Phil Gordon Confirms Commission as Part of Armenia-Turkey Roadmap
WASHINGTON—Assistant Secretary of State Phil Gordon on June 17 indicated that the Obama Administration supports the establishment of an Armenia-Turkey historical commission, a controversial proposal long advanced by the Turkish government to cast doubt on the Armenian Genocide and undermine international progress toward the universal recognition of this crime against humanity, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
Gordon, during testimony earlier today before the Europe Subcommittee of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, fielded a question from the panel’s chairman, Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), about how the Department of State intends to “navigate the course of the engagement between Turkey and Armenia so that Azerbaijan comes out a winner.” In his response to this inquiry by the Turkish Caucus co-chairman, Gordon voiced support for the Armenia-Turkey “roadmap,” a document publicly welcomed by the State Department on April 22, noting, in particular, a highly controversial and much-discussed, but never before officially disclosed element of this agreement stipulating the establishment of a commission to examine historical issues between the two nations. His comments read, in part: “You have two parallel but separate tracks [Armenia-Turkey dialogue and the Nagorno-Karabagh peace process] going on, a Turkey and Armenia normalization reconciliation process that we do think is quite potentially historic, where the two countries have agreed on a framework for normalizing their relations that would include opening the border, which has been closed for far too long, which would establish diplomatic relations and would provide commissions in key areas including history, and we encourage that process and we support it.”
The establishment of an Armenia-Turkey historical commission, a measure Turkey has long sought to cast a doubt over the overwhelming historical record of the Armenian Genocide, stands in stark contrast the President Obama’s statements during his campaign for the White House. On several occasions throughout 2008, including only days before the November election, he stressed his “firmly held conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. The facts are undeniable.”
The idea of a historical commission has been widely rejected as a denialist tactic, including by the International Association of Genocide Scholars.
To view the video of Gordon’s testimony on Armenia-related issues, including his response to Rep. Gus Bilirakis’ question on Turkey’s Article 301 restriction on free speech, visit www.anca.org/press_releases/press_releases.php?prid=1730.
A joint commission will be created, in order to determine teritorrial and financial losses of Armenian Nation in 1915 and not to put in question the historical veracity of Armenian Genocide.And Phil GORDON SHOULD BE DECLARED PERSONA NON GRATA IN ARMENIA AND IN ARMENIAN CIRCLES FOR HAVING BEEN INVOLVED IN ANTI-ARMENIAN ACTIVITIES.
Phil Gordon is just another surrogate minion on the payroll of manipulative masters in Anakra who was enslaved to tout Turkish propaganda. I mean it could have been anyone.
Obama and the State Department know very well that a historical commission is a Turkish ploy supported by revisionists to deny the truth.
The only commission that should be created is a JUSTICE COMMISSION. The history has been sitting on American, German and Turkish library shelves for decades collecting dust. They can catch up on this history on their own time NOT ours. Its time to discuss reparations, compensation and retribution.
“The Turkish Penal Code Article 301 is a threat to freedom of expression and must be repealed now!” Amnesty International.
With the Turkish Penal Code, Article 301 still in the books, a genuine dialogue could not take place between Turkish historians who deny the genocide, and historians of any other country who affirm it. The existence of that code prohibits any Turkish citizen to be enlightened about the history of their ancestors, and as such, any historian representing the denialist viewpoint has no permission to be enlightened, since that would lead to the subsequent prosecution of that person under the penal code 301.
Armenia should participate in a ‘Historical Commission’ only after the Turkish government abolishes the Penal Code 301, which effectively criminalizes the acceptance of the Genocide.
Without the annulment of the penal code 301, the Turkish participants in the commission and the Turkish public have no opportunity to learn and evolve.
An historical commission is a tactic of the champion of obfuscation — Turkiye — a nation composed of a mixture of Turks and dozens of generations of stolen Armenians and other Christians from centuries of oppression, persecution, forced conversion to Islam, abductions, and kidnappings.
Google the words “upshot” and “Saljuq” and SPELL IT LIEK THAT and see how EARLY in the previous millenium TURKISH OPPRESSION began!
Shame on the we-know-who-controlled US GOVERNMENT. Intense SHAME!
