Mercury-Register, CA
Nov 3 2007

Postponement of resolution saddens Bay Area Armenians

Some Turks relieved as House delays vote on genocide declaration

By Arya Hebbar, CORRESPONDENT
Article Launched: 11/03/2007 02:41:57 AM PDT

Bay Area Armenians are disappointed the House delayed voting on a
resolution declaring the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during
World War I a genocide, but their Turkish counterparts are relieved.
An international furor caused the bill’s Southern California sponsors
to ask Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week not to bring a vote this year on
the Armenian Genocide Resolution.
"It is disappointing that Turkey was shamelessly allowed to interfere
in the process of a simple resolution," said Roxanne Makasdjian,
chairwoman of the Bay Area Armenian National Committee. "It is always
the right time to tell the truth."
Ilkcan Cokgor, president of the Turkish American Association of
California, disagreed.
"All of us Turkish Americans believe very strongly that it is an issue
between Turkey and Armenia and it is definitely not (the) American
Congress’ business."
That sentiment was echoed by Oytun Eskiyenenturk, president of Bay
Area Cultural Connections and a San Francisco resident, who suggested
"A fact-finding committee with respected historians from both Turkey
and Armenia should look at evidence and decide if it should be called
a genocide or not."
The Armenian-American community had cheered the House
Committee on Foreign Affairs’ passage of the non-binding genocide
resolution Oct. 10, saying it would bring closure to the thousands of
Armenians ‘ estimates range as high as half a million ‘ who left their
homeland in search of safety and a better life in the aftermath of
mass killings of Armenians during World War 1.
Now, Florence Janjigian, 65, of Saratoga wonders whether the
resolution will be passed in the lifetime of the remaining genocide
survivors. Most of them are very old, like her mother, Nevart
Karagozian, who turned 100 recently.
"We are kind of small potatoes as far as the United States is
concerned," said a disheartened Janjigian, reasoning that it was more
advantageous to America to have Turkey as an ally than express the
truth about what happened to the Armenian people in World War I.
But Bay Area residents of Turkish heritage say the resolution would be
a mark of shame that their children and grandchildren would have to
carry far into the future. And they argue that the Turkey of today is
not the same as the Turkey of the Ottoman Empire.
"I felt like being punished, shamed and isolated. I am a Turkish
person. I don’t want it in my name, in my child’s name," said Berna
Atik-Watson, 41, of Berkeley, who stressed at the same time that no
human suffering is acceptable.
Support for the House resolution had dropped from 226 co-sponsors to
215 in less than two weeks due to pressure from President Bush, senior
administration officials and Republican congressional leaders who
opposed the measure because it incensed the Turkish government.
House critics of the resolution claimed this was not the right time to
vote on the resolution given Turkey’s strategic importance to America
in the war in Iraq.
"I am disappointed in the democratic system of the U.S. that it will
give in to pressure from a foreign government regarding diplomatic
policy and I am disappointed in our country’s leaders," 20-year-old
Shant Hagopian of Berkeley said of the decision.
Armenian-Americans say the resolution’s passage would validate their
history, officially acknowledge their suffering, provide proof of
American solidarity for Armenian-Americans and, perhaps most
important, bring a sense of closure to the Armenian people. And many
believe it would improve the relationship between Armenia and Turkey.
That’s a sentiment shared by at least some Turkish people in the Bay
Area, such as Mia Koknar-Tockey of San Francisco. A member of Opening
Mountain, a group that brings together Armenian and Turkish people as
a solution to the 100-year-old conflict, she said that the genocide
needs to be recognized.
"We
e there is a big fear about us Turks, but when they talk to us they
understand we are not monsters. We have the same food, jokes; we are
culturally so close," Koknar-Tockey said.
The group was started by an Armenian who didn’t want her fellow
Armenians to raise their kids with hatred and fear of the Turks.
"For me it was just a political thing," says Koknar-Tockey. "For them
(Armenians) it is not (just) political; it is also part of their
lives. They are still carrying all these memories."
That’s certainly true for 100-year-old Karagozian, who lost many
family members in the conflict. She is among the hundreds of thousands
of supporters of the resolution who refer to the written records of
Henry Morgenthau, the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from
1913 to 1916, as evidence of the genocide, University of San Francisco
professor Stephen Zunes said.
Canada, France, Italy, Russia and other nations, as well as 40
American states including California, have recognized the Armenian
Genocide, Zunes said.
The International Association of Genocide Scholars, which declares
itself a "global, interdisciplinary, non-partisan organ-ization" that
furthers research about genocide, recognized the genocide and
supported the resolution.
The issue is far from settled ‘ nor should it be, says Khatchig Tazian
of San Mateo.
"It’s significance for the future is one of deterrence. Though such
resolutions won’t bring back the dead, they might have an effect on
regimes that contemplate such actions in the future," Tazian said.
And despite the decision not to go forward with the vote, Tamar
Sarkissian, 27, of Oakland remains hopeful.
"The resolution has been shot down before, but we kept moving
forward," she said. "We got closer this time."