Lowell Sun (Massachusetts)
August 21, 2007 Tuesday

Genocide denial ‘reprehensible’

By David Perry, dperry@lowellsun.com

In an offshoot of the deep rift that has alienated regional
Anti-Defamation League officials from the national governing body,
local Armenians are moving to ask Lowell’s City Council to renounce
its ties with the ADL’s "No Place for Hate" campaign.

Pearl Teague of Lowell and the Merrimack Valley chapter of the
Armenian National Committee of America, said yesterday that a move is
under way to approach councilors to make them aware of the depth of
feeling within the local Armenian community.

The city adopted the ADL’s campaign June 26, 2003, with a
proclamation by then-mayor Rita Mercier.

"No Place for Hate" was designed to by the ADL as a community
outreach program to promote tolerance and prevent hate crimes. The
program was adopted in Lowell with the Massachusetts Municipal
Association and the Indian-American Forum for Political Education. It
followed by six months a hate crime against three Indian students who
were assaulted and called "sons of Osama bin Laden."

But in the wake of the ADL’s refusal to label as genocide the
massacre of 1.5 million Armenians during World War I, local
Armenian-Americans are wondering how the ADL can promote tolerance
while not calling what happened in Armenia genocide.

"For a group such as the ADL to work on behalf of tolerance and
against hate, and to deny the genocide and the recognition of it, is
unkind," said Teague of the genocide. "Reprehensible. No one denies
the Jewish Holocaust, or what the British did to the Irish, or what
is happening in Darfur. ‘No Place for Hate’ should be a place where
you can stand up for justice. It shouldn’t be tainted."

There is agreement that Armenians were massacred during World War I.
Historians say as many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed by
Ottoman Turks.

But the term genocide has caused a deep chasm between regional and
national branches of the Anti-Defamation League and angered
Armenian-Americans.

The ADL’s New England regional director, Andrew Tarsy, publicly
disagreed with the national body last Thursday, calling the national
organization’s stance "morally indefensible." He was fired Friday.

Two other members of the regional group have since resigned in
protest of Tarsy’s firing and of the national organization’s refusal
to recognize the Armenian genocide.

A week ago, Watertown’s Town Council voted unanimously to rescind its
ties to "No Place for Hate," and other communities are considering
similar moves.

"I think Lowell is next," said Ara Jeknavorian of Chelmsford. "There
is a very active group of Armenian-Americans in the Merrimack
Valley."

Jeknavorian, a deacon at St. Vartanantz Armenian Church in
Chelmsford, said the genocide was "a horrific act" deeply ingrained
in the history and spirit of the Armenian people.

He estimated there are "about 2,500 to 3,000 people in the Merrimack
Valley who would identify themselves as Armenian-Americans."

The ADL, best-known for combating anti-Semitism, said in a written
statement that the group acknowledges "the massacres of Armenians at
the hands of the Ottoman Empire and called on Turkey to do more to
confront its past and reconcile with Armenia." It also said the ADL
must "protect the interest of the Jewish community in Turkey, work
for Israel’s safety and security and combat extremism."

Turkey, a Muslim nation, has been a military ally to Israel, a rare
friend to Israel in the Arab world.

While historians and others have recognized the killings between 1915
and 1923 as genocide, Turkey has refused to characterize them as
such.

"What happened is fact, in black and white," said Jeknavorian. "It is
difficult to play politics with that. No one wants to be portrayed as
being capable of such a horrific event, but national pride should not
hide such an act."

Mercier, who remains a councilor, said yesterday that "this is the
first I’m learning of this and I’m not sure what to think."

Each April 24, a solemn ceremony at City Hall marks the Armenian
genocide. The city’s Armenian organizations include The Armenian
Relief Society, which has raised money to aid those in the homeland
with education and earthquake relief.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this story.