Despite ongoing Turkish threats, a reversal

Published: Saturday August 25, 2007

For over three decades, Jewish-American and Armenian-American leaders, activists, and organizations have worked closely on human- and minority-rights issues of the day regardless of the place or the perpetrator or the political pressure to desist.

Together we successfully championed U.S. ratification of United Nations conventions on minorities, children, women, and, of course, genocide. And in the noble pursuit of genocide prevention through research and education, our scholars and educators have labored together - on many occasions under enormous political pressure - to develop an understanding of comparative Holocaust and Genocide studies and teaching.

In these struggles, we developed an unshakable commitment to each other on the basis of shared values and histories, as well as contemporary risks to our people and our ancestral homelands.

But, our national public-policy organizations have not yet worked together in common cause with the fact and consequences of the Armenian Genocide. Because of Turkish threats against its Jewish minority and because Turkey appeared willing to punish Israel for any actions by Israel or the Jewish-American community acknowledging the truth of the Armenian Genocide, Jewish-American advocacy organizations did not do what was normative and right. That moment of indecision regarding the Armenian Genocide is now in the past.

This week, the Anti-Defamation League took an important step in the right direction. It has further to go.

National Chair Glen S. Lewy and National Director Abraham H. Foxman on August 21 wrote: "On reflection, we have come to share the view of Henry Morgenthau Sr. that the consequences of [the painful events of 1915-1918 perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians] were indeed tantamount to genocide. If the word genocide had existed then, they would have called it genocide."

The letter went on, however, to oppose the Genocide resolutions before Congress. "We continue to firmly believe that a Congressional resolution on such matters is a counterproductive diversion and will not foster reconciliation between Turks and Armenians and may put at risk the Turkish Jewish community and the important multilateral relationship between Turkey, Israel and the United States," the ADL letter concluded.

The New England Region of the ADL, which has stood firmly in favor of truth and nondiscrimination, has placed the matter of support for the resolutions on the agenda of the ADL's national policy-making body. The body, which has about 300 members, including leaders of the New England Region, will meet in New York City on November 1. It should do the right thing and overrule the National Director's ill-considered decision to oppose the resolutions.

***

Meanwhile, David A. Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, made a strong statement in support of remembering the Armenian Genocide: "I cannot escape the events of 1915 and the conclusions reached by credible voices, from Ambassador Morgenthau to Harvard professor Samantha Power, . . . to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, about the nature of what took place: it was a genocide, they determined, albeit one that occurred more than thirty years before the term was coined."

Mr. Harris went on to point out that the AJC has long been on record supporting recognition of the Armenian Genocide: "In a book entitled Holocaust Denial, published by the American Jewish Committee in 1993, the author, Kenneth Stern, an AJC staff expert on the subject, noted: ‘That the Armenian genocide is now considered a topic for debate, or as something to be discounted as old history, does not bode well for those who would oppose Holocaust denial.'"

Mr. Harris concluded rightly: "We have many interests as a Jewish people. Protecting historical truth ought to be right up there near the top of the list."

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations - comprising 50 national Jewish-American organizations - is now debating its position. The Jewish Telegraph Agency reports that member organizations are discussing affirmation of the Armenian Genocide in view of the actions taken by the ADL and AJC.

Armenian-Americans deeply appreciate and commend these steps by leading Jewish-American organizations to finally deal with this subject as central to our being as the Holocaust is to all Jews. In trying to understand what our community should say in response that would convey both our gratitude and our call to further action, we share the poignant sentiments by the mayor of Newton, Massachusetts. Mayor David B. Cohen said, "Whenever I saw the word Armenian, in my mind I substituted the word Jewish. And whenever I saw the word genocide, I substituted the word Holocaust.  And I said, would I be satisfied if this were the response of my leaders? And the answer was no!" The national ADL has to "do the right thing, recognizing the Armenian genocide and advocating for its recognition as they would any other genocide," he added.

***

The ADL and AJC acknowledge that the safety of Jews in Turkey has been and continues to be a fundamental concern.

Having buried our colleague Hrant Dink earlier this year, we are all too keenly aware of the mortal danger Armenians, Jews, and righteous Turks face in Turkey for speaking freely, for challenging Turkey's unconscionable denial of the truth and enforcement of the alternate lie. As we wrote last week, however, the proper response to this danger cannot be appeasement.

Armenian-Americans, Jewish-Americans, and others of good conscience must join together in denouncing any attempt by Turkey to use minorities as hostages. We must urge the United States and Israel alike to call on Turkey to eliminate every source of anti-Semitism and racism that has become so pervasive. The Turkish government and security forces must be held accountable for the intolerance and violence directed against the Jewish and Armenian communities and their leaders. Turkey cannot simply add denial of the risk to denial of the Armenian Genocide. If the ADL, AJC, and the Israeli government all invoke such threats and risks, then they are real and must be confronted.