Posted on 08/22/2007 5:46:38 AM PDT by SJackson
An Anti-Defamation League (ADL) statement on Tuesday saying that Turkey's actions against Armenians between 1915-1918 "were tantamount to genocide" could negatively impact Turkey's close relationship with Israel, Turkish sources said Tuesday night.
"This might impact the relationship because the Jewish community and the lobby in Washington have supported Turkey in the past, and countered the Armenian lobby," the sources said. "This could have a negative impact."
ADL National Director Abe Foxman issued a statement Tuesday, saying that "in light of the heated controversy that has surrounded the Turkish-Armenian issue in recent weeks, and because of our concern for the unity of the Jewish community at a time of increased threats against the Jewish people, ADL has decided to revisit the tragedy that befell the Armenians.
"We have never negated, but have always described the painful events of 1915-1918 perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians as massacres and atrocities," the statement read. "On reflection, we have come to share the view of Henry Morgenthau, Sr. [the US ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during World War I], that the consequences of those actions were indeed tantamount to genocide. If the word genocide had existed then, they would have called it genocide."
Amid turmoil in his organization over the firing of the ADL regional director in Boston for saying publicly that the group's policy line on this issue was "morally indefensible," Foxman said in the statement that he had consulted with "my friend and mentor" Elie Wiesel and other respected historians, "who acknowledge this consensus. I hope that Turkey will understand that it is Turkey's friends who urge that nation to confront its past and work to reconcile with Armenians over this dark chapter in history."
The ADL and some other Jewish organizations have long been opposed to moves in Congress to adopt a resolution characterizing the events of that period as genocide. Foxman said that the ADL "firmly believes that a congressional resolution on such matters ... 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."
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Foxman said he did not think that this new position should impact relations with Turkey, since the ADL still believes that congressional action on this matter would be counterproductive.
Turkey's position has long been that judgment of the events from this period should not be made in parliaments around the world, but rather by historians.
Foxman told the Post that he and Wiesel were "ready to call for an international conference of scholars, both Turkish and Armenian," to deal with the issue.
Foxman, who has excellent contacts both in Ankara and Jerusalem, said he had not consulted with either capital city before issuing his statement.
Neither Jerusalem nor Ankara had any official comment on the matter, with the respective foreign ministries taken completely by surprise by the statement.
Turkish authorities have said plainly that one of the reasons for Turkey's close ties with Israel is the Jewish lobby in Washington and the help various Jewish organizations have given Ankara in fending off potentially detrimental legislation over the years.
The ADL's position on this matter has also been motivated in the past by a concern for the Jewish community in Turkey. Asked whether he was worried that this position would now lead to a backlash against the Jewish community in Turkey, Foxman said, "I hope not, because we have not changed our basic position" against congressional legislation on this matter.
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New York, NY, August 21, 2007 … Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today issued the following statement:
In light of the heated controversy that has surrounded the Turkish-Armenian issue in recent weeks, and because of our concern for the unity of the Jewish community at a time of increased threats against the Jewish people, ADL has decided to revisit the tragedy that befell the Armenians.
We have never negated but have always described the painful events of 1915-1918 perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians as massacres and atrocities. On reflection, we have come to share the view of Henry Morgenthau, Sr. that the consequences of those actions were indeed tantamount to genocide. If the word genocide had existed then, they would have called it genocide.
I have consulted with my friend and mentor Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel and other respected historians who acknowledge this consensus. I hope that Turkey will understand that it is Turkey's friends who urge that nation to confront its past and work to reconcile with Armenians over this dark chapter in history.
Having said that, we continue to firmly believe 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.
The Turks are clowns. They can be useful clowns at times, but they are still clowns.
High Volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel. or WOT [War on Terror]
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Along with Ambassador Morgenthau, Raphael Lemkin, who coined the word genocide
Ankara, like Pontius Pilate, has a problem with truth.
