Armenian National Committee of Eastern Massachusetts
47 Nichols Avenue
Watertown MA 02472
[email protected]
Press Release
October 1, 2007
Contact: Sharistan Melkonian
617-347-2833
LEXINGTON NO PLACE FOR HATE COMMITTEE SHOWS BAD FAITH
— Contradicts MA `Sunshine’ laws; Shut Out Lexington Residents’
Participation in Closed Door Meeting with ADL New England Regional Chair
Lexington, MA – The Lexington, Massachusetts No Place for Hate
Committee (LNPFH) blocked Lexington residents from a `closed’ door
unannounced meeting with the Anti Defamation League’s New England
Regional Director Andrew Tarsy this morning, just one week after the
Lexington Board of Selectmen held a meeting during which over 150
Lexington residents urged the town of Lexington to sever ties with the
Anti Defamation League, reported the Armenian National Committee of
Eastern Massachusetts.
The LNPFH decision appears to be a direct contradiction to the state’s
open meeting `sunshine’ law which applies to all "governmental bodies"
defined as "every board, commission, committee or subcommittee of any
district, city, region or town, however elected, appointed or
otherwise constituted.’ The Massachusetts Open Meeting Law makes it
clear that "a governmental body cannot circumvent the Law by
delegating public business to a subcommittee."
The status of the Lexington NPFH committee is unclear and currently
being debated. Although Lexington Board of Selectmen chair Jeanne
Krieger stated at the September 24 meeting that NPFH is not a town
committee, the town includes a full report of No Place for Hate in its
annual report, it is listed on the town’s official web site, they
often meet in town hall, and the committee includes representatives
from the Board of Selectmen, Lexington Public Schools, the Lexington
Police Department, and the Town Manager’s office.
Lexington residents Laura Boghosian, Michael Kouchakjian, and Nora
Aroyan arrived for the 8 AM Town Hall meeting on time but were soon
asked by a representative of the Town Manager’s office speaking for
the LNPFH committee to leave the closed meeting, which they did, under
protest, stating that they had a right as Lexington residents to be
heard on an issue which affects their town.
`The closed door meeting today erodes the faith that we as residents
of Lexington have in the process,’ stated Lexington resident Bella
Khachatourian, representing the Armenian National Committee of Eastern
Massachusetts. `Rather than listening to the residents of this town
and resolving this issue once and for all by severing ties with the
ADL, the Lexington No Place for Hate Committee has instead opted to
turn to outsiders.’
`Many residents have called on LNPFH chairperson Jill Smilow, who is
also a director of the Anti Defamation League–and who was at the Town
Hall meeting this morning–to recuse herself from these deliberations
because of conflict of interest issues. That request has been largely
ignored,’ continued Khachatourian. `And today, residents were not
allowed to participate in an opportunity to continue to discuss and
possibly resolve this important issue.’
Last week the Lexington Board of Selectmen moved their meeting at the
last minute from Town Hall to the auditorium to accommodate the larger
than expected number of local residents who wished to be heard on this
issue.
Lexington resident Dr. Michael Kouchakjian urged the Board of
Selectmen to `immediately sever its association with the No Place for
Hate program of the Anti-Defamation League’ stating that the `ADL has
failed to unequivocally acknowledge the Armenian Genocide and
continues to abet Turkey’s genocide denial campaign and these actions
place the ADL leadership in direct conflict with the very ideals that
the No Place for Hate program aims to foster in our
community. Genocide denial is the final stage of genocide. An
organization that engages in genocide denial does not have the moral
authority to sponsor a human rights organization in our town.’
Kouchakjian reaffirmed that the issue at hand was not with No Place
for Hate, per se but with its association with the ADL. `Lexington’s
No Place for Hate committee has accomplished valuable work in
Lexington,’ said Kouchakjian. `I would like to see these efforts
continue.’ He proposed that the Board of Selectman `reconstitute the
group as an independent, town-sponsored committee. In this way, it
would only be beholden to Lexington and not to the agendas of
interests outside our town.’
Marlene Gebeyan, a Lexington resident and parent of two children, also
addressed the Selectmen. "My children, all of our children, deserve
to live in community that speaks up against hatred toward any
individual. They deserve to live in a community that doesn’t
discriminate against anyone and a community that teaches tolerance for
everyone. They deserve to not relive the kind of hatred,
discrimination, and intolerance that their great grandparents endured
as survivors of the most horrific crime known: genocide.
Long time Lexington resident Laura Boghosian also asked the Selectmen
to sever its ties to the Anti-Defamation League.
Reading from a statement she had presented directly to the LNPFH
committee just three days prior, Boghosian declared that `an
organization that engages in genocide denial simply does not have the
moral authority to sponsor human rights, anti-hate, and anti-bias
efforts.’
`For according to genocide scholars, not only is genocide denial the
highest form of hate speech, it is the final stage of genocide. Elie
Weisel calls it a `double killing,’ continued Boghoisan
She further noted that "While courageous Turkish scholars and writers
such as Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk, Taner Ackam, and Elif Shafak have
faced trial, death threats and exile for raising the issue of the
Armenian Genocide in Turkey, the ADL shamelessly partners with the
Turkish government in their multi-million dollar campaign of genocide
denial.
