U.S. Congressmen call on Clinton to recognize moral implications of Genocide

PanARMENIAN.Net - Congressmen Robert Dold (R-IL) and Jim Costa (D-CA) have joined together in calling on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to ensure that the histories of Armenia and Turkey on the State Department's website "fully and properly recognize the full moral, historical, political implications of the Armenian Genocide," reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

In their April 15 letter, the two U.S. Representatives explained that the "background notes" on Armenia and Turkey "makes no mention at all of the 1.5 million Armenians who were, in President Obama's owns words last year, massacred or marched to death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire. The omission of such a seminal event in the history of the Armenian and Turkish nations - one which is the subject of considerable high-profile diplomacy at the most senior levels of our government - is not only without merit historically, but also offensive to the memories of those killed in the first genocide of the 20th Century." They went on to explain that: "We undermine our ability to effectively apply the lessons of past atrocities to the noble task of preventing future genocides when, for reasons of political expediency, we are seen as intentionally avoiding the proper commemoration and condemnation of any genocide and the ongoing injustices rooted in such crimes against humanity."

"We join with Armenians in Illinois and California and around the nation in thanking Congressmen Dold and Costa for their leadership in seeking to align U.S. policy on the Armenian Genocide with both the facts of history and the values of the American people," said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. "The State Department's failure to even mention Turkey's murder and exile of the Armenians in its histories of Armenia and Turkey is deeply offensive, akin to review of Jewish history that leaves out the Nazi Holocaust; a history of the Aztecs that ignores their destruction by Spanish conquistadors; or a study of the Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, & Choctaw that fails to include the Trail of Tears."

The two Congressmen also urged Secretary Clinton to: "work with President Obama to ensure that he, in his April 24 remarks, keeps his pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide as 'genocide.' In so doing, he would keep faith with his own statement as a U.S. Senator and presidential candidate that: "…the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. The facts are undeniable… As a senator, I strongly support passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution, and as President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide."