Bör en förintelse överskugga ett annat försök till total utplåning av ett folk? Var går gränsen i så fall? Räcker 500,000 för att det skall få kallas folkmord (genocide)? 1,000,000?
US House of Representatives' Armenian Genocide Resolution [30KB PDF, BBC]
RESOLUTION
Calling upon the 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. Resolved,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This resolution may be cited as the `Affirmation of the United States Record on the Armenian Genocide Resolution'.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The House of Representatives finds the following:
(1) The Armenian Genocide was conceived and carried out by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulting in the deportation of nearly 2,000,000 Armenians, of whom 1,500,000 men, women, and children were killed, 500,000 survivors were expelled from their homes, and which succeeded in the elimination of the over 2,500-year presence of Armenians in their historic homeland.
(2) On May 24, 1915, the Allied Powers, England, France, and Russia, jointly issued a statement explicitly charging for the first time ever another government of committing `a crime against humanity'.
(3) This joint statement stated `the Allied Governments announce publicly to the Sublime Porte that they will hold personally responsible for these crimes all members of the Ottoman Government, as well as those of their agents who are implicated in such massacres'.
More at [30KB PDF, BBC]
BBC reports in Turkey recalls ambassador to US:
US President George W Bush had argued against the resolution, saying its passage would do "great harm" to relations with "a key ally in Nato and in the global war on terror".
Turkey is a regional operational hub for the US military, and some suggest access to Incirlik airbase or other supply lines crucial to US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, could be affected by the row.
The US also fears Turkey may make a military incursion into northern Iraq to neutralise Kurdish separatist guerrillas there, who continue to cross the border to ambush Turkish troops.
AP - Israel worried by Turk-Armenian debate:
By MARK LAVIE, Associated Press Writer Thu Oct 11, 5:39 PM ET
JERUSALEM - Israel's government expressed concern Thursday over the U.S. congressional debate on the mass killings of ethnic Armenians in Turkey 90 years ago, but tried to deflect pressure from Turkey to take its side in the dispute.
During a visit to Israel this week, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan pressed Israel to use its influence in Washington to help kill a congressional effort to label the bloodshed as genocide.
Babacan warned that Turkey's friendly relations with Israel and the United States could suffer if the genocide resolution was approved. President Bush is urging Congress to defeat it, pointing to the importance of Turkey as an ally in the Middle East.
Armenian groups say hundreds of thousands of Armenians were slain during 1915-17 in what they argue was a genocide campaign by the Ottoman Empire. Turkey contends the killings were not genocide, but the result of widespread chaos and political upheaval as the 600-year-old empire collapsed.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev confirmed on Thursday that Babacan raised the issue during talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
"We take the Turkish concerns very seriously. We have an excellent relationship with Turkey," Regev said.
He declined to discuss Israel's response or say whether Israel would ask its allies in Washington to intervene. In recent months a leading Jewish group, the Anti-Defamation League, changed its policy and declared the Armenian killings "tantamount to genocide," angering Turks.
The debate in Washington puts Israel in an uncomfortable position. Turkey is one of the Jewish state's few friends in the Muslim world, but genocide is an extremely sensitive topic in Israel, which was built in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust.
Alon Liel, a former director of Israel's foreign ministry and an expert in Israel-Turkey relations, said the U.S. debate could hurt ties between the two countries.
"We tried all these years not to get into it," he said. But because of the Anti-Defamation League's new position, "Turkey will blame the Jewish organizations, and then this could bounce back to us."
Israel's government has said previously that massacres were perpetrated against Armenians and expressed sympathy for their suffering. But it stopped short of calling it genocide.
Regev said Thursday that "there is no change" in Israel's policy.
Fortunately the Anti-Defamation League changed its position, but not after some infighting, as reported in Boston Globe:
ADL local leader fired on Armenian issue
Genocide question sparked bitter debate
Andrew H. Tarsy's firing sparked a backlash
By Keith O'Brien, Globe Staff | August 18, 2007
The national Anti-Defamation League fired its New England regional director yesterday, one day after he broke ranks with national ADL leadership and said the human rights organization should acknowledge the Armenian genocide that began in 1915.
The firing of Andrew H. Tarsy, who had served as regional director for about two years and as civil rights counsel for about five years before that, prompted an immediate backlash among prominent local Jewish leaders against the ADL's national leadership and its national director, Abraham H. Foxman.
"My reaction is that this was a vindictive, intolerant, and destructive act, ironically by an organization and leader whose mission -- fundamental mission -- is to promote tolerance," Newton businessman Steve Grossman, a former ADL regional board member, said yesterday.
The semi-happy ending is covered below, but it should be noted that ADL did not walk the line all the way to GENOCIDE, but stopped at "tantamount to genocide":
Jewish groups pressure the ADL
Urge recognition of genocide
Local Jewish groups rushed yesterday to sign a letter urging the Anti-Defamation League to acknowledge the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide, increasing pressure on the ADL after it fired its New England director for endorsing the emotionally charged position.
Nancy K. Kaufman, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, e-mailed a letter yesterday to some 40 prominent Jewish leaders in Massachusetts, asking them to support the ousted director and to recognize the genocide against Armenians."We must never forget the Armenian genocide and maintain our guard against those who deny its occurrence," the letter said.
Anti-Defamation League reverses course, recognizes Armenian genocide
By Keith O'Brien, Globe Staff
The national office of the Anti-Defamation League reversed its long-held position today and acknowledged the Armenian genocide of 1915, saying in a statement that the mass killings of that era at the hands of the Ottoman Turks "were indeed tantamount to genocide."
However, the statement reaffirms the national ADL's belief that the legislation pending in Congress to recognize the genocide is "a counterproductive diversion."
The ADL's statement, released to the Globe and on the group's website this afternoon, came "in light of the heated controversy," which began weeks ago in suburban Watertown, where more than 8,000 Armenian-Americans call home. Days earlier, the ADL's national director, Abraham H. Foxman, fired the regional director of the New England ADL for making a similar statement.
Andra bloggar om: Turkiet, Armenien, USA, Israel, ADL, antisemitism, folkmord, förintelsen, media, politik - Intressant
Technorati: ADL, Anti-Defamation League, Antisemitism, Armenia, Israel, Turkey, Genocide, Holocaust, Bush, George W Bush, Congress, USA, Politics
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