Armenian National Committee of America
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PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 5, 2007
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
(202) 775-1918
ANCA TESTIMONY TO SENATE PANEL CALLS FOR
U.S. LEADERSHIP IN ENDING THE CYCLE OF GENOCIDE
— New Senate Judiciary Human Rights Subcommittee Holds
Inaugural Hearing on "Genocide and the Rule of Law"
WASHINGTON, DC — The Armenian National Committee of America
(ANCA), in testimony submitted today to a key U.S. Senate Judiciary
panel, called for an end to U.S. complicity in Turkey’s denial of
the Armenian Genocide, and concrete steps to end the ongoing
genocide in Darfur.
The ANCA’s written testimony was submitted as part of the inaugural
hearing of the newly created Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human
Rights and Law, titled "Genocide and the Rule of Law", which
included remarks by Canadian Senator Romeo Dallaire, Deputy
Assistant Attorney General Sigal Mandelker, actor and activist Don
Cheadle, and American University College of Law Professor Diane F.
Orentlicher.
"Today, as we witness the genocide unfolding in Darfur, it has
become increasingly clear that the failure of the international
community, over the course of the past century, to confront and
punish genocide has created an environment of impunity in which the
brutal cycle of genocide continues," began ANCA Executive Director
Aram Hamparian, in his testimony.
Hamparian cited the history of U.S. complicity in Turkey’s 92-year
campaign of genocide denial, most recently through the firing of
former Ambassador to Armenia John Marshall Evans for properly
characterizing the Armenian Genocide as ‘genocide,’ and the re-
nomination of Richard Hoagland for this diplomatic posting –
despite his record of denying the Armenian Genocide. Hamparian
publicly thanked Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), who has placed a
"hold" on the Hoagland nomination.
At the opening of the hearing, Chairman Richard Durbin (D-IL)
presented a video, "Genocide and the Rule of Law" which began with
mention of the Armenian Genocide, and went on to cite the other
genocides of the 20th century. The film highlighted efforts by
genocide law champion, former Sen. Bill Proxmire (D-WI), who made
over 3,000 Senate speeches in support of U.S. ratification of the
United Nations Convention and the Prevention and Punishment of
Genocide. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), in his moving opening remarks,
cited a poem inspired by the Armenian atrocities, but which sadly
describes the inhumanity of all subsequent genocides.
In his testimony, Cheadle noted Sudan as the most recent of example
of the cycle of genocide that pervaded the last century, beginning
with the Armenian Genocide. First term Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
(D-RI) outlined the "pattern of genocide" the international
community has faced over the past century, beginning with the
Armenian Genocide.
The text of the ANCA testimony is provided below. Remarks by the
principal witnesses will be available on the Senate Judiciary
Subcommittee website in the upcoming days at:
1
Also submitting written testimony were Save Darfur, Armenian
Assembly, Genocide Intervention Network, and a broad range of other
ethnic and human rights organizations.
#####
Statement of Aram Hamparian
Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of America
Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law
Hearing on "Genocide and the Rule of Law"
February 5, 2007
Chairman Durbin, Ranking Member Coburn, and distinguished members
of the Subcommittee, on behalf of the Armenian National Committee
of America, I would like to thank you for holding this important
hearing and for inviting our organization to offer the insights of
the Armenian American community on a truly crucial issue for our
nation and the entire international community.
The cycle of genocide
=====================
Today, as we witness the genocide unfolding in Darfur, it has
become increasingly clear that the failure of the international
community, over the course of the past century, to confront and
punish genocide has created an environment of impunity in which the
brutal cycle of genocide continues.
As Armenian Americans – heirs of a nation that bore witness to the
20th Century’s first genocide – we bear a special responsibility to
help ensure that the lessons of our experience help prevent similar
atrocities from being visited upon any people, anywhere in the
world.
