Today’s Zaman, Turkey
May 17 2008
TÃ`SÄ°AD criticizes `genocide’ resolution in US Congress
A leading and influential Turkish business group has harshly
criticized a resolution pending in the US Congress seeking official
recognition of "a systematic genocide campaign" against Anatolian
Armenians in the last years of the Ottoman Empire.
The Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association
(TÃ`SÄ°AD) earlier this week released a report on the issue
drawn up by researcher David Saltzman and titled "H. RES. 106: Legal
and Factual Deficiencies." The report, analyzing the factual and legal
deficiencies of US H. Res. 106, was shared with the public in
Washington on the occasion of a seminar held on the 10th anniversary
of TÃ`SÄ°AD opening its office there. The Armenian diaspora
continues to deal with the disappointment over the fact that the
resolution, which calls the 1915 killings of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks genocide, has not yet been adopted by the US Congress even
though it was passed by a US congressional committee in October 2007.
"We are not historians or jurists. We are simply concerned about
seeking the truth on the Armenian issue. Equally we are interested in
fighting a libel that has been accepted as historical truth by too
many for far too long," TÃ`SÄ°AD said in a written statement,
while announcing the report’s release.
"Most organizations of the Armenian diaspora, academics as well as
some political operatives insist on calling the tragic events of that
period ‘genocide.’ Their further insistence on engaging in a serious
debate over the historical record only after admission by Turkey that
genocide had been committed makes it impossible to have an open
discussion," TÃ`SÄ°AD also said.