An official with a leading American Jewish organization told the The Jerusalem Post on Monday that a deterioration in Israel-Turkey relations might prompt his group and others to reconsider Armenian efforts to win recognition of the century-old Turkish massacres as genocide.
In this photo provided by the Photlure photo agency in Armenia, a boy pauses in front of a wall-sized poster depicting the faces of 90 survivors of the mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, in Yerevan, Armenia.
Photo: AP [file]
A bill that would ensure such recognition by the US, which was backed by Rep. Adam Schiff – a Jewish Democrat who represents a heavily Armenian area of Los Angeles – failed to make it to a Congressional vote in 2007. However, it sparked a row in the American Jewish community between those who sided with Turkey in an effort to protect Israel’s political interests, and those who argued that Jews were particularly responsible for helping other groups block the public denial of genocide.
“No Jew or Israeli in his right mind will insult Turkey,” the official told the Post. “But next time… they might not come to Turkey’s aid or equivocate quite so much on the issue.”
The Bush administration opposed the bill out of concern for what it would do to US-Turkey relations.
The current blowup between Israel and Turkey comes amid expectations that the Obama administration will name academic and writer Samantha Power, an expert on genocide, to a key National Security Council post dealing with multilateral institutions. Power has been outspoken in labeling the Turkish massacre of Armenians genocide, albeit from outside the government.
One Washington-based Jewish community leader said Jewish organizations were unlikely to reorient their views and begin backing legislation to recognize the Armenian genocide, arguing that this would only make a delicate situation far worse.
“If organizations aren’t backing Armenian genocide resolutions because of the Turkish-Israeli relationship and their concern about the Turkish Jewish community, I don’t think they would change now,” he said. “Those same concerns remain, and those same pressures remain.”
Anti-Defamation League head Abraham Foxman – whose opposition to the Armenian genocide legislation in 2007 provoked widespread criticism – told the Post that as long as Israel maintained its diplomatic ties with Turkey, he saw no immediate reason to change his position on any future genocide resolutions.
“This is not a punishment or a reward issue – we don’t change our position on what’s right or wrong based on what people say,” Foxman said. “The interests between Israel and Turkey continue.”
Foxman also noted that he knew of Jewish friends who had cancelled trips to Turkey over Erdogan’s comments, but described the Erdogan flap as a disagreement between “friends.”
“There have been some very inappropriate harsh statements by the leadership, especially by the prime minister, which we think are inappropriate,” he said, “but they have not changed the basic relationship [with Israel].”
Hilary Leila Krieger and Haviv Gur Rettig contributed to this report.
00000000000000000000000000
An Armenian allegation of genocide is monetary scam which has been planed by the New World Occupiers. The fact is London Bankers decided Armenian uprising way before 1915. Yes indeed Turkish genocide has been planned by the imperial war lords. Yes indeed Armenian rebels have been used as private arm forces. Result is 2.7 million Turkish Graves…
Comment by Gusan Yedic — March 23, 2009 @ 3:44 pm
A March 23, 1920, letter of Col. Charles Furlong, an Army
intelligence officer and U.S. Delegate to the Paris Peace Conference,
to President Woodrow Wilson elaborated: “We hear much, both truth and
gross exaggeration of Turkish massacres of Armenians, but little or
nothing of the Armenian massacres of Turks. … The recent so-called
Marash massacres [of Armenians] have not been substantiated. In fact,
in the minds of many who are familiar with the situation, there is a
grave question whether it was not the Turk who suffered at the hands
of the Armenian and French armed contingents which were known to be
occupying that city and vicinity. … Our opportunity to gain the
esteem and respect of the Muslim world … will depend much on
whether America hears Turkey’s untrammeled voice and evidence which
she has never succeeded in placing before the Court of Nations.”
Capt. Emory Niles and Arthur Sutherland, on an official 1919 U.S.
mission to eastern Anatolia, reported: “In the entire region from
Bitlis through Van to Bayezit, we were informed that the damage and
destruction had been done by the Armenians, who, after the Russians
retired, remained in occupation of the country and who, when the
Turkish army advanced, destroyed everything belonging to the
Musulmans. Moreover, the Armenians are accused of having committed
murder, rape, arson and horrible atrocities of every description upon
the Musulman population. At first, we were most incredulous of these
stories, but we finally came to believe them, since the testimony was
absolutely unanimous and was corroborated by material evidence. For
instance, the only quarters left at all intact in the cities of
Bitlis and Van are Armenian quarters … while the Musulman quarters
were completely destroyed.”
Niles and Sutherland were fortified by American and German
missionaries on the spot in Van. American Clarence Ussher reported
that Armenians put the Turkish men “to death,” and, for days, “They
burned and murdered.” A German missionary recalled that, “The memory
of these entirely helpless Turkish women, defeated and at the mercy
of the [Armenians] belongs to the saddest recollections from that
time.”
Comment by Ismail — March 23, 2009 @ 2:03 pm
Hello my Armenian friends!!
I do not know much about Armenian Genocide because I was born in 1965, but I was around when Armenians were KILLING Turkish Embassy staff all around the world in 70’s.. The newspapers were reporting the killings almost on daily basis. At the time I was living a small town called “Samatya” in Istanbul, Turkey where 20% population were Armenians. We (Turks) never had any problems with them. We lived and worked together for decades. Some of my good friends were armenians. We never bother them when their countryman were killing Turks. They were not responsible for someone else whether they were Armanian or not. We were all equally treated at the school, hospital, shops.. There was no such Genocide claims by Armenians by then, even if so I never heard of it.