Speaking on behalf of many local residents, Boghosian also noted that
`this is not just an issue for or about Armenians. It is a moral issue
for all people. Denying any genocide, anywhere, sets the stage for
future genocides.’
Boghosian acknowledged the role of the New England Regional ADL while
also reaffirming its limitations. `We recognize and appreciate that
New England’s Regional ADL board has opposed the policies of its
national leadership and called for an unambiguous recognition of the
Armenian Genocide and for the ADL to support the Congressional
resolution. But No Place for Hate is a national program, and as such,
represents the policies of the national ADL, not the regional.’
Nairi Khachatourian, a senior at Lexington High School, asked the
Board of Selectmen to sever ties with the ADL. "I am fortunate enough
to live in a town and learn in a school that promotes tolerance and
understanding," stated Khachatourian. "However, the ADL has betrayed
the trust that our town had in it by refusing to properly recognize
the Armenian Genocide and by actively lobbying against Armenian
Genocide legislation in the United States Congress."
Sosse Beugekian, also a student at Lexington High School, later echoed
that sentiment. "The Anti Defamation League has for too long refused
to call the systematic extermination and deportation of Armenians from
their ancestral lands by its proper name – genocide… The ADL not
only refused to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, but they also
actively lobbied our own government to defeat formal recognition of
the Armenian Genocide. For this reason, I urge you to sever ties
between Lexington and the ADL. How can the ADL possibly teach me about
tolerance?"
Vicki Blier, a town meeting member and a Jewish Lexingtonian also
addressed the meeting. `The problem w/ the ADL is that they are a
human rights advocacy organization but they are also an international
political lobbying group. And, political lobbying makes for extreme
bed fellows.’
`I don’t think we would support in this town an organization that did
good works but that was sponsored by another organization that denied
the Jewish holocaust. I don’t think we should continue the
relationship with No Place for Hate,’ continued Blier.
"I agree with Laura Boghosian," stated ‘Children of the Holocaust’
author Helen Epstein also of Lexington. "The situation boils down to
what Elie Weisel had said. The situation of a double killing. First
there is the genocide and then there is the denial of the genocide.’
Lexington resident Anny Deirmenjian asked that the board of Selectmen
send a strong and clear message to the ADL. "I sincerely hope that the
national ADL changes its position regarding the Armenian
Genocide…but until then Lexington can not allow the ADL in our
town.’
ADL New England regional board member Howard Brick also addressed the
meeting reaffirming that he had no issue with the Board of Selectmen
calling on the national ADL to properly and unambiguously recognize
Armenian Genocide.
Stating that he was not present to "at all quarrel with or question
the anger of ADL national’s refusal or failure to unambiguously
characterize what happened to the Armenians as a genocide. I am proud
of the fact that the ADL New England regional board has pushed and
continues to push to clarify that policy."
"I would submit to you that if you as a body want to make clear that
you require an unambiguous statement from the ADL with respect to the
Armenian Genocide, that’s fine.’ Brick found issue, however, with what
he claimed was a "host of very complex political, geopolitical foreign
policy issues" with the non binding Congressional Armenian Genocide
Resolution.
Dikran Kaligian, visiting professor of Armenian Genocide studies at
Clark University and chairperson of the Armenian National Committee of
Eastern United States as well as a graduate of Lexington High School,
not only urged the town to help bring the ADL "back to the right side
of the issue" but countered the claim that a non binding Congressional
Resolution somehow put United States foreign policy at risk.
"A clear message must be made now…until the ADL repudiates its prior
policy’ that this town can not associated with the Anti Defamation
League.
Chairperson of the LNPFH Committee Jill Smilow also addressed the
board noting that LNPFH had met with local residents on this issue
just three days earlier.
Smilow then read a statement from the LNPFH committee which noted that
the committee recognized "the Armenian Genocide of the early 20th
century as one of the world’s greatest atrocities" but that they were
not prepared to make a recommendation on severing ties, instead
calling for " dialogue, discussion" and the `gathering of more
information,’
Lexington resident and Armenian Assembly of America Board of Trustees
Member Noubar Afeyan spoke of the irony in the discussion given that
on that very day the news media was almost unanimously condemning
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s denial of the holocaust, and
`rightly so.’
Afeyan further argued that No Place for Hate `has now been compromised
because of the ADL’ and urged the Board of Selectmen to `reconstitute
the good of it without having to save the bad of it’ which he said
would be easy to do if [Lexington’s No Place for Hate Committee].were
willing.’
The Lexington Board of Selectmen will meet again on October 15. `We
hope the Board of Selectmen will do the right thing and sever ties
with the ADL and instead put forth a human rights and tolerance
program that works for all of our residents,’ stated the ANC’s
Khachatourian.
The Armenian National Committee is the largest and most influential
Armenian American grassroots political organization. Working in
coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters
throughout the United States and affiliated organizations around the
world, the ANC actively advances the concerns of the Armenian American
community on a broad range of issues.
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Note to Editors: Photographs of September 24 meeting available upon request