution last week.
* Genocide-recognizing Turkish scholar detained in Montreal as possible terrorist because his Wikipedia page slandered him as a ‘terrorist,’ according to Robert Fisk.
* And a newsroom dispute here at The Times.