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Today's Zaman, Turkey
Aug 23 2007
Turkey's Jews disavow `genocide' move
Expressing sadness over an influential US Jewish group's labeling of
the World War I killing of Anatolian Armenians as genocide, Turkey's
Jewish community stressed Wednesday that they supported Ankara's view
that the issue should be discussed at the academic level by opening
all historical archives in the relevant countries.
The New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Tuesday reversed
its longtime policy by calling the World War I killing of Anatolian
Armenians a genocide -- a change that comes days after the ADL fired
a regional director for taking the same position. ADL Director
Abraham Foxman's statement that the killings of Armenians by Muslim
Turks `were indeed tantamount to genocide' came after weeks of
controversy in which critics questioned whether an organization
dedicated to remembering Holocaust victims could remain credible
without acknowledging the Armenian killings as genocide.
Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in a
systematic genocide campaign by Ottoman Turks around the time of
World War I, but Ankara categorically rejects the label, saying that
both Armenians and Turks died in civil strife during World War I when
the Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and
sided with Russian troops invading the crumbling Ottoman Empire.
`We have difficulty in understanding this immediate change of view,'
read a statement released Wednesday from the office of Silvio Ovadio,
head of the Jewish Community of Turkey. In a letter to Foxman,
prominent Turkish Jewish businessman Jak Kamhi said the ADL
`committed a very great injustice to the memory and status of the
Holocaust, to the people and government of my country, and to all
those who continue to share our common vision and struggle for
reconciliation and for the avoidance of absolutely unnecessary
complications in the relations between our countries.
`By accepting this false comparison between the uniquely indisputable
genocide for which the term was coined -- the Holocaust, and the
events of 1915, the ADL has committed an act of the most inexplicable
injustice against the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, as well
as against the sensitivities and pride of the Turkish people, who
deserve your praise for their centuries-long tradition of compassion
and their culture of humanity and cohabitation that remains an
example to the world,' Kamhi said. He also emphasized throughout the
text that there was no `consensus' among scientists and historians
that events of World War I constituted `genocide,' contrary to the
ADL's conviction that there is.
Two separate resolutions are pending in the US Senate and House of
Representatives, urging the administration to recognize the killings
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 is opposed to the resolution, but the congressional process is an
independent one. In his message on 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 adhered to the administration policy of not referring to the
incident as genocide.
Meanwhile, in his statement posted on the organization's Web site,
Foxman noted that the ADL `continues 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.'
`We want to emphasize that reports which have yet been aired on
Internet sites and which start as `the Jewish' can be misleading for
public opinion and that this view has been reflecting solely `related
institutions' of the American Jews,' said the statement from Ovadio's
office.
`We declare that, like we have done in the past, we are supporting
Turkey's belief that the issue should be discussed at the academic
level by opening archives of all related parties and that parliaments
are not the places for `finding out historical facts via voting','
the statement also noted, referring to the fact that Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan sent a letter to Armenian President
Robert Kocharian in 2005, inviting him to establish a joint
commission of historians and experts from both Turkey and Armenia to
study the events of 1915 in the archives of Turkey, Armenia and other
relevant countries around the world.
The Jewish Community of Turkey has meanwhile pledged that it will
continue exerting efforts for the protection of the Turkish
Republic's interests and positions.
The ADL's policy reversal sparked reactions from the Turkish
community living in the US as well from Nurten Ural, president of the
Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), who expressed
disappointment over the decision. She said Turks and Armenians both
suffered during the war and calling it genocide by the Turks is like
being accused of a crime you did not commit, The Associated Press
reported on Tuesday.
Ural said many historians do not believe genocide occurred and if the
congressional resolution passes it would damage relations with
Turkey, which is valued in the West as a friend of Israel in the
hostile Middle East and a bulwark against radical Islam.
`This is not a political issue, this is a historical issue and it
should be left to the historians,' Ural said. `The US needs Turkey
and Turkey needs the US in many, many ways. It would be really bad
for both countries.'
The controversy began in July after Newton resident David Boyajian
wrote a local Watertown paper about the ADL's stance and urged the
community's `No Place for Hate' program to sever ties with the ADL.
Last week Watertown, home to a large Armenian population, withdrew
from the ADL's `No Place for Hate' program to combat hate crimes
because of the organization's refusal to call the massacres genocide.
Also last week during a meeting on the subject in the town, ADL New
England Regional Director Andrew Tarsy was booed by the packed crowd.