Geez, it was 90+ years ago. Get over it. They already have enough **** to worry about with the world today, they really need to dig this up as a reason to tussle? Newsflash: Every nation at times has treated it’s people and other peoples badly, persecuting them, killing them... the idea is to learn your lesson from it and not do it again.
i’d like to see the day when that jowl faced scumbag foxman adresses the communist genocides of cambodia,ussr,and china (in ascending order of severity)-just because you’re killing your own doesn’t make it less of a crime-the adl and the people who want a holocaust museum in every city are afraid of losing their pre eminent position on suffering-when someone is killed for no reason they’re just as dead regardless of who they are-acknowledging the enormity of communist mass murder doesn’t diminish the jewish experience-it merely puts it in perspective in a brutal world-the monument to victims of communism is pitifully small-why has there been such a vacuum of knowledge on the subject-is it taught to schoolkids?i will bet it isn’t.why?
“Geez, it was 90+ years ago. Get over it.”
90 plus years ago and NEVER RECOGNIZED.
It’s so easy for you to say “get over it.”
Having lost my ancestors in the genocide for no reason at all, and for the genocide to continue to be denied by Turkey and ignored by the world community, as though their lives meant absolutely nothing, we Armenians will “get over it” when it is FINALLY RECOGNIZED.
point taken
I did quite a bit of research on this subject years ago, and I’m with Bernard Lewis on this one; it was not a “genocide.”
Muhammad was a buffoon. A psycho killer buffoon
Now exactly where did Pilate have a truth problem?
For no reason at all? The Armenians staged a full scale uprising in the middle of a world war, a war the Turks were losing. When you use a war to leverage your rebellion, and fail, bad consequences follow (see Irish, Cromwell). There is no question that thousands of Armenians were killed, many of whom had nothing to do with the insurrection, but “no reason at all” is unsupportable.
He famously asked: "What is truth?", betraying his confusion with the concept.
Hmmmmm, was it not a rhetorical question?
Does that make mohammedans collectively an "Insane Clown Posse"?
If it were a sincere question, it would mean that he was unfamiliar with the concept of truth.
If it were, more likely, a rhetorical question, then it would imply that Pilate had contempt for the very notion of truth.
In either case, Pilate clearly had a problem with truth.
My, what a refined notion of justice you possess.
As a certain someone, whom no doubt you hold in high personal regard, once said: "Put some ice on it."
Oh, yes, I’ve heard that excuse by the Turkish government many times before. “The” Armenians staged a “full-scale uprising,” according to you, who bought the Turkish government’s spin.
My grandmother, who was a young child, her grandmother, who was an old lady, and other relatives, many children, many old, all civilians — all in the death march.
Oh, sure, they were a real threat.
Hitler saw the Jews as a “threat” too. I guess that must mean the Jews were at least partly responsible for the Holocaust too, according to your logic? After all, some of them staged riots too.
I disagree, Pilate's words still apply to this day, because there is NO consensus on what TRUTH actually is. This article proves that point, is there any question about the deaths of Armenians, and why is it still a point of contention?
I used to be a member of the John Birch Society and I can assure FReepers that it was always the Turks who were supported vis a vis the Greeks and Armenians. Greek Cypriots were accused of massacreing Turkish Cypriots, Archbishop Makarios III was called a "leftist," and one of their magazines ran a headline "Grecophile in Congress." As for the Armenians, they have long been "the Jews of chr*stendom."
All that being said, it is undeniable that Turkey has been a better friend to America and Israel than Greece (which is very anti-American and anti-Israel) and that both the Greek- and Armenian-American communities seem to have a hard-left orientation.
The Armenian Church is a purely ethnic church with little theology (despite its beautiful liturgy) and a great deal of nationalism and victimology (sort of the liturgical equivalent of Black Baptists).
I don't really have a dog in this fight, so I think I'll air pop some popcorn, take a seat, and watch the fun!
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