Realpolitik and Doing the Right Thing -- Armenian Genocide

In an article at JewishJournal.com, Tom Tugend writes about the struggle within the Jewish Community about what to do with the Armenian Genocide. The Turkish government is unwilling to recognize it's role in the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians. They insist that it was around 300,000 and that an equal number of Turks died -- in a mini-civil war that erupted after the Armenians sided with the Russian invaders during WWI. Thus, not a genocide, just people getting killed in a time of war.
Israel, being that it has a strong relationship with Turkey, is unwilling to oppose Turkey's story. Now some in the Jewish committee want to call a spade a spade and name it genocide. Others say no, it's not -- some for political reasons (Turkish support for Israel) and others for protecting the sanctity of the Holocaust. Others recognize that it doesn't take away from the suffering of the Holocaust victims to recognize that there have been other genocides.
In LA's Jewish community, where there is also a strong Armenian community, there has been a meeting of minds and Jewish support for dealing with the broader problem of genocide -- whether in Rwanda, Darfur, etc. Such is good news!

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