Historical memory

Yesterday I blogged about two recently published books dealing with the history of the Crusades. Therein the reviewer quoted one of the authors (Holy Warriors, Jonathan Phillips): Why does something that happened 900 years ago, and that ended "ignominiously," "resonate so powerfully across the modern world"?

This article provides a hint of an answer, and it merely goes back 100 years.

Armenia Condemns Turkey's Threat to Expel Workers

By MARC CHAMPION

ISTANBUL—Armenia on Wednesday condemned a threat by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to expel Armenians without papers from his country, as tensions between the two neighbors rise over a bloody history and wavering efforts to reopen their border.

Mr. Erdogan told the BBC's Turkish-language service late Tuesday that of some 170,000 ethnic Armenians working in Turkey, only 70,000 were Turkish citizens. "We are turning a blind eye to the remaining 100,000," he said. "Tomorrow, I may tell these 100,000 to go back to their country, if it becomes necessary, because they are not my citizens."

Rather a personalized style of governing, stating it in the first person. And how does it suddenly become necessary?


Allowing the Armenians to work in Turkey without papers was a "display of our peaceful approach, but we have to get something in return," he said.

Ah, quid pro quo.

Tuesday's threat comes as Turkey seeks to dissuade the U.S. Congress from recognizing as genocide the slaughter of as many as 1.5 million Armenians in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire. It also comes as Armenia has been threatening to pull out of a deal that would reopen its border with Turkey and set up a joint commission to examine the 1915 massacres.

"These kinds of political statements do not help to improve relations between our two states," Armenia Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan told the county's parliament Wednesday, according to agency reports. "It immediately for us brings up memories of the events of 1915."

That's it right there: memories of 1915, both resonate and are useful rhetorical tools.

Turkey has reacted angrily to recent resolutions in the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Swedish parliament, which recognized the 1915 atrocities as genocide. Ankara withdrew its ambassadors from the two countries. Turkey maintains that the 1915 death tolls are exaggerated and weren't genocide because they took place during a civil war in which hundreds of thousands of Turks also died. Most Western historians believe the killings of ethnic Armenians did constitute genocide.

On Tuesday, Mr. Erdogan blamed the Armenian diaspora—often the families of those who fled or were killed in 1915—for driving the resolutions. He called on governments in the U.S. and elsewhere not to be swayed.

Sounds a familiar argument.

On Wednesday, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon told reporters the Foreign Affairs Committee resolution had damaged relations with Turkey, but that a full vote on the House floor remained possible, despite White House opposition. "Congress is an independent body, and they are going to do what they decide to do," Mr. Gordon told reporters, the Associated Press reported.

This isn't the first time that Mr. Erdogan and other Turkish officials have hinted they could take action against the thousands of Armenians who do mostly menial labor in Turkey without work visas. Officials from the prime minister's ruling Justice and Development party were quick to say Wednesday that no expulsion is imminent. Still, Mr. Erdogan's sharp comments come in the midst of a tense game of brinksmanship among Armenia, Turkey and the U.S. administration. Turkish officials have expressed frustration at the Obama administration's failure to lobby more strongly against the House Foreign Affairs Committee resolution, which passed by just 23 votes to 22, speculating that it was done to pressure Ankara into ratifying the deal with Armenia.

Well, if true, it is useful as a political ploy.


The U.S., meanwhile, has done little to hide its frustration with the reluctance of NATO member Turkey—currently a member of the 15-nation United Nations Security Council—to back tougher international action against Iran's nuclear fuel program. Iran says its nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes.

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A14