Thread by @Tom_deWaal

1. Today after 40 years of disputes the US House passed a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Armenian Americans are celebrating. I do not want to begrudge them this moment. They feel closure and acknowledgement of their grandparents' loss. latimes.com/politics/story…

2. I spent years studying the issue. I also call the massacres of more than 1 million Armenians in 1915-16 the Armenian Genocide. It was the worst atrocity of WWI. Though I prefer the term Mets Yeghern, Great Catastrophe, a distinct name like the Shoah. amazon.co.uk/Great-Catastro…

3. Like many others, I also believe that genocide, the word Lemkin invented in 1944 is a Pandora's Box. It's both too legalistic and too politicized, it makes human stories into a crime scene, it's a blunt weapon in identity politics. Yet I still use the term Armenian Genocide

4. ..because what happened to them in 1915-16 does fit the UN Genocide Convention definition--and it would be much worse not to use it. Of course the shadow of the Holocaust hangs heavily here. Here is a Foreign Affairs essay I wrote on the issue. foreignaffairs.com/articles/unite…

5. Some comments about what happens now:
The historical record was already established: US legislators have no authority on that. We know most of them did so more to punish Erdogan’s Turkey than to honour Armenians. They mixed their messages with a Turkish sanctions resolution.

6. If some nationalist Turks, who traditionally harbor paranoia about Great Power conspiracies against them, respond by persecuting Istanbul Armenians, cancelling flights to Armenia or damaging Armenian heritage, that will be no victory.

7. The real debate is to be had in Turkish society—where there has been much progress over 20 years and many historians and others own up to the horrors of 1915..
The House vote will be helpful if this is the start of something, not the end. Fingers crossed.