Military Contractors and Chevron Lobby against Armenian Genocide Bill

Tuesday, June 16, 2009
(graphic: PeaceofArt.org)

Billion-dollar business deals have trumped human rights concerns for some of the largest defense and energy corporations in the United States when it comes to the issue of recognizing the Armenian genocide. According to the Associated Press, six international companies—BAE Systems, Goodrich, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, United Technologies, and Chevron—have quietly lobbied Congress not to approve a resolution that labels the death of more than one million Armenians by Turkey in the early 20th century as “genocide.”

 
All of the companies have strong ties to Turkey, a key ally of the United States. The Turkish armed forces is getting fighter jets from Northrop for $3 billion, while U.K.-based BAE Systems is supplying armored vehicles, Raytheon is selling the Stinger missile launcher system, and United Technologies is providing Sikorsky helicopters to Turkey. Goodrich is being paid by a Turkish firm to provide maintenance and repair work on engine components, and Chevron holds a stake in a pipeline that crosses the country.
 
Rouben Adalian, director of the Armenian National Institute, a Washington research organization, says the companies “don’t want to be seen opposing a resolution that has a very evident human rights element. It would put them on the side of denying history and denying genocide.”
 
The House resolution regarding Armenian genocide is currently sitting in the foreign affairs committee, awaiting a hearing. Similar bills have been introduced in previous sessions of Congress, but have never been approved. The government of Turkey denies that the deaths, which occurred at the time of World War I, were genocide, saying the number of casualties is inflated and was the consequence of civil war and unrest.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
 
Companies Lobby (Quietly) on Armenia Genocide Bill (by Stephen Singer, Associated Press)

Comments

Not_Gullible 15 years ago
Mr Brinkerhoff, Before transcribing an AP press release like this, it would be better to do some research on the subject. This subject is not the simple "human rights" issue that it appears to be; this fact seems to have been lost on the original AP journalist also. The Armenian National Institute is not a "Research Organization". It is a propaganda organization with close ties to Armenian Groups that have a firmly established record of supporting terrorist acts against innocent Turkish Civil Servants in the US and abroad. Associated Press should not be dropping the ball on this one. Objection to this legislation - contrary to the claims of propaganda organizations like the Armenian National Institute - is not coming from the Turkish Government alone. The Turkish people overwhelmingly object to it because many of their ancestors died at the hands of merciless Armenian Revolutionaries who tortured and killed thousands of innocent Moslem Turkish non-combatant civilians; men, women and children - in one of the darkest conflicts of the Great War. You may not know this but they do know. You would know if your ancestors died in the hideous ways that some of these people died. I'm sure you noticed that the original AP article referred to the Armenians as "Christian Armenians". So when you raise the issue of a "Human Rights Element", are you willing to go along with these Armenian Propagandists who would have us count only "Christian Armenian" lives, and not count all those non-combatant Moslem Turkish lives? It's clear that the AP journalist (Stephen Singer) relied wholly on Armenian Sources. These Armenian Propagandists have repeatedly stated all over the internet that there are "no two sides" to this story. Did you just take them for their word without checking whether they might be hiding something from you? Is that what journalists are trained to do?

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