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From the Desk of California State Legislator
Assemblymember Paul Krekorian
Office of Assemblymember Paul Krekorian
Contact: Karo Torossian
620 N. Brand Blvd. # 403
Glendale, CA 91203
Phone: (818) 240-6330
Fax: (818) 240-4632
Dear Representative Harman:
For 92 years, Armenian Americans throughout the world have sought
justice for one of the most horrendous crimes in the history of mankind
- the Armenian Genocide by the Turkish government during the waning days
of the Ottoman Empire. Until this week, your co-authorship of House
Resolution 106 demonstrated that you understood what has always been
obvious - that the wholesale slaughter of one and a half million
innocent Armenians undeniably constituted the first genocide of the
Twentieth Century.
Because you have appeared to understand this undeniable historical fact,
I was stunned to read your recent letter to Representatives Lantos and
Ros-Lehtinen seeking to avoid a vote on the very resolution you
co-authored - and promising to oppose it when it comes to a vote.
Words cannot describe how much you have infuriated the Armenian-American
community with this outrageous attempt to lobby your colleagues on
behalf of historical revisionists. Frankly, your letter represents a
breathtaking degree of hypocrisy that is, to many of us, inexcusable.
I was sickened to read your assertion that this is the "wrong time" for
the U.S. to recognize the historical truth of the Genocide, out of fear
that we may "embarrass or isolate" Turkish leadership. Representative
Harman, after 92 years of waiting, when exactly will be the right time
to acknowledge the attempted extermination of an entire nation? How
much longer should Armenians - and everyone who cares about eliminating
genocide of all kinds - continue to wait for the "right time" for
justice?
And how much more of America's interests - and in fact America's soul -
should we continue to surrender to avoid embarrassing the Turkish
government? After you voted to authorize the U.S. invasion of Iraq, for
example, our Armed Forces sought permission from our "ally" Turkey to
allow U.S. troops to use Turkish bases to open a northern front. Of
course, the Turkish government refused those requests by our military -
and in so doing almost certainly caused a higher rate of American
casualties. In short, the "ally" that you are concerned about
embarrassing is responsible for death and injury to courageous Americans
in the Armed Forces.
You claim to base your complete reversal in position in part on your
recent visit to Turkey, in which you met "colleagues of murdered
journalist Hrant Dink." Hrant Dink was a martyr who was murdered by a
Turkish extremist precisely because he demanded that Turks accept
responsibility for the Genocide. The very government that you are
concerned about embarrassing - what you call the "moderate Islamist
state" of "modern Turkey" - was criminally prosecuting Hrant Dink at the
time of his murder for having spoken the truth about the Genocide and
"insulting Turkishness." Threatening journalists with imprisonment for
speaking truth is hardly a sign of moderation - and I simply cannot
imagine that Hrant Dink or his family or his friends would ever support
your turnabout on this defining moral issue.
All Americans should be proud and grateful that your father, like so
many others, was able to find refuge from Nazi Germany in the U.S., a
fact that illustrates the best of what America stands for. At the same
time, it is likely that the Holocaust would never have occurred had the
world immediately meted out appropriate justice for the victims of the
Armenian Genocide that preceded it. Millions of innocent Jews and
others died during World War II because the world had looked away from
the atrocities of World War I. Millions more would later die in
genocides in Cambodia and Rwanda - and even as I write this letter,
genocide continues to occur in Darfur. Your reference to your father's
experience, therefore, is especially shocking in a letter in which you
choose to side with apologists for the perpetrators of genocide.
I would like to request that you meet with me and other leaders in the
Armenian community at your earliest convenience to discuss your change
in position on House Resolution 106. In light of your letter's
reference to Nazi Germany, I would also like to include leaders of
Jewish World Watch in that meeting, as well as representatives of the
Sudanese and Rwandan communities.
As Martin Luther King taught us, an injustice anywhere is a threat to
justice everywhere. In no context is that more true than in the history
of genocide. House Resolution 106 therefore is not an academic
exercise. It is a moral step toward demanding, once and for all, that
genocide will not be tolerated by the American people any time,
anywhere.
Please reconsider your misguided reversal on this vitally important
issue of human rights and justice. I look forward to your immediate
response.
