H01064 Contravenes History, Law, US Foreign Policy

The Assembly of Turkish American Associations responds to the Massachusetts Joint Education Committee Members regarding the fundamentally unfair and unjust Bill hearing, which accuses the Ottoman Empire, and by implication, Turkey and people of Turkish heritage, of the high crime of genocide. ATAA urges the Massachusetts General Court to modify the bill accordingly to promote ethnic and religious reconciliation.

***

Joint Committee on Education
Massachusetts General Court

June 13, 2011

Dear Joint Education Committee Chairs, Co-Chairs and Members:

I am writing to you on behalf of the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), which represents over 500,000 Turkish Americans and 300,000 Turkic Americans nationwide. I respectfully urge you to amend Bill H01064 not to include any case that has not been defined as genocide by the government of the United States or by the United Nations by applying the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to which the U.S. is a party.

H01064 accuses the Ottoman Empire, and by implication, Turkey and people of Turkish heritage, of the high crime of genocide. In 1987, the UN considered the Armenian case and chose not to adopt a report that argued in favor of the genocide label. Further, in response to misleading statements by the Armenian American lobby, in 2003 and 2007 the UN reaffirmed that it had not accepted the Armenian case as genocide. And, the United States, by virtue of its ratification of the UN Genocide Convention, acknowledges the sole jurisdiction to hear such allegations is the International Court of Justice at the Hague -- not state legislatures. 

For these reasons, it would be inappropriate for the Massachusetts General Court to apply its own standard for the crime, especially given the importance of understanding and preventing genocide and other crimes.

Whether the Ottoman Armenian tragedy constitutes a case of genocide is a genuine historic controversy.  Experts on Ottoman history do not consider the Armenian case genocide.  Among the more recent works forwarding this view are:

• Edward J. Erickson, Ottoman Army Effectiveness in World War I: A Comparative Study, (2007)
• Guenter Lewy, The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey, A Disputed Genocide (2005)
•  Justin McCarthy, The Armenian Rebellion at Van (2006)
•  Michael Gunter, Armenian History and the Question of Genocide (2011)

We would be glad to provide you further references upon your request. 

Furthermore, H01064 contravenes U.S. foreign policy. It is U.S. policy not to define the Armenian case in terms of a crime, but to encourage its foreign allies, Turkey and Armenia, to reach their own conclusion via the Turkey – Armenia Protocols, which the European Union and Russia are also supporting. The Protocols include the establishment of a historical commission to investigate the events of 1915. This investigation will necessarily probe the Armenian Revolt (1885-1919) during which 1.1 million Ottoman Muslims and Jews perished, and its consequences for Ottoman Armenians.

H01064 is fundamentally unfair and unjust, representing ethnic and anti-Muslim religious politics at its worst. Turkish Americans are concerned about being persecuted by this Bill.  Among our communities, the still-unsolved 1982 murder of Orhan Gunduz on the streets of Somerville by the terrorist group Justice Commandos for the Armenian Genocide (JCAG) (the militant wing of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation political party), remains a stark reminder of the poison of ethnic hatred. HO10164 should be modified accordingly in the name of historical and legal accuracy, and to promote ethnic and religious reconciliation.

Sincerely,

Gunay Evinch,
Member of the Board of Directors as Past-President
For ATAA President Ergun Kirlikovali