Later in the week, he changed his position and said he strongly
disagreed with the national organization.
The ADL subsequently fired Tarsy after he agreed the killings were
genocide.
No change in Israel's stance on World War I incidents
The ADL decision prompted the Israeli Embassy in Ankara to issue a
written statement on the same issue underlining that there has been
no change in Israel's official stance in regards to the incidents
during World War I.
`As Jews and as Israelis we are especially sensitive and morally
obligated to remember human tragedies, which include the killings
that took place among the Armenian population during the latter part
of the First World War, in the years 1915-1916, during the last years
of the Ottoman Empire. The State of Israel has never denied these
horrible events; on the contrary, we understand the intensity of the
emotion connected with this matter on both sides, considering the
high number of victims and terrible suffering which the Armenian
people endured,' the embassy noted.
`Yet, notwithstanding this, over the years, the subject, undesirably,
has become a loaded political issue between the Armenians and the
Turks, and each side has been trying to prove the justice of its
claims,' the embassy continued.
`The State of Israel, therefore, asks that neither one side nor the
other be taken and that no definitions be made of what happened. We
hope that both sides will enter into an open dialogue which will
enable them to heal the open wounds that have remained for many
decades,' the statement concluded.
------------------------------------------------ ----------------
Kamhi: Injustice to memory of Holocaust, Turkish people
In a letter to Anti-Defamation League (ADL) National Director Abraham
Foxman, Jak Kamhi, a prominent businessman and a respected member of
the Turkish Jewish Community, expressed deep disappointment over the
group's decision to uphold Armenian claims of genocide at the hands
of the Ottoman Empire. Kamhi also said the ADL has committed an act
of the `most inexplicable injustice' against the memory of the
victims of the Holocaust, as well as against the `sensitivities and
pride of the Turkish people.' The full text of Kamhi's letter is as
follows: Dear Abe, I write to you concerning the `ADL Statement on
the Armenian Genocide' dated Aug. 21, 2007, in which you add the
prestige of the ADL to those who, for all sorts of reasons, have long
lobbied for acceptance of the much-disputed claim that the historical
events in question constituted a `genocide.' The purpose of this
letter is to explain to you the depth of my disappointment and my
foreboding. The Statement's assertion that there is any `consensus'
of historians on this matter is absolutely untrue. If there were,
this matter would have been closed a long time ago. In fact,
reputable and serious historians, having studied the available
literature and archival data as professional experts, do not accept
that the events of 1915 can properly be described as genocide. Has no
one at the ADL read these works? If they had, they would also know
that the objectivity of Henry Morgenthau Sr. on this particular
question is highly questionable. While I have boundless respect for
the inspiring work and courage of Elie Wiesel, I have never been able
to reconcile his brilliant defense of the unique nature of the
Holocaust -- the very synonym of Genocide -- with the view that the
Holocaust might somehow also be comparable to the utterly dissimilar
events during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. In any case, it is
clear that both sides can bring forth the names of eminent scholars:
this matter cannot be resolved in that manner, because there is no
consensus of distinguished experts and historians. I simply cannot
understand the rationale for the ADL's action in making a
pronouncement on one side of a highly sensitive and delicate matter
on which you appear to be either uninformed or uncaring, and why this
has been done at this particular time. The massacres and atrocities
that undoubtedly occurred in that corner of the collapsing Ottoman
Empire at the end of the bloodiest war in human history, are a tragic
and unforgettable part of the histories of the all the victims --
Christian Armenians, Muslim and non-Muslim Turks, Kurds and others in
an Empire that was after all characterized by centuries of peaceful
coexistence of numerous ethnic and religious groups. This tragedy is
also part of the history of those powers who provoked, encouraged and
armed insurgent groups in order to hasten the chaotic collapse of the
Ottoman state that had (as the ADL has a duty to remember) provided
sanctuary for Jews expelled or otherwise persecuted in Europe over
centuries. Russia, France and Great Britain invaded, gave arms,
promises and material support to Armenian nationalist groups and
gangs. Contemporary accounts of that time are replete with examples
of massacres committed by Kurds against Armenians, and by Armenians
against Moslem Turks. Is the ADL not aware of these historical facts?
