MENENDEZ HAMMERS TURKEY’S "HISTORICAL COMMISSION" PROPOSAL
armradio.am
25.09.2008 14:55
New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez pressed U.S. Ambassador to Turkey
nominee James Jeffrey to explain the Administration’s apparent
renewed backing for Turkey’s widely discredited push for a "historical
commission" on the Armenian Genocide, reported the Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA).
The move comes despite the State Department’s pledge, made during the
nomination process for U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Marie Yovanovitch,
to oppose efforts that would open to debate the fact that Ottoman
Turkey used mass killings, ethnic cleansing, and forced deportations
to destroy over one and half million Armenians.
"We want to share our special thanks with Senator Menendez for,
once again, shining a powerful international spotlight on the
Administration’s policy of complicity in Turkey’s denial of the
Armenian Genocide," stated ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. "We
are especially for his incisive line of questioning regarding the State
Department’s flawed and inconsistent position on Turkey’s self-serving
proposal for a historical commission. A clear illustration of the
bankruptcy of the Administration’s policy on the Armenian Genocide
was the nominee’s convoluted response to the simple question, posed
by Senator Menendez: ‘If Turkey would be willing to recognize the
Armenian Genocide, would the United States be willing to do so?’"
Ambassador-Designate Jeffrey’s confirmation hearing was chaired by
Senator John Kerry (D-MA), who, in his opening remarks, cited his
decades-long support for Congressional reaffirmation of the Armenian
Genocide. Following Amb. Jeffrey’s testimony, Sen. Kerry led the
questioning on the Armenian Genocide, asking if the nominee could
"assure the Committee that the Administration is not supporting –
financially, rhetorically, or otherwise – an effort to convene a
commission to settle an historical debate [on the Armenian Genocide]
– that in effect is not a debate."
Jeffrey responded, "Mr. Chairman, as you have indicated, the
Administration recognizes and mourns, and is very, very, very concerned
about the historical facts, which include, as you said, the mass
killing and the forced exile of up to 1.5 million Armenians at the
end of the Ottoman Empire. We support, as President Bush made clear in
his recent statement on March 24th, the open effort on both sides to
get to the bottom of the historical facts and to move forward as part
of a reconciliation process both to establish closer and eventually
full relations and to work out these dark chapters in the past."
Sen. Kerry followed up, asking if Jeffrey is, in effect saying that
"we are supportive of the historical commission itself and its goal? Or
are we supportive of simply maintaining the historical records?"
Jeffrey responded: "We are supportive of anything the two sides
mutually agree on, Sir. And as part of any process, there should be
a full and open review of the events of that time."
Jeffrey’s response sparked a series of probing questions from
Senator Menendez, who opened his remarks by expressing his "dismay"
at Jeffrey’s answers, arguing, "that puts us before where we were
when we had the Ambassador designee to Armenia [Marie Yovanovitch]
being interviewed."
Senator Menendez then quoted extensively from a July, 2008, letter
from Asst. Secretary of Legislative Affairs Matthew Reynolds, issued
to clarify various responses that U.S.
Ambassador to Armenia Marie Yovanovitch had given during her
confirmation hearing. The letter explained that, a proposed effort to
bring Turkish and Armenian archivists to the U.S. is not a means to
"open a debate on whether the Ottomans committed these horrendous acts;
it is to help preserve the documentation that supports the truth of
those events." The letter went on to note that "the Administration
recognizes that the mass killings, ethnic cleansing, and forced
deportations of over one and a half million Armenians were conducted
by the Ottoman Empire. We indeed hold Ottoman officials responsible
for those crimes."
Sen. Menendez, concerned that Jeffrey had veered away from
Administration policy articulated in the Reynolds letter, asked "The
historical facts, as I see it, have now been admitted to by the State
Department and clearly stated as such." And I don’t get the sense
that’s what you’re telling us, so that puts a complication in this
process. Maybe you can help us out."
Jeffrey was again evasive, responding that, "what assistant
Sec. Reynolds wrote is U.S. government policy and we stand by it. What
I was trying to convey was that it is also important for Turks and
Armenians to move forward on a joint effort to work on these issues
to come to some kind of, to the extent they can, common view of the
historical past."
Menendez shot back, asking "Why would we support an initiative that
ultimately doubts whether those are the historical facts? If the Turks
seek to do it, that’s one thing. But why would we be supportive of
an effort that ultimately undermines the very position that the State
Department has?"
Jeffrey responded in generalities, noting "In conflicts such as this,
Senator, we believe, and we apply this across the board in the many
conflicts that I have been involved in, we have an obligation to the
historical record and to our citizens to have our own views, but
it is also important to encourage the various sides on a dispute,
be it this one, be it others, to try to come to some sort of joint
understanding of the past and a joint way forward for the future."
Menendez then went back to Sen. Kerry’s original question once
again. "Would you then, as Ambassador, be someone who would advocate
rhetorically, financially or otherwise, that the commission should be
constituted and move forward?" Jeffrey responded: "The effort that
can be taken for people to review openly the facts of that period
would be supported by me."
Sen. Menendez would later return to Amb. Jeffrey for a second round of
questioning, expressing frustration that the lack of "straight answers"
from Ambassadors precludes Senators from making "straight judgments"
on key foreign policy issues. He then asked Amb. Jeffrey, simply, if
"If Turkey would be willing to recognize the Armenian Genocide, would
the United States be willing to do so?" Jeffrey initially replied
that he "can’t commit the Administration to any future action,"
but upon further questioning stated, that while Turkish recognition
would be important, "there would be other factors that would have
to be weighed, such as our general approach to other conflicts in
the region and taking positions. The relationship between Turkey
and Armenia is a major factor in the policies we take, the words we
use. But there are other factors as well, sir."
Menendez ended his questioning on the Administration’s Armenian
Genocide policy by asking whether Jeffrey would follow in the footsteps
of Undersecretary Edelman and Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried,
who, according to multiple press accounts, last October, traveled
to Turkey to "express regret" at House Foreign Affairs Committee
passage of Armenian Genocide legislation. "Senator," said Jeffrey,
"I never have and I never will express regret. This is an independent
and equal organ of the U.S. government and it deserves the respect
of everyone, everywhere in the world."
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman and Vice-Presidential
nominee Joe Biden and other Committee members are set to submit
additional questions to Ambassadorial nominee, who may be confirmed
as early as Friday of this week.