OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

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01:59 pm | March 26, 2009

Politics

Last week, in an open letter to President Barack Obama, the
International Association of Genocide Scholars, the leading
organization of scholars who study genocide, urged Obama to "refer
to the mass slaughter of Armenians as genocide in your commemorative
statement," adding that it was what "you urged President George W. Bush
to do in a letter dated March 18, 2005," reported the Armenian Assembly
of America (Assembly).

"By acknowledging the Armenian Genocide," the letter reads, "you would
demonstrate that you are that ‘leader’ you referred to on January
19, 2008, who ‘speaks truthfully about the Armenian Genocide and
responds forcefully to all genocides’." Moreover, "you would signal
a new chapter in U.S. diplomacy. You would also honor the truth of
our own valiant history, which saw brave and selfless Foreign Service
Officers risk their lives rescuing Armenians during the Genocide and
compiling the more than 40,000 pages of documentation now housed in
the National Archives."

In regard to Turkey’s refusal to acknowledge its history, the letter
reads, "We also believe that it is in the interest of the Turkish
people and their future as participants in international, democratic
discourse to acknowledge the responsibility of a previous government
for the genocide of the Armenian people, just as the German government
and people have done in the case of the Holocaust. Over the past
decade a growing number of Turkish scholars, writers, intellectuals,
and publishers have been risking imprisonment and assassination to
tell the truth about the Armenian Genocide. They understood that
facing and accepting the history of one’s country, however dark,
is an essential part of growing a healthy democracy.

"We believe that security and historical truth are not in conflict, and
it is in the interest of the United States to support the principles
of human rights that are at the core of American democracy."

"President Obama’s upcoming trip to Turkey presents a unique
opportunity to address this critical human rights issue and
the irreversible trend toward its reaffirmation. We applaud the
International Association of Genocide Scholars and its President,
Gregory Stanton, for its open letter and its steadfast support of
the importance of historical accuracy as one method of countering
the problem of genocide denial," stated Assembly Executive Director
Bryan Ardouny.