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Open Letter To President Obama

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  • Open Letter To President Obama

    OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

    A1+
    01:59 pm | March 26, 2009

    Politics

    Last week, in an open letter to President Barack Obama, the
    International Association of Genocide Scholars, the leading
    organization of scholars who study genocide, urged Obama to "refer
    to the mass slaughter of Armenians as genocide in your commemorative
    statement," adding that it was what "you urged President George W. Bush
    to do in a letter dated March 18, 2005," reported the Armenian Assembly
    of America (Assembly).

    "By acknowledging the Armenian Genocide," the letter reads, "you would
    demonstrate that you are that 'leader' you referred to on January
    19, 2008, who 'speaks truthfully about the Armenian Genocide and
    responds forcefully to all genocides'." Moreover, "you would signal
    a new chapter in U.S. diplomacy. You would also honor the truth of
    our own valiant history, which saw brave and selfless Foreign Service
    Officers risk their lives rescuing Armenians during the Genocide and
    compiling the more than 40,000 pages of documentation now housed in
    the National Archives."

    In regard to Turkey's refusal to acknowledge its history, the letter
    reads, "We also believe that it is in the interest of the Turkish
    people and their future as participants in international, democratic
    discourse to acknowledge the responsibility of a previous government
    for the genocide of the Armenian people, just as the German government
    and people have done in the case of the Holocaust. Over the past
    decade a growing number of Turkish scholars, writers, intellectuals,
    and publishers have been risking imprisonment and assassination to
    tell the truth about the Armenian Genocide. They understood that
    facing and accepting the history of one's country, however dark,
    is an essential part of growing a healthy democracy.

    "We believe that security and historical truth are not in conflict, and
    it is in the interest of the United States to support the principles
    of human rights that are at the core of American democracy."

    "President Obama's upcoming trip to Turkey presents a unique
    opportunity to address this critical human rights issue and
    the irreversible trend toward its reaffirmation. We applaud the
    International Association of Genocide Scholars and its President,
    Gregory Stanton, for its open letter and its steadfast support of
    the importance of historical accuracy as one method of countering
    the problem of genocide denial," stated Assembly Executive Director
    Bryan Ardouny.
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