ARMENIAN GENOCIDE? QUESTION VEXES U.S. POLITICS
By Elizabeth Llorente
NorthJersey.com
http://www.northjersey.c om/news/88795352_Armenians_wait_and_wait.html
Marc h 22 2010
At the nursing home in Emerson, residents play bingo and cards. They
speak proudly of their grandchildren and great grandchildren. But
two things set this nursing home apart — the pain of the killing
of their relatives, and more than a million of their countrymen,
during World War I by Ottoman Turks and the frustration over the
U.S. government’s failure to condemn it as genocide.
Like many Armenian-Americans, the residents and officers of the
Armenian Nursing and Rehabilitation Center praise the recent passage
by a congressional committee of a non-binding resolution recognizing
the killings as genocide.
But the Obama administration — under pressure from Turkey —
is trying to keep the resolution from a full vote in the House of
Representatives, and the nursing home’s residents and officers said
they fear that, once again, they’ll see the U.S. government miss an
opportunity to condemn the killings as genocide.
"My grandmother always wore black because of the genocide," said Agnes
Kazanjian, who lived in Harrington Park until she became a resident
of the nursing home. "My father’s sister found out the Turks were
on their way to where she was and she committed suicide. What do I
think will happen next? Obama is saying ‘no.’ "
The Rev. Berj Gulleyan of the Armenian Presbyterian Church in Paramus
says most of his congregants have been touched, in one way or another,
by the mass killings. His congregants have included survivors, or
the descendants of survivors. He is a vocal supporter of the killings
being recognized by the United States, and the international community,
as genocide.
"We need to be the voice of the voiceless," Gulleyan said. "If the
United States can’t be that, we’ve lost something very special that
this country is known and respected for."
Scholars from around the world believe that some 1.5 million Armenians
died at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War I.
Those scholars, as well as many Armenians worldwide, say the deaths
were orchestrated by the Turks in pursuit of ethnic cleansing. They
say Armenians were forced to march to the Syrian desert without food or
water, and many — men, women and children — perished along the way.
Turkey long has denied that the deaths resulted from a genocide,
and say they were casualties of a civil conflict as the Ottoman
Empire collapsed.
"The Turkish empire did not deport or plan to kill Armenians,"
said Faruk Acar, a past vice president of the Federation of Turkish
American Associations in New York. (Turkish groups in North Jersey
either referred questions to Acar or could not be reached.) "They were
at war, on the side of the Russian Army, against the Ottoman Empire.
We tried to protect ourselves. Turkish people also got killed. That’s
the reality. What the Armenians say is propaganda."
Turkey recalled its envoy from Washington, D.C., following the
resolution vote in the House of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign
Affairs. Turkish officials warned that the vote would hurt relations
between the United States and Turkey, as well as current diplomatic
talks between Turkey and Armenia.
"The resolution is ridiculous, it’s purely political," said Acar,
who lives in New York. "U.S. congressmen and senators make decisions
on their political future, they’re selfish. The Turkish people are
very proud of our history."
At the nursing home, which now also has non-Armenian residents,
several Armenians said their parents had been left orphaned by the
mass deaths during World War I.
The board vice president, Vatche Baghdikian, said the denial by the
Turks is hurtful.
"We are Christians, so we want to forgive," he said, his eyes filling
with tears. "But how do you forgive someone who will not admit what
happened? There was no civil war, people were just sitting in their
homes, they were at church, when they were dragged out and killed. We
want closure, we want to put this in the history record."
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-Monmouth, has another view. "Turkey is in
denial," said the sponsor of the House resolution and co-chairman of
the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues.
Pallone said that it would be difficult to get the resolution put up
for a vote before the full House with President Obama and Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton lobbying against it but vowed to try to muster
the support to make it happen.
"To this day, Turkey continues to deny the Armenian genocide and its
own history," Pallone wrote in a statement.
"Mistreatment of the Armenians by the Turks is not a matter of a
distant and forgotten past. With world events as a reminder, history
lives with us."
Pallone said that the Bush and Clinton administrations also quashed
efforts to bring House committee resolutions for a full vote on the
House floor.
U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., also has been a vocal proponent of
a U.S. resolution calling the killings genocide.
"If we are to give meaning when we say at Holocaust observances ‘Never
again,’ if it’s to be more than words, then those words need to be
followed with action," said Menendez, "so that we don’t have another
Holocaust, another Armenian genocide, another Rwanda or Darfur."
BOX: FAST FACTS
Several countries have passed resolutions condemning the deaths of
more than a million Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces during World
War I as a genocide. Among them are Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Canada,
Lebanon, Belgium, Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland and Poland.
On March 4, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee passed, by
a 23-22 vote, a resolution recognizing the Armenian killings as
genocide. Turkey then withdrew its ambassador to the United States.
On March 12, the Swedish Parliament passed a similar resolution, by
a 131-130 vote. Turkey promptly recalled its ambassador to Sweden,
and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan reportedly has canceled a visit
there scheduled for Wednesday.
By the numbers
U.S. residents of Armenian and Turkish ancestry: Region Armenian
Turkish Total Bergen County 8,305 2,819 11,124 Passaic County
1,049 2,417 3,466 New Jersey 17,094 12,396 29,490 United States
385,488 117,575 503,063 Source: U.S. census