Armenian Assembly of America
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PRESS RELEASE
March 2, 2005
CONTACT: Christine Kojoian
Email: [email protected]
ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY RALLIES CONGRESSIONAL, COMMUNITY SUPPORT FOR
“ARMENIAN GENOCIDE” DECLARATION BY AMB. EVANS
Rep. Pallone Tells Congress Remarks Are In Keeping With Previous
Statements by U.S. Officials
Washington, DC – The Assembly acted today to galvanize congressional
and Armenian-American support for U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John
Evans’ self-evident declaration that “the Armenian Genocide was the
first genocide of the twentieth century.” The Ambassador made the
statement repeatedly during public forums with Armenian-American
community groups throughout the U.S. last week.
Assembly leaders launched a comprehensive campaign that hinges on the
support of the community and others of goodwill to join Ambassador
Evans in properly characterizing the attempted annihilation of the
Armenian people under cover of WW I as genocide. In its ongoing
effort to bury the facts of history, Turkey will rely on its friends
in the Bush Administration, Congress, the media and think tanks to
disrupt ongoing and growing U.S. reaffirmation of the truth.
As part of that campaign, the Assembly sent an urgent memorandum to
Senate foreign affairs staff for their members to support the Evans’
declaration and to all Armenia Caucus members in the House to
encourage their members to follow the lead of Congressional Caucus on
Armenian Issues Co-Chairs Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) and Frank Pallone,
Jr. (D-NJ).
Pallone is the first U.S. official to publicly address Evans’ comments
and add his name to all those who have accurately described the facts.
In a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives last night,
he said: “Ambassador Evans’ statements did not contradict U.S. policy,
but rather articulated the same message that the Bush Administration
has sent to the public, the only difference in this case is that
Ambassador Evans simply assigned the word to the definition that was
already provided by President Bush as well as members of his
administration.” [The full text of Pallone’s comments are attached
below.]
Additionally, the Assembly this week began mobilizing its nationwide
network of grassroots activists, asking them to promptly contact
President Bush and Members of Congress to support the historical
truth.
“The Assembly commends Ambassador Evans for accurately labeling the
attempted annihilation of the Armenians as Genocide and urges the
President to follow his example and properly characterize the
atrocities in his remembrance statement next month,” said Assembly
Board of Trustees Chairman Hirair Hovnanian. “In fact, the Ambassador
has provided everyone in our community who has worked long and hard on
this matter a remarkable opportunity to see that the truth is told
during the community’s yearlong commemorative activities of the 90th
anniversary of the Genocide.”
Hovnanian also said that by employing the term Armenian Genocide, the
Ambassador is building on previously made statements by Presidents
Reagan and Bush, as well as the repeated declarations of numerous
world-renowned scholars. In effect, Evans has done nothing more than
succinctly name the conclusions enunciated by those before him.
In 1981, for example, Ronald Reagan issued a presidential proclamation
that said in part: “like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and
the genocide of the Cambodians which followed it – and like too many
other persecutions of too many other people – the lessons of the
Holocaust must never be forgotten…” President Bush himself has also
carefully set forth the textbook definition of the crime of genocide
as it applies to Armenians in his successive April 24th statements of
remembrance.
Furthermore, Evans’ characterization conforms to the publicly stated
declarations of over 120 renowned Holocaust and Genocide scholars who
signed a statement in 2000 affirming that the Armenian Genocide is an
incontestable historical fact and so urge the governments of Western
democracies to likewise recognize it as such. The petitioners, among
whom is Nobel Laureate for Peace Elie Wiesel, also asked the Western
democracies to urge the Government and Parliament of Turkey to finally
come to terms with a dark chapter of Ottoman-Turkish history and to
recognize the Armenian Genocide.
Evans’ characterization also conforms to the summary conclusions of
the International Center for Transitional Justice on the use of the
term Armenian Genocide, which states that: “The Events, viewed
collectively, can thus be said to include all of the elements of the
crime of genocide as defined in the Convention, and legal scholars as
well as historians, politicians, journalists and other people would be
justified in continuing to so describe them.”
“Clearly there is sufficient context and validation for Evans’ use of
the term, which in our opinion is part of a natural progression
building on the U.S. record towards an inevitable, full and
irrevocable U.S. reaffirmation of the Armenian Genocide,” continued
Hovnanian. “That said, it is now up to us to come together as a
community and reach out to Armenia’s friends on the Hill, as well as
those in the public policy sector, to encourage further affirmations
of the historical truth.”
The Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based
nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness
of Armenian issues. It is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt membership
organization.
### NR#2005-018
Editor’s Note: Below is the full text of the comments delivered by
Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) on the floor of the House of
Representatives on March 1, 2005.
STOP DENIAL OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BY TURKEY
(House of Representatives – March 01, 2005)
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. PALLONE: Mr. Speaker, Ambassador Evans, the U.S. Ambassador to
Armenia, recently when meeting with Armenian Americans during visits
in several U.S. cities referenced the Armenian genocide. In a series
of public statements, Ambassador Evans who has studied Russian history
at Yale and Columbia and Ottoman history at the Kennan Institute
stated, “I will today call it the Armenian Genocide.”
Mr. Speaker, Ambassador Evans’ statements did not contradict
U.S. policy, but rather articulated the same message that the Bush
administration has sent to the public, the only difference in this
case is that Ambassador Evans simply assigned the word to the
definition that was already provided by President Bush as well as
members of his administration.
Breaking with a pattern on the part of the State Department of using
alternative and evasive terminology for the Armenian genocide,
Ambassador Evans pointed out that “no American official has ever
denied it.”
Now, Ambassador Evans was merely recounting the historical record
which has been attested to by over 120 Holocaust and genocide scholars
from around the world. In so doing, he was merely giving a name, the
accurate description of genocide, to this very administration’s
statements on the issue.
President Bush on April 24 of each of the last four years when
commemorating the Armenian genocide used the textbook definition of
genocide with words and phrases such as “annihilation” and “forced
exile and murder.” Before him, President Reagan used the word
“genocide” in 1981 when describing the annihilation of over 1.5
million Armenians.
In the day of the genocide, our U.S. ambassador, then Henry
Morgenthau, had the courage to speak out against the atrocities which
he stated were a planned and systematic effort to annihilate an entire
race.
In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I just want to add my name and my voice to
all those who, like Ambassador Evans, know the truth and speak it
plainly when discussing the Armenian genocide.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress