Armenian National Committee of America
1711 N Street NW
Washington, DC 20036
Tel. (202) 775-1918
Fax. (202) 775-5648
Email [email protected]
Internet
PRESS RELEASE
April 11, 2007
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
Tel: (202) 775-1918
ANCA AND GENOCIDE INTERVENTION NETWORK CALL ON U.N. TO
OVERRIDE TURKEY’S OBJECTIONS TO RWANDA GENOCIDE EXHIBIT
"It is incumbent on the U.N. to ensure that the
atrocities of Armenia and other past genocides are
exposed, not just for the memory of those dead but
for the safety of future generations."
— Mark Hanis, Genocide Intervention Network
WASHINGTON, DC – Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA)
Chairman Ken Hachikian, in a letter sent today to the United
Nations, called upon the international body to reverse its recent
decision to close a major exhibit, organized by the Aegis Trust, on
the Rwanda Genocide due to the Turkish government’s objection over
a portion of the display that referenced the Armenian Genocide.
The ANCA letter, addressed to Kiyotaka Akasaka, Under-Secretary-
General for Communications and Public Information, expressed the
"Armenian American community’s profound disappointment over [the]
decision to allow the Turkish government to delay – and quite
possibly cancel – a United Nations exhibit intended to help ensure
that the lessons of the Rwanda Genocide are used to help prevent
future genocides."
Hachikian stressed that the dismantling of the exhibit represents
"a troubling retreat from the founding principles of the United
Nations," and added that, "in allowing Turkey’s protest over the
exhibit’s historically accurate mention of the Armenian Genocide to
delay its opening, you have, very unfortunately, undermined the
credibility of the United Nations on a central issue of our time –
ending forever the cycle of genocide. Rather than rightfully
standing up for the organization’s highest values, you permitted
the immoral objections of one member state, Turkey, to drag the
entire institution into complicity in that nation’s shameless
campaign of genocide denial."
Commenting on the U.N.’s decision, Mark Hanis, Executive Director
of the Genocide Intervention Network, said that, "Hitler felt
justified to carry out the Holocaust when he saw how little
resistance there was to the Armenian genocide of 1915. It is
incumbent on the U.N. to ensure that the atrocities of Armenia and
other past genocides are exposed, not just for the memory of those
dead but for the safety of future generations."
Commenting on the exhibit’s postponement, James Smith, the chief
executive of the British-based Aegis Trust, said, "If we can’t get
this right, it undermines all the values of the U.N. It undermines
everything the U.N. is meant to stand for in terms of preventing
(genocide). . . You can’t learn the lessons from history if you’re
going to sweep all of that history under the carpet. And what about
accountability? What about ending impunity if you’re going to hide
part of the truth? It makes a mockery of all of this."
Serj Tankian, songwriter, singer, poet, activist and lead singer of
Grammy Award-winning band System of a Down, and Carla Garapedian,
who directed the award-winning documentary "SCREAMERS" about the
band’s anti-genocide advocacy, issued a statement condemning the
U.N.’s decision: "We are very shocked by this decision by the
Secretary General to remove mention of a historical event which is
well-documented by thousands of official records of the United
States and nations around the world, including Turkey’s wartime
allies, Germany, Austria and Hungary; by Ottoman court martial
records; and by eyewitness accounts of missionaries, diplomats and
survivors; as well as decades of historical scholarship. In the
U.S., President Bush has called the events the "forced exile and
annihilation of approximately 1.5 million Armenians.’"
Tankian and Garapedian went on to stress that, "The reason why
genocides have continued in the last century – from the Armenian
genocide, to the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda, to the
genocide going on now in Darfur – is because the international
community has not intervened to stop them. Sadly, the Secretary
General’s decision to stop any mention of the antecedents to the
Rwanda genocide is a blow to those who want to stop genocide now."
The New York Times, Associated Press, and other major news outlets
have reported extensively about the controversy surrounding
Turkey’s pressure to close down the Rwanda Genocide exhibit. The
New York Times, in an April 9th article, explained that, "the
panels of graphics, photos and statements had been installed in the
visitors lobby on Thursday by the British-based Aegis Trust. The
trust campaigns for the prevention of genocide and runs a center in
Kigali, the Rwandan capital, memorializing the 500,000 victims of
the massacres there 13 years ago. Hours after the show was
assembled, however, a Turkish diplomat spotted offending words in a
section entitled ‘What is genocide?’ and raised objections. The
passage said that, ‘following World War I, during which one million
Armenians were murdered in Turkey,’ Raphael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer
credited with coining the word genocide, ‘urged the League of
Nations to recognize crimes of barbarity as international crimes.’
[…]"
The full text of the ANCA letter is provided below.
#####
April 11, 2007
Kiyotaka Akasaka
Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information
United Nations
One United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
Dear Under-Secretary Akasaka:
I am writing to voice the Armenian American community’s profound
disappointment over your decision to allow the Turkish government
to delay – and quite possibly cancel – a United Nations exhibit
intended to help ensure that the lessons of the Rwanda Genocide are
used to help prevent future genocides.
Your actions, as reported by the Associated Press and the New York
Times, represent a troubling retreat from the founding principles
of the United Nations. In allowing Turkey’s protest over the
exhibit’s historically accurate mention of the Armenian Genocide to
delay its opening, you have, very unfortunately, undermined the
credibility of the United Nations on a central issue of our time –
ending forever the cycle of genocide. Rather than rightfully
standing up for the organization’s highest values, you permitted
the immoral objections of one member state, Turkey, to drag the
entire institution into complicity in that nation’s shameless
campaign of genocide denial.
We join with Armenians worldwide, and with all people committed to
ending the cycle of genocide, in respectfully calling upon you to
reverse your decision, and to immediately facilitate the opening of
the Aegis Trust’s complete Rwanda Genocide exhibit.
Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Kenneth V. Hachikian
Chairman
