Annie Totah’s e-mail, presumably sent to a Jewish audience to demonstrate the superiority of her chosen candidate (Hillary Clinton), may or may not sway its intended readers. Frankly, I don’t care. In fact I wouldn’t even care if the other candidate were targeted. That’s not the point. Totah and ARMENPAC have chosen to support Clinton. That’s actually good. This way, regardless of who wins, with the ANC’s endorsement of Obama, one faction of our community plugged in.
But resorting to sleazy, innuendo-laden tactics like using this article reflects poorly on us as a community. It certainly reflects poorly on the organizations in which Totah holds high positions. But then, in the Assembly’s case, perhaps this is to be expected. Remember, they won the “coveted” SpitRain Award last August. In case you think I’m overreacting, here’s how Ben Smith describes Totah: “a Washington society figure and Armenian-American activist who’s also a member of Clinton’s finance committee.” Those who don’t personally know any other “Armenian-American activists” might, given human nature, attribute to the rest of us a love of gutter politics.
I’m not starry-eyed, nor delusional. Politics is blood sport. Of course these kinds of things will be done. But there’s a wisdom that’s expected of those holding visible positions in organizations. They cannot be associated with this kind of activity because it reflects poorly on the organization. For all I know, the Clinton campaign may have been following exactly this line of thinking by feeding Totah Lasky’s piece to disseminate.
Please call on Annie Totah, ARCA, ARMENPAC and the Armenian Assembly to apologize for this embarrassing gaffe. If she refuses, those organizations and others she serves should remove her from any offices she holds.
If they don’t, then we the community will know how to judge and not support them in the future.
It was Demirbas’s interest in others that led me to seek him out. I had heard from a friend in Istanbul that the mayor of the central neighborhood of Diyarbakir had published a map of the city in Armenian. One hundred fifty years ago, Armenians and other Christians made up about half of Diyarbakir’s population, but as an ethnic Armenian myself, I was astonished that a mayor in a Turkish town had done something to acknowledge this history. Most old Armenian sites in Turkey are either abandoned altogether or labeled with signs and explanations that offer roundabout explanations without ever mentioning that a particular site was Armenian. (Even the much-lauded official renovation of an Armenian church in Van relied on the geographical term “Anatolian.”) In Turkey, the “Armenian question” — whether the massacre of the Ottoman Armenian population during World War I was a state campaign — is at least as taboo as the Kurdish issue.
When Demirbas learned of my ethnic background, he took out a stack of about a hundred tourist brochures describing Diyarbakir, printed in Armenian, and handed them to me. “Please give these to Armenians in the United States,” he said. He also showed me the same brochure in Assyrian, Arabic, Russian and Turkish. “Why is it,” he asked by way of example, “that tourists who visit Topkapi Palace in Istanbul can get an audio listening guide in English, French, Spanish, German or Italian, but when I publish a small tourist brochure in Armenian, as a welcoming gesture to Armenian tourists who want to visit their ancestral home, I am accused of committing a crime?” (The brochures are among the many projects for which Demirbas has been accused of misusing municipal resources.) We spent the rest of the afternoon touring an area that Demirbas calls “the Streets of Culture Project.” Tucked among a cluster of alleyways in his district, several ancient structures remind visitors of the Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Jews and other groups who once populated a neighborhood that is still known locally as the infidel quarter. Demirbas calls it the “Armenian quarter,” at least while talking to me, and has drafted a proposal to undertake a major renovation of the area and its monuments.
“So many civilizations lived in the Sur district over millennia,” he says. “Kurds, Arabs, Armenians, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Nestorians, Jews, Turks, Hanafi, Shafi’i, Alevi, Yezidi, traces of Sabihi” — occasionally he lengthens his list by repeating groups he has already named — “all these different beliefs coexisted in the Sur district of Diyarbakir. The more we lose this multicultural side of ourselves, the more we become one another’s enemies.”
Listening to him, I felt sure that he meant it, but also sure that he knew he was undermining the nationalist foundations of the Turkish Republic. At first, I wondered if he was using Diyarbakir’s other ethnicities to somehow soften the blow of his support of Kurdish cultural rights. But supporting the Armenian issue would hardly win him friends in Turkey, at least not friends with power.
During a visit to Germany Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyid Erdogan has denied the deliberate annihilation of late Ottoman Turkey’s Armenian population stating that it is not in Turkish culture to commit genocide.
Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said [in Munich] on Saturday there was no such thing like genocide in Turkish culture and civilization.
