COMMENTARY: Turkey's Erdogan Needs to Stop Threatening Nations

Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- prime minister of Turkey -- blasted France today for supporting a bill that would make it a crime to deny the World War I-era killings of some 1.5 million Armenians by Turks was genocide.

Erdogan emphasized that Turkey would retaliate against France "through all kinds of diplomatic means."

Turkish leaders have refused to accept the historical fact that Turkey committed genocide against Armenians, but instead attribute the 1.5 million deaths to a "civil war."

Turkey's diplomatic threats against France will have little if any effect on French President Nicolas Sarkozy whose country -- along with Greece and Cyprus -- has helped to prevent Turkey from being admitted to the European Union (EU).

This is not the first time that Erdogan has threatened a nation with retaliation because of its belief of Turkish genocide. About a year ago, a U.S. congressional subcommittee voted in favor of recognizing Turkey's World War I genocide against Armenians.

Unfortunately, the full U.S. House of Representatives never had a chance to vote on this measure, because of pressure used by the Obama administration that prevented the House subcommittee from forwarding it to the House of Representatives, thus causing the measure to die.

Indeed, this is a sad scenario for America's democracy, because it illustrates par excellence how the United States was intimidated by Turkey to prevent the democratic process from moving forward in our country. It also implies that the Obama administration views the security of U.S. military bases in Turkey as being more important than maintaining America's democracy.

Erdogan also ended Turkey's diplomatic relations with Sweden last year, after the Swedish government agreed to recognize Turkey's Armenian genocide.

Earlier this year, Erdogan also ended Turkey's diplomatic relations with Israel, because Israel refused to apologize for attacking a Turkish flotilla in Israeli sea waters.

Erdogan's diplomatic and other threats against nations -- because they disagree with his own beliefs -- reminds us of our childhood days when our sand-lot baseball teams used to get into arguments over close plays. "Let the babies have their bottles" was the expression we often used to end these baseball quarrels.

Based on his persistent threats to nations who do not view situations the same way he sees them, Erdogan has conveyed that he has not yet reached maturity, but remains "a baby who wants to be given his bottle."

It's time for Erdogan to grow up and stop his childish threats to nations around the world.