BERMAN LETTER CONDEMNING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIAL

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Thursday, April 15, 2010

Washington, DC – Howard L. Berman (D-CA), chairman of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, this week sent a strongly-worded letter to his
House colleagues rejecting what he called a "morally-blind" argument
denying the indisputable historical evidence of the Armenian Genocide.

Here is the text of the letter:

Dear Colleague,

As you may be aware, members of the Turkey caucus are circulating a
sign-on letter to Speaker Pelosi urging that the Armenian Genocide
Resolution (H. Res. 252), recently passed by the Foreign Affairs
Committee, not be brought to the full House for a vote. The authors
argue that passage of the bill by the House would do "irrevocable harm"
to U.S. national security, "derail ongoing efforts" by Armenia and
Turkey to normalize relations, and harm the U.S. economy by putting
American exports to and investment in Turkey at risk.

I disagree with many points in the letter, but I take particularly
strong exception to the use of the phrase "so-called ‘Armenian Genocide
Resolution’", which casts doubt on the historicity of the Armenian
Genocide. In doing so, it flies in the face of the overwhelming weight
of unimpeachable historical evidence and the virtually unanimous
opinion of genocide scholars. In fact, the man who coined the term
"genocide," Rafael Lemkin, considered the World War I-era massacres
of the Armenians to constitute genocide, and he cited that genocide
as the event that triggered his interest in genocide.

I also reject the various national-security arguments cited by
opponents of the Armenian Genocide resolution. I believe that
US-Turkish security relations are founded on mutual interests and that
Turkey is not about to discard the immense benefits it derives from
bilateral security relations for the sake of "punishing" the US for
a non-binding resolution, however much it may resent that resolution.

For example, would Turkey risk losing real-time intelligence on PKK
movements in northern Iraq? Highly doubtful. Moreover, the history
of Turkish responses to acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide by
other governments and parliaments suggests that negative fall-out
would be limited and short-lived, at most.

In addition, I dispute the argument that passing H. Res. 252 would
derail the Turkish-Armenian protocols. The protocols have been
gathering dust in the Turkish parliament since they were signed in
October, and particularly in light of the preconditions established
by the Turkish leadership, there is little likelihood that they will
be ratified any time soon.

Finally, I take issue with the assertion that passing the resolution
would harm the U.S. economy. It strains credulity to believe that
Turkey would reject U.S. investment and stop buying all U.S. products
in the event that the House adopted H. Res. 252. In a more general
sense, I am deeply disturbed by this morally-blind line of argument,
as it could be used to justify inaction on any number of human rights
issues around the world.

Although I don’t accept the arguments of those who anticipate potential
harm to U.S. national security should the House pass the Armenian
Genocide Resolution, I respect those arguments. What I can neither
accept nor respect is any claim, direct or implied, that one of the
greatest crimes of modern history did not happen.

Sincerely,

Howard L. Berman Chairman Committee on Foreign Affairs

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress