SCHIFF-DOLD LETTER PRESSES CLINTON TO DISAVOW OFFENSIVE COMMENT ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
armradio.am
04.02.2012 12:10
The lead authors of the Armenian Genocide Resolution, H.Res.304, Robert
Dold (R-IL) and Adam Schiff (D-CA), are leading a bipartisan effort to
secure Congressional signatures on a letter urging Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton to renounce her recent public mischaracterization of
the Armenian Genocide as a “historical debate,” reported the Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA).
A “Dear Colleague letter” currently being circulated by Representatives
Schiff and Dold calls upon their colleagues in the U.S. House to
join with them in co-signing a letter “asking Secretary Clinton to
“disavow” her “historical debate” remarks, which she made at a public
Town Hall meeting, and properly recognize the Armenian Genocide.
The two legislators stressed in this correspondence that the
“historical debate” argument has long been a talking point pushed
by the Government of Turkey and other genocide deniers, who seek to
muddy the waters by claiming that we in Congress must stay our hand
in order to avoid undermining history’s settling of the truth. This
is an intellectually unsupportable argument. There is no historical
debate about the nature of the slaughter of the Armenian people –
in fact Raphael Lemkin, who coined the word “genocide,” was thinking
of the Armenians when he created the term – and our own National
Archives contain all the documentary evidence that Secretary Clinton
could ever need.”
They also noted that: “By embracing the idea of an historical debate,
the Secretary has taken a position at odds with her past positions
and the positions of President Obama and Vice-President Biden. It is
a position much closer to that of the Turkish government than that of
any other senior U.S. diplomat in recent memory and it undermines our
efforts to focus attention on genocides and other mass human rights
violations elsewhere.
The letter to Secretary Clinton notes that her, “historically
inaccurate description of the Armenian Genocide as an open question,
in addition to the offense it represents to Armenian Americans
and other victims of genocide, provides American encouragement to
the Republic of Turkey in its shameful campaign of denial.” It also
reminds the Secretary that in 2006 she joined with President Obama –
then a U.S. Senator – in writing a letter explaining to President Bush
that the Armenian Genocide was a “systematic and deliberate campaign
of genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire in 1915. . . The victims
of the Genocide deserve our remembrance and their rightful place in
history. . . .It is in the best interests of our nation and the entire
global community to remember the past and learn from these crimes
against humanity to ensure that they are never repeated. The sign-on
letter also quotes Senator Clinton’s public statement in 2008 when,
as a Senator and candidate for the presidency, she affirmed that: “The
horrible events perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against Armenians
constitute a clear case of genocide,” and that “our common morality
and our nation’s credibility as a voice for human rights challenge
us to ensure that the Armenian Genocide be recognized and remembered
by the Congress and the President of the United States.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress