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Armenian campaign aided by new forces

Recognition of genocide grows

By Keith O'Brien, Globe Staff  |
August 26, 2007

For decades, it was almost strictly an Armenian issue. No matter how
hard they lobbied politicians to recognize the genocide of their people
more than 90 years ago, Armenian-Americans often failed. When it mattered
most, they lacked the political clout and friends to make a
difference.

But the recent uproar in Watertown, home to roughly 8,000
Armenian-Americans, shows that the dynamics of the debate have changed. It
is no longer just Armenian-Americans pushing for formal recognition of the
genocide of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War I,
but also Jews and politicians of many backgrounds.

Observers cite decades of lobbying and a raft of recent scholarly work
on the subject as reasons for the change. But the shift is also indicative
of a growing antigenocide constituency in the United States. Stirred up by
recent massacres in Rwanda, the Balkans, and Darfur, Americans may be more
concerned about genocide today than ever before, said Nobel laureate and
Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

"Before it was known to some people," Wiesel said, "but now it
transcends age limits and society. It's everywhere. It's in theaters, on
TV, in movies, in books, in schools. It's all over, and all that is
because people are more sensitive to the Holocaust memory."

The feeling is evident in the US House of Representatives, where 227
members, a majority, are cosponsoring a resolution to recognize the
Armenian genocide. It is the largest number of cosponsors the resolution
has had in recent years. And perhaps more importantly, with Democrats in
power Armenian-Americans are optimistic the resolution will get to the
floor for a vote. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has supported the resolution in the
past.

But a vote is hardly a guarantee. Representative Adam Schiff, the
California Democrat who introduced the resolution, said the Turkish
efforts to lobby against the measure are "beyond anything I've ever
seen."

The Turkish government is paying big money to two former
congressmen-turned-lobbyists -- Bob Livingston, a Republican, and Dick
Gephardt, a Democrat -- to twist arms on Capitol Hill.

Last week, after the national ADL acknowledged the deaths of Armenians
as genocide in order to appease local board members but still refused to
support the congressional resolution, the Turkish government responded by
calling the genocide "historically and legally baseless" and asked the ADL
to "rectify" its position. For Armenian-Americans, it was a familiar
response.

"What I always say to Armenians is that they've won the most important
fight on this," said Samantha Power, a professor at Harvard's John F.
Kennedy School of Government and author of "A Problem From Hell: America
and the Age of Genocide. "Which is, they've won the battle for the history
books, for the court of public opinion, and for the culture. The only
place they've lost is with the Turkish government and the US government on
the issue of formal recognition."

On April 24, 1915, Ottoman Turks arrested hundreds of Armenian leaders
and began executing Armenians shortly thereafter. Henry Morgenthau, the US
ambassador to Turkey, told the State Department in July 1915 that the
events amounted to "a campaign of race extermination." In the years that
followed, as many as 1.5 million Armenians were massacred.

But in the homes of many Armenian-Americans, there was little
discussion of this history. For many children and grandchildren of the
survivor generation, the past was like a secret. Armenians were struggling
just to learn English and fit in. Some Armenian-American families even
changed their names to remove the -ian ending. Ruth
Thomasian's father, for example, changed the family name to Thomason.

"That's how I grew up in Belmont," said Thomasian, who was born in 1945
and heard little about the genocide for decades. "Everybody wanted to
forget it, just forget it. If you don't talk about it, it doesn't
exist."

But the 50th anniversary of the genocide hit the Armenian people "like
a rocket of consciousness" in 1965, said Peter Balakian, author of "The
Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response."

The survivor generation was dying off, and a new generation, born in
the United States, wanted to take action.

Two local Armenian-Americans were part of a small group leading the
way. "We'd been mourning," said Robert A. Kaloosdian. "Now it was time to
bring some recognition to this, time to right an awful wrong."

In 1971, Kaloosdian and Haig Der Manuelian, both Belmont lawyers, began
talking with others about forming an Armenian assembly. The goal: speaking
with one voice. The group, later named the Armenian Assembly of America,
helped push for recognition of the genocide, along with the Armenian
National Committee. In 1975 and 1984, the US House commemorated the
genocide.

But instead of gaining momentum, the issue stalled. By 1985, when a
similar resolution came before the House, one West Virginia Republican
called it "the most mischief-making piece of legislation in all my
experience in Congress." The resolution was shelved and would continue to
face challenges over the next 20 years because of the difficult
geopolitical relations of the former Soviet Union and the region.

"The historical facts are clear," said John M. Evans, the former US
ambassador to Armenia. "But to the foreign policy elite in the State
department and members of the Senate and House who have to think hard
about foreign policy choices, there is no desire to irritate our ally, the
Turks. What comes through clearly again and again when it comes to that
part of the world is the role that Turkey can play in the Middle
East."

Evans may know this better than almost anyone. He was dismissed in May
2006 after publicly acknowledging the genocide, an act many
Armenian-Americans cite as the latest example of the influence that Turkey
enjoys with the US government. In some Washington
circles, Evans said, the word genocide is taboo.

Historically, that word has been similarly problematic for some Jewish
groups such as the Anti-Defamation League. Turkey is a rare Muslim ally to
Israel, and the ADL, fearful of upsetting relations between Israel and
Turkey, has shied away from acknowledging the genocide for decades.

But last week, under pressure from Boston's Jewish leaders, the ADL
reversed its stance, called the Turkish atrocities "tantamount to
genocide," and announced that it would reconsider its position on the
pending congressional resolution in November.

The reversal was greeted by cheers in Armenian communities across the
country and especially in Watertown, where the debate began last month
when people in the town questioned its participation in an antibigotry
program sponsored by the ADL.

"All of this reaffirms the activism of the Armenian community, that the
truth is finally prevailing over all sorts of political powers and
pressures," said Harut Sassounian, publisher of the California Courier, a
newspaper in Glendale, Calif., that covers Armenian issues. "And this has
a domino effect. One by one all the pieces of denial are crumbling."

Others questioned the ADL's sincerity. Armenian-Americans said last
week that the ADL's statement asking for "further dispassionate scholarly
examination" of the genocide reflected little progress. Others wondered if
recent events will help the congressional resolution pass this fall.

Even Manuelian, 81, is taking a skeptical approach to the latest
resolution about a tragedy that began 92 years ago. "I'll believe it when
I see it."

© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper
Company.

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