35 years on, they started this talk about so called “Armenian Genocide”. Nobody knew exactly what has happened in 1915. The history says 4 Turks died for each Armenian dead. We know they were in a war, we know they killed each other. I am asking how can you blame today Turks today what may or may not happened 100 years ago in a war. What about all the Turks who were killed by Armenians at the time. Should we go and kill their grandchildren today? Come on guys, its time to behave responsibly. You have no rights to create “hate” between the two neighbouring nations. They should improve the trade between countries. Time for Peace, not War!! Nobody gains if Turkish and Armenian people had bad relationship. There are still many many armenians living and working in Turkey. If you create bad air, they will feel unsecure and unwanted by Turks. This B.S. needs to end foe everyones sake!!! Go and listen some John Lennon songs..
Comment by Altan Demiray — March 23, 2009 @ 12:27 pm
Here are some excerpts from First Armenian Prime Minister of Republic of Armenia– Hovannes Kachaznouni…
He explains regretfully for forming bands against Ottoman Turks and fighting them.. Does this sound to you like a one sided genocide of Armenians??
What’s below is the complete edition of the 1955 booklet released by the Armenian Information Service, offering a record of Hovhannes Katchaznouni’s parting words to the Dashnagtzoutiun, given in the form of an address to the Party congress in 1923 Bucharest.
……………
If the formation of bands was wrong, the root of that error must be sought much further and more deeply. At the present time it is important to register only the evidence that we did participate In that volunteer movement to the largest extent and we did that contrary to the decision and the will of the General Meeting of the Party.
The Winter of 1914 and the Spring of 1915 were the periods of greatest enthusiasm and hope for all the Armenians in the Caucasus, including, of course, the Dashnagtzoutiun. We had no doubt the war would end with the complete victory of the Allies; Turkey would be defeated and dismembered, and its Armenian population would at last be liberated.
We had embraced Russia whole-heartedly without any compunction. Without any positive basis of fact we believed that the Tzarist government would grant us a more-or-less broad self-government in the Caucasus and in the Armenian vilayets liberated from Turkey as a reward for our loyalty, our efforts and assistance.
We had created a dense atmosphere of illusion in our minds. We had implanted our own desires into the minds of others; we had lost our sense of reality and were carried away with our dreams. From mouth to mouth, from ear to ear passed mysterious words purported to have been spoken in the palace of the Viceroy; attention was called to some kind of a letter by Vorontzov-Dashkov to the Catholicos as an important document in our hands to use in the presentation of our rights and claims — a cleverly composed letter with very indefinite sentences and generalities which might be interpreted in any manner, according to one’s desire.
We overestimated the ability of the Armenian people, its political and military power, and overestimated the extent and importance of the services our people rendered to the Russians. And by overestimating our very modest worth and merit we were naturally exaggerating our hopes and expectations.
The deportations and mass exiles and massacres which took place during the Summer and Autumn of 1915 were mortal blows to the Armenian Cause. Half of historical Armenia —the same half where the foundations of our independence would be laid according to traditions inherited from the early eighties and as the result of the course adopted by European diplomacy — that half was denuded of Armenians: the Armenian provinces of Turkey were without Armenians. The Turks knew what they were doing and have no reason to regret today. It was the most decisive method of extirpating the Armenian Question from Turkey.
Again, it would be useless to ask today to what extent the participation of volunteers in the war was a contributory cause of the Armenian calamity. No one can claim that the savage persecutions would not have taken place if our behavior on this side of the frontier was different, as no one can claim the contrary, that the persecutions would have been the same even if we had not shown hostility to the Turks. This is a matter about which it is possible to have many different opinions.
The proof is, however — and this is essential — that the struggle begun decades ago against the Turkish government brought about the deportation or extermination of the Armenian people in Turkey and the desolation of Turkish Armenia. This was the terrible fact!
Civilized humanity might very well be shaken with rage in the face of this unspeakable crime. Statesmen might utter menacing words against criminal Turkey. “Blue”, “yellow”, “orange” books and papers might be published condemning them. Divine, punishment against the criminals might be invoked in churches by clergymen of all denominations. The press of all countries might be filled with horrible descriptions and details and the testimony of eye-witnesses. . . . Let them say this or that .. . but the work was already done and words would not revive the corpses fallen in the Arabian deserts, rebuild the ruined hearths, repopulate the country now become desolate. The Turks knew what they ought to do and did it.
The second half of 1915 and the entire year of 1916 were periods of hopelessness, desperation and mourning for us. The refugees, all those who had survived the holocaust, were filling Russian provinces by tens and hundreds of thousands. They were famished, naked, sick, horrified and desperate floods of humanity, flooding our villages and cities. They had come to a country which was itself ruined and famished. They piled upon each other, before our own eyes, on our thresholds dying of famine and sickness
And we were unable to save those precious lives. Angered and terrified, we sought the culprits and quickly found them: the deceitful politics of the Russian government. With the politically immature mind peculiar to inconsequential men, we fell from one extreme to another. Just as unfounded was our faith in the Russian government yesterday, our condemnation of them today was equally blind and groundless.
http://www.tallarmeniantale.com/1923Manifesto-record.htm
Comment by Cem Tuncoglu — March 23, 2009 @ 12:02 pm
Obama has been extremely foolish to back the lies he has been fed by the Armenians and paid historians and should not even be talking about the Armenian deportations as “genocide”.
One of our foreign ministers was right when in a speech in Brussels he said ‘Turkey would not have been the great country it is today had the Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians been allowed to stay” .
It is right that the US should take note of Turkey, the US needs Turkey much more than Turkey needs America – Turkey is now the leading voice in the middle east.
Comment by Van der Galien — March 22, 2009 @ 8:26 am