Why to see only Americans and Turkish misdoings? What about the Armenian Goverment’s responsibility in such shameless process and outcome? It is high time to pinpoint our mistakes…
I knew Obama was going to owe Wexler big time for helping to deliver Florida. This is part of his payback. Wexler is a HUGE TURCOPHILE. Who’s going to be on the commission? 10 turks and 1 Armenian? Question is, how do the Armenians not take part in this without looking like we know we are wrong (as opposed to knowing we’re being bamboozled)?
If this historical commisson/panel is going to exist, then why can’t the Armenians choose a panel or commisson of Genocide Scholars to even the playing-field in this commisson?
Armenians should not participate in a such commission, cause the road map
Is not been accepted or approved by the Armenian people to begin with.
Hye, Why a historical commission? Because Turkey wants another delaying ploy? Together, the International Genocide organizaitons, 20 nations of the world, 42 of the 50 United States of America.. Archives in Washington DC, in European countries, and in the Vatican, all substantiate the Genocide of the Armenian nation by the Ottoman Turks and as well, all the years of the subsequent Turkish leaderships in their convoluted denials.
Hence, millions of peoples, today and over the years, have acknowledged and recognized the planned treatments of mans’ inhumanity to man against the Christian Armenians. Too, the destruction of the sites of Armenian origin to destroy/eliminate evidences of Armenian culture from their own lands of nearly 4,000 years.
Now, a ‘history’ project requested by the US/Turkey? History exists, it’s just Turkey who cannot read it nor write their history. And now, it seems, some members of the U.S. administration are unfamiliar with the even archives in Washington DC. (which I assume to be a requirement for Mr. Gordon).
And yet, while Turkey omits the Genocide of the Armenians in their own history as taught to their youth, they also teach their youth that the victims of this Genocide are the enemies of the Turks. Yes, we do seek justice and more, for we have a covenant to all those we lost to the Genocide and our survivors who lived with all the vile memories of that Genocide. For my grandparents and their families I never knew…
And yet, the history exists – no need to rehash…. Sadly, there are those who can not read….. who will not read… and, maybe will repeat history, for in their ignorance they’re also politcally correct… but morally? Manooshag
It’s obvious such a commission would be stacked against the Armenians like a bad deck of cards.
There is no reason to applaud Phillip Gordon or the US State Department for supporting Armenia’s Constitutional Court ruling on the Protocols; Phillip Gordon (known Turkophile and genocide denier) not only follows (or perhaps not necessarily ) what should be best for the US, above all what is best for Israel.
Gordon’s support for the protocols is to punish Erdogan and Turkey’s hostile attitude towards Israel. It is pure politics. Phillip Gordon bodes ill for Armenia.
Hye, gordon of the USA State Department is not educated of the Archives in Washington DC which
serves those who seek to know – the truths of the Turkish Genocide perpetrated against the civilized
Armenian nation. He should also know, that if the Ottoman Turks and their subsequent convoluted
leaderships had been brought to face their guilt – the Jewish Genocide shall never occurred! For despots (Turks, et al) shall not have dared to eliminate peoples for their own convoluted goals – knowing they shall not be allowed to proceed… as we have to Darfur into 2010.
I suggest gordon and his cohorts in the USA State Department turn to research the Archives – not far to go – in Washington DC, and learn the truths of the history of the Turkish Genocide of the civilized Armenian nation – eliminated from their own lands of nearly 4,00o years.
Turks to this day are still in pursuit of the generations of Armenians whose Surivor grandparents and parents have also passed on this history in a Covenant to the present Armenian generations – who were scatttered to flee the Turkish tyranny – to all the civilized nations of the world and in the fledgling nation of Armenia… Justice is waiting to be served to the Armenian nation – conquored not by a war but a vile Genocide – Turk still in the Ottoman mode have lied in their own history books
Yet, Turkey is decayed, decay and more – internally. Turkey glitters and brags on the outside but on the inside – withering and failing, day by day – is deparately using it Ploys… Manooshag
P.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, for his concern and efforts for the Armenians (I recently read) that he too was ‘removed’ from his term as ambassador – then. And yet, today too, our Ambassador
John Evens, was ‘ridiculed’ and ‘demoted’ for also using the word GENOCIDE.
My oh my, what hold has the turk over our leaderships in the United States of America? We, the greatest republic the world has known – to ‘obey’ a nation whose Genocides go on – today the Kurds
face the tyranny of the turks.
Funny, the turks call the Kurds ‘terrorists’ (together with Bush/Cheney) in their efforts to pursue and subdue these freedom loving peoples too.
WOW… Manooshag