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Commentary Oregon Daily Emerald Wednesday, April 27, 2005 NEWS STAFF (541)346-5511 IEN SUDICK EDITOR IN CHIEF STEVEN R. NEUMAN MANAGING EDITOR IARED PABEN AYISUA YAHYA NEWS EDITORS MEGHANN CUNIFF PARKER HOWELL SENIOR NEWS REPORTERS MORIAH BAUNCIT AMANDA BOLSINGER ADAM CHERRY EMILY SMITH EVA SYLWESTER SHELDON TRAVER NEWS REPORTERS CLAYTON JONES SPORTS EDITOR JON ROETMAN SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER STEPHEN MILLER BRIAN SMITH SPORTS REPORTERS RYAN NYBURG PULSE EDITOR AMY UCHTY SENIOR PULSE REPORTER JOSHUA UNTEREUR PULSE REPORTER CAT BALDWIN PULSE CARTOONIST AILEE SLATER COMMENTARY EDITOR GABE BRADLEY ANNEMARIE KNEPPER CHUCK SLOTHOWER JENNIFER MCBRIDE COLUMNISTS ASHLEY GRIFFIN SUPPLEMENT FREELANCE EDITOR DANIELLE HICKEY PHOTO EDITOR LAUREN WIMER SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER NICOLE BARKER TIM BOBOSKY PHOTOGRAPHER KATE HORTON ZANF. RUT PART-TIME PHOTOGRAPHERS BRET FURTWANGLF.R GRAPHIC ARTIST DUSTIN REESE SENIOR DESIGNER ELLIOTT ASBURY WENDY KIEFFER AMANDA LEE IONAH SCHROGIN DESIGNERS SHADRA BEES LEY IEANNIE EVERS COPY CHIEFS KIMBERLY BLACKFIELD JOSH NORRIS SPORTS COPY EDITORS GREG BIISLAND AMBER LINDROS NEWS COPY EDITORS JENNY GERWICK PULSE COPY EDITOR ADRIENNE NELSON ONLINE EDITOR WEBMASTER (541)346-5511 IUDY RIEDL GENERAL MANAGER KATHY CARBONE BUSINESS MANAGER IAUNA HE CIUSTI RECEPTIONIST IERED NAGEL PATRICK SCHMERBER HOLLY STEIN IANA SWANSON ROB WEGNER CAROLYN ZIMMERMAN DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING (541)346-3712 MELISSA GUST ADVERTISING DIRECTOR TYLER MACK SALES MANAGER MATT BETZ HERON CALISCH-DOLEN MEGAN HAMLIN KATE! HIRONAKA MALI AN KASER-LEE KELLEE KAUFTHE1L MIA LEIDELMEYER SHANNON ROGERS SALES REPRESENTATIVES CLASSIFIED (541)3464343 TR1NA SHANAMAN CLASSIFIED MANAGER KORALYNN BASHAM ANDO KATY GAGNON KERI SPANGLER KATIE STRINGER CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES PRODUCTION (541)3464381 MICHELE ROSS PRODUCTION MANAGER TARA /TAM PRODUCTION COORDINATOR JEN CRAM LET KRIS'TENMCHARRY CAMERON GAUT SABRINA GOWETTE IONAH SCHROGIN DESIGNERS The Oregon Daily Emerald is pu6 lished daily Monday through Fri day dunngthe school year by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the University of Ore gon, Eugene, Ore The Emerald operates independently of the University with offices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is pnvate property Unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law. ■ In my opinion Sunday, April 24 marked the 90th anniversary of a genocide I didn’t even learn about until last No vember. It’s one of those 1.5 million people cock-ups that our history teachers like to sweep under the rug as just another problem resulting from World War I. While it may not measure up to Hitler’s cold extermina tion of the Jews, the Ottoman Empire’s systematic murder of Arme nians from 1915 to 1923 merits more mention in class and in public. Aware ness of genocide is not enough in itself to prevent future genocide, but it certainly is a good first step. Hitler himself, while masterminding his death camps, looked on the Armenian genocide with a sneer. “Who remem bers the Armenians?” he is reported to have asked. The government of Tlirkey contin ues to hold fast to a flimsy charade, pretending there were no victims in its history other than some resulting from the occasional uprising. It denies that Armenians were taken on long death marches and then slaugh tered for absolutely no reason. Indig nant ignorance and falsifying the les sons of our past only lead to repeated mistakes. How many times do we have to see that ignoring a problem doesn’t make it go away? If the Amer ican government denied the Japanese internment during World War II, I have a feeling the Bush administra tion would be treating Arab-Ameri cans far worse than it already does. While our policies may not be all that enlightened, they certainly could be hellishly poorer. Tlirkey to this day insists that no more than a few people died, and oth er countries step lightly to avoid Tlirkey’s anger. The Bush administra tion hasn’t exactly been reluctant to offend allies in the past but here re ferred to the massacre and mass exile _ JENNIFER MCBRIDE QUASHING DISSENT of thousands of innocent Armenians as merely a “tragedy” — heaven for bid we alienate our strategic partners. We're not the only ones Tlirkey is trying to bully into silence. France, with its large Armenian subcommu nities, planned to publicly commem orate the event, only to receive threats from Tlirkey. When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke against it, Tlirkish groups called for his movies to be permanently banned from the country. Well, I doubt anybody in Tlirkey is reading my columns, so I’m perfectly happy to blow what little political capital I have in the region. The massive deaths of the Arme nians marked the first genocide of the twentieth century. Not only were Armenians subjected to death and torture, but they were also taken from their homes and forcibly exiled to the deserts of Syria, where they died en masse of starvation and de hydration. In addition, the Ottoman Empire expropriated all Armenian wealth and raped thousands of women. Armenian concentration camps caused indirect slaughter by epidemic and exhaustion. April 24, 1915, is specifically com memorated because on that night, the government rounded up 200 Ar menian leaders in