Commentary - Turkey has history of being 'insulted'

SEOUL (Map, News) - Turkish sensitivities regarding affronts to the country's name, policies and history are legendary. Some years ago in Tokyo, the Turkish ambassador lodged a formal protest with the Japanese foreign ministry.

The protest was occasioned when a taxi driver, ordered to take him to the Turkish embassy, took him instead to a "Toruko" -- Japanese pronunciation "Turkish," synonymous in Japanese-English with Turkish bath, read massage parlor, read brothel. The protest was enough for Japanese authorities to get Turkish baths in Japan to call themselves "soaplands," pronounced "So-poo-lan-doh."

Now the Turkish government is infuriated by approval by the U.S. House of Representatives' foreign affairs committee of a bill denouncing the slaughter of Armenians 90 years ago as "genocide." Armenians put the death toll on the order of at least 1.5 million. Turkey says 300,000 died, most of them in battle or in freezing weather or of starvation and disease.

The Democrat-dominated committee, sending the bill for a vote by the full House, has embarrassed the U.S. government, which needs bases in Turkey to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and sees Turkey as a stable NATO ally.

Without minimizing the atrocities that occurred, the question is what is an American legislative body doing passing judgment on a tragedy and a conflict that happened nearly a century ago that had nothing to do with the U.S? The claims by Democrats that they can't gloss over the horrors of the Armenian massacre represent the last word in political hypocrisy.

What's on their minds is that many if not most Armenians are orthodox Christians whereas the Turks are Muslims, and they see votes in righteously defending Christians while offending Muslims. Nor do House Democrats have any qualms about undermining the policies of the Bush government.

But if the House committee is so eager to immerse itself in an ancient conflict, why does it not show similar concern about North Korea? Congress three years ago passed the North Korean Human Rights Act over a great deal of opposition from critics who believed it would anger North Korea in the midst of the crisis over its nuclear weapons.

Since passage, however, the U.S. has done little to turn the act into an effective instrument for combating abuses Although options appear limited when it comes to getting North Korea to close down its gulag system or to stop torturing and executing prisoners, the U.S. could begin by assisting North Korean refugees and linking aid to the North to human rights conditions.

Nowadays U.S. policy calls for dropping references to "human rights" from all contacts with North Korea. U.S. negotiators fear the North Koreans would walk out of talks on nukes the moment they heard the words.

I f members of the House foreign affairs committee were brave enough to join in condemning Turkey for whatever happened 90 years ago, however, surely they should have the courage to go after North Korea for more than half a century of persecution in which millions have been suffered the same fates that befell the Armenians in Turkey.

It's unlikely however, the House committee will display such courage. Democrats prefer to berate the Bush administration for not moving swiftly enough to open "dialogue" with North Korea. Perhaps, a century hence Congress will look back on the suffering of North Koreans and pass another righteous resolution.

By that time, maybe so many Koreans will have fled to the U.S., escaping abuses in North Korea, that opportunistic politicos will salivate over the votes they'll get off a bold resolution spanking Kim Jong-il for his naughtiness.

Journalist Donald Kirk is author of two books and numerous articles on Korea .

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