ISTANBUL (EJP)---The Jewish Community in Turkey has expressed regret over the position adopted by a US Jewish group on the issue of the genocide of Armenians.
In a statement published in the Turkish press, the Jewish community stressed Thursday that it endorses Turkey’s position that this question should be debated at academic level with full access to the archives of all concerned parties, and that parliaments are not the appropriate platforms for finding the truth about historical events.
Ankara categorically rejects the genocide label, saying that both Armenians and Turks died in civil strife during World War I when the Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with Russian troops invading the crumbling Ottoman Empire.
The New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a major Jewish organizations in the US, on Tuesday reversed its longtime policy by calling the killing of Armenians a genocide, days after it fired a regional director for taking the same position.
ADL’s national director Abraham Foxman said in a statement that the killings of 1.5 million Armenians by Muslim Turks “were indeed tantamount to genocide.”
The change in ADL’s position came after weeks of controversy in which critics questioned whether an organization dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism in the world and remembering Holocaust victims could remain credible without acknowledging the Armenian killings as genocide.
Another major organization, the American Jewish Committee, took a similar step and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations reportedly was considering discussing the matter.
In its statement, Silvio Ovadio, head of the Jewish community in Turkey, said: “We have difficulty in understanding this immediate change of view among some Jewish organizations in the US.”
The statement added: “We would like to stress that the news reports that begin with the term “Jews” in local websites may mislead the public, whereas this change in position reflects only the views of some American Jewish organizations.”
“Our state institutions are well aware of our long time efforts to defend Turkey’s interests and theses, and our efforts will continue.”
In a letter to Abraham Foxman, a prominent Turkish Jewish businessman, Jak Kamhi, said: “By accepting this false comparison between the uniquely indisputable genocide for which the term was coined -- the Holocaust, and the events of 1915, the ADL has committed an act of the most inexplicable injustice against the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, as well as against the sensitivities and pride of the Turkish people, who deserve your praise for their centuries-long tradition of compassion and their culture of humanity and cohabitation that remains an example to the world.”
Around 27,000 Jews live in Turkey, of which 24,500 in Istanbul.
Two separate resolutions are pending in the US Senate and House of Representatives, urging the administration to recognize the killings of Armenians as genocide.
The Turkish foreign ministry called the ADL statement"unfortunate"and said Turkey expected the statement would be "corrected."
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Turkey has warned that passage of the resolutions in the US Congress would seriously harm relations with Washington and impair cooperation in Iraq and Afghanistan.
No change in Israel’s stance
The Israeli embassy in Turkey has stressed that there has been “no change” in Israel’s official stance on the issue.
“As Jews and as Israelis we are especially sensitive and morally obligated to remember human tragedies, which include the killings that took place among the Armenian population during the latter part of the First World War, in the years 1915-1916, during the last years of the Ottoman Empire.”
“The State of Israel has never denied these horrible events; on the contrary, we understand the intensity of the emotion connected with this matter on both sides, considering the high number of victims and terrible suffering which the Armenian people endured,” the embassy said.
“Yet, notwithstanding this, over the years, the subject, undesirably, has become a loaded political issue between the Armenians and the Turks, and each side has been trying to prove the justice of its claims.”
“The State of Israel, therefore, asks that neither one side nor the other be taken and that no definitions be made of what happened. We hope that both sides will enter into an open dialogue which will enable them to heal the open wounds that have remained for many decades,” the statement concluded.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the Turkish ambassador is set to return to Israel earlier from his vacation to express concerns about the ADL’s position.
Turkish Prime Minister recept Tayyip Erdogan was expected to call his Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert in the coming days to discuss the matter.
