Nazarian to Coakley: Armenian American Community Understandably Hesitant

Armenian Weekly
January 16, 2010

The statement provided by the Coakley campaign pledging her advocacy
for issues of specific importance to the Armenian-American community
of the Commonwealth, such as affirmation of the Armenian Genocide by
the United States Congress, maintenance of aid to Armenia and Nagorno
Karabakh and further strengthening of the relations between United
States and Armenia is welcome despite its rather late arrival in the
campaign season. The impact of the letter could have been much more
palpable, given the absence of any input from the Brown campaign
regarding his stance on the issues mentioned above.

The Armenian-American community is understandably hesitant about
supporting a candidate after the inexcusable manner in which President
Obama and his administration broke his long-standing campaign promise
to properly acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. A more forthright
approach from early on in the campaign, as demonstrated by
Representative Capuano, would have gone a long way to show legitimate
attention in part of Ms. Coakley’s campaign towards a large and
influential potential constituency of hers.

Ms. Coakley should be given the proper credit for successfully
defending the Commonwealth in the Griswold v. Driscoll case (the
defense was initiated by Tom Reilly and continued on by Ms. Coakley),
ensuring that the Armenian Genocide continues to be a part of the
history curriculum in public schools throughout the Commonwealth.

One issue that has become front and center recently is Ms. Coakley’s
acceptance of the Anti Defamation League’s (ADL) Woman of Valor Award
in the fall of 2007 amidst the scandal surrounding ADL’s policy not to
acknowledge the Armenian genocide and to campaign against its
affirmation in the US Congress on behalf of the Turkish Government.
This was a hot topic in town with multiple front-page articles in The
Globe, The Herald and countless local newspapers. It is unfathomable
that Ms. Coakley and her team would be unaware of the scandal and
would accept an award from an institution engaging in blatant genocide
denial. Would she have accepted an award from an organization with a
shaky stance on the realities of the Holocaust?

Ms. Coakley’s promise of advocacy on behalf of Armenian-Americans will
be significantly enhanced by an unequivocal and forthright statement
addressing this unfortunate incident.

Ara Nazarian
Co-chair, Armenian National Committee of Massachusetts

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress