Armenian Assembly of America
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Phone: 202-393-3434
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PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 8, 2005
CONTACT: Christine Kojoian
Email: ckojoian@aaainc.org

ARMENIAN CAUCUS MEMBER REP. FOLEY URGES TURKEY TO FACE ITS OTTOMAN PAST
Calls Armenian Genocide Study An “Important Opportunity” for Turkey

Washington, DC – The Armenian Assembly commended Congressional Caucus
on Armenian Issues Member Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) today for urging
Turkish officials who are calling for an investigation into the
Armenian Genocide to instead use the opportunity to come to terms
with their Ottoman legacy.

Foley, in a statement issued before Congress, said Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s calls for a “political settling of
accounts with history” appeared to be a delaying tactic meant to
escape the judgment of history.

“That accounting has already been done,” Foley said. He added that
experts in Holocaust and Genocide studies, as well as foremost
authorities on WWI, have attested that the crime of genocide was
committed by Ottoman Turkey.

Foley also added that if Turkey is prepared to acknowledge the truth,
its leaders should immediately engage in direct dialogue with their
Armenian counterparts. If Turkey is still unwilling to take this
essential step with Armenia, it could take a number of intermediate
actions to demonstrate its shared values with countries of the
European Union. The EU agreed last December to open membership talks
with Turkey.

Foley called upon the government of Turkey to consider the following
preparatory steps:

* Decriminalize speech on this subject within Turkey.
* Destroy all monuments, museums and public references to the specious
notion that the Armenian minority committed genocide against the
majority Turks.
* End denial within Turkey, specifically within textbooks & reference
books.
* Officially condemn attacks against any Turk that acknowledges the
facts of history.
* End the global campaign of threats against any nation that is in
the process of affirming the Armenian Genocide.

The Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based
nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness
of Armenian issues. It is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt membership
organization.

### NR#2005-027

A photograph of Congressman Foley is available on the Assembly Web
site at the following link:

Caption: Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL)

Editor’s Note: Attached is the full text of Congressman Foley’s
comments as delivered on the floor of the House of Representatives.

TURKEY AND THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE –
(Extensions of Remarks – April 07, 2005)

SPEECH OF HON. MARK FOLEY
OF FLORIDA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2005

Mr. FOLEY: Mr. Speaker, as reported by Reuters recently, Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is ready for a “political settling
of accounts with history” provided that historians would prepare an
unbiased study of claims that millions of Armenians were the victims
of genocide under Ottoman rule during the First World War.

That accounting has already been done. A March 7, 2000 public
declaration by 126 Holocaust Scholars affirmed the incontestable fact
of the Armenian Genocide and urged Western democracies to officially
recognize it.

This declaration by foremost scholars from around the world was
adopted at the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Scholar’s Conference
on the Holocaust convening at St. Joseph University, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, March 3-7, 2000. The petitioners, among whom is Nobel
Laureate for Peace Elie Wiesel, also called upon Western democracies to
urge the government and parliament of Turkey to finally come to terms
with this dark chapter of Ottoman-Turkish history and to recognize
the Armenian Genocide. According to this renowned gathering, Turkish
acknowledgment would provide an invaluable impetus to that nation’s
democratization.

As part of the groundbreaking conference held in September 2000 by the
Library of Congress and the Armenian National Institute in cooperation
with the U.S. Holocaust Museum, the prestigious Cambridge University
Press, early in 2004, released a vital new publication–“America and
the Armenian Genocide of 1915.” This edition covers all facets of the
leading U.S. response to the Armenian Genocide, which encompassed the
first international human rights movement in American history. Oxford
University’s Sir Martin Gilbert, Cambridge University’s Jay Winter and
more than a dozen American academics were among the participants in
that landmark conference. In a keynote address, Sir Martin recalled
that Rafael Lemkin, who developed the concept of genocide, derived
the word itself from the atrocities inflicted on the Armenians.

Prime Minister Erdogan’s apparent willingness for a political settling
of accounts with history should be treated as an important opportunity
for those who have been urging Turkey to come to terms with its Ottoman
past. If Turkey is prepared to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide,
then its leaders can proceed immediately to direct dialogue with its
counterparts in Armenia to define a common vision for the future.

I also urge the government of Turkey to: decriminalize speech within
Turkey, destroy all monuments, museums and public references to
the specious notion that the Armenian minority committed genocide
against the majority Turks, end denial within Turkey, specifically
within textbooks and reference books, officially condemn any attacks
against all Turks that acknowledge the facts of history, and end the
global campaign of threats against any nation that is in the process
of affirming the Armenian Genocide.

By so doing, Turkey will begin the vital process of preparing its
citizens for a more complete and honest assessment of the final acts
of the Ottoman Turkish state. Facing history squarely will liberate
Turkey.

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