Very truly yours,
PAUL KREKORIAN
Assemblymember, 43rd District
cc: The Honorable Tom Lantos
The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
The Honorable Adam Schiff
Members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Rabbi Harold Schulweiss
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Assemblymember Paul Krekorian
Office of Assemblymember Paul Krekorian
Contact: Karo Torossian
620 N. Brand Blvd. # 403
Glendale, CA 91203
Phone: (818) 240-6330
Fax: (818) 240-4632
Dear Representative Harman:
For 92 years, Armenian Americans throughout the world have sought
justice for one of the most horrendous crimes in the history of mankind
- the Armenian Genocide by the Turkish government during the waning days
of the Ottoman Empire. Until this week, your co-authorship of House
Resolution 106 demonstrated that you understood what has always been
obvious - that the wholesale slaughter of one and a half million
innocent Armenians undeniably constituted the first genocide of the
Twentieth Century.
Because you have appeared to understand this undeniable historical fact,
I was stunned to read your recent letter to Representatives Lantos and
Ros-Lehtinen seeking to avoid a vote on the very resolution you
co-authored - and promising to oppose it when it comes to a vote.
Words cannot describe how much you have infuriated the Armenian-American
community with this outrageous attempt to lobby your colleagues on
behalf of historical revisionists. Frankly, your letter represents a
breathtaking degree of hypocrisy that is, to many of us, inexcusable.
I was sickened to read your assertion that this is the "wrong time" for
the U.S. to recognize the historical truth of the Genocide, out of fear
that we may "embarrass or isolate" Turkish leadership. Representative
Harman, after 92 years of waiting, when exactly will be the right time
to acknowledge the attempted extermination of an entire nation? How
much longer should Armenians - and everyone who cares about eliminating
genocide of all kinds - continue to wait for the "right time" for
justice?
And how much more of America's interests - and in fact America's soul -
should we continue to surrender to avoid embarrassing the Turkish
government? After you voted to authorize the U.S. invasion of Iraq, for
example, our Armed Forces sought permission from our "ally" Turkey to
allow U.S. troops to use Turkish bases to open a northern front. Of
course, the Turkish government refused those requests by our military -
and in so doing almost certainly caused a higher rate of American
casualties. In short, the "ally" that you are concerned about
embarrassing is responsible for death and injury to courageous Americans
in the Armed Forces.
You claim to base your complete reversal in position in part on your
recent visit to Turkey, in which you met "colleagues of murdered
journalist Hrant Dink." Hrant Dink was a martyr who was murdered by a
Turkish extremist precisely because he demanded that Turks accept
responsibility for the Genocide. The very government that you are
concerned about embarrassing - what you call the "moderate Islamist
state" of "modern Turkey" - was criminally prosecuting Hrant Dink at the
time of his murder for having spoken the truth about the Genocide and
"insulting Turkishness." Threatening journalists with imprisonment for
speaking truth is hardly a sign of moderation - and I simply cannot
imagine that Hrant Dink or his family or his friends would ever support
your turnabout on this defining moral issue.
All Americans should be proud and grateful that your father, like so
many others, was able to find refuge from Nazi Germany in the U.S., a
fact that illustrates the best of what America stands for. At the same
time, it is likely that the Holocaust would never have occurred had the
world immediately meted out appropriate justice for the victims of the
Armenian Genocide that preceded it. Millions of innocent Jews and
others died during World War II because the world had looked away from
the atrocities of World War I. Millions more would later die in
genocides in Cambodia and Rwanda - and even as I write this letter,
genocide continues to occur in Darfur. Your reference to your father's
experience, therefore, is especially shocking in a letter in which you
choose to side with apologists for the perpetrators of genocide.
I would like to request that you meet with me and other leaders in the
Armenian community at your earliest convenience to discuss your change
in position on House Resolution 106. In light of your letter's
reference to Nazi Germany, I would also like to include leaders of
Jewish World Watch in that meeting, as well as representatives of the
Sudanese and Rwandan communities.
As Martin Luther King taught us, an injustice anywhere is a threat to
justice everywhere. In no context is that more true than in the history
of genocide. House Resolution 106 therefore is not an academic
exercise. It is a moral step toward demanding, once and for all, that
genocide will not be tolerated by the American people any time,
anywhere.
Please reconsider your misguided reversal on this vitally important
issue of human rights and justice. I look forward to your immediate
response.
Very truly yours,
PAUL KREKORIAN
Assemblymember, 43rd District
cc: The Honorable Tom Lantos
The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
The Honorable Adam Schiff
Members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Rabbi Harold Schulweiss
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress