Corporate Interest Over Human Interest: Companies Lobby Against Armenian Genocide Recognition

by Michelle . · 2009-06-14 14:39:00 UTC
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It appears that Armenian-Americans have yet another foe in their persistent campaign for recognition of the Armenian Genocide: Corporate America. Six companies --- five military contractors and an energy company --- are lobbying against a measure introduced in the US House of Representatives to recognize the murder of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey) during World War I.

According to the Associated Press, the companies have strong ties with the Turkish government, which has been historically adamant in its denial of the genocide. In a somewhat skeevy move, however, the lobbying efforts are being conducted on the down-low, out of the companies' fears of public reprisals:

"They don't want to be seen opposing a resolution that has a very evident human rights element," said Rouben Adalian, director of the Armenian National Institute, a Washington research organization. "It would put them on the side of denying history and denying genocide."

Well, it looks like the cat is out of the bag, so to speak. (No offense to cats.) The companies are: BAE Systems Inc., Goodrich Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp., Raytheon Co., United Technologies Corp., and Chevron Corp.

Shame.

If you want to make the argument that recognition of the Armenian Genocide will damage an important strategic relationship with Turkey, come out and say it. I still think that you're wrong --- that genocide denial is fundamentally wrong, and even dangerous, and those who engage should not be accommodated or catered to --- but pursuing it as a secret agenda just adds insult to injury. Perhaps your fear of a public backlash over an anti-human rights stance is an indication that you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.

[Photo from marchforhumanity.org: Headlines on Armenia in the New York Times.]

Michelle . has been involved in various activist endeavors, including the Teach Against Genocide pilot campaigns.
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