ADL Saga - Turkey turns up the heat, Israel grovels

BÝA, Turkey
Aug 26 2007
ADL Retracted Genocide Recognition

Following pressure by Turkey and Israel, the US-based Anti-Defamation
League has retracted its recognition of the "Armenian genocide" and
has instead called on Turkish-Armenian cooperation to resolve the
controversy.

Gökce Gündüc

"The immediate object of the League is to stop, by appeals to reason
and conscience and, if necessary, by appeals to law, the defamation
of the Jewish people. Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and
fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to
unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or
body of citizens."

This is the mission statement of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a
foundation based in the USA, which had decided to recognise the
events of 1915 as a "genocide".

Following diplomatic pressure by Turkey and the intervention of
Israeli Prime Minister Simon Peres, the ADL has retracted the
recognition but called for historians to solve the issue.

Turkish Publisher Ragip Zarakolu and Dov Sinar from Academic College
in Israel evaluated the retraction for bianet.

State interests or consciences?

Sinar, who works in the area of peace journalism, said that Turkey
would not get anywhere without facing up to the past and taking
responsibility.

"The Jewish population in the USA was first concentrating on the
relationship between Israel and Turkey. In order not to make problems
for Israel, the American genocide was ignored. Since there has been
an increase in academic studies on the Armenian genocide in the last
twenty years, this stance has become more difficult to defend. Were
the state's interests or consciences going to weigh more?"

Zarakolu: "Human tragedy" cannot be ignored

Zarakolu has argued that the ADL is in fact saying, "What I
experienced was a genocide, but what other peoples experience is not
a genocide." Zarakolu said that Israel, as a country whose people had
experienced a genocide was being insensitive towards the Armenian
Question.

"The denial in Turkey has led to comprehensive analyses and document
research. If Turkey had changed its stance, there might have been a
more gradual passage. It has become more difficult to lean on others
using geopolitical profit."

Zarakolu added that a "human tragedy" could not be ignored for the
sake of international politics, that this was not something
consciences could accept.

"Academics and researchers in Israel are criticising the double
standards. The retraction of the ADL may or may not be a result of
the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) Middle East policies, but
the lesson to be learnt its that history should never be mixed up
with current politics."

Sinar: Both Israel and Turkey should accept Armenian genocide

Sinar said that the declaration of the Jewish Lobby in the USA was
independent of Israel. "Officially, no lobby has the right to
represent Israel. The ADL's declarations have not caused much
reaction in Israel. They are not discussed in Israel. Israelis do not
really know what happens in the USA."

Sinar expects both Israel and Turkey to accept the claims of an
Armenian genocide because denying the past does not achieve anything:
"The Armenian genocide must be recognised."

In a statement signed by ADL's national director Abraham Foxman and
published on Tuesday, the ADL had stated that it had come to the
conclusion that the events of 1915 were a "genocide", but that it
would continue to oppose attempts to pass any law in Congress
concerning this issue.(GG/AG)

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Jerusalem Post
Aug 27 2007
Israel must get US Jews to back down, Turkey's envoy tells 'Post'
By HERB KEINON

Turkey expects Israel to "deliver" American Jewish organizations and
ensure that the US Congress does not pass a resolution characterizing
as genocide the massacre of Armenians during World War I, Turkish
Ambassador to Israel Namik Tan told The Jerusalem Post Sunday.

Tan cut short a vacation and rushed back to Israel Thursday to deal
with the Anti-Defamation League's reversal last week of its
long-standing position on the issue.

Tan said he understood that Israel's position had not changed, but
"Israel should not let the [US] Jewish community change its position.
This is our expectation and this is highly important, highly
important."

Turkey's concern is that last week's decision by ADL national
director Abe Foxman would open the dikes and enable the passage in
Congress of a nonbinding resolution calling Ottoman Turkey's actions
against the Armenians "genocide."

"If you want to touch and hurt the hearts of the people in Turkey,
this is the issue," Tan said. "This is the No. 1 issue. You cannot
easily explain to them any change in this."

He said he had requested urgent meetings with Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik,
to impress upon them the importance of this issue to Turkey.

Tan's request for these meetings came after President Shimon Peres
spoke last week with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and
explained that Israel had no intention of changing its policy on this
issue, which is that Turkey and Armenia should resolve their
differences over the matter through dialogue.

In the eyes of the Turkish people, Tan said, his country's strategic
relationship with Israel was not with Israel alone, but with the
whole Jewish world. "They [the Turkish people] cannot make that
differentiation," he said.

Tan said he understood that the American Jewish organizations were
just that - American Jewish organizations. But "we all know how they
work in coordinating their efforts [with Israel]," he added.