Such chaos and horror marked the ends of other Empires: it was the
British who invented the term `concentration camp' in the Boer War;
hundreds of thousands were killed in massacres in India and during
the Partition. Similar tragedies befell literally millions of people
in French and Italian North Africa, in the Belgian Congo, and on
every continent in European wars of expansion and colonialism. Rivers
of blood have repeatedly flowed in the Balkans. Does the ADL intend
to issue Statements and pronouncements declaring all these events as
genocides? By accepting this false comparison between the uniquely
indisputable genocide for which the term was coined -- the Holocaust
-- and the events of 1915, the ADL has committed an act of the most
inexplicable injustice against the memory of the victims of the
Holocaust, as well as against the sensitivities and pride of the
Turkish people, who deserve your praise for their centuries-long
tradition of compassion and their culture of humanity and
cohabitation that remains an example to the world. If the ADL had
listened to wiser and objective counsel, such a terrible mistake
could not have been made. I have in the past made strenuous and
repeated efforts in writing and in discussions with you and your
colleagues, to explain this situation in great detail. One of the
documents that we have previously sent is attached once again. It may
begin to show the realities of the situation, and the very deep
waters that the ADL has now chosen to stir. Your Statement concludes
very correctly that congressional resolutions are counterproductive,
will hinder the reconciliation between Turks and Armenians that we
all desire, will put at risk the Turkish Jewish community and the
important multilateral relationship between Turkey, Israel and the
United States. It is perfectly clear that this resolution by the ADL
will have exactly the same effect, only the degree of damage differs:
how could it possibly be otherwise? This Statement will put back the
painstaking efforts by many of us in Turkey, including our brothers
in the Armenian Community, to resolve this highly emotive issue
without prejudgment. It will now be seized upon by all those who seek
to destroy all our work and create discord and bitterness between our
countries. In time, the ADL may understand and accept that you have
committed a very great injustice to the memory and status of the
Holocaust, to the people and government of my country, and to all
those who continue to share our common vision and struggle for
reconciliation and for the avoidance of absolutely unnecessary
complications in the relations between our countries. I hope and
trust that you will do your utmost to correct the unfortunate
situation and perceptions arising from this matter, in continuance of
our common efforts to enhance relations between our countries Turkey
and the United States of America, and with Israel, based upon our
shared vision of hope and humanity for all peoples. Yours Sincerely,
Jak V. Kamhi
23.08.2007
EMÝNE KART ANKARA
Aug 23 2007
Turkey's Jews disavow `genocide' move
Expressing sadness over an influential US Jewish group's labeling of
the World War I killing of Anatolian Armenians as genocide, Turkey's
Jewish community stressed Wednesday that they supported Ankara's view
that the issue should be discussed at the academic level by opening
all historical archives in the relevant countries.
The New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Tuesday reversed
its longtime policy by calling the World War I killing of Anatolian
Armenians a genocide -- a change that comes days after the ADL fired
a regional director for taking the same position. ADL Director
Abraham Foxman's statement that the killings of Armenians by Muslim
Turks `were indeed tantamount to genocide' came after weeks of
controversy in which critics questioned whether an organization
dedicated to remembering Holocaust victims could remain credible
without acknowledging the Armenian killings as genocide.
Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in a
systematic genocide campaign by Ottoman Turks around the time of
World War I, but Ankara categorically rejects the label, saying that
both Armenians and Turks died in civil strife during World War I when
the Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and
sided with Russian troops invading the crumbling Ottoman Empire.
`We have difficulty in understanding this immediate change of view,'
read a statement released Wednesday from the office of Silvio Ovadio,
head of the Jewish Community of Turkey. In a letter to Foxman,
prominent Turkish Jewish businessman Jak Kamhi said the ADL
`committed a very great injustice to the memory and status of the
Holocaust, to the people and government of my country, and to all
those who continue to share our common vision and struggle for
reconciliation and for the avoidance of absolutely unnecessary
complications in the relations between our countries.
`By accepting this false comparison between the uniquely indisputable
genocide for which the term was coined -- the Holocaust, and the
events of 1915, the ADL has committed an act of the most inexplicable
injustice against the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, as well
as against the sensitivities and pride of the Turkish people, who
deserve your praise for their centuries-long tradition of compassion
and their culture of humanity and cohabitation that remains an
example to the world,' Kamhi said. He also emphasized throughout the
text that there was no `consensus' among scientists and historians
that events of World War I constituted `genocide,' contrary to the
ADL's conviction that there is.
Two separate resolutions are pending in the US Senate and House of
Representatives, urging the administration to recognize the killings
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 is opposed to the resolution, but the congressional process is an
independent one. In his message on 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 adhered to the administration policy of not referring to the
incident as genocide.
