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 WASHINGTON
– House Armenian Genocide Resolution lead sponsor, Rep. Adam
Schiff (D-CA), this week, called for the adoption of the
Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.252) as a necessary step to
both counter Turkey’s campaign of denial and to help lay the
foundation for a lasting Armenia-Turkey relationship based on
truth, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
Rep. Schiff’s actions came in response to a
letter from the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA)
and Federation of Turkish American Associations (FTAA) that
cited the historical “commission” provision of the recently
signed Turkey-Armenia Protocols as justification for blocking
Congressional condemnation and commemoration of the Armenian
Genocide. “The Turkey-Armenia Protocols, which the United
States, Europe and Russia are supporting, include the
establishment of a historical commission to investigate the
events of 1915,” explain ATAA President Gunay Evinch and FTAA
President Kaya Boztepe. “This investigation will necessarily
probe the Armenian Revolt (1885-1919) during which 1.1 million
Ottoman Muslims and Jews perished, and its consequences for
Ottoman Armenian rebels and their supporters,” they continue,
advancing the standard Turkish government propaganda denying the
Armenian Genocide.
Rep. Schiff, in a letter made public on
December 18th, explained, “I received your letter regarding the
Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.252) and after reading it, I
am more certain than ever that the best way to ensure that the
victims of the Armenian Genocide are not forgotten is to pass
the resolution.” The California legislator also stressed his
concern that “tiny, landlocked Armenia will be forced to accept
an historical whitewash in order to end the punitive blockade
that is stifling its economic development and threatens to
condemn another generation of Armenian children to poverty.”
Referencing recent statements by U.S
government officials that the “commission is not intended as a
vehicle to review the history of the Armenian Genocide,” Rep.
Schiff described the ATAA/FTAA joint letter as “a vehicle to
continue Ankara’s decades of denial.”
The complete text of Rep. Schiff’s letter is
provided below, along with the text of the ATAA/FTAA letters.
“Congressman Schiff’s powerful response to
the ATAA and FTAA clearly rejects Turkey’s attempts to use the
Turkey- Armenia Protocols to block U.S. recognition of the
Armenian Genocide,” said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of
the ANCA. “We value, as well, the Congressman’s strong words,
his principled stand, and his tireless efforts to firmly
establish the fundamental truth that Turkey has spent decades
trying to avoid – namely that the universal recognition of this
crime – including by both Washington and Ankara – represents a
necessary element of any durable Armenia-Turkey relationship.”
H.Res.252, introduced on March 17th of this
year by lead sponsors Adam Schiff and George Radanovich (R-CA),
and Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-chairs Frank Pallone (D-NJ)
and Mark Kirk (R-IL), currently has over 135 cosponsors. Its
companion legislation in the Senate (S.Res.316), spearheaded by
Senators Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and John Ensign (R-NV) has 11
cosponsors, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)
and Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), the most recent addition to the
cosponsor list. Both bills are identical to legislation in the
110th Congress that was adopted by the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, and publicly endorsed by then-candidate for President
Barack Obama, current Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton. Since the introduction of the current
resolution this March, President Obama has broken his pledge to
recognize the Armenian Genocide, retreating markedly from
repeated statements and promises he made throughout his service
in the Senate calling for proper U.S. condemnation and
commemoration of this crime against humanity.
Text of Schiff Letter to Assembly of
Turkish American Associations (ATAA) and Federation of Turkish
American Associations (FTAA)
December 17, 2009
Dear [ATAA/FTAA]:
I received your letter regarding the Armenian
Genocide Resolution (H.Res.252) and after reading it, I am more
certain than ever that the best way to ensure that the victims
of the Armenian Genocide are not forgotten is to pass the
resolution.
Ninety-four years ago, the government of the
Ottoman Empire, launched what is almost universally considered
the first genocide of the Twentieth Century – the Armenian
Genocide. By the time the atrocities ended in 1923, 1.5 million
men, women and children had been killed – shot, beaten, starved,
raped and force-marched through searing deserts.
Despite a series of convictions of some of
the leading perpetrator after World War I, the Turkish state has
never accepted responsibility for the acts of its predecessor
government and has stubbornly maintained that the genocide never
took place. Even today, Turks are forbidden to discuss openly
the Genocide are subject to prosecution if they do so. Ankara’s
failure to acknowledge the truth about the vents of 1915-23 has
complicated Turkey’s relationship with the United States and a
number of European countries and is also an impediment to
Turkey’s efforts to join the European Union.