Constantinople. They were all imprisoned, and most of them were executed as a penalty for being politically prominent. Before then, the Tlirks had already disarmed all the Armenian battalions and had begun expelling them from their homes along the eastern war front, but news blackouts kept these acts secret until those blatantly evil arrests. By killing the leaders, T\irks removed Armenian rivals, effectively crushing any official Armenian re sistance in just one of many brutal strokes. For that reason, April 24 is the Armenians’ “Kistallnacht.” Of course, part of what makes genocide so horrifying is the absence of logic or reason. Nationalist panics send friends into furies, causing them to turn on their own neigh bors. For centuries, Armenians and Tlirks lived side by side, but as oth er Christian minorities separated themselves from the Ottoman Em pire, the Armenians were isolated. These Armenian-speaking commu nities were the roadblock to a pan TXirkic Empire. When once a T\irk would have gone to an Armenian for a cup of sugar, Tlirkish soldiers now came for pints of blood. The first step was for the Turkish government to demand that Armeni ans turn in their hunting weapons for the “war effort.” Some communities had to buy extra to make their quotas. Of course, the government then used the amount of weapons as “proof" that the Armenians were about to rebel, drafting Armenians into virtual slavery where they were worked or shot to death. Leaving victims unacknowledged and uncompensated has, for Arme nians, created a national black hole. The least we can do as a nation is agree that these people deserve recognition. I hope that next year President Bush will not let this sad anniversary slip by without rectify ing our 90-year silence. jennifermcbride@dailyemercdd.com ■ Editorial Pope's life doesn't fit his 'special greeting' TWo days ago, The Register-Guard featured a front-page story titled “Pope stands back from po litical edge” by The Associated Press. The article, one of many such worldwide news articles, went on to detail the reasons why Pope Benedict XVI represents a reasonable, non-politically charged choice to fill the shoes of Pope John Paul II. The basis for this “lack of political edge” includes Benedict’s warmth toward Rome’s Jewish com munity and his announcement that “my thoughts go out to all men and women,... to be lievers and nonbelievers alike.” Unfortunately, the gap between what the pope says and what the pope does is wide. Although he recently issued what has been termed a “special greeting” to people of faiths other than Catholicism, Benedict’s 2000 Vatican document indicated that only Catholics could achieve salva tion. And while he mentioned the Jewish faith, Muslims were ignored during the pope’s “special greeting.” His comments on Monday, which barely felt like an acknowledgment of Muslims, were sadly taken as a broad gesture of reaching out to the faith. In terms of social politics, it is interesting that Benedict should be painted as standing back from a political edge, when last year Benedict spoke out against giving communion to pro-abor tion politicians. Just last week, Benedict criticized the Spanish government’s decision to endorse gay marriage, as well as a bill that would allow gay couples to adopt children. Benedict has taken a hard-lined stance against women in the Vatican and remains in favor of a ban on birth control. The new pope has even denied the reality of on going sexual-abuse issues, calling the scandal a U.S. plot to degrade the Catholic faith. More unnerving is Benedict’s involvement, as a young man, in the Hitler Youth movement during World War II. Although Benedict has publicly repented that decision, noting that membership was practically demanded by young men at that time and place, this facet of the pope’s past still produces discomfort for many, and rightly so. Keeping up healthy, inter faith relationships is an important job of any re ligious leader; it certainly seems anachronistic that Pope Benedict XVI should be working on such relationships considering his former posi tion as a member of a hate organization. By saying Benedict is standing back from the political edge, supporters of the new pope appar ently mean he is not bringing any novel politics to the Vatican. As long as at least some of the political leaders in this country look to Benedict as their personal leader, it is wise to assume that Benedict’s views on religion, minorities and sci ence will at some level be mirrored in the home land politics. Pope Benedict XVI is not standing back from the political edge. Even at the ripe old age of 78, he is jumping into the pool of politics at full force. EDITORIAL BOARD Jennifer Sudick Editor in Chief Ailee Slater Commentary Editor Steven R. Neuman Managing Editor Shadra Beesley Copy Chief Adrienne Nelson Online Editor OREGON DAILY EMERALD LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor and &rest commentaries are encouraged, and should be sent to Ieter5@dailyemerald.com or submitted at the Oregon Daily Emer ald office, EMU Suite 300 Electronic submissions are preferred. Letters are limited to 250 words, and guest commentaries to 550 words. Authors are limited to one submission per calendar month Submissions should include phone number and address fix verification. The Emerald reserves tire nght to edit for space, gammar and 3yte Guest submissions are pub fished at the discretion of the Emerald.