Tan opted for an anecdote to illustrate his point, saying former US
secretary of state Henry Kissinger once said he was first an
American, then the secretary of state, and then a Jew. Golda Meir
"told Kissinger: 'You know, Mr. Secretary, we read things from right
to left.' This tells a lot about my case," Tan said.

The Turkish people "are waiting for this effort on the part of Israel
to straighten out, to put this issue in perspective," he said.

While senior Israeli government officials said Sunday that Israel was
trying to explain to Turkey that it did not control the American
Jewish organizations, Tan did not accept that argument.

"On some issues there is no such thing as 'Israel cannot deliver?'"
he said, adding that this was one of those issues.

Tan, who served two terms in Washington in the 1990s and worked
closely with American Jewish organizations on this issue, said Israel
had proven its ability to deliver the organizations on this matter in
the past.

While voicing no threats as to what would happen if Congress passed a
resolution on this matter, Tan said Turkey - since the development of
a close strategic relationship with Israel in the 1990s - had never
"played with the basics of this whole relationship, with the basic
fundamentals of this relationship." A reversal by the American Jewish
community of its position on this matter, leading to the passage of
the resolution in Congress, would be tantamount to playing with one
of the fundamentals of this strategic relationship, he said.

Meanwhile, visiting Rep. Gary Ackerman (D.-New York) told the Post
that were the resolution to come to the Congress today, "it would
pass, I guess. There is lots of heavy lobbying on both sides. Some
things are better left in the fuzzy area. Some think that not
addressing this for the moment is the better deal, considering the
consequences."

Nevertheless, Ackerman, a staunch supporter of Israel, said he had
"been signed up on the bill for a long time."

"Those of us who have condemned genocide and ethnic cleansing and
insisted on people accepting responsibility and learning from the
lessons of the Holocaust... well, the Armenian Genocide is something
we've said must be owned up to," he said.

The "complication is in the justice and timing," Ackerman said.
"Turkey is a very important player, juxtaposed in many complicated
issues now. Their government's cooperation is essential in a number
of areas."

He said he had been lobbied by Turkish Jews on the matter, who had
asked that the issue be resolved "in a different arena," not in
Congress.

On the wider issue of the weight of Congressional resolutions,
Ackerman said: "We're constantly shocked by the weight [attached to]
the resolution. We don't take them [such resolutions] one-tenth as
seriously as other people do. They don't have the force of law. If
the Turkish parliament passed a resolution saying, 'Shame on you for
stealing Manhattan'... we'd laugh it off. But then, of course, it
doesn't rock our political boat."

Tan said that while he understood Congressional resolutions on this
would have no real "teeth," the psychological importance was
enormous. Accepting the resolution, he said, "means you deny the
past, it means you say that my ancestors have done something
inconceivable. And the people who will be encouraged by this will use
it to set up a campaign against Turkey and the Turkish people." 

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Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
Aug 22 2007
TURKISH MINISTRY ACCUSES US JEWISH ORGANIZATION OF HISTORICAL
IGNORANCE

Ankara, 22 August: "The statement released by the USA-based Anti
Defamation League (ADL) yesterday is lack of historical and legal
ground. Definition of 1915 events as 'genocide' is both historically
and legally baseless," Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said
on Wednesday [22 August].

In response to a question, the spokesman for the MFA said, "The ADL
claimed in its statement that if the word genocide had existed then,
1915 events would have been called genocide. The statement also said
that a congressional resolution on such matters is a
counterproductive diversion and will not foster reconciliation
between Turks and Armenians, and may put at risk the Turkish Jewish
community and the important multilateral relationship between Turkey,
Israel and the United States."

"Definition of 1915 events as 'genocide' is lack of historical and
legal ground. There is not any compromise among historians on the
matter. Also, it was Turkey which proposed [to] Armenia to establish
a joint commission to investigate the issue. We could not receive a
positive response to our proposal yet," the ministry said.

[note use of the word compormise instead of concensus]

"The ADL's attempt to rewrite the history is quite contradictory. On
the other hand, Jewish community in Turkey is a part of our society.
We consider this statement, which is also unjust against the memory
of victims of the Holocaust, unfortunate. We expect the ADL to
correct their mistake," the ministry added.

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MEMRI, DC
Aug 25 2007
Turkish PM Erdogan to Israeli President Peres: I Will Return Their
Award

Speaking to journalists last night PM Erdogan answered questions
about his phone conversation with Israeli President Shimon Peres and
said: `I called Mr. Peres to express our disappointment. I told him
that if ADL does not make the necessary correction, I will return the
award they gave me. On one hand, they give an award to Turkish prime
minister out of appreciation, on the other hand they declare that
they recognize Armenian genocide claims. `If this is the case I have
no use for their award; I will give it back'. I believe that with
immediate intervention of Mr. Peres, ADL made the correction and sent
me the new statement.'


Source: Milliyet, Turkey, August 25, 2007