IAGS calls on Obama to recognize Armenian Genocide

PanARMENIAN.Net - Last week, in an open letter to President Barack Obama, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the leading organization of scholars who study genocide, urged Obama to "refer to the mass slaughter of Armenians as genocide in your commemorative statement," adding that it was what "you urged President George W. Bush to do in a letter dated March 18, 2005," the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) told PanARMENIAN.Net

"By acknowledging the Armenian Genocide," the letter reads, "you would demonstrate that you are that 'leader' you referred to on January 19, 2008, who 'speaks truthfully about the Armenian Genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides'." Moreover, "you would signal a new chapter in U.S. diplomacy. You would also honor the truth of our own valiant history, which saw brave and selfless Foreign Service Officers risk their lives rescuing Armenians during the Genocide and compiling the more than 40,000 pages of documentation now housed in the National Archives."

In regard to Turkey's refusal to acknowledge its history, the letter reads, "We also believe that it is in the interest of the Turkish people and their future as participants in international, democratic discourse to acknowledge the responsibility of a previous government for the genocide of the Armenian people, just as the German government and people have done in the case of the Holocaust. Over the past decade a growing number of Turkish scholars, writers, intellectuals, and publishers have been risking imprisonment and assassination to tell the truth about the Armenian Genocide. They understood that facing and accepting the history of one's country, however dark, is an essential part of growing a healthy democracy.



"We believe that security and historical truth are not in conflict, and it is in the interest of the United States to support the principles of human rights that are at the core of American democracy."



"President Obama's upcoming trip to Turkey presents a unique opportunity to address this critical human rights issue and the irreversible trend toward its reaffirmation. We applaud the International Association of Genocide Scholars and its President, Gregory Stanton, for its open letter and its steadfast support of the importance of historical accuracy as one method of countering the problem of genocide denial," stated Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny.