Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY
Aug 19 2007
New England ADL leader fired
Published: 08/19/2007
Andrew Tarsy, the head of the Anti-Defamation League’s Boston office,
was fired after dissenting from the organization’s position
concerning the Armenian genocide. Tarsy was fired Friday, one day
after he publicly broke ranks with the organization over its refusal
to acknowledge the massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during
World War I as genocide, the Boston Globe reported. In an interview
in Friday’s Globe, Tarsy urged the ADl to change its position on the
matter. "I strongly disagree with ADL’s national position," Tarsy
said. "It’s my strong hope that we’ll be able to move forward in a
relationship with the Armenian community and the community in
general." The ADL responded with a statement, due to be published as
an advertisement in regional newspapers this week, saying it did not
deny that genocide took place but reiterating its opposition to an
effort, vigorously opposed by Turkey, to have Congress pronounce on
the issue. "We believe that legislative efforts outside of Turkey are
counterproductive to the goal of having Turkey itself come to grips
with its past," the statement said. "We take no position on what
action Congress should take on House Resolution 106." Tarsy’s firing
is the latest twist in a saga that began with a letter to the local
weekly in Watertown, Mass., a Boston suburb with a substantial
Armenian population, criticizing the ADL’s position. On Tuesday, the
Watertown Town Council voted to rescind its participation in No Place
for Hate, an ADL-sponsored anti-bigotry program. Other Massachusetts
communities are reported to be considering similar moves.
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
