Jewish Group In U.S. Reverses Armenian Genocide Stand

The Jewish group Anti-Defamation League on Tuesday reversed itself and
called a World War I-era massacre of Armenians a genocide, a change that
comes days after the ADL fired a regional director for taking the same
stance.

ADL director Abraham Foxman's statement that the killings of Armenians
by Muslim Turks "were indeed tantamount to genocide" came after weeks of
controversy in which critics questioned whether an organization
dedicated to remembering Holocaust victims could remain credible without
acknowledging the Armenian killings as genocide.

The New York-based organization had called the deaths of up 1.5 million
Armenians at the hands of Muslim Turks between 1915 and 1923 an
atrocity, but stopped short of saying it was genocide - a planned
extermination of the Christian Armenian minority.

Last week, the town of Watertown, home to a large Armenian population,
withdrew from the ADL's "No Place for Hate" anti-bigotry program because
of the organization's refusal to call the massacres genocide. The ADL
also fired New England regional director Andrew Tarsy after he said he
agreed the killings were genocide. The towns of Acton and Newton were
among those considering whether to break ties with the ADL, and several
Jewish organizations, led by the Jewish Community Relations Council of
Greater Boston, signed a letter urging the ADL to acknowledge the
killings as genocide.

In a statement Tuesday, Foxman said he consulted with historians and his
friend, Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel, after the controversy began and
became convinced genocide had occurred. In an interview, Foxman said the
letter from the Jewish groups revealed divisions Jews cannot afford to
have at a time of increased threats to them around the world.

"This is not a time for us to be squabbling about historical fact or
non-fact," he said. "That's what really shocked me into saying, you know
what, I've got to find a way to bring us together."

But Foxman said his group would not support a pending Congressional
resolution that calls the massacre a genocide, saying it was "a
counterproductive diversion and will not foster reconciliation between
Turks and Armenians." Foxman would not comment on whether Tarsy would be
rehired.

Nurten Ural, president of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations,
said she was disappointed by the ADL's decision. Turks and Armenians
both suffered during the war, and calling it genocide by the Turks is
like being accused of a crime you did not commit, she said.

Ural said many historians do not believe a genocide occurred, and said
if the Congressional resolution passes it would damage relations with
Turkey, which is valued in the West as a friend of Israel in the hostile
Middle East and a bulwark against radical Islam. "This is not a
political issue, this is an historical issue, it should be left to the
historians," Ural said. "The U.S. needs Turkey, Turkey needs the U.S. in
many, many ways. It would be really bad for both countries."

The controversy began in July after Newton resident David Boyajian wrote
a local Watertown paper about the ADL's stance and urged the community's
No Place for Hate program to sever ties with the ADL. During a meeting
on the subject in Watertown last week, Tarsy was booed by the overflow
crowd. Later in the week, he changed his stance and said he strongly
disagreed with the national organization.

James Russell, professor of Armenian studies at Harvard University, said
evidence of the Armenian genocide is overwhelming, including eyewitness
accounts and copious documentation. He said the word "genocide" was
invented in the 1940s by an attorney trying to come up with a legal term
to describe what had happened to the Armenians.

"The word was invented to describe what had happened to the Armenians in
the first place," he said. "If there's any ambiguity there, then the
Declaration of Independence might as well be considered a British
royalist document."

State Rep. Rachel Kaprielian, an Armenian and Watertown resident, said
she was "relieved and heartened and glad" about the ADL's decision. But
asked if Watertown would re-establish its connection to the ADL,
Kaprielian said, "The dust has to settle on this."

Kaprielian criticized the ADL for failing to support the Congressional
resolution, which she said just repeats what the ADL acknowledged
Tuesday. She said the group was letting geopolitical concerns take
precedence over its core commitment to human rights.

Foxman said the ADL does not just fight for equal rights, but also works
to protect the Jewish community. Members of the Jewish minority in
Turkey flew to the U.S. to ask the ADL to remain neutral on the genocide
question, and Foxman had honored the request. But he said with the
Armenian issue "tearing the community apart" he had to take a stand in
the interest of unity.

"It's the balancing of moral points of view," he said. "It's not one
above the other, but sometimes you have to make a decision."