Yes, It Was a Genocide
I was really troubled when I read on CNN.com yesterday that the White House was lobbying against a House resolution that would label the murders of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey during World War I a “genocide.” Fortunately, the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved the resolution anyway.
Anyone who has any doubts about the relevance of the term “genocide” in this case should read Peter Balakian’s Black Dog of Fate, which I remember buying–and devouring–in Iowa City the summer it was published. It’s a powerful, powerful book. And I certainly thought about it yesterday.