12 MORE JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS RECOGNIZED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

PanARMENIAN.Net
07.09.2007 16:22 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Armenian National Committee of America had garnered the support of at least 12 groups by Thursday including the Union of Reform Judaism, Americans for Peace Now, the Zionist Organization of America and the Progressive Jewish Alliance, reportsarmenag
JTA news agency.

The effort comes in the wake of the Anti-Defamation League backing down last month and recognizing the 1915-16 massacres as "tantamount to genocide."

The resolution, introduced by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a Jewish congressman with a substantial Armenian American community, has majority support in the U.S. House of Representatives but has yet to come to a vote. The resolution urges the U.S. President to use term 'genocide' in his annual April 24 statement.

A number of Jewish groups including the ADL had quietly opposed its passage, saying it could harm Turkey-Israel relations and jeopardize the Jewish community in Turkey.

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PanARMENIAN.Net
For the first time in history Turkish MP speaks of Armenian Genocide
recognition
08.09.2007 14:45 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ For the first time in history a member of the Turkish parliament recognized the Armenian Genocide and spoke of restitution of the despoiled property, independent French journalist Jean Eckian told PanARMENIAN.Net.

In an interview with journalist Raffí Arax recently, Turkish MP Mehmet Ufuk Uras said, "We committed a terrible massacre against Armenians and Turkey must recognize it. It's not important how we name this calamity: genocide, ethnic purification, etc. The most important thing is that a terrible massacre was committed and it is undeniable.'

`We must face up to the history, bandage the wounds, develop the relations with Armenia, defend our Armenian compatriots and restore what was the property of their ancestors. I come from the area of Durig close to Sebastia where I heard the truth from my parents,' he said.

`We are confident that with the negationism will drive to nothing,' he resumed.

The Armenian community of Istanbul endorsed Uras at the recent
parliamentary elections.

TIME TO SAY NEW THINGS ON THE 'GENOCIDE' ISSUE
View by Omer TASPINAR
Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
Sept 4 2007

The Anti Defamation League's recent decision to acknowledge that the Armenian "massacres" of 1915 were tantamount to "genocide" has created a political storm in Turkey. Seen from Washington, such Turkish resentment is counterproductive. It only confirms the fact that Turkey needs to come to terms with its own history. When you have prominent leaders of the Turkish Jewish community writing letters to the ADL reminding them that the Turkish Jewish community's well-being is jeopardized, this does not exactly come across as a ringing endorsement of Turkey's democratic maturity.

What the Turkish body politic and public opinion fail to understand is that the genocide issue is already a lost battle in the West. This battle is lost partly because of Turkey's own behavior and stern, uncompromising image. The official Turkish narrative on the question
of "genocide" displays all the symptoms of an authoritarian state that has created a taboo. The education system, nationalist press and bureaucratic reflex are all symptomatic of a totalitarian way of thinking where even a slight departure from the official line creates mayhem. How else can one explain efforts to undermine academic conferences on this issue, or the disgraceful treatment of Orhan Pamuk by most of the nationalist press after he was awarded the Nobel Prize?

The official rhetoric of the government is simplistic: Leave history to the historians. What is, then, the logic behind accusing historians discussing the issue in an academic conference as traitors ready to stab the nation in the back? Such conspiracy-prone approaches increasingly produce an anti-European, anti-American, anti-Kurd, anti-Armenian and anti-liberal nationalism. At the end of the day, Turkey is seen by the West as a country that is fighting its own religion, ethnicity and history. A normal country able to discuss its history freely would probably be less alarmed when others accuse it of having committed "genocide."

The Turkish overreaction to the slightest criticism on this issue -- even when it comes from traditional friends -- reveals a disturbing sense of insecurity, bordering on guilt. But it is perhaps the lack of a commonsense strategy that is most disturbing. For years, Turks have
refused to engage the world community. There was a clear reluctance to answer questions when Turkish embassies all over the world were asked to participate in panel discussions and respond to questions -in short, to make their own case.

What is often overlooked by Ankara is the fact that the official rhetoric did not change the international perception of "genocide."

To the contrary, Turkey's reluctance to engage left the field wide open for anti-Turkish propaganda. Then, about 20 years ago, Ankara finally decided to engage more seriously -- but strictly on historical and legal terms. What emerged was not a pretty scene. The Turkish view, in a nutshell, is that you have to put things in historical context. There was a war. Russians invaded and Armenians cooperated with the enemy in order to secure an independent homeland.

Armenians, in other words, were not innocent civilians but nationalist rebels.

Fine. But this doesn't change the fact that they were a minority and that the Ottoman state was in charge of their protection. The Ottoman state decided to deport them. What happened during the deportations?

Hundreds of thousands were massacred. Wasn't the government and military in charge of protecting the deported? How can you have hundreds of thousands of men, women, children massacred without a sustained campaign? The legalistic answer is that there was no "intent" to exterminate the Armenian race. OK, so what happened is not comparable to the Holocaust. But isn't it still "genocide" when close to a million people are killed while the state is unable and unwilling to protect them?

Today what Turkey needs to do is to engage Armenia and start a reconciliation process. This is no longer a historical issue. It is a political and psychological predicament. Turkey should also issue an official apology, but also indicate that territorial or financial
compensations are out of question. A monument that would commemoratethe death of Armenians would go a long way in creating goodwill from the international community. But most importantly it would start a process of self-healing at home. Opening the border with Armenia
would also secure the moral high ground as it did on the question of Cyprus three years ago.

Two years ago, when I visited Yerevan, former Armenian President Levon Ter Petrossian asked me if Prime Minister Erdoðan is politically strong enough to engage the Armenian question without succumbing to populist nationalism. I told him we will have to wait for better days. Now
that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) won the elections in
a landslide, it has an opening to do the right thing. Let's hope it will...