Armenians Continue To Press Despite ADL's Flip On 'Genocide'

OCTOBER 22, 2007
JTA Wire Service
Penny Schwartz
Lexington, Mass.

Nearly two months after the Anti-Defamation League reversed itself by acknowledging the World War I-era massacres of Armenians as "tantamount to genocide," activists in the Boston area are pushing ahead with their campaign against the organization.

[...]

Speaking before the Lexington selectmen, Laura Boghosian, a longtime resident of Armenian descent, dismissed Foxman’s statement, calling it "disingenuous." She and others also criticized statements by Foxman endorsing Turkey's call for a joint commission to study the massacre.

Arzoumanian said that "it’s as if this is an issue between Armenians and Turks and not about truth."

"They’re asking us to sit down with the equivalent of David Irving to work something out as if history is a bazaar," he said, referring to the Holocaust denier.

[...]

This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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Belmont withdraws from ADL program

September 18, 2007
Globe Correspondent
By Alex I. Oster, Globe Correspondent

BELMONT - The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously yesterday to end the town's membership in the No Place for Hate program, sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League.

Selectmen voted 2 to 1 against a clause in the resolution that would make membership in the program conditional on the ADL's clear acknowledgment that the massacres of Armenians in present-day Turkey were genocide and upon its support of congressional legislation that would officially acknowledge the genocide.

Dissenting members said it was not their place to influence national politics. But Selectman Paul Solomon, who supported the second clause, said Armenians "have lived in the shadow of this horrendous event, and continual denial is a personal affront to them all."

Many Armenian groups view the ADL's lack of support for the congressional legislation as hypocritical, considering it is a civil rights organization.

Debate among the three male members of Belmont's Board of Selectmen did not run smoothly last night. After a selectman raised objections to the second clause of the resolution, David Boyajian of Newton - credited by many with starting the exodus with a letter published in the Watertown TAB & Press - accused the selectmen "of being prejudiced against Armenians and treating them as second-class citizens."

Board of Selectmen chairman Angelo R. Firenze tabled the matter after the crowd became unruly, but a calming speech by a local resident caused selectmen to revive the measure.

Globe correspondent Melissa Beecher contributed to this report.

© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

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Jewish community of Armenia calls on ADL to support Armenian Genocide resolution

PanARMENIAN.Net, Armenia - Sep 10, 2007
PanARMENIAN.Net

Take note below that the Jewish community in Armenia is not held hostage as in Turkey under threat of reprisals against Israel.

Chairman of the Jewish community of Armenia, Rimma Varzhapetian-Feller issued a letter to national director of the Anti-Defamation League Abraham H. Foxman. The letter says in part,

“The Jewish community of Armenia closely watches the recent developments. The ADL has taken a firm stand to publicly recognize the Armenian Genocide. We do welcome your decision. Any genocide committed against a nation must not remain unrecognized or unpunished. However, on behalf of our community I express regret over the fact that the ADL doesn’t endorse the House resolution on the Armenian Genocide. Our community fully supports the legislation calling on the U.S. President to “guarantee understanding and scrupulousness in the U.S. foreign policy.”

We should also speak on behalf of those whose voice is not heard. The ADL’s support of the H. Res. 106 would be of utmost importance; otherwise the ADL stance would provide a cloak for genocide deniers and perpetrators. We are hopeful that the Anti-Defamation League will openly support this bill.

All should understand that the failure of universal recognition of the Armenian Genocide paved way for Hitler’s atrocities against our people. Thus, passage of the H. Res. 106 is one more step towards prevention of genocides.

The humanity cannot tolerate genocide denial any longer. The Jewish community of Armenia joins the supporters of the H. Res. 106 and expresses hope that the Armenian Genocide will be recognized not only but the United States but also by Jewish communities throughout the globe.

The Jewish community of Armenia earnestly requests the Anti-Defamation League to join 220 Congressmen and over 50 human rights protection organizations representing millions of Americans in support to the H. Res. 106. We call on you to cooperate with the Armenian Assembly of America to promote the resolution.”

August 24, the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League recognized the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide. ADL national director Abraham Foxman said the decision followed a discussion with historians and Nobel prize winner Elie Wiesel.

“On reflection, we have come to share the assessment of former Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Sr., that the consequences of the painful events of 1915-1918 were indeed tantamount to genocide,” the ADL statement read.

However, the organization stands against the H. Res.106, passage of which could “damage the Israeli-Turkish relations and jeopardize the Jewish community of Turkey.”

