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AAA: Armenian Caucus Member Rep. Foley Urges Turkey To Face ItsOttom

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  • AAA: Armenian Caucus Member Rep. Foley Urges Turkey To Face ItsOttom

    Armenian Assembly of America
    122 C Street, NW, Suite 350
    Washington, DC 20001
    Phone: 202-393-3434
    Fax: 202-638-4904
    Email: [email protected]
    Web: www.armenianassembly.org
     
    PRESS RELEASE
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    April 8, 2005
    CONTACT: Christine Kojoian
    Email: [email protected]

    ARMENIAN CAUCUS MEMBER REP. FOLEY URGES TURKEY TO FACE ITS OTTOMAN PAST
    Calls Armenian Genocide Study An "Important Opportunity" for Turkey

    Washington, DC - The Armenian Assembly commended Congressional Caucus
    on Armenian Issues Member Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) today for urging
    Turkish officials who are calling for an investigation into the
    Armenian Genocide to instead use the opportunity to come to terms
    with their Ottoman legacy.

    Foley, in a statement issued before Congress, said Turkish Prime
    Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's calls for a "political settling of
    accounts with history" appeared to be a delaying tactic meant to
    escape the judgment of history.

    "That accounting has already been done," Foley said. He added that
    experts in Holocaust and Genocide studies, as well as foremost
    authorities on WWI, have attested that the crime of genocide was
    committed by Ottoman Turkey.

    Foley also added that if Turkey is prepared to acknowledge the truth,
    its leaders should immediately engage in direct dialogue with their
    Armenian counterparts. If Turkey is still unwilling to take this
    essential step with Armenia, it could take a number of intermediate
    actions to demonstrate its shared values with countries of the
    European Union. The EU agreed last December to open membership talks
    with Turkey.

    Foley called upon the government of Turkey to consider the following
    preparatory steps:

    * Decriminalize speech on this subject within Turkey.
    * Destroy all monuments, museums and public references to the specious
    notion that the Armenian minority committed genocide against the
    majority Turks.
    * End denial within Turkey, specifically within textbooks & reference
    books.
    * Officially condemn attacks against any Turk that acknowledges the
    facts of history.
    * End the global campaign of threats against any nation that is in
    the process of affirming the Armenian Genocide.

    The Armenian Assembly of America is the largest Washington-based
    nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness
    of Armenian issues. It is a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt membership
    organization.

    ### NR#2005-027




    A photograph of Congressman Foley is available on the Assembly Web
    site at the following link:

    http://www.aaainc.org/images/press/2005-027/2005-027-1.jpg

    Caption: Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL)


    Editor's Note: Attached is the full text of Congressman Foley's
    comments as delivered on the floor of the House of Representatives.

    TURKEY AND THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE -
    (Extensions of Remarks - April 07, 2005)

    SPEECH OF HON. MARK FOLEY
    OF FLORIDA
    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
    WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2005

    Mr. FOLEY: Mr. Speaker, as reported by Reuters recently, Turkish
    Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is ready for a "political settling
    of accounts with history" provided that historians would prepare an
    unbiased study of claims that millions of Armenians were the victims
    of genocide under Ottoman rule during the First World War.

    That accounting has already been done. A March 7, 2000 public
    declaration by 126 Holocaust Scholars affirmed the incontestable fact
    of the Armenian Genocide and urged Western democracies to officially
    recognize it.

    This declaration by foremost scholars from around the world was
    adopted at the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Scholar's Conference
    on the Holocaust convening at St. Joseph University, Philadelphia,
    Pennsylvania, March 3-7, 2000. The petitioners, among whom is Nobel
    Laureate for Peace Elie Wiesel, also called upon Western democracies to
    urge the government and parliament of Turkey to finally come to terms
    with this dark chapter of Ottoman-Turkish history and to recognize
    the Armenian Genocide. According to this renowned gathering, Turkish
    acknowledgment would provide an invaluable impetus to that nation's
    democratization.

    As part of the groundbreaking conference held in September 2000 by the
    Library of Congress and the Armenian National Institute in cooperation
    with the U.S. Holocaust Museum, the prestigious Cambridge University
    Press, early in 2004, released a vital new publication--"America and
    the Armenian Genocide of 1915." This edition covers all facets of the
    leading U.S. response to the Armenian Genocide, which encompassed the
    first international human rights movement in American history. Oxford
    University's Sir Martin Gilbert, Cambridge University's Jay Winter and
    more than a dozen American academics were among the participants in
    that landmark conference. In a keynote address, Sir Martin recalled
    that Rafael Lemkin, who developed the concept of genocide, derived
    the word itself from the atrocities inflicted on the Armenians.

    Prime Minister Erdogan's apparent willingness for a political settling
    of accounts with history should be treated as an important opportunity
    for those who have been urging Turkey to come to terms with its Ottoman
    past. If Turkey is prepared to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide,
    then its leaders can proceed immediately to direct dialogue with its
    counterparts in Armenia to define a common vision for the future.

    I also urge the government of Turkey to: decriminalize speech within
    Turkey, destroy all monuments, museums and public references to
    the specious notion that the Armenian minority committed genocide
    against the majority Turks, end denial within Turkey, specifically
    within textbooks and reference books, officially condemn any attacks
    against all Turks that acknowledge the facts of history, and end the
    global campaign of threats against any nation that is in the process
    of affirming the Armenian Genocide.

    By so doing, Turkey will begin the vital process of preparing its
    citizens for a more complete and honest assessment of the final acts
    of the Ottoman Turkish state. Facing history squarely will liberate
    Turkey.

    -30-

    --Boundary_(ID_eCONyUGZPEsBWpXgu7FWTQ)--
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