Meanwhile, in his statement posted on the organization's Web site,
Foxman noted that the ADL `continues 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.'
`We want to emphasize that reports which have yet been aired on
Internet sites and which start as `the Jewish' can be misleading for
public opinion and that this view has been reflecting solely `related
institutions' of the American Jews,' said the statement from Ovadio's
office.
`We declare that, like we have done in the past, we are supporting
Turkey's belief that the issue should be discussed at the academic
level by opening archives of all related parties and that parliaments
are not the places for `finding out historical facts via voting','
the statement also noted, referring to the fact that Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan sent a letter to Armenian President
Robert Kocharian in 2005, inviting him to establish a joint
commission of historians and experts from both Turkey and Armenia to
study the events of 1915 in the archives of Turkey, Armenia and other
relevant countries around the world.
The Jewish Community of Turkey has meanwhile pledged that it will
continue exerting efforts for the protection of the Turkish
Republic's interests and positions.
The ADL's policy reversal sparked reactions from the Turkish
community living in the US as well from Nurten Ural, president of the
Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), who expressed
disappointment over the decision. She said Turks and Armenians both
suffered during the war and calling it genocide by the Turks is like
being accused of a crime you did not commit, The Associated Press
reported on Tuesday.
Ural said many historians do not believe genocide occurred and if the
congressional resolution passes it would damage relations with
Turkey, which is valued in the West as a friend of Israel in the
hostile Middle East and a bulwark against radical Islam.
`This is not a political issue, this is a historical issue and it
should be left to the historians,' Ural said. `The US needs Turkey
and Turkey needs the US in many, many ways. It would be really bad
for both countries.'
The controversy began in July after Newton resident David Boyajian
wrote a local Watertown paper about the ADL's stance and urged the
community's `No Place for Hate' program to sever ties with the ADL.
Last week Watertown, home to a large Armenian population, withdrew
from the ADL's `No Place for Hate' program to combat hate crimes
because of the organization's refusal to call the massacres genocide.
Also last week during a meeting on the subject in the town, ADL New
England Regional Director Andrew Tarsy was booed by the packed crowd.
Later in the week, he changed his position and said he strongly
disagreed with the national organization.
The ADL subsequently fired Tarsy after he agreed the killings were
genocide.
No change in Israel's stance on World War I incidents
The ADL decision prompted the Israeli Embassy in Ankara to issue a
written statement on the same issue underlining that there has been
no change in Israel's official stance in regards to the incidents
during World War I.
`As Jews and as Israelis we are especially sensitive and morally
obligated to remember human tragedies, which include the killings
that took place among the Armenian population during the latter part
of the First World War, in the years 1915-1916, during the last years
of the Ottoman Empire. The State of Israel has never denied these
horrible events; on the contrary, we understand the intensity of the
emotion connected with this matter on both sides, considering the
high number of victims and terrible suffering which the Armenian
people endured,' the embassy noted.
`Yet, notwithstanding this, over the years, the subject, undesirably,
has become a loaded political issue between the Armenians and the
Turks, and each side has been trying to prove the justice of its
claims,' the embassy continued.
`The State of Israel, therefore, asks that neither one side nor the
other be taken and that no definitions be made of what happened. We
hope that both sides will enter into an open dialogue which will
enable them to heal the open wounds that have remained for many
decades,' the statement concluded.
