WATERTOWN FIGHT FLARES ANEW
By Christina Pazzanese
Boston Globe
October 23, 2008
United States
WATERTOWN – The Armenian National Committee of Massachusetts took the
president of the Watertown Town Council to task this week for saying
he felt comfortable with the Anti-Defamation League’s assurances that
it recognizes the Armenian Genocide.
Sharistan Melkonian, the committee chairwoman, sent a letter Monday to
Clyde L. Younger saying the group was "shocked" to read his comments
in an article in last Sunday’s Globe.
In an interview with the Globe nearly two weeks ago, Younger said he
felt comfortable after receiving a letter from the league’s national
director, Abraham H. Foxman, on Oct. 3 that, Younger said, clarified
the ADL’s position on the genocide.
"We would welcome a sincere, unambiguous acknowledgment of the Armenian
Genocide by the Anti-Defamation League," Melkonian said in the letter
to Younger. "Rather, what we have observed is an organization engaged
in a double game: issuing disingenuous statements that do not actually
recognize the Armenian Genocide but are crafted in such a way as to
mislead the public."
The group has asked Younger to clarify his comments.
In an interview Tuesday, Younger said he has heard from Armenian
activists who worry that his position might mean the council will
no longer pressure the league to better explain its stance or to
have Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts drop its support for
the league’s No Place for Hate program – or worse yet, that the town
might resume the program.
Those fears are unfounded, as his view of the letter "doesn’t change
anything," Younger said.
"That’s just my personal opinion. The council has not voted on the
matter whatsoever," he said. "I feel they [the ADL] have stated it
is a genocide."
While the issue isn’t slated to be discussed at next Tuesday’s council
meeting, that does not preclude it from being on the agenda of a
future session, said Younger.
"Part of it is probably my problem," Younger added. "I don’t know what
the litmus test is for the ADL and I guess I need further feedback
[from people] that read that memo and see how they interpret it."
Younger said he spoke with an assistant to Foxman on Monday and
reiterated a request to have Foxman or another league representative
come to Watertown to discuss the issue with the council at length. He
has even offered to go to New York to meet with league officials,
he said.
Younger said he was told that Foxman was out of the country until
after the Nov. 4 presidential election.
"They’re not promising anything," he said.
Formal recognition of the Armenian Genocide by both the league and
the US Congress has been a hot-button issue in Watertown, which has
a large Armenian-American population.
In August 2007, the town dropped its participation in the league’s No
Place for Hate antibias program for what it considered a deliberate
effort by Foxman and the league to avoid labeling the slaughter of 1.5
million Armenians by Ottoman Turks from 1915 to 1923 as a genocide,
as well as the league’s opposition to a congressional resolution that
sought official recognition of the genocide by the US government.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
