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Sen. Carl Levin commemorates Genocide
Published: Tuesday May 24, 2011
Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barrack Obama share a common flaw - honesty. All three U.S. presidents lied in fulfilling their campaign pledges they would recognize the 1915 genocide of the Armenian people at the hands of the Ottoman Turkish government.
But there's more. Twice when a House vote on a genocide resolution was headed for a floor vote, the then Speakers of the House Dennis Hastert, a conservative Illinois Republican, and Nancy Pelosi, a liberal California Democrat, scuttled a vote that was certain to prevail on the genocide issue during their leadership terms.
In his successful run for the White House in 2008 Obama assured Armenians "he would be the kind of president to recognize the 1915 genocide of 1.5 million Armenians." Yet when he issued his subsequent April 24 tributes to the Armenian people, he played a word game by not mentioning genocide - instead coughing up an old term that expresses a massive tragedy long before the term "genocide" was defined by the United Nations Commission on Genocide.
In the aftermath of Obama's latest retreat to the Turkish lobby in the U.S. State Department, and Pelosi's shameful capitulation after pledging to California Armenians she was on the side of truth, should we just abandon the genocide issue? Emphatically no.
If we do, as individuals or organizations, then shame on all Armenian Americans. As the descendants of the survivors we must not quit in our efforts. While a distinguished array of supporting Democrats and Republicans in Congress addressed the 97th observance of Ottoman Turkey's crime against humanity, one such person was Michigan U.S. Senator Carl Levin.
I first met the Detroit Democrat in 1969 when he won a seat on Detroit's city council. Through the years our paths crossed often in my role as a newspaper reporter covering local politics. By 1978 Levin was on his way to the United States Senate - and he retained his quest of justice for the Armenian people.
Last Sept. 10, after reading a copy of the memoir about the search for my Aunt Parancim and my family roots in the Keghi, Erzeroum and Moush regions of Turkish-held Armenia, the senator wrote a letter that I treasure for its motivating message.
In his personal expression, the chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee wrote: "Mitch, thanks for sending me "Giants of the Earth."
"It is a compelling, deeply moving, honest memoir - a tribute to Armenians lost in the genocide. I intend to refer to it when I speak in support of a resolution recognizing and memorializing the events you recount for what they were - a genocide. Best, Carl"
Though the Senate was in recess for Easter Week and the April 24 observance, Levin was a man of his pledge when he issued his May 9 Armenian genocide statement on the Senate floor. The senator said: "We also remember the Armenian genocide when Turkish Ottoman authorities ordered the rounding up and detention of hundreds of Armenian intellectuals . What followed between 1915 and 1923 was an organized campaign that resulted in the deaths of over 1.5 million Armenians."
Journalist Tom Mooradian, author of "The Repatriate," a chilling account of 13 years he spent exiled behind the Iron Curtain, says the massacre of Armenians during the genocide actually resulted in the "potential population growth loss of more than seven million. We should be a nation of 10 million Armenians by now. But our national birth rate was stunted by the genocide."
Levin also stressed that "while the horrific abuses suffered by the Armenians have been described as the first genocide of the 20th Century." he added that the Ottoman Turkish regime's systematic engagement in the killing and deportation of the Armenian population cannot be denied."
While he points out that "these acts were not committed by the present Republic of Turkey," the truth-seeking senator emphasizes "some have sought to deny that these events constituted genocide."
Levin's position on denial of the 1915 genocide is a clear message to Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama - and the pro Turkish lobby in the U.S. State Department.
By the 100th observance of the April 24 genocide Armenians worldwide need to rally under one banner of justice to force Turkey to admit to its past crimes against the Armenians - and a U.S. president who will speak truthfullly for justice and uphold his or her pledge on the April 24, 1915 genocide.
Why does present-day Turkey still deny the truth? The United Nations Commission on Genocide ruled that penalties on the crime of genocide are not binded by a time limit. For Armenia that means reparations and territory illegally seized during the genocide and deportations.
That's why Turkey refuses to admit it was genocide.
So-called modern Turkey's greatest allies in denying the genocide have been the last three liars to occupy the White House.
When Time Magazine named Carl Levin one of the 10 best senators it cited the "senator's respect from both parties for his attention to detail and deep knowledge of policy."
We need more Carl Levins in Congress.