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Third town severs ties with ADL

Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY - Sep 7, 2007

A third town moved to sever ties with a popular Anti-Defamation League program to protest ADL's position on the Armenian genocide.

The Belmont Human Rights Commission, in Massachusetts, voted unanimously Thursday to recommend quitting the ADL's No Place For Hate program until the organization supports congressional legislation recognizing the Armenian genocide, the Boston Globe reported.

"If you have an organization that states that their purpose is to defend people, you can't choose only one," said Janet Boswell, a commission member.

In moving to break with the ADL, Belmont follows the lead of Arlington and Watertown, two suburban Boston communities that have severed ties with the group over the Armenian issue. Amidst the initial outcry, the ADL reversed itself and recognized the World War I massacres of Armenians as "tantamount to genocide," but the ADL maintained its refusal to support legislation recognizing as much.

Along with other major Jewish groups, the ADL has refused to support the legislation out of concern for U.S.-Turkey and Israel-Turkey ties, as well as for the security of the Turkish Jewish community. Turkey has lobbied intensely to defeat the legislation, which has majority support in the House of Representatives but has not yet come to a vote.

Twelve Jewish organizations -- including the Union for Reform Judaism, Americans for Peace Now, the Zionist Organization of America and the Progressive Jewish Alliance -- are supporting the legislation.

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An Open Letter to Abraham H. Foxman, National Director, ADL

Armenian Weekly, MA - Sep 7, 2007

The purpose of this letter is to discuss the oft mentioned desire of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to encourage Turkey and Armenia to begin the process of reconciliation by confronting their shared past. I am not sure that the ADL fully understands what prevents this meaningful sharing from taking place.

The Armenian genocide is a historic fact that has been extensively and impartially studied and accepted by eminent international historians and genocide scholars. However, Turkish leaders have chosen to turn a blind eye to this dark and sorry chapter in their modern history. Not only has the Turkish government refused to see what happened, but they have resorted to a continuous and well-financed campaign of denial and historic revisionism to hide their guilt. The ADL cannot be unaware of the litany of lies and deceptive statements that Ankara has authored these many years.

The ADL must have decided that the independent eye-witness accounts of depravity, the photographs depicting the numerous acts of brutality and the pages of official documents that speak to an Armenian genocide were irrelevant when it declared that the genocide only merited its qualified recognition. Then in the same breath, so-to-speak, the ADL hedged its position by saying that it would not support the resolution before the United States Congress to recognize the Armenian genocide. How can the ADL recognize the Armenian genocide—albeit partially—and then simultaneously go on record that it does not want Congress to recognize the Armenian genocide? Isn’t that counterproductive?

The position crafted by the ADL is nothing less than a tacit acceptance of the egregious lies and deceptive statements that serve as the basis for Turkey’s policy of denial and historic revisionism. This position by the ADL only encourages Turkish intransigence. I cannot allow myself to believe that this is the intent or purpose of the ADL.

I have served as co-chair and participant in Holocaust Observances in the City of Newton, Mass., while a commissioner on the Newton Human Rights Commission. I hold dear a letter from Lenny Zakim, then-New England director of the ADL, thanking me for my efforts. His death was a severe loss to the entire community. I mention this because I have always respected the mission of the ADL. Unfortunately, the series of recent episodes by the ADL has been regrettable.

Armenians have never had any fear of confronting their shared past with the Turkish people. On the contrary, it has been the fear of the Turkish government, for obvious reasons, to confront its shared past with the Armenian people that prevents rapprochement. On this most significant of issues—recognition of the Armenian genocide—the ADL has failed. This was the opportunity for the ADL to forcefully and forthrightly speak out against genocide, holocaust and ethnic cleansing as political solutions. Unfortunately, the ADL for whatever reasons preferred not to seize the moment. The vacillation and equivocation amply demonstrated by the current leadership during these past several weeks has not enhanced the credibility of the ADL.

Sincerely,
Michael G. Mensoian

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Jewish groups lobby against ‘Armenian genocide’ resolution in US Congress

26.04.2007
Today's Zaman İstanbul

Below it says, "US-based Jewish groups demanded that voting on congressional resolutions urging the US administration to recognize an alleged genocide of Armenians be delayed. "

As if 92 years were not sufficient. Justice delayed is justice denied. At some point in time the US-based Jewish groups have to answer to their conscience.

In a letter addressing influential members of US Congress, including head of the House of Representatives' Foreign Relations Committee Tom Lantos, US-based Jewish groups demanded that voting on congressional resolutions urging the US administration to recognize an alleged genocide of Armenians be delayed.

