HOPES DASHED AS OBAMA AVOIDS CALLING MASS KILLINGS OF ARMENIANS ‘GENOCIDE’
By Rebecca Spence
Forward Magazine
A pril 29 2009
Los Angeles — This year, on Armenian Remembrance Day — when the
mass killing of more than 1 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire
is commemorated — Armenian-American activists had high hopes that
a president who ran on a message of change would indeed change the
pattern of previous administrations. That is, they hoped President
Obama would use the term "genocide" to describe the human tragedy
that occurred nearly a century ago.
But on April 24, their hopes were dashed. When Obama — who, during
the campaign season and as a senator in the United States, pledged to
describe the events of 1915 as a "genocide" — released his statement
in acknowledgement of the tragedy, the term was nowhere to be found.
Equally ambivalent are many Jewish organizations. While some groups
see this as a human rights issue related to the Holocaust, others
have stayed silent or even actively opposed the "genocide" designation.
At issue is how to describe the killing of roughly 1.5 million
Armenians by the Ottoman Turks during World War I. Turkey staunchly
denies that the massacres and deportations that began in 1915
constitute a "genocide," while Armenians have long lobbied to gain
international recognition of the events as exactly that. The debate
has presented a challenge for successive American governments, given
Turkey’s position as a key ally to the United States in the Middle
East, and past American presidents have been reluctant to anger the
predominantly Muslim nation.
Southern California is home to some 500,000 ethnic Armenians and
constitutes the largest Armenian population outside of Armenia. On
April 24, about 10,000 Armenian-Americans protested outside the
Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles, following an annual commemorative
march through the "Little Armenia" section of Hollywood.
During the presidential campaign, Obama made it clear that he would
take up the thorny issue. His Web site stated, "As a senator,
I strongly support passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution
(H.Res.106 and S.Res.106), and as President I will recognize the
Armenian Genocide."
But Obama’s April 24 statement instead used the Armenian term "Meds
Yeghem," which translates roughly to "the great calamity." A spokesman
for Obama did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
Every year, in the U.S. Congress, a resolution to use the controversial
term is introduced in the spring and then beaten back. A handful of
powerful Jewish advocacy groups, including the Anti-Defamation League,
the American Jewish Committee, and the Jewish Institute for National
Security Affairs, has declined to support the resolutions in past
years, and some Jewish groups have even worked against them.
Still, a host of other Jewish groups, including American Jewish World
Service; the Progressive Jewish Alliance, a California-based activist
group, and Jewish World Watch, which mobilizes synagogues around human
rights issues, have supported efforts to recognize the mass killings
of Armenians as a genocide.
While some in the Jewish community argue that the memory of the
Holocaust compels Jews to recognize other genocides, others argue
that maintaining the strategic alliance between Israel and Turkey,
as well as the American-Turkish relationship, trumps other concerns.
Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognize Israel’s existence,
and it has long been a key Muslim ally in an otherwise hostile
region. But in the wake of Turkey’s criticism of Israel’s recent
military operation in Gaza, relations between the two countries
have soured. Nonetheless, some American Jewish groups that have
not supported the genocide resolutions in the past are sticking to
their positions. AJC spokesman Kenneth Bandler said that his group’s
position has not changed. "Our position was, and remains, that the
best way to address this issue is between Turkey and Armenia," he said.
In 2007, the ADL became embroiled in a controversy that played out
in the local Boston media after its New England regional director
was fired for breaking ranks with the national office and saying
that the ADL should recognize the events of 1915 as a genocide. The
regional director, Andrew Tarsy, was ultimately rehired, and then
he resigned of his own volition. That same year, the ADL released a
statement clarifying its position and stating that it had, in fact,
referred to the massacres of Armenians as genocide.
Still, the ADL does not support a congressional resolution to that
effect. In an e-mail, an ADL spokesman wrote, "… our position is that
a Congressional resolution on such matters is a counterproductive
diversion and will not foster reconciliation between Turks and
Armenians, who should work out the issue between themselves."
At the same time that Israeli-Turkish relations have been strained,
relations between Turkey and Armenia actually have seen improvement
over the past year. The two countries have been negotiating to
open the Turkish-Armenian border, and just days before the April 24
commemoration they announced a "road map" to restoring relations,
which was negotiated with the help of U.S. officials.
Charles King, a professor of international affairs and government
at Georgetown University, said that Obama’s backtracking on the use
of the term "genocide" could be seen as more of an adjustment to
new political realities on the ground. As Turkey and Armenia make
real strides toward normalizing relations, King said, Obama would be
hard-pressed to isolate the Turks by using the controversial term at
such a delicate moment.
"The Obama administration doesn’t want to push farther on this at
this point, for fear of destroying the very important progress that’s
been made on Armenian-Turkish relations," King said. "Inevitably,
once a politician gets into office, they realize that issues are far
more complicated than they were on the campaign trail, but secondly,
things really have changed."
That’s no consolation for some Armenian-American activists. Allen
Yekikan, a 24-year-old spokesman for the Armenian Youth Federation,
said that he had campaigned for Obama, even canvassing for him in
the Armenian-American community. "When he released his statement,"
Yekikan said, "my heart broke."
http://www.forward.com/articles/105257/