"JEWISH LOBBY" MIGHT REFRAIN FROM OBJECTING TO GENOCIDE RESOLUTION
PanARMENIAN.Net
15.02.2010 18:59 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ I personally don’t follow the policies of the
"Jewish lobby" very closely and I also don’t like to use the term
‘Jewish lobby’ without specifying it. We know that Turkey and Israel’s
relations are not so good now, said Taner Akcam, Associate Professor
of History at Clark University, the author of "A Shameful Act: the
Armenian Genocide and Turkish Responsibility" book.
It won’t surprise me to learn that some lobbying organizations, who has
a very close relation to Israel, may use the tensions between Turkey
and Israel to pull back from expending any energy in objecting to the
genocide resolution. "But in either situation, whether opposing or
supporting a Resolution, their justification for doing would be rather
distasteful. One needs to recognize the ugliness of a position that
essentially says "We’ll be either denialist or resolute on historical
injustices depending on Israel’s political self-interest", professor
Akcam told PanARMENIAN.Net.
The Armenian Genocide resolution (H.Res. 106) was submitted to the
House of Representatives by Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA), during
the 110th United States Congress. It is a non-binding resolution
calling upon the US President to ensure that the foreign policy of
the United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity
concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing,
and genocide documented in the United States record relating to
the Armenian Genocide, and for other purposes. The resolution was
introduced on January 30, 2007.
The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic
destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during
and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and
deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to
lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths
reaching 1.5 million.
To date, twenty countries and 44 U.S. states have officially recognized
the events of the period as genocide, and most genocide scholars
and historians accept this view. The Armenian Genocide has been also
recognized by influential media including The New York Times, BBC,
The Washington Post and The Associated Press.
The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the
Genocide survivors.