Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Hopes Dashed As Obama Avoids Calling Mass Killings Of Armenians 'Gen

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Hopes Dashed As Obama Avoids Calling Mass Killings Of Armenians 'Gen

    HOPES DASHED AS OBAMA AVOIDS CALLING MASS KILLINGS OF ARMENIANS 'GENOCIDE'
    By Rebecca Spence

    Forward Magazine
    http://www.forward.com/articles/105257/
    A pril 29 2009

    Los Angeles -- This year, on Armenian Remembrance Day -- when the
    mass killing of more than 1 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire
    is commemorated -- Armenian-American activists had high hopes that
    a president who ran on a message of change would indeed change the
    pattern of previous administrations. That is, they hoped President
    Obama would use the term "genocide" to describe the human tragedy
    that occurred nearly a century ago.

    But on April 24, their hopes were dashed. When Obama -- who, during
    the campaign season and as a senator in the United States, pledged to
    describe the events of 1915 as a "genocide" -- released his statement
    in acknowledgement of the tragedy, the term was nowhere to be found.

    Equally ambivalent are many Jewish organizations. While some groups
    see this as a human rights issue related to the Holocaust, others
    have stayed silent or even actively opposed the "genocide" designation.

    At issue is how to describe the killing of roughly 1.5 million
    Armenians by the Ottoman Turks during World War I. Turkey staunchly
    denies that the massacres and deportations that began in 1915
    constitute a "genocide," while Armenians have long lobbied to gain
    international recognition of the events as exactly that. The debate
    has presented a challenge for successive American governments, given
    Turkey's position as a key ally to the United States in the Middle
    East, and past American presidents have been reluctant to anger the
    predominantly Muslim nation.

    Southern California is home to some 500,000 ethnic Armenians and
    constitutes the largest Armenian population outside of Armenia. On
    April 24, about 10,000 Armenian-Americans protested outside the
    Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles, following an annual commemorative
    march through the "Little Armenia" section of Hollywood.

    During the presidential campaign, Obama made it clear that he would
    take up the thorny issue. His Web site stated, "As a senator,
    I strongly support passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution
    (H.Res.106 and S.Res.106), and as President I will recognize the
    Armenian Genocide."

    But Obama's April 24 statement instead used the Armenian term "Meds
    Yeghem," which translates roughly to "the great calamity." A spokesman
    for Obama did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

    Every year, in the U.S. Congress, a resolution to use the controversial
    term is introduced in the spring and then beaten back. A handful of
    powerful Jewish advocacy groups, including the Anti-Defamation League,
    the American Jewish Committee, and the Jewish Institute for National
    Security Affairs, has declined to support the resolutions in past
    years, and some Jewish groups have even worked against them.

    Still, a host of other Jewish groups, including American Jewish World
    Service; the Progressive Jewish Alliance, a California-based activist
    group, and Jewish World Watch, which mobilizes synagogues around human
    rights issues, have supported efforts to recognize the mass killings
    of Armenians as a genocide.

    While some in the Jewish community argue that the memory of the
    Holocaust compels Jews to recognize other genocides, others argue
    that maintaining the strategic alliance between Israel and Turkey,
    as well as the American-Turkish relationship, trumps other concerns.

    Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognize Israel's existence,
    and it has long been a key Muslim ally in an otherwise hostile
    region. But in the wake of Turkey's criticism of Israel's recent
    military operation in Gaza, relations between the two countries
    have soured. Nonetheless, some American Jewish groups that have
    not supported the genocide resolutions in the past are sticking to
    their positions. AJC spokesman Kenneth Bandler said that his group's
    position has not changed. "Our position was, and remains, that the
    best way to address this issue is between Turkey and Armenia," he said.

    In 2007, the ADL became embroiled in a controversy that played out
    in the local Boston media after its New England regional director
    was fired for breaking ranks with the national office and saying
    that the ADL should recognize the events of 1915 as a genocide. The
    regional director, Andrew Tarsy, was ultimately rehired, and then
    he resigned of his own volition. That same year, the ADL released a
    statement clarifying its position and stating that it had, in fact,
    referred to the massacres of Armenians as genocide.

    Still, the ADL does not support a congressional resolution to that
    effect. In an e-mail, an ADL spokesman wrote, "... our position is that
    a Congressional resolution on such matters is a counterproductive
    diversion and will not foster reconciliation between Turks and
    Armenians, who should work out the issue between themselves."

    At the same time that Israeli-Turkish relations have been strained,
    relations between Turkey and Armenia actually have seen improvement
    over the past year. The two countries have been negotiating to
    open the Turkish-Armenian border, and just days before the April 24
    commemoration they announced a "road map" to restoring relations,
    which was negotiated with the help of U.S. officials.

    Charles King, a professor of international affairs and government
    at Georgetown University, said that Obama's backtracking on the use
    of the term "genocide" could be seen as more of an adjustment to
    new political realities on the ground. As Turkey and Armenia make
    real strides toward normalizing relations, King said, Obama would be
    hard-pressed to isolate the Turks by using the controversial term at
    such a delicate moment.

    "The Obama administration doesn't want to push farther on this at
    this point, for fear of destroying the very important progress that's
    been made on Armenian-Turkish relations," King said. "Inevitably,
    once a politician gets into office, they realize that issues are far
    more complicated than they were on the campaign trail, but secondly,
    things really have changed."

    That's no consolation for some Armenian-American activists. Allen
    Yekikan, a 24-year-old spokesman for the Armenian Youth Federation,
    said that he had campaigned for Obama, even canvassing for him in
    the Armenian-American community. "When he released his statement,"
    Yekikan said, "my heart broke."
Working...
X