WASHINGTON—On July 13, New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Menendez pressed aggressively for answers from the Obama Administration over its refusal to properly characterize the Armenian Genocide and, more specifically, regarding how forcing U.S. diplomats into such a “totally untenable” position on this human rights issue materially harms both U.S. interests and America’s moral standing, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
The Senator’s powerful remarks and sharp inquiries came during his questioning at a hearing of the Foreign Relations Committee to consider the confirmation of U.S. Ambassador to Armenia nominee John Heffern.
Heffern cited the killing of the over 1.5 million Armenians at the end of the Ottoman Empire, but stopped short of properly referencing the crime as genocide, arguing that “the characterization of those events is a policy decision that is made by the President of the United States, and that policy is enunciated in his April 24 Remembrance Day statement.”
Sen. Menendez remarked, “This is an inartful dance that we do. We have a State Department whose history is full of dispatches that cite the atrocities committed during this time. We have a convention that we sign on to as a signatory that clearly defines these acts as genocide. We have a historical knowledge of the facts that we accept would amount to genocide. But we are unwilling to reference it as genocide. And if we cannot accept the past, we cannot move forward. And so I find it very difficult to send diplomats of the United States to a country in which they will go–and I hope you will go, as some of your predecessors have–to a genocide commemoration and yet never be able to use the word genocide. It is much more than a question of a word. It is everything that signifies our commitment to saying ‘never again.’ And yet, we can’t even acknowledge this fact and we put diplomats in a position that is totally untenable.”
Sen. Menendez’s exchange with Heffern is posted on the ANCA website, at www.anca.org.
“Once again, Sen. Menendez has powerfully presented–for the White House, his Senate colleagues, and the American people–the mounting moral and material consequences of failing to forthrightly acknowledge the Armenian Genocide,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We remain troubled that the administration’s failure to speak truthfully and without equivocation about this crime only serves to undermine U.S. moral standing in the cause of genocide prevention, and, as today’s testimony so clearly illustrated, hinders…any future ambassador’s ability to fully realize the potential of the U.S-Armenia relationship.”
Sen. Jean Shaheen (D-N.H.), who chaired the confirmation hearing, was joined by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) in asking Heffern a series of questions on democracy building efforts in Armenia. Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) recounted the difficulties Armenian artists have had in receiving visas to perform in an international dance festival in Idaho and asked the nominee for help should they be refused entry to participate in the festival again next year. The ANCA had recently submitted an inquiry to the State Department about similar obstacles to the participation of Armenian child artists to obtain visas to attend an international children’s festival in Washington, D.C., held last month.
The complete video of Heffern’s confirmation hearing, as well as his prepared testimony before the committee, are available on the ANCA website, at www.anca.org/press_releases/press_releases.php?prid=2046 and www.anca.org/assets/pdf/misc/heffern_testimony.pdf.
Senators are expected to submit follow up questions to Heffern in the upcoming days. The ANCA and Armenian American community will join Senators in carefully reviewing his responses.
One wonders… why all these “discriminations” in the Congress of the United States of America, too, our USA State deparmtnet, too, our president. WHY, against the fledgling nation of Armenia… a nation which is recognized, historically, having suffered the Turkish Genocide of the Christian Armenian peoples… Is the Turkey so compelling in its insistence that their Ottomans and into today, their governments incapable of evoking the crimes of slaughters, rapes, tortures and destructions of Christians and their Christian religious sites – all to eliminate the truths that the Armenians were cruelly eliminated from their own lands by Turkish hordes.
It appears that the Turkish leaderships are in their usual mode of “in your face – determined to deny still that they commited ANY Genocides of peoples, the Greeks, the Assyrians, the Armenians… but still are obviously, maintaining their stance of their muslim mentality – against Christians – having succeeded in their Genocides without having justice meted them for their crimes against all humanity. Too, against the ancient and advanced Christian nation of the Armenians. WHY?? It is obvious the Turk uses their “in your face” brazen approach… as if daring any to charge that they have commited ANY GENOCIDES… WHEN, historically, the elimnation of the Armenians is recognized… by 43 of the states of the USA, Archives the world over, more than 20 nations of the world, the Vatican, the Int’l Genocide foundation, and more – by all but the perpetrator, the Turk… who lie even to their youth as they educate them to blame all their ills upon the Armenians… Armenians, decimated and violated by Turks – shall not have been able to (even if they wanted to) reciprocate to Turks – sending their hordes back to the mountains of Asia – from whence they came – where they belong still.