The Jerusalem Post
Aug 23, 2007 23:49 | Updated Aug 23, 2007 23:49
Zuroff: ‘We have an obligation to tell the truth’
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
The World War I-era massacre of Armenians by the Turks should be
recognized as genocide despite the political ramifications such a move
would have with Turkey, the chief Nazi hunter of the Los Angeles-based
Simon Wiesenthal Center said Thursday.
"I think it is very important that it be recognized as a case of
genocide," the director of the the organization’s Israel office
Dr. Efraim Zuroff said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.
"With all the sensitivities we have regarding Israeli-Turkish
relations and the well-being of the Turkish Jewish community, we have
an obligation to tell the truth about historical events – even if they
sometimes create certain problems for us," Zuroff said.
His remarks come two days after the New York-based Anti Defamation
League, in a dramatic about-face, called the World War I-era massacre
of Armenians a genocide, after previously firing an organization
official who said the same thing.
In contrast to the ADL, the Wiesenthal Center has always included some
presentation of the Armenian Genocide in its museums, dating back to
its first museum in 1979, officials in the organization said.
"Our position on this issue has always been very straightforward; we
view it as an educational, not a political issue," said associate dean
Rabbi Abraham Cooper.
Cooper noted that when the organization’s Museum of Tolerance in Los
Angeles opened in 1993 there was pressure by the Turkish government
not to include mention of the Armenian genocide in the museum, while
others were upset that an exhibition on the killing was not slated for
permanent exhibition. "This is a piece of history," Cooper said.
Historians estimate that as many as 1.5 million Armenian Christians
were killed by Muslim Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1923, in what is
widely viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.
Turkey, however, denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying that
the toll has been grossly inflated and that those killed were victims
of civil war and unrest.
Meanwhile, Yad Vashem, which has recently referred to the mass
killings in Darfur as genocide, said Thursday that the massacre of the
Armenians was part of the Holocaust center’s educational activities on
"other instances of genocide, ethnic cleansing and mass murder."
"Yad Vashem, as an educational and research center, is dedicated to
the historical truth, and to educating, researching, studying and
memorializing the Shoah," a Yad Vashem spokesperson said.
"In the course of our educational activities, other instances of
genocide, ethnic cleansing and mass murder are dealt with as well,
including that of Armenia." The issue is especially sensitive for
Israel on a political level due to the country’s close relations with
Turkey.
Separately, the US Holocaust Museum declined comment Thursday on
pending legislation before the US Congress which would recognize the
Armenian massacre as genocide due to the Museum’s status as a federal
entity, museum spokesman Andrew Hollinger said.