WHDH-TV, MA
Aug 19 2007
Two board members of regional Anti-Defamation League resign
BOSTON– In a deepening rift, two board members of the local
Anti-Defamation League have resigned in protest over the decision by
the national organization to fire its New England regional director.
Andrew Tarsy was fired because he wanted the organization to
recognize the Armenian genocide.
Stewart Cohen, former chairman of the Polaroid Corporation, and
Boston City Council member Mike Ross tell the Boston Sunday Globe say
they could no longer be part of an organization that doesn’t
recognize the Armenian genocide.
"I’m devastated by that and it’s not something I can support," Ross
said.
Tarsy, who was regional director for about two years, said the
organization’s stance is "morally indefensible."
The Anti-Defamation League is primarily known for combating
anti-Semitism.
The ADL’s national director Foxman and Glen Lewy, who is national
chairman of the ADL, said in a written statement that the
organization has acknowledged "the massacres of Armenians at the
hands of the Ottoman Empire and called on Turkey to do more to
confront its past and reconcile with Armenia."
The organization also must "protect the interests of the Jewish
community in Turkey, work for Israel’s safety and security, and
combat extremism," the letter stated.
Historians estimate up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by
Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed
by genocide scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.
Turkey, however, denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying that
the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of
civil war and unrest.