I am writing to you, as my voice in the U.S. House, with a formal request that you investigate and share with me your findings on a foreign policy matter that holds great moral, political, and historical meaning.
My appeal to you is to make formal inquiries of the State Department regarding the Administration’s morally indefensible pressure on Armenia to accept Turkey’s proposal to establish a Turkish-Armenian “historical commission.”
In recent days, Armenia, blockaded by Turkey, the successor state to the Ottoman Empire that launched the Armenian Genocide, and under intense economic and diplomatic pressure, was forced to sign a set of deeply flawed and dangerous protocols that called for, in the words of The New York Times (9/1/09), “the formation of an international history commission to study the Armenian genocide, the central dispute between the countries.” This proposal is as patently offensive as an official state-sponsored commission that would bring together historians and deniers of the Holocaust. It, tragically, represents a victory for Turkey’s campaign of denial, which has long sought international legitimacy for its shameless efforts to cast doubt on the settled history of this crime against humanity.
I am outraged that my government would support, in any way, the creation of this commission or any other measure intended to question the Armenian Genocide. U.S. backing is both morally wrong and diplomatically counter-productive. The fact remains: There can be no enduring relationship between Armenia and Turkey that is not built upon the foundation of Turkey’s acceptance of a true and just resolution of this crime.
Turkey’s true intentions in seeking to create such an artificial commission is clearly illustrated by the fact that, even as its seeks, in the international arena, to garner credit by appearing open to dialogue, it is, back at home, criminalizing even the mere mention of the Armenian Genocide through statutes such as Article 301, which sets jail terms of up to 2 years for “insulting the Turkish nation.”
I urge you to write to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, firstly, to register your opposition to any U.S. monetary, political, or other support for a “historical commission” or any other initiative that questions the veracity of the Armenian Genocide, and secondly, to request a full accounting of any activities on the part of the U.S. government in connection to the “historical commission” and other related undertakings.
Denial is the last stage of past genocides, and, tragically, the first stage of the next genocide. Our government, unlike Armenia – which is under tremendous duress – is in a powerful position to reject both Turkey’s heavy-handed denial tactics and its profoundly offensive efforts to enlist the American people in its campaign of lies and cover-ups.
I would very much appreciate learning of the results of your inquiries with the Department of State, and thank you in advance for your assistance in this regard.
Miguel Angel Nalpatian(1942).- Mar del Plata.- Buenos Aires.- Rca Argentina.-
miércoles, 2 de septiembre de 2009
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