Erdogan replied to questions on several matters after his speech at the 44th Munich Conference on Security Policy in Germany.
In regard to Armenian allegations regarding the incidents of 1915, Erdogan said, “there is no such thing like genocide in our culture. We cannot accept it. We are ready to discuss the matter by the means of documents.”
[…]
Erdogan’s racist explanation for his government’s denial of the Armenian genocide must have raised eyebrows in Germany since the statement suggests that committing genocide is in the perpetrator’s group culture and civilization.
Bloombergalso reports Erdogan’s denial of the Armenian genocide but doesn’t reference the Turkish PM’s reference to culture.
Asked about the massacre of Armenians in Turkey in 1915, Erdogan said Armenia should open its archives on the period.
”There was no genocide and there is no way we can accept this,” Erdogan said, adding that declarations of some western parliaments that the killing of Armenians had been a genocide ”is not acceptable.” The parliaments of France and a number of other countries have passed resolutions declaring the Armenian massacres were genocide.
Ironically, the automated Google ad on the TurkishPress.com page on Erdogan’s nationalist comments links to the DNA Ancestry Project. Perhaps Mr. Erdogan should form an international commission to prove that it is not in Turkish DNA to commit genocide.
Interestingly, the topic of being capable of committing genocide was in the Armenian press last week. A Hetq.am columnist askes (in Armenian) whether Armenians are capable of genocide and argues that Armenia’s poor democratic record, the government’s treatment of its people and the people’s treatment of each other (especially on regional basis) suggests that Armenians are, indeed, capable of genocide. In terms of Armenia’s largest minorities, especially the Yezidis, the author says that they have been denied opportunity to be part of Armenia’s socio-economic culture and are, thus, not “important” enough to be considered for elimination. (I must add that Armenians have committed cultural genocide against the Roma (“Gypsies”) who are known in Armenian as “Bosha” – but almost every Armenian thinks Bosha is an insult and not an ethnic group.)
So, Mr. Erdogan, if you consider Turks human (and you should) then they are, too, capable of genocide.
Harvard professor and genocide scholar Samantha Power has made a video, posted at ANCA.org and YouTube.com, specifically appealing to Armenian-Americans and asking for their support for Barack Obama in the presidential elections. Power identifies herself as a senior foreign policy advisor to Obama. I wonder whether, if Obama gets elected, Samantha Power will become the Secretary of State.
Aram Hamparian
Executive Director
Armenian National Committee of America
1711 N Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Thank you for contacting me regarding my views on issues of special concern to the Armenian-American community – a community which has contributed richly to the American fabric and has been instrumental in ensuring that one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century is never forgotten.
It is fair to say that this tragedy, the brutal murder of as many as one and a half million Armenians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, has also been one of the most neglected. The suffering endured by the Armenian people during that period represented the prologue to what has come to be known as humanity’s bloodiest century.
Therefore, the rise of independent Armenia from such painful experiences is extremely inspirational, as is the vibrancy of the Armenian diaspora. In particular, I deeply admire both Armenia’s support of coalition operations in Iraq and NATO peacekeeping efforts in Kosovo, as well as the Armenian-American community’s great contributions to our nation. In my visits to Armenia, I have been deeply impressed by the tremendous progress made in very difficult circumstances.
I greatly appreciate this opportunity and look forward to working with the Armenian-American community in my campaign and as the next President of the United States.
Balkan Travellers has a wonderful article on the ancient Armenian city of Ani, today in Turkish territory, attempting to explain in words a world that can only be experienced:
We pass by Ocakli, the last Turkish village before the border with Armenia. The mythical Armenian capital Ani, which at the end of the ninth century outshined Constantinople, Cairo, and Baghdad with its splendour, lies somewhere before us. Chronicles called it “City of 1,001 Churches” and a replica of Istanbul’s Saint Sophia used to stand in its centre.
[…]
ow only a few tumbledown churches, some sections of a castle and Marco Polo’s bridge remain from what used to be a magnificent city. In some places the double city wall rises and culminates in turrets of various shapes and heights, in others it goes down, sometimes completely disappearing in the tall grass.
We take a broad dusty road, which meanders between the ruins.
Armenian architecture is one of civilization’s greatest enigmas. It has its own unique appearance, but more importantly – it forms the basis of a popular European medieval phenomenon, known as Gothic style. According to Joseph Strzygowski, who wrote in the early twentieth century, Armenian engineers were the first to devise a way to put a round dome over a square space. They did this in two ways: either by transforming the square into a triangle or by building an octagonal structure to hold the dome. Their architectural genius resulted in stunningly beautiful buildings.