------------------------------------------------ ----------------
Kamhi: Injustice to memory of Holocaust, Turkish people
In a letter to Anti-Defamation League (ADL) National Director Abraham
Foxman, Jak Kamhi, a prominent businessman and a respected member of
the Turkish Jewish Community, expressed deep disappointment over the
group's decision to uphold Armenian claims of genocide at the hands
of the Ottoman Empire. Kamhi also said the ADL has committed an act
of the `most inexplicable injustice' against the memory of the
victims of the Holocaust, as well as against the `sensitivities and
pride of the Turkish people.' The full text of Kamhi's letter is as
follows: Dear Abe, I write to you concerning the `ADL Statement on
the Armenian Genocide' dated Aug. 21, 2007, in which you add the
prestige of the ADL to those who, for all sorts of reasons, have long
lobbied for acceptance of the much-disputed claim that the historical
events in question constituted a `genocide.' The purpose of this
letter is to explain to you the depth of my disappointment and my
foreboding. The Statement's assertion that there is any `consensus'
of historians on this matter is absolutely untrue. If there were,
this matter would have been closed a long time ago. In fact,
reputable and serious historians, having studied the available
literature and archival data as professional experts, do not accept
that the events of 1915 can properly be described as genocide. Has no
one at the ADL read these works? If they had, they would also know
that the objectivity of Henry Morgenthau Sr. on this particular
question is highly questionable. While I have boundless respect for
the inspiring work and courage of Elie Wiesel, I have never been able
to reconcile his brilliant defense of the unique nature of the
Holocaust -- the very synonym of Genocide -- with the view that the
Holocaust might somehow also be comparable to the utterly dissimilar
events during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. In any case, it is
clear that both sides can bring forth the names of eminent scholars:
this matter cannot be resolved in that manner, because there is no
consensus of distinguished experts and historians. I simply cannot
understand the rationale for the ADL's action in making a
pronouncement on one side of a highly sensitive and delicate matter
on which you appear to be either uninformed or uncaring, and why this
has been done at this particular time. The massacres and atrocities
that undoubtedly occurred in that corner of the collapsing Ottoman
Empire at the end of the bloodiest war in human history, are a tragic
and unforgettable part of the histories of the all the victims --
Christian Armenians, Muslim and non-Muslim Turks, Kurds and others in
an Empire that was after all characterized by centuries of peaceful
coexistence of numerous ethnic and religious groups. This tragedy is
also part of the history of those powers who provoked, encouraged and
armed insurgent groups in order to hasten the chaotic collapse of the
Ottoman state that had (as the ADL has a duty to remember) provided
sanctuary for Jews expelled or otherwise persecuted in Europe over
centuries. Russia, France and Great Britain invaded, gave arms,
promises and material support to Armenian nationalist groups and
gangs. Contemporary accounts of that time are replete with examples
of massacres committed by Kurds against Armenians, and by Armenians
against Moslem Turks. Is the ADL not aware of these historical facts?
Such chaos and horror marked the ends of other Empires: it was the
British who invented the term `concentration camp' in the Boer War;
hundreds of thousands were killed in massacres in India and during
the Partition. Similar tragedies befell literally millions of people
in French and Italian North Africa, in the Belgian Congo, and on
every continent in European wars of expansion and colonialism. Rivers
of blood have repeatedly flowed in the Balkans. Does the ADL intend
to issue Statements and pronouncements declaring all these events as
genocides? By accepting this false comparison between the uniquely
indisputable genocide for which the term was coined -- the Holocaust
-- and the events of 1915, the ADL has committed an act of the most
inexplicable injustice against the memory of the victims of the
Holocaust, as well as against the sensitivities and pride of the
Turkish people, who deserve your praise for their centuries-long
tradition of compassion and their culture of humanity and
cohabitation that remains an example to the world. If the ADL had
listened to wiser and objective counsel, such a terrible mistake
could not have been made. I have in the past made strenuous and
repeated efforts in writing and in discussions with you and your
colleagues, to explain this situation in great detail. One of the
documents that we have previously sent is attached once again. It may
begin to show the realities of the situation, and the very deep
waters that the ADL has now chosen to stir. Your Statement concludes
very correctly that congressional resolutions are counterproductive,
will hinder the reconciliation between Turks and Armenians that we
all desire, will put at risk the Turkish Jewish community and the
important multilateral relationship between Turkey, Israel and the
United States. It is perfectly clear that this resolution by the ADL
will have exactly the same effect, only the degree of damage differs:
how could it possibly be otherwise? This Statement will put back the
painstaking efforts by many of us in Turkey, including our brothers
in the Armenian Community, to resolve this highly emotive issue
without prejudgment. It will now be seized upon by all those who seek
to destroy all our work and create discord and bitterness between our
countries. In time, the ADL may understand and accept that you have
committed a very great injustice to the memory and status of the
Holocaust, to the people and government of my country, and to all
those who continue to share our common vision and struggle for
reconciliation and for the avoidance of absolutely unnecessary
complications in the relations between our countries. I hope and
trust that you will do your utmost to correct the unfortunate
situation and perceptions arising from this matter, in continuance of
our common efforts to enhance relations between our countries Turkey
and the United States of America, and with Israel, based upon our
shared vision of hope and humanity for all peoples. Yours Sincerely,
Jak V. Kamhi
23.08.2007
EMÝNE KART ANKARA