We consider it our responsibility to contribute to the life-saving
work of the Save Darfur Coalition, Africa Action, the Genocide
Intervention Network, and other groups working to bring an end to
the horrific suffering in Sudan. Here in the United States, we
enthusiastically support the efforts of Facing History and
Ourselves, the Genocide Education Project and other educational
groups teaching America’s school children about the dangers of
genocide and the value of tolerance. We are especially encouraged
by the powerful reach of the band "System of a Down" – comprised of
four Armenian Americans – in educating countless millions about
genocides – past and present. The powerful documentary
"Screamers," which is currently playing around the nation,
documents their work in this area. All these efforts are aimed at
breaking the genocidal cycle.
With specific regard to the situation in Darfur, we were gratified
that the Administration – in a break from past practice – properly
invoked the term genocide, but remain deeply troubled that our
government has yet to take the decisive steps required of us under
our commitments to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of Genocide. We run the risk of turning this landmark treaty into
a dead letter if our actions do not live up to our moral and legal
obligations.
As members of this panel know, the Armenian Genocide and the
Holocaust weighed heavily on the mind of international lawyer
Raphael Lemkin, whose family was brutally murdered by the Nazis in
their genocidal drive to destroy the Jews of Europe. He coined the
term "genocide" and was instrumental in the drafting and adoption
of the Convention. In a 1949 interview with CBS, Lemkin explained,
"I became interested in genocide because it happened to the
Armenians; and after[wards] the Armenians got a very rough deal at
the Versailles Conference because their criminals were guilty of
genocide and were not punished."
The denial of the Armenian Genocide
===================================
Sadl y, even in 2007, we are faced with a state-sponsored campaign
of denial that the Armenian Genocide ever took place.
This denial takes the form of Turkish laws against even the mention
of the Armenian Genocide, the systematic teaching of genocide
denial to Turkey’s school children, and, in nations around the
world, a campaign of threats, intimidation and blackmail against
any individual, group, or country that speaks the truth about the
Ottoman Turkish government’s murder of 1.5 million Armenians
between 1915 and 1923.
Our own Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during the early years of
the Genocide, Henry Morgenthau, described the government’s crimes
as "a campaign of race extermination." The Allied Powers vowed to
punish the Turkish authorities for these crimes, using for the
first time the term "crimes against humanity," but, as we know too
well, they did not fulfill their promise of justice for the
Armenian people, setting the stage for nearly a century of Turkish
government denials.
We work to end this denial because, as a matter of fundamental
morality, our nation should recognize and condemn all genocides –
past and present. The United States should, on principle, reject
all genocide denial – whether it come from Tehran, Khartoum or
Ankara. To do any less is to undermine our country’s credibility
on the most vital international issue of our time – the creation of
a world safe from genocide.
We work to end this denial because it seeks to obscure a proud
chapter in American history. Those who deny this crime dishonor
President Woodrow Wilson and all those who spoke out against the
atrocities committed against the Armenian people. They dishonor
the U.S. diplomats who risked their lives to document the suffering
of the Armenian nation. They dishonor the Americans – rich and
poor – who gave of themselves as part of an unprecedented American
relief effort to alleviate the suffering of a brutalized
population.
We work to end this denial because we know that the Republic of
Armenia cannot be safe as long as Turkey remains an unrepentant
perpetrator of genocide against the Armenian people.
We work to end this denial because Turkey’s acceptance of a just
resolution of the Armenian Genocide would represent significant
progress toward a more tolerant Turkish society, and a meaningful
step toward the Republic of Turkey’s long sought acceptance into
the European family of nations.
And, perhaps most importantly for the work of this panel today, we
work to end this denial because it sets a dangerous precedent – a
real life example of genocide committed with impunity – that makes
future genocides more likely. Prior to launching his "final
solution," Adolf Hitler infamously cited this example in a 1939
speech intended to quiet the potential reservations of his
generals, asking the chilling question: "Who, after all, speaks
today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"
The denial of any genocide, past or present, sets a dangerous
precedent for the future, emboldening potential perpetrators with
the knowledge that their crimes can be committed without
condemnation or consequence.
The murder of Hrant Dink
========================
The most recent victim of this denial is Hrant Dink, a courageous
journalist who was assassinated on January 19th of this year in
front of his newspaper’s offices in Istanbul.
