The Armenian Genocide has a lot of misconceptions and many believe it to be true (due to propaganda), though most logical evidence suggests it wasn't a genocide but a complex vicious cycle of wars between civilian populations and turmoil in Eastern Anatolia while many Armenians died, we should acknowledge that Turks, Kurds, and other Muslims were killed as well with no involvement of the Ottoman Government. Many politicians regardless of their party have used this historical issue that's still under study by many historical researches, historians, and sociologists and is not settled yet, to grab some quick votes and receive in full the Armenian-American votes. Many debates have been proposed to Armenia by the Turkish government to once and for all settle the argument even though the Ottoman Empire had won this debate once before during 1918 in the island of Malta.
So no one can simplify this issue and declare that there is a genocide just because Armenians and their Christian supporters in the West say so. The UN rules that the events of 1915 were NOT a genocide, yet why are all these politicians, continually talking behind the back of a faithful ally who's helped the United States since the Korean War as well as allowed US bases and troops to use Turkey's land as a base for troops, ships, aircrafts, and even nuclear weapons. Turkey is part of NATO and in 2003 when the United States was about to invade Iraq, Turkey said they can use Turkey's bases, as long as the Turkish Armed Forces can come and support the US coalition, this was refused by the United States (I guess 1,000,000+ troops wouldn't have been that helpful in Iraq, U.S. preferred the Kurds).
Regardless of which side you support on this issue, whether you're Armenian, Turkish, Kurdish, Muslim, or Christian, it should be noted that politicians should not be the ones forming opinions about history. Many politicians seem to use the Armenian voters in the United States for example and other high-Armenian-population countries to give them a quick easy boost in votes just by simply stating that the Armenian Genocide is real and that Turkey is wrong even though the current Turkish government fought the Ottoman Empire in 1923 and Turkey didn't even exist at the time this supposed genocide took place (1915). The fact is, many politicians do not have a major in history nor have they read the proper documents, evidence, and hundreds of books on this issue. If this was a clear-cut simple issue, there wouldn't be this much world doubt over it. It's simply an old grudge that Armenians will not drop no matter how many times evidence tells them there was no Armenian Genocide, they just smack it aside and continue yelling as loud as possible while the Turk's voice fades away.
Neither Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or John Edwards studied this issue or the rich complex history of the Anatolia region, the only thing they know is what their advisers and planners told them to answer if such a question ever arose. And Obama in fact was asked this question at one press conference, and answered it paraphrased as such: "[Armenian Genocide did happen, and Turkey should stop denying it, and we will be working hard to change the issue.]" Notice how they never elaborate on the issue, because they lack all knowledge on this subject. Simply do a google search on all politician names followed by the word "Armenian", and suddenly you see all these politicians promising that they will get Turkey to somehow admit that they are evil, stupid, and genocide-lovers. It's ridiculous because after their interview with some Armenians, they go over to Turkey or they go and make peace with the Turks as well. So they play both sides in order to gain the maximum votes while simultaneously confusing the voter on which side they support.
The Turkish government never steps up to United States government and says "Hey guess what, we're going to make a vote in our parliament that you committed genocide against the Native Americans 200+ years ago, and you committed genocide against the Vietnamese in the Vietnam war, and you committed genocide in Iraq TWICE!" This would be totally absurd, ridiculous, and absolutely FALSE. But yet, the American government has the audacity to create a bill calling for recognition of the Armenian Genocide, by politicians? This is a crime against freedom of speech, absurd, and ridiculous because they are making a vote recognizing a historical issue when the UN did not recognize it and when 170+ other countries don't recognize it. Don't believe it? It's called HR 106 and it is an insult to historians around the world and an insult to a critical ally, Turkey, just watch this video:
Armenian Genocide HR 106 discussion by former congressman (Important to watch)!
Trust me, I was planning on voting for Barack Obama myself, but there's one thing I cannot tolerate, that's selling yourself to get votes and attacking a country that has done NOTHING WRONG to the American people or the American government. The fact is Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and even John McCain don't care about this issue, once they are voted into office, the issue will be forgotten, so my message to Armenians: Why bother, they don't care about this issue one way or another, they just want your cheap easy votes and your juicy donations. The Armenian Genocide issue was never presented to any international court, and Armenians do not want to take it to a court, they want to take it to politicians that are easy to win without any evidence; however, courts are too difficult, because they require HARD EVIDENCE something the Armenians completely lack other than a couple grandma stories and a few faked telegrams that were proven by old courts to be forgeries as they did not match the Ottoman codes and telegram procedures.
