The Armenian Genocide was the systematic slaughter of 1.5 million residents of the Ottoman empire in a campaign that lasted from 1915 to 1923.
On Thursday the House Foreign Affairs Committee narrowly approved a resolution that would acknowledge the genocide despite of a last-ditch effort by the Obama administration to stop the initiative claiming it could damage relations with Turkey.
Mike McMahon voted against the measure which passed 23-22.
“Instead of looking backwards to the turn of the 20th century, we need to look forward in the 21st century,” McMahon said in a press release.
Mike Allegretti, one of McMahon’s Republican challengers in the 2010 congressional race, decided to make a stand on the issue:
“I urge the members of the House Foreign Relations to stand-up and recognize the genocide which took place between 1915-1923,” Allegretti stated in a press release. “It is unspeakable that one and a half million Armenians lost their lives in an effort to erase them from their homeland. Passage of this resolution would be a positive step for the region.”
So Allegretti has staked his position on the issue. Is this smart politics, humanitarian empathy, misguided pandering to the Armenian lobby, knee-jerk opposition?
Let’s take a look at the demographics of the district:
Census population estimates for Staten Island place white residents at about 71 percent of the Island, with 9 percent black, 12 percent Hispanic, and 5.6 percent Asian. Under the designation “some other race” stands at 0.2 percent – maybe a sliver of that is Allegretti’s Armenian constituency.
There is no doubt that the unspeakable crimes from almost a century ago need to be recognized and the victims of these crimes deserve some sort of restitution. But a congressional measure on this issue is unnecessary or, worse, detrimental to US interests abroad.
In addition, the issue of the Armenian genocide is not even vaguely on the legislative radar for the vast majority of Staten Islanders, who are plagued with paltry public transportation and congested highways among other concerns about the economy and the prospect of another terrorist attack in NYC.
If Allegretti wants to make the Armenian issue even a minor focus of his campaign I’d wish him the best of luck, there’s always a position waiting for him at Bayside Fuel Oil.