The evidence of the Genocide is
overwhelming. American newspapers, especially the New York
Times, chronicled the Genocide in great detail. American
diplomats throughout the crumbling Ottoman Empire transmitted a
flood of cables and other reports detailing the slaughter of
Armenians. In 1919, Congress passed legislation to aid the
victims and ordinary Americans contributed money to aid the
survivors.
Our National Archives houses thousands of cables, reports,
eyewitness testimony, photographs, and other evidence of a
deliberate campaign of extermination.
For the past 90 years, the Armenian people
have sought justice; they have fought to have their suffering,
which inspired a young Polish Jew to coin the term “genocide,”
recognized by the international community and especially the
descendants of those who carried out the slaughter. In
response, the Turkish government has maintained a decades-long
policy of fighting any attempt by the American government or
other nations to recognize what happened to the Armenian people
for what it was.
Earlier this year, the governments of Turkey
and the modern state of Armenia, signed the Protocols that, upon
ratification by the two countries’ respective parliaments, will
end Turkey’s 16-year-old blockade of landlocked Armenia. The
border will be reopened and the Armenian people, who have
suffered economic privation and physical isolation as a result
of Ankara’s blockade, will certainly benefit. And open border
would also help Turkey in its quest for EU membership and by
removing a significant irritant in Ankara’s relationship with
the international community.
While I strongly support ending Turkey’s
blockade of Armenia and for improving relations between the two
countries, I share the deep concerns of many Armenians and
Armenian-Americans about the inclusion in the Protocols of an
historical commission that will examine the past –including the
Armenian Genocide. I fear that tiny, landlocked Armenia will be
forced to accept an historical whitewash in order to end the
punitive blockade that is stifling its economic development and
threatens to condemn another generation of Armenian children to
poverty.
In recent months, some, including some in our
government have suggested that the commission is not intended as
a vehicle to review the history of the Armenian Genocide. Your
letter honestly characterizes it as a vehicle to continue
Ankara’s decades of denial, supporting my own interpretation of
the Protocols’ commission provision.
The best way to ensure that the truth about
the Armenian Genocide is recognized is for the United States
Congress to act to commemorate the victims now, while a handful
of survivors are still with us. By speaking now, and on behalf
of the American people, the House of Representatives can
forestall any effort by Turkey to force the victims of one of
history’s great crimes to cooperate in denying that it ever
happened. True reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia must
be built on a foundation of truth.
Sincerely,
[signed]
Adam B. Schiff
Member of Congress
Letter From ATAA/FTAA Leaders to Rep.
Adam Schiff
Assembly of Turkish American Associations
Federation of Turkish American Associations
December 9, 2009
The Honorable Representative Adam Schiff
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative Schiff,
We, the Presidents of America’s largest
Turkish-American grassroots organizations, The Assembly of
Turkish American Associations (ATAA) and Federation of Turkish
American Associations, (FTSS), urge you to support the nascent
Turkish-Armenian rapprochement. Therefore, the present Armenian
resolution in the House (H.Res.252) should neither advance nor
pass.
Extremists in the Armenian American community
have contacted you to press for passage of this one-sided
resolution, which would condemn the Ottoman empire and, by
implication, Turkey and the people of Turkish heritage, of the
high crime of genocide. Passage would derail the vital and
brave steps being taken by the Turkish and Armenian people to
achieve a fuller relationship that will advance peace and
security in their region.
The Turkey-Armenia Protocols, which the
United States, Europe and Russia are supporting, include the
establishment of a historical commission to investigate the
events of 1915. This investigation will necessarily probe the
Armenian Revolt (1885-1919) during which 1.1 million Ottoman
Muslims and Jews perished, and its consequences for Ottoman
Armenian rebels and their supporters.
Further, Congress ought not to sit in
judgment of Turkey and people of Turkish heritage, because, as
the protocols imply, legislators are not historians and
certainly not experts in Ottoman history. Also, as the
resolution levels the crime of genocide, by international treaty
the United States acknowledges the sole jurisdiction to hear
such allegations of the International Court of Justice at the
Hague.
Finally, Armenian anti-Turkish resolutions
are fundamentally unfair and unjust, representing ethnic
politics at its worst. Turkish Americans are concerned about
being persecuted by these resolutions and urge rapprochement as
a productive approach.
Sincerely,
Gunay Evinch
President
ATAA
1526 18th St NW
Washington DC 20036
(202) 483-9090
Kaya Boztepe
President
FTAA
821 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
(212) 682-7688
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