ANCA CONFRONTS US SILENCE ON GENOCIDE DURING SENATE PANEL

Asbarez
imony/1209_Sen_Judiciary.pdf
Dec 18th, 2009

Nahapetian Testimony Before Senate Panel Challenges U.S. Complicity
in Turkey’s Denial as Contributing to Ongoing Cycle of Genocide

WASHINGTON, DC – The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA)
this week called the attention of an influential U.S. Senate panel
to how the failure of U.S. policy-makers to confront past genocides
has materially contributed to an international environment which
tolerates continued crimes against humanity, reported the Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA).

"Considering… the moral and legal obligations we have undertaken
as parties to the Genocide Convention, it is truly astonishing that
the United States has more recently pursued a policy of complicity in
Turkey’s state-sponsored denial of the Armenian Genocide and has even
gone to the lengths of assisting Turkey in covering up a crime that
was publicly cited by Raphael Lemkin as one of the major motivating
factors in the very drafting of the Genocide Convention," explained
ANCA Government Affairs Director Kate Nahapetian in written testimony
submitted to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and
the Law for a hearing titled "The Law of the Land: U.S. Implementation
of Human Rights Treaties."

Nahapetian continued, noting that, "Turkey’s success in silencing
one of the most powerful countries in the world on one of the best
documented cases of genocide emboldens other states to commit genocide
and undermines the ability of the U.S. and the international community
to prevent crimes against humanity. The starkest example of this
consequence is Sudan’s mimicking of Turkish genocide denial tactics
and the growing alliance between these two countries."

Read the complete text of Nahapetian’s testimony.