New York Timescolumnist Nicholas Kristof sarcastically wrote last week that if we are looking for the most experienced candidate, we should vote Dick Cheney as America’s next president. The Onion, too, wrote a satire story suggesting that from all the candidates Clinton is best qualified – that is Bill and not his wife.
Women are, indeed, underrepresented in state and national governments. The average percentage of women lawmakers in state governments is less than 25% – only half the percent of female citizens across the country. It is natural that there is no “best-experienced” woman candidate although Hillary Clinton has been in politics for a long time. Mrs. Clinton is charming, well-spoken and well-educated. She knows how things happen in the White House and she’d most likely do a good job.
It is not comfort, nonetheless, that people should look for. If we are going to look for experience, we might as well establish a monarchy and develop a professional aristocracy. What is being ignored and devalued is the federal system itself – an entity that, while dependant on the vision of the president, carries a democratic tradition and an experienced history of statecraft. A president is not going to tell a federal employee how to audit a tax payment. The president isn’t going to tell the post office how to deliver mail.
Presidency, I believe, is vision for the country: a vision for improvement, sustainable progress and mutually-respectful unity. The president is also an image to the world – the symbol of American democracy to billions of others on our planet. We can’t and shouldn’t vote for a president who is trained to micro-manage a nation of 300 million. We need a president that can become a symbol for unity at home and an image of rightness abroad.
Voting for a black candidate is wrong. Voting for Barack Obama is right. Because it is not Obama’s color that makes him the most charismatic, educated and well-intentioned candidate. It is Obama’s fearless challenge to the democracy of the dead that can make Americalive longer and freer. It is his courage to put moralpolitik on the same page with realpolitik – as demonstrated in his 2005 visit to authoritarian and oil-rich Azerbaijan where Obama, while acknowledging Azerbaijan’s geopolitical importance, made clear – in an unprecedented action – that he would not deny the World War I Armenian Genocide just because Azerbaijan and Turkey wanted so.
Obama won’t sacrifice democratic values for American interests, but he will do a better job of advancing these interests at the same time.
Barack Obama on the Importance of US-Armenia Relations
| January 19, 2008
I am proud of my strong record on issues of concern to the one and a half million Americans of Armenian heritage in the United States. I warmly welcome the support of this vibrant and politically active community as we change how our government works here at home, and restore American leadership abroad.
I am a strong supporter of a U.S.-Armenian relationship that advances our common security and strengthens Armenian democracy. As President, I will maintain our assistance to Armenia, which has been a reliable partner in the fight against terrorism and extremism. I will promote Armenian security by seeking an end to the Turkish and Azerbaijani blockades, and by working for a lasting and durable settlement of the Nagorno Karabagh conflict that is agreeable to all parties, and based upon America’s founding commitment to the principles of democracy and self determination. And my Administration will help foster Armenia’s growth and development through expanded trade and targeted aid, and by strengthening the commercial, political, military, developmental, and cultural relationships between the U.S. and Armenian governments.
I also share with Armenian Americans – so many of whom are descended from genocide survivors – a principled commitment to commemorating and ending genocide. That starts with acknowledging the tragic instances of genocide in world history. As a U.S. Senator, I have stood with the Armenian American community in calling for Turkey’s acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide. Two years ago, I criticized the Secretary of State for the firing of U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, after he properly used the term “genocide” to describe Turkey’s slaughter of thousands of Armenians starting in 1915. I shared with Secretary Rice my firmly held conviction 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. An official policy that calls on diplomats to distort the historical facts is an untenable policy. As a senator, I strongly support passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.106 and S.Res.106), and as President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.
Genocide, sadly, persists to this day, and threatens our common security and common humanity. Tragically, we are witnessing in Sudan many of the same brutal tactics – displacement, starvation, and mass slaughter – that were used by the Ottoman authorities against defenseless Armenians back in 1915. I have visited Darfurian refugee camps, pushed for the deployment of a robust multinational force for Darfur, and urged divestment from companies doing business in Sudan. America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian Genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides. I intend to be that President.
I look forward, as President, to continuing my active engagement with Armenian American leaders on the full range of issues of concern to the Armenian American community. Together, we will build, in new and exciting ways, upon the enduring ties and shared values that have bound together the American and Armenian peoples for more than a century.
