‘GENOCIDE’ VOTE HITS CLOSE TO HOME
By Chris Coates
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MO
Oct 16 2007
Armenians react to House action
A vote by a House committee Wednesday to condemn the massacre of
Armenians during World War I in Turkey hit especially close for
an Armenian-American whose family tree was nearly wiped out by the
killings of a century ago.
"My parents were the sole survivors in both families," said Amerik
A. Kachigian, 74, a retired Granite City lawyer whose father and
mother fled to the United States after World War I.
He said 73 of his father’s relatives were killed in Armenia and
countless others on his mother’s side, part of an effort by the Ottoman
Empire to force Christian Armenians out of eastern Turkey in the 1910s.
As many as 1.5 million were killed, although Turkish officials since
the country’s founding in 1923 have argued the deaths were a result
of World War I, not an effort to eliminate Armenians.
American officials for decades have also roundly avoided the "genocide"
term, in part to avoid harming diplomatic relations in the region.
More recently, the Bush administration has opposed the genocide
label out of concern it would hurt foreign relations with Turkey,
a major Middle East ally.
That resistance held strong until this week, when the House Foreign
Relations Committee, rejecting concerns from the White House, approved
a non-binding and largely ceremonial move to officially re-name the
killings as "genocide."
Kachigian said the recognition is overdue.
It’s the only truthful thing to do, he said Friday, adding later that
what the Turks did is the very definition of genocide.
"This was a full directive from the top to eliminate all the people
of a certain type," he said. "That’s exactly what they did."
It’s unlikely, however, that the motion will pass the House, and
almost certainly faces a veto.
Andy Hagopian, 84, an Armenian American who has been a vocal proponent
for the genocide label, said he was disappointed that a veto is likely.
"I’m really heart broken," he said. "None of them come through."
Kachigian, who spent decades navigating complex legal documents and
courtrooms, said he understands the resistance to the label — and
expects the bill to get vetoed later.
"I’m American. I can see their point. They don’t want to ruffle up
the Turks. That’s why it’s not going to pass," he said.
He said the pressure puts the United States in a tough spot.
"All of the Armenians want some acknowledgment that this occurred. I
think the just thing to do is pass this thing," Kachigian said. "As
far as the diplomatic things to do, America can’t."
Hagopian said there are already efforts to lobby for the genocide
label.
"If it doesn’t go through, we’ll start on it again," he said. "We’ve
been fighting this battle. We’ve been doing it in the past. We’ll do
it again."
Armenians first came to Granite City in the 1890s for work in steel
mills, settling in the Lincoln Place neighborhood.
They also established St. Gregory the Illuminator Armenian Apostolic
Orthodox Church, where families of survivors still hold memorials
each year for those killed by the Turks.