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Top US Jewish group recognises genocide of 1.5 million Armenians
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Published: 25 August 2007
The Anti-Defamation League, a leading US-based Jewish organisation,
has for the first time – and with some reluctance – recognised the
slaughter of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by the Turks between
1915 and 1917 as genocide.
It did so under pressure from some American Jewish communities,
including those in areas where there are Armenian populations, and
against a background of attempts to push a new bill through Congress
to force the United States to recognise the genocide. Like Israel, the
US does not officially acknowledge it.
Abe Foxman, the director of ADL, which had previously been reluctant
to inflame Turkey by recognising the genocide, said that he had taken
the decision after consulting the Jewish Nobel Prize-winning author
and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.
As a result, Israel has come under increasingly heavy diplomatic
pressure from the Turkish government to help reverse the decision. The
Turkish Foreign minister and the presidential candidate Abdullah Gul
registered his "anger and disappointment" at a meeting in Ankara with
Israel’s ambassador, Pinhas Avivi. Foreign ministry sources described
this meeting to the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz as "shrill".
Despite pressure from some Israeli intellectuals and scholars of the
Jewish Holocaust as well from the small Armenian community here,
Israel has refrained from officially recognising the massacres to
avoid rupturing its strong diplomatic relations with Turkey. Mr Gul
reportedly told the Israeli ambassador that Turkey knew Israel was not
responsible for the ADL decision but believed Israel could have done
something to prevent it.
Mr Avivi is said to have replied that Israel’s position had not
changed, that it was not taking sides and was urging a "dialogue"
between the parties "to clarify and investigate the matter".
The original reluctance of the Anti-Defamation League’s director to
recognise the genocide – which drew criticism from at least one
regional ADL official – was said to have been based partly on a desire
to protect the estimated 26,000 Jews currently living in Turkey from
any possible repercussions.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