The Moor Next Door has recently posted information on a PBS program by Bruce Feiler that talked about Mount Ararat – the national symbol of Armenia – without any reference to the Armenian people:
Isn’t it interesting how the PBS documentary Walking the Bible,which has been airing for sometime now, devoting a segment to Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey, without giving even the slightest mention to the Armenians? Mt. Ararat is seen as an Armenian national symbol (their national soccer team is even named after it), and the area around contained many Armenians before the Genocide in 1915-23. In a documentary about Christianity, isn’t it strange that a segment about the national symbol of the world’s first Christian nation would leave that nation entirely unmentioned?
But the phrase does make sense once you have read Viviano’s article which was written before the production of the PBS film. The Viviano article talks about how Ararat beckons to Armenians to whom the Turkish border, and access to Ararat, is officially closed.
It is not too late for PBS to investigate what appears to be either plain plagiarism or result of ignorant censorship to remove Armenian references and subsequently the citation of the National Geographic article.
Here is an e-mail from the Armenian National Committee of America that deals with the ongoing primaries in the United States.
WASHINGTON, DC – In the wake of the hotly contested Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, Armenian Americans are better positioned than ever to play a decisive role in the key states that will help choose the Presidential nominees of the Republican and Democratic parties over the next 30 days, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
In recent weeks, the ANCA has invited each of the candidates to share their views on Armenian Americans issues, and to comment on both the growing relationship between the U.S. and Armenian governments and the enduring bonds between the American and Armenian peoples. Questionnaires sent to the candidates have invited them to respond to a set of 19 questions, including those addressing:
Affirmation of the Armenian Genocide
U.S.-Armenia economic, political, and military relations
“Armenian Americans are set to cast their votes in the presidential primaries in record numbers,” said ANCA Eastern Region Executive Director Karine Birazian. “We look forward to working with all the campaigns to make sure that Armenian American voters go to the polls empowered to make informed decisions about the candidates who will best represent our community’s views and values.”
“In California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, and throughout the Western part of the country, Armenian American voters are in a position to play a truly decisive role in this year’s highly competitive battle between the candidates to secure the nominations of their party,” said ANCA Western Region Executive Director Andrew Kzirian.
Key States:
Among the key states with large Armenian American communities to hold either primaries or caucuses over the next 30 days are the following:
January 15th: Michigan primary (60,000 Armenian Americans)
Michigan has been, for nearly a century, one of the largest and most vibrant Armenian American communities, with large numbers of families in the Detroit area and throughout the state. This contest is widely viewed as pivotal in the selection of the Republican nominee. The Michigan primary has lost considerable significance to Democratic candidates since conflicts over timing led the Democratic National Committee to decide not to count delegates from this contest.
January 19th and 26th: Nevada Caucus (10,000 Armenian Americans)
South Carolina Primary (3,000 Armenian Americans)
Both Nevada and South Carolina have witnessed an influx of young professional Armenian Americans over the past decade, with a growing number of California Armenians relocating to Nevada, and a steady stream of Northeast Armenians moving south to the Columbia and Charleston areas. Republicans vote in South Carolina on January 19th, Democrats a week later on the 26th.
January 29th: Florida primary (35,000 Armenian Americans)
Florida’s Armenian American community, located in and around Miami, Boca Raton, Orlando, Ocala, Naples, and Tampa, played a decisive role in the closely contested 2000 Presidential election. This year’s primary will play an important role in the Republican nomination contest, but not on the Democratic side, which has, due to conflicts over timing, chosen not to count delegates from Florida.
February 5th: Super Tuesday
The large and active Armenian American communities, in eight of the states that will hold contests on Super Tuesday, are watching the field of candidates:
Arizona Primary (15,000 Armenian Americans)
California Primary (600,000 Armenian Americans)
Colorado Caucus (8,000 Armenian Americans)
Connecticut Primary (20,000 Armenian Americans)
Illinois Primary (45,000 Armenian Americans)
Massachusetts Primary (120,000 Armenian Americans)
New Jersey Primary (75,000 Armenian Americans)
New York Primary (100,000 Armenian Americans)
The ANCA voter network:
Armenian Americans in these states, and throughout the country, represent a motivated and highly networked constituency of more than one and a half million citizens spread across key primary and general election states. Armenian American voters are well represented in both the Democratic and Republican parties and across the political spectrum, and have consistently demonstrated a willingness to cross party lines to vote for candidates who have supported issues of special concern to the community.
