In the News

The Armenian Reporter Int'l. August 19, 2000.

Jewish-American Media Addresses Armenian Genocide Concerns

WASHINGTON, DC - A Letter to the Editor questioning the appropriateness of a Jewish Holocaust organization holding its conference in Istanbul, Turkey, has sparked significant attention in the Jewish media.

Authored by Armenian National Institute Board of Governors Chairman Robert A. Kaloosdian, the letter expressed dismay that. the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture had selected Istanbul as the venue for its biennial conference on Holocaust education. It was published July 21 in The Jewish Journal.

"The meeting... occurred despite Turkey's unchanged policy of denying the Armenian Genocide and of depriving its own people access to information and education about this crime against humanity," wrote Kaloosdian. "I hardly need mention the painful silence that the Armenian community remaining in Turkey is expected to maintain by Turkish state authorities and the Turkish public. I regret to say the choice of venue seems an insensitive one."

That same day, the Journal published an editorial "Say It Isn't True," strongly supporting the Kaloosdian viewpoint. It was followed several days later by a front-page story in one of the most prominent Nw York-based Jewish newspapers, the Forward, that detailed the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's support for the planned Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial. A similar article, headlined "Holocaust Museum Extends Hand To Armenian Genocide Museum," appeared in The Jewish Chronicle .

Additional indication of growing support among the Jewish community came earlier this year when Israeli Minister of Education Yossi Sarid took a public position that ran counter to official Israeli compliance with Turkish wishes - to ignore the Armenian Genocide. The Minister used the word "Genocide" during an April 24 memorial service in Jerusalem and publicly noted his choice of words. Similarly, in June, 126 Holocaust scholars, including Nobel Lauteate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, published a petition in The New York Times, The Jerusalem Post and other newspapers, that affirmed the Armenian Genocide and urged Western democracies to officially recognize it.

Related Link

Statement by 126 Holocaust Scholars, Holders of Academic Chairs, and Directors of Holocaust Research and Studies Centers, March 7, 2000.