The letter was jointly signed by B'nai B'rith International, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). The letter included an annex -- a letter signed by the Turkish Jewish Community -- which said maintenance of good relations between Turkey and Israel and among Turkey, the US and Israel were crucial at a time when the US faces troubles in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Two separate resolutions are pending at the US Senate and the House of Representatives, urging the administration to recognize the World war I era killings of Anatolian Armenians as genocide. Turkey has warned that passage of the resolutions in the US Congress would seriously harm relations with Washington and impair cooperation in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US administration has said it was opposed to the resolution, yet the congressional process is an independent one. In his message for April 24, which Armenians claim marks the anniversary of the beginning of a systematic genocide campaign at the hands of the late Ottoman Empire, US President George W. Bush remained adhered to the administration policy of not referring to the incidents as genocide.

"Each year on this day, we pause to remember the victims of one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century, when as many as 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives in the final years of the Ottoman Empire, many of them victims of mass killings and forced exile," Bush said. Turkey categorically rejects the claims of genocide and says as many Turks were killed when the Armenians took up arms against the Ottoman Empire in collaboration with the invading Russian army.

Bush, in his message, also called for the normalization of ties between Turkey and Armenia: "Today, we remember the past and also look forward to a brighter future. We commend the individuals in Armenia and Turkey who are working to normalize the relationship between their two countries. A sincere and open examination of the historic events of the late-Ottoman period is an essential part of this process. The United States supports and encourages those in both countries who are working to build a shared understanding of history as a basis for a more hopeful future," he said.

The Bush administration dismissed its former ambassador in Yerevan last year after he violated the US policy and called the events "genocide." Ambassador John Evans was insistent on his stance when he spoke at the National Press Club in Washington and said Turkey should accept "historical facts." He also claimed that Turkey's efforts had played a role in the abrupt termination of his duty as the US ambassador in Yerevan.


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Armenian Genocide Resolution: Turkey's Chutzpah

Posted GMT 2-28-2007
The Jewish Press
By: Editorial Board

We are certainly not insensitive to the significance of Turkey's support of Israel. But the Turkish government's attempt to capitalize on that support by pressing the American Jewish community to oppose a Congressional resolution that condemns as "genocide" Turkey's murder of a million and a half Armenians during World War I strikes us as being the height of chutzpah.

As The New York Sun reported, on February 5 the Turkish foreign minister met with representatives of several major Jewish groups and "made a hard sell" against House Resolution 106, which now has 176 co-sponsors. The Turkish official reportedly appealed to the participants by noting -- outrageously, we think -- the uniqueness of the German genocide against the Jews. The Turks do not deny that between 1915 and 1917 they conducted a devastating military campaign against the Armenians and that thousands of Armenians were killed on forced marches. They claim, however, that the hapless Armenians were a fifth column, often armed and working on behalf of the Russian army in World War I.

But the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the time, Henry Morgenthau, wrote in his memoir, "I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this." The orders for the deportations of the Armenian families in 1915 "were merely giving a death warrant to a whole race," he wrote.

Anyone who seriously and objectively considers those events cannot but conclude that there was a calculated and purposeful effort to exterminate the Armenians. After all, approximately 1.5 million perished.

That said, we understand that opposition to House Resolution 106 does not necessarily signify lack of sympathy with the victims, or, indeed, sentiment against the concept itself. Not buying into an initiative on someone else's schedule is not always an indicator of nefarious motives at play.

We also have no doubt that some would argue the Jewish community should oppose the resolution if only to preserve the aura of uniqueness surrounding the destruction of European Jewry in the Holocaust. And this, perhaps, was the point the Turkish foreign minister was trying to make in his presentation to Jewish leaders.

But acknowledging as genocide the systematic murder of a million and a half human beings of a particular ethnic heritage in no way detracts from recognition of the Holocaust as a uniquely monumental evil in the blood-soaked annals of human history.

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Turks ask for Jewish help on Armenia

Feb 6, 2007
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY -

Turkey’s foreign minister asked U.S. Jewish leaders to lobby against a resolution that would label the 1915 mass killings of Armenians as genocide.

Abdullah Gul met for 90 minutes Monday night with representatives of the United Jewish Communities federation umbrella group, American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, American Jewish Congress, Chabad-Lubavitch, B’nai B’rith International and the Orthodox Union. He asked for assistance in facing down legislation sponsored by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who is Jewish and who has a substantial Armenian-American constituency.

Schiff’s resolution has garnered 169 co-sponsors.

Gul and the Jewish leaders also discussed U.S.-Turkish relations, Israeli-Turkish relations, Jewish-Muslim relations and the Turkish Jewish community.

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