Mitch Kehetian
Detroit
Kehetian is the retired editor of The Macomb Daily, and author of "Giants of the Earth" a recently published memoir on his 1969 mission into barren Turkish-held Armenia.
http://www.reporter.am/index.c...1E0-A9FE0003FF3452C2
Published: Tuesday May 24, 2011
Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barrack Obama share a common flaw - honesty. All three U.S. presidents lied in fulfilling their campaign pledges they would recognize the 1915 genocide of the Armenian people at the hands of the Ottoman Turkish government.
But there's more. Twice when a House vote on a genocide resolution was headed for a floor vote, the then Speakers of the House Dennis Hastert, a conservative Illinois Republican, and Nancy Pelosi, a liberal California Democrat, scuttled a vote that was certain to prevail on the genocide issue during their leadership terms.
In his successful run for the White House in 2008 Obama assured Armenians "he would be the kind of president to recognize the 1915 genocide of 1.5 million Armenians." Yet when he issued his subsequent April 24 tributes to the Armenian people, he played a word game by not mentioning genocide - instead coughing up an old term that expresses a massive tragedy long before the term "genocide" was defined by the United Nations Commission on Genocide.
In the aftermath of Obama's latest retreat to the Turkish lobby in the U.S. State Department, and Pelosi's shameful capitulation after pledging to California Armenians she was on the side of truth, should we just abandon the genocide issue? Emphatically no.
If we do, as individuals or organizations, then shame on all Armenian Americans. As the descendants of the survivors we must not quit in our efforts. While a distinguished array of supporting Democrats and Republicans in Congress addressed the 97th observance of Ottoman Turkey's crime against humanity, one such person was Michigan U.S. Senator Carl Levin.
I first met the Detroit Democrat in 1969 when he won a seat on Detroit's city council. Through the years our paths crossed often in my role as a newspaper reporter covering local politics. By 1978 Levin was on his way to the United States Senate - and he retained his quest of justice for the Armenian people.
Last Sept. 10, after reading a copy of the memoir about the search for my Aunt Parancim and my family roots in the Keghi, Erzeroum and Moush regions of Turkish-held Armenia, the senator wrote a letter that I treasure for its motivating message.
In his personal expression, the chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee wrote: "Mitch, thanks for sending me "Giants of the Earth."
"It is a compelling, deeply moving, honest memoir - a tribute to Armenians lost in the genocide. I intend to refer to it when I speak in support of a resolution recognizing and memorializing the events you recount for what they were - a genocide. Best, Carl"
Though the Senate was in recess for Easter Week and the April 24 observance, Levin was a man of his pledge when he issued his May 9 Armenian genocide statement on the Senate floor. The senator said: "We also remember the Armenian genocide when Turkish Ottoman authorities ordered the rounding up and detention of hundreds of Armenian intellectuals . What followed between 1915 and 1923 was an organized campaign that resulted in the deaths of over 1.5 million Armenians."
Journalist Tom Mooradian, author of "The Repatriate," a chilling account of 13 years he spent exiled behind the Iron Curtain, says the massacre of Armenians during the genocide actually resulted in the "potential population growth loss of more than seven million. We should be a nation of 10 million Armenians by now. But our national birth rate was stunted by the genocide."
Levin also stressed that "while the horrific abuses suffered by the Armenians have been described as the first genocide of the 20th Century." he added that the Ottoman Turkish regime's systematic engagement in the killing and deportation of the Armenian population cannot be denied."
While he points out that "these acts were not committed by the present Republic of Turkey," the truth-seeking senator emphasizes "some have sought to deny that these events constituted genocide."
Levin's position on denial of the 1915 genocide is a clear message to Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama - and the pro Turkish lobby in the U.S. State Department.
By the 100th observance of the April 24 genocide Armenians worldwide need to rally under one banner of justice to force Turkey to admit to its past crimes against the Armenians - and a U.S. president who will speak truthfullly for justice and uphold his or her pledge on the April 24, 1915 genocide.
Why does present-day Turkey still deny the truth? The United Nations Commission on Genocide ruled that penalties on the crime of genocide are not binded by a time limit. For Armenia that means reparations and territory illegally seized during the genocide and deportations.
That's why Turkey refuses to admit it was genocide.
So-called modern Turkey's greatest allies in denying the genocide have been the last three liars to occupy the White House.
When Time Magazine named Carl Levin one of the 10 best senators it cited the "senator's respect from both parties for his attention to detail and deep knowledge of policy."
We need more Carl Levins in Congress.
Mitch Kehetian
Detroit
Kehetian is the retired editor of The Macomb Daily, and author of "Giants of the Earth" a recently published memoir on his 1969 mission into barren Turkish-held Armenia.
http://www.reporter.am/index.c...1E0-A9FE0003FF3452C2
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