HyeOctane

We all know how one of the first things Turkey did when the Armenian Genocide Resolution passed the House Foreign Affairs Committee was, in the words of the Jerusalam Post, “Blame the Jews.”

Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Ali Babacan, explained how he had told American Jewish leaders that passage of the resolution would be interpreted as a conspiracy by Jews and Armenians against the Turks. “We have told them [Jewish leaders] that we cannot explain it to the public in Turkey if a road accident happens. We have told them that we cannot keep the Jewish people out of this.” The not so subtle threat underneath this statement is, “If the resolution passes, Turkey’s Jews are in trouble.”

Indeed, American Jewish groups regularly cite the fate of Turkey’s Jews as a reason to support Ankara’s genocide denial throughout the world. They shamefully allow Turkey to use the threat of harming its Jewish community as a card in their denialist campaign.

Imagine if Iran threatened the safety of its Jewish community over a resolution in the US House. What would the reaction here be? Would the Jewish lobby, or anybody else, accept that as a reason to block said resolution? I think not.

For more on Turkish policy toward the Jews, see the following article by Khatchig Mouradian in Jewcy. Also, see Joey Kurtzman’s, “Why Are American Jews Appeasing Turkish Antisemites?”