U.S. shouldn’t bow to demands of Turkish government

Turkey has always had a little bit of a problem with the truth. For decades, the Turkish government has denied that it executed the first real genocide in modern times when it eliminated the Christian Armenian population that had been living within the territories of the Ottoman Empire. According to Samantha Power in her magisterial book “A Problem From Hell,” “Beginning in March 1915, (The New York Times) spoke of Turkish ‘massacres,’ ‘slaughter,’ and ‘atrocities’ against the Armenians, relaying accounts by missionaries, Red Cross offi- cials, local religious authorities and survivors of mass executions. ‘It is safe to say,’ a correspondent noted in July, ‘that unless Turkey is beaten to its knees very speedily there will soon be no more Christians in the Ottoman Empire.’”

To this day, Turkey refuses to admit its complicity in the extermination of the Armenians and punishes those who dare to contradict its version of the facts. I am sure that if this column were printed in a place where the Turkish government could see it, there would be letters to the editor and proposed boycotts, the usual modus operandi of our NATO ally.

That last part is important: Turkey is our political ally in the war against Islamic jihad, or so we have been led to believe. It was, until the election of Tayyip Erdogan, the current president of that country, a proudly secular nation with a majority Muslim population. Erdogan, while ostensibly an ally cooperating with the United States in our efforts to stem jihad in the world, is an Islamist, and has shifted his country to a posture that is somewhat less secular and somewhat more “religious.” That religion, of course, is Islam.

There is nothing inherently wrong with a country embracing religion in the public square. As Christians have argued before our own Supreme Court, hostility to religion by the government is just as bad as a religious mandate.

Turkey is also in a difficult position because it is the last frontier, the line of demarcation between east and west. The delicate balance it attempts to maintain between the Islamic and Western worlds is extremely difficult to achieve, and not always successful. That was evident in the recent attacks at the airport in Istanbul, where ISIS operatives detonated bombs that killed dozens of passengers. At the very least, we need to understand the extreme complications in Turkey’s relationships with the United States and its Islamic neighbors.

But that doesn’t mean that the country gets a pass for civil-rights violations in the name of “good diplomatic relations.”

The reason I am disinterring the bitter shame of Turkey is to put, in context, the case of Fethullah Gulen, a Muslim cleric living Pennsylvania. Gulen has been described as a religious moderate who has fostered interfaith relations with Turkish Christians and who once met with Pope John Paul II. The U.S. government has vetted Gulen to the point that it granted him a green card, and he has been living in this country for over 15 years.

That doesn’t mean Gulen isn’t controversial. Critics allege that he has been fomenting anti-Erdogan activities in his native country, and there’s no question that he and the Turkish president are bitter political and philosophical rivals. However, Gulen has now been accused by Erdogan of fomenting the failed military coup that resulted in almost 300 deaths. Erdogan has demanded Gulen’s arrest and extradition from the Obama administration.

And here is where the sordid Turkish history of denial comes into play. Turkey is quite capable, like many countries, of serious human-rights abuses. As an immigration lawyer who has handled countless asylum claims during my 20-year career, I understand the significance of political resistance, and the impact it can have on individuals. Under asylum law, an individual who can prove that he has a credible fear of being persecuted on account of race, religion, national origin, membership in a particular social group or political opinion has the right to obtain refugee status in the United States.

There is, however, a complication. We are also signatories to a treaty with Turkey that was signed in 1979 by Jimmy Carter and went into effect in 1981 that requires our government to extradite Turkish nationals living in the United States who have been charged with, or convicted of, or sentenced for certain specific crimes. In this case, it appears that Gulen could be subject to extradition.

On the other hand, it also appears likely that he will be subject to persecution and possible execution if returned to Turkey in the wake of the failed coup.

So to simply bow to the demands of the Turkish government and ignore the principles on which this country was based simply for political and diplomatic expediency would amount to ignoring something else as well: the ghostly cries from anonymous, massacred Armenians. Repayment of our debt to them should begin here.