So how are they against freedom of speech you will ask... They are against it because they want to pass laws and bills that say Turks cannot say their grandparents aren't murderers. They want Turks, I guess because a majority of them happen to be Muslim, to accept a false genocide that has no video evidence, no audio evidence, no visual evidence, no abandoned concentration camps, no public hate speeches on record, no Ottoman archives directing the genocide, no means of mass killing, and no means of collecting and identifying millions of Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. You don't believe it, you don't believe that a democratic country can say freedom of speech and yet still be against freedom of speech? Oh well let's look at some European countries that also have large amounts of Armenian voters. France has a law where you can be jailed just for saying the Armenian Genocide does not exist (It basically falls under the racism law, which doesn't make sense, maybe saying the Armenian Genocide exists is racist to Turks). What what what? The country that claims it is the founding fathers of democracy is making laws to jail French citizens that don't believe a genocide existed in 1915? Yes, they actually passed this law through their parliament, just like HR 106.
Need more evidence? Many Swiss-Turkish citizens are in trial over saying there is no Armenian Genocide because Switzerland also has this law that was passed quite a while ago. They were arrested for simply making public statements that the Armenian Genocide lacks evidence and should be re-characterized as the civil war it REALLY IS.
Yes the world loves freedom of speech as long as the speech is in the favor of the majority of voters. So let's say you don't believe the Armenian Genocide is false, you truly believe it's true and you were even sent a video of it, what if after thousands of jailed Turks who said it wasn't true spend many years in jail, and then later you learn that the video was doctored and is a fake. So you just jailed thousands of innocent people just because of their speech. What kind of world are we creating here? Admit that there's a possibility each side can be wrong, and then you truly have become an open-minded person. This is a hypothetical, and it may not happen, but it is the kind of message these countries are creating when making laws. What if Turkey made a law jailing any French citizen that says "France didn't commit genocide against Algiers or Vietnam and is not responsible for the genocide of Rwanda", well I'm sure many French citizens would be angered, so why are the French being so anti-Turkish, could it be because it is a very Christian state that has always crushed other religions in their own country, or is it just that they don't care about anyone except for themselves, is there any other explanation?
So it should be concluded that historians should be deciding this issue in open debate, and doing research for truth rather than looking for ways to make the Ottoman Empire or the Turkish nation look bad. Demonizing a country for something that supposedly happened ~92 years ago with almost no hard evidence except for some grandma stories which the Turks also have many of is not the best way to make friends with the world. The real aim for politicians should be, getting Armenia and Turkey to settle their arguments and making peace with each other. We need less enemies in this world, not make more by causing more argument on an issue that was already put to rest over 50 years ago and was declared NOT a genocide.
Any politician, such as freedom of speech oppressing Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton should be stopped at all costs. Or you'll end up like France where if you say the Armenian Genocide doesn't exist you go to jail, it appears as though the French have no respect for Freedom of Speech and the United States is heading that way too. No one is disrespecting Armenians by saying it wasn't genocide, everyone acknowledges many Armenians died, but Armenians need to start recognizing that Turks, Kurds, and Muslims died as well, and they are not the perfect angels people think.
It seems that the Republican Party of the United States have a better understanding of history and understand it isn't nice to pick sides on historical issues when you are not a historian. My vote goes for them, I am a democrat and I have voted Democrat for many years, but it's time for change. It should be noted not all Republicans will be as bad as George Bush so please do not label the whole party because of a few bad apples. However it should also be noted that certain candidates of the Republican Party are also supporting such bills and playing both sides, so it's not the whole republican party that people should support, it's politicians in general that create these problems.
For Example, John McCain said 1 million Armenians were systematically murdered but did not call it genocide, this is indeed a mistake, since he is not a historian, nor does he know for a fact that 1 million Armenians were ever murdered, they might have died in battle, been executed for a crime they truly did commit, died from disease, or hunger, as was common during World War I. Might have died fighting alongside Russian armies in their assault against the Ottoman Empire.