The ANCA mobilizes Armenian American voters through a network of over 50 chapters and a diverse array of affiliates, civic advocates, and supporters nationwide. ANCA mailings reach over a quarter of a million homes, and, through the internet, updates and action alerts reach well over 100,000 households. The ANCA website, which features election coverage from an Armenian American point of view, attracts over 100,000 unique visits a month. The ANCA also has broad reach to Armenian American voters via a sophisticated media operation of newspapers, regional cable shows, satellite TV, blogs, and internet news sites.
Review of the Major Candidates:
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton for President
4420 North Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22203
Tel: 703-469-2008 http://www.hillaryclinton.com
As a Senator, Hillary Clinton has, since 2002, cosponsored successive Armenian Genocide resolutions, however she publicly voiced reservations about the adoption of the current resolution in an October 10, 2007 meeting with the Boston Globe editorial board. She joined Senate colleagues in cosigning letters to President Bush in 2005 and 2006 urging him to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
John Edwards:
John Edwards for President
410 Market Street, Suite 400
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Tel: (919) 636-3131 http://www.johnedwards.com
As a Senator, John Edwards cosponsored successive Armenian Genocide Resolutions beginning in 2002. He also supported Section 907 restrictions on U.S. aid to Azerbaijan, due to its ongoing blockade of Armenia. As a Presidential candidate in 2004, he stated that the “time is to recognize the Armenian Genocide” and that Turkey’s blockade of Armenia must end. His advocacy on behalf of the family of 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan, who died after her insurance company denied funding for a liver transplant, has been warmly received by Armenian Americans around the country.
As a Senator, Barack Obama has spoken in support of U.S. affirmation of the Armenian Genocide and cosigned a letter urging President Bush to recognize the Armenian Genocide, but has yet to cosponsor the Armenian Genocide Resolution. While visiting Azerbaijan in August 2005, Senator Obama was asked by reporters why he cosigned the letter to President Bush. Obama defended his decision by stating the genocide was a historical fact.
He publicly criticized the firing of former U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Evans, who was dismissed for speaking truthfully about the Armenian Genocide, but voted for Richard Hoagland, the nominee to replace Evans, who had denied the Armenian Genocide in his responses to Senate inquiries.
Republicans:
Rudy Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee 295 Greenwich St, #371
New York, NY 10007
Tel: 212-835-9449 http://www.joinrudy2008.com
As Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani issued several Armenian Genocide proclamations and attended ANC-NY Armenian Genocide commemorations in City Hall. In 2001, he hosted His Holiness Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians, for breakfast in the Mayor’s residence, Gracie Mansion.
As Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee issued a 2001 proclamation commemorating the Armenian Genocide that noted that Turkey continues to deny this crime and that Armenians have yet to receive reparations. He also issued a proclamation marking a “Day of Remembrance of the Turkish and Armenian Tragedy” – a euphemistic attempt to obscure the genocidal intent of Ottoman Turkey toward its Armenian subjects. The local Armenian community’s disappointment with this second proclamation was covered by the Arkansas News Bureau, which quoted ANC-Arkansas spokesperson Leo Stepanian as saying: “It was not a tragedy. It was a genocide.”
As a Senator, John McCain has opposed the Armenian Genocide Resolution and not been supportive of other Armenian American issues. At a town hall meeting on Sunday, January 6, 2008 Senator McCain was reported to have answered a question on the Armenian Genocide by noting that he recognizes the Armenian Genocide, but opposes the Armenian Genocide Resolution due to the Turkish government’s sensitivities. In correspondence with Arizona constituents he wrote, in October of 2007, that, “Condemning modern Turkey for the acts of the Ottoman Empire would serve only to harm relations with the Turkish people while injecting the Congress into the sensitive role of historian of a period clearly preceding the births of all but a very few congressmen. That is not a development I wish to help facilitate.”
In 1989, Senator McCain introduced legislation supporting a peaceful and fair settlement of the Nagorno Karabagh conflict and later supported Section 907 and the Humanitarian Aid Corridor Act. Later, in 1999, he voted against maintaining Section 907.
Mitt Romney
Romney for President
P.O. Box 55899
Boston, MA 02205-5899
Phone: (857) 288-6400 http://www.mittromney.com/
As Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney is not on record as having issued Armenian Genocide proclamations or having taken other meaningful official public actions in support of Armenian American issues.
Hillary Clinton
John Edwards:
Barack Obama:
Rudy Giuliani
Mike Huckabee
John McCain
Mitt Romney