Erdogan’s BFF, Ilhan Omar, Votes ‘PRESENT’ On Resolution To Recognize The Armenian Genocide
How can someone be on the wrong side of every foreign policy issue so consistently and still be on the House Foreign Affairs Committee?
Maybe Speaker Pelosi should’ve removed her when she had the chance instead of watering down a House resolution to denounce Rep. Omar’s repeated anti-Semitic statements.
Rep. Ilhan Omar(D-MN) made two great big, controversial moves on Tuesday. She was the lone Democrat to not take a swipe at President Trump’s policy in Syria by voting against a resolution to impose sanctions on Turkey. Because she’s not a fan of sanctions — unless they’re against Israel.
The other item of note was her “present” vote on the House Resolution to recognize the Armenian genocide.
She did both with statements that give her plausible deniability and still allow a “wink-and-nod” to bigotry.
This happens with startling regularity when it comes to the Congresswoman from Minnesota’s 5th District. It’s almost like it’s intentional.
She did the same about her repeated anti-Semitic statements, her nixed visit to “Palestine” sponsored by bigots, and her odd support for organizations that cover for terrorists.
Omar, in a statement explaining her vote of “present” on the resolution, also seemingly suggested that the century-old mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks may not have occurred at all. She asserted that “accountability and recognition of genocide should not be used as a cudgel in a political fight” but should instead “be done based on academic consensus outside the push and pull of geopolitics.”
The comments prompted accusations that Omar, again, was seeking to communicate a bigoted message while maintaining a veneer of wink-and-nod deniability — even as she has previously called for a boycott over alleged Israeli human-rights abuses, described the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as an instance in which “some people did something”, and asserted that “Israel has hypnotized the world.”
Source: Fox News
The resolution passed 405-11 with Rep. Omar one of three members voting present.
As a bit of history for those that are unaware of the Armenian genocide, during World War I, (between 1914 to 1923) the Ottoman Turks killed 1.5 million Armenians in a disgusting bout of ethnic cleansing without any sort of criminal repercussions to give justice to the victims. As a matter of fact, the word “genocide” itself actually arose from that horrific and devastating piece of history.
It seems like a no-brainer to condemn the Armenian genocide as a genocide, right? What’s been taking so long? The lobbying by the questionable NATO ally, Turkey, which has pressured lawmakers to not officially acknowledge the mass-killing, deportation, and starvation of Armenians. Also, the whitewashing of history by progressives like Cenk Uygur of “The Young Turks” — which, despite his constant denials, is a name which is inextricably linked to the trio of Ottoman leaders that perpetrated the Armenian genocide.
And, well, it seems like a no-brainer for an über-progressive wokescold like Rep. Omar.
But it seems that her ties to Islam may trump her progressivism. Who knows what the catalyst was — it might’ve been her visit to Turkey to meet with Erdogan back when she was a Minnesota State Representative.
Whatever the cause, she couched it all in a bizarre claim that denouncing genocide shouldn’t be limited to modern societies — America did bad things hundreds of years ago, y’all!
Omar's office has sent this statement to CNN explaining her present vote: pic.twitter.com/Gpj198jx0p
— Haley Byrd Wilt 🌻 (@byrdinator) October 29, 2019
The statement reads:
I believe accountability for human rights violations — especially ethnic cleansing and genocide — is paramount. But accountability and recognition of genocide should not be used as [a] cudgel in a political fight. It should be done based on academic consensus outside the push and pull of geopolitics. A true acknowledgment of historical crimes against humanity must include both the heinous genocides of the 20th century, along with earlier mass slaughters like the transatlantic slave trade and Native American genocide, which took the lives of hundreds of millions of indigenous people in this country. For this reason, I voted ‘present’ on final passage of H.Res.296, the resolution Affirming the United States record on the Armenian Genocide.
Did you realize that there were “hundreds of millions” of indigenous people in North America when Europeans started to settle here? Who knew!
Oh, wait… that’s completely inaccurate. It’s not a surprise for Rep. Omar who tends to toss out convenient rather than factual information. After all, it’s about being “morally right,” not “factually correct,” right?
As is her custom, Omar is neither.
So, she’s not going to condemn the Armenian genocide because of the failure to also condemn *checks notes* the Transatlantic Slave trade and the slaughter of Native Americans… which has been officially condemned multiple times.
Thanks, Cenk. We can always count on you to be a dumbass.
Twitter users called Rep. Omar out on this giant load of B.S.:
https://twitter.com/ZaidJilani/status/1189311752019820545?s=20
Hard to square this approach with her support for BDS. Not a good look. https://t.co/8MMNY7mfSr
— Christian Vanderbrouk 🇺🇸🇮🇱🇺🇦 (@UrbanAchievr) October 29, 2019
"I support the resolution but don't like how it's being used as a political tool to pressure Turkey to stop massacring the Kurds" is an A+ excuse, Ilhan.
— Noam Blum 🚡 (@neontaster) October 30, 2019
Should we also not boycott, divest from, and sanction one foreign country if we haven’t boycotted, divested from, and sanctioned all oppressive foreign countries? https://t.co/TwxBCmkJXU
— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) October 29, 2019
My personal favorite was this paraphrase of Rep. Omar’s offensive 9/11 comments.
Some people did something. Or maybe they didn't. Who's to say, really?
— Noam Blum 🚡 (@neontaster) October 29, 2019
After all, it’s just genocide, right?
Rep. Omar went on Twitter herself and latched onto a phrase (incorrectly) tweeted out by MSNBC “journalist” Chris Hayes. His tweet defending Rep. Omar was that she was “speaking truth to power” in the face of the United States employing a form of diplomacy based on “realpolitik” — a German word which means policy based on practicality and not on ideology — but Hayes wrote “real politique.” Rep. Omar agreed and said “of course” the Armenian genocide should be condemned and it wasn’t about the substance of the resolution.
👋🏽 This is classic “real politique!”
My issue was not with the substance of this resolution. *Of course* we should acknowledge the Genocide.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) October 29, 2019
Blaming the alleged “realpolitik” policy of the United States seems like a rather convenient crutch if you ask me.
But she didn’t stop there. She just kept on tweeting.
My focus has and will always be to make sure our foreign policy is consistent, coherent and my votes will as well.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) October 29, 2019
Right. Well, she’s certainly been consistent. As I said earlier, she’s consistently wrong on every foreign policy issue.
