Armenian group urges No Place For Hate action
By Patrick Ball
Bedford Minuteman
Thu Sep 06, 2007, 11:34 AM EDT
Bedford, Mass. –
By Patrick Ball
Staff Writer
The present state of Anti-Defamation League affairs, regarding the
organization’s national stance on the Armenian genocide, has some
residents pushing for Bedford to revoke its ADL-sponsored No Place For
Hate designation to become no place for denial.
A group of area Armenian-American advocates at-large Tuesday urged the
Violence Prevention Coalition, which also serves at the No Place For
Hate advisory committee, to server ties with the Anti-Defamation
League until the organization unambiguously acknowledges the massacre
of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during WWI was a genocide and supports
Congressional affirmation of the genocide as such.
The committee No Place For Hate "should not wait for the ADL" to
reevaluate their stance at their Nov. 1 meeting, because "waiting is
showing tolerance toward hate," said Berge Jololian, a Cambridge
resident who’s followed this issue since July.
The Violence Prevention Coalition is a local advisory committee and No
Place For Hate is one of the programs it advises on. Therefore, it is
not within the committee’s purview to withdraw from No Place For Hate,
said Committee Chairwoman Sue Baldauf. Any decisions regarding No
Place For Hate would have to be made by the selectmen and Town
Manager.
Baldauf, who is also the director of Bedford Youth and Family
Services, informed the advocates she has been talking with the ADL
about the issue, and that she would "love to have a local program to
educate the community about the Armenian genocide."
After discussion the Armenian appeal, the VPC voted to recommend
selectmen to reconsider Bedford’s status as a No Place For Hate
community because of the ADL’s ambiguous stance on the Armenian
genocide.
"This is an emotional issue, and there is no precedent for a local
group like this to take a stand on an international issue that I know
of," Baldauf said.
The No Place For Hate program’s stance relative to the ADL puts it in
a precarious position, said Baldauf, emphasizing that the committee’s
decision is "not a statement against the No Place For Hate program at
all."
A group of Bedford residents first came together after finding out the
Armenian genocide issue would be discussed and "got the ball rolling
based on the events in surrounding communities," said Stephen
Dulgarian, of Bedford.
The group is circulating a petition requesting that the No Place For
Hate leadership "issues a public statement opposing Turkey’s
state-sponsored campaign to deny the Armenian Genocide and call on its
sponsor, the Anti-Defamation League, through its National Director Mr.
Foxman, to openly and unequivocally acknowledge the Armenian Genocide
and support congressional affirmation of this crime against humanity."
Dulgarian said he is "pretty sure" the group plans to get on the
selectmen’s Aug. 17 agenda.
>From 1915 to 1923, Ottoman Turks massacred as many as 1.5 million
Armenians. The Turkish government rebuffs the genocide label
Armenians, historians, and some European nations use to characterize
the killings.
This issue was brought to light by a July 6 letter in the Watertown
Tab. Just over a month later, the Watertown Town Council decided to
pull out of the No Place For Hate program in protest of the ADL’s
refusal to recognize the massacre as genocide.
Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s national director, has flip-flopped on the
issue in recent months. First, he refused to recognize the massacre as
genocide and fired Andrew Tarsy, ADL’s New England regional director,
for publicly opposing the organization’s national stance. Then, less
than two weeks later, he acknowledged the Armenian Genocide and
rehired Tarsy. Still, Foxman adamantly opposes a Congressional
resolution. In an Aug. 21 press release, he said such a resolution
would be a "counterproductive diversion" that could put both the
"Turkish Jewish community and the important multilateral relationship
between Turkey, Israel and the United States" at risk.
Source: 286