One of the remaining Armenians living in Turkey, Hrant was born and
spent his early years in Malatya, a city whose Armenian population
was – with only a handful of exceptions – destroyed during the
Armenian Genocide. As editor of Agos, a bilingual Armenian-Turkish
language newspaper, he faced years of official persecution and
regular death threats in response to his writings about the
Armenian Genocide. Last year he was given a suspended sentence of
six months under Article 301, a new provision of the Turkish Penal
Code that punishes discussion of the Armenian Genocide as an
"insult to Turkishness." When he criticized this verdict, he was
prosecuted once again under a different provision of law that
criminalizes attempts to "influence the judiciary." In his last
column, he wrote about the torment of living in the shadow of death
threats and the vulnerability he faced due to the government’s
incitement of hatred against him.
Hrant Dink was not alone. Many other writers in Turkey are being
silenced through Turkey’s criminal code. Nobel Prize-winner Orhan
Pamuk has been prosecuted under Article 301 for mentioning the
killings of Armenians. The writer Elif Shafak was prosecuted for
writing a novel in which her fictional characters discussed the
Armenian Genocide.
Hrant Dink’s murder is tragic proof that the Turkish government
continues to fuel the same type of hatred and intolerance that led
to the Armenian Genocide more than ninety years ago. His killing
was not an isolated act, as Turkish leaders have said in what can
only be described as disingenuous expressions of regret, but rather
occurred as the result of the Turkish government’s official – and
increasingly aggressive – policy of denial. His example
underscores the pressing need for the United States to fully
recognize the Armenian Genocide – through Executive branch action
and the adoption by the Congress of the Armenian Genocide
Resolution.
U.S. complicity in Armenian Genocide denial
===========================================
Sadly, the Turkish government is able to maintain its denial,
against all evidence and the tide of international opinion, in
large part due to the State Department’s refusal to speak with
moral clarity about the Armenian Genocide.
Our State Department remained almost entirely unwilling to speak
publicly against the Turkish government’s longstanding prosecution
and persecution of Hrant Dink. In fact, a search of the
Department’s website finds only one mention of him before his
murder. In sharp contrast, the same State Department that has been
so reluctant to defend free speech within Turkey has been more than
willing to loudly and aggressively seek to prevent our own
legislature – the U.S. Congress – from even considering legislation
commemorating Armenian Genocide.
In a truly unfortunate escalation of our complicity in Turkey’s
denials, the State Department, last year, fired Ambassador John
Evans – a distinguished diplomat with over thirty years of
experience – for properly characterizing the Armenian Genocide. In
the proud tradition of Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, who represented
our nation in the Ottoman Empire during the early years of the
Genocide, Ambassador Evans spoke the truth about this crime against
humanity. For this, his career of service to our nation was ended
by an Administration apparently more concerned with the
sensitivities of a foreign government – one that regularly violates
the free speech rights of its own citizens – than with the rights
of an American citizen who speaks out honestly about genocide. The
Turkish government’s Foreign Agent Registration Filings with the
Justice Department reveal that its foreign agents contacted several
U.S. officials regarding the Ambassador’s comments, but, as of
today, the State Department has been unwilling to offer any
meaningful explanation of the role the Turkish government played in
the Ambassador’s dismissal.
Most recently, the President – in the face of broad-based
Congressional opposition – has again nominated Richard Hoagland to
serve as ambassador to Armenia, despite his intensely controversial
record of denying the Genocide. As a community, Armenian Americans
are deeply grateful for the principled leadership of Senator Robert
Menendez, who has, once again, placed a hold on this ill-advised
nomination.
In closing, I would like to stress that, although the Armenian
Genocide began in 1915, it continues today through the Turkish
government’s worldwide campaign of denial. We look to the members
of this panel, and to all Members of Congress, to help end U.S.
complicity in Turkey’s denial, and to encourage the Republic of
Turkey to abandon its efforts to erase this chapter in its – and
the world’s – history.
The proper recognition and universal commemoration of the Armenian
Genocide will, we are confident, represent a meaningful
contribution to our nation’s efforts to end the cycle of genocide.
______________________________________ _____________________________