Ricciardone Revises Response, but Continues to Misrepresent History

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Responds to Community Outrage; Concedes that Most Pre-1915 Churches are ‘No Longer Operating’

WASHINGTON–U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone, responding to a wave of grassroots outrage and growing Congressional concern, backed away from his most obvious and offensive misrepresentations about Turkey’s destruction of Christian churches, but sparked renewed controversy by artificially inflating the number of currently operating Christian houses of worship and again using strained euphemisms to help Ankara escape responsibility for its crimes, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

Ricciardone

Following broad-based concerns expressed by Armenian American community and religious leaders, Ricciardone amended his earlier response to Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) in which he had argued, without any basis in fact, that a majority of Christian churches operating in the territory of present-day Turkey prior to 1915 are still functioning today.

In a correction obtained by the ANCA on Aug. 22,  Ricciardone explained that in response to Sen. Menendez’s question “To the best of your knowledge, approximately how many of the more than 2,000 Christian churches functioning prior to 1915 on the territory of present-day Turkey are still operating today as churches?” he would “appreciate the opportunity to clarify the record.”

“The corrected text should read as follows,” he said. “Most of the Christian churches functioning prior to 1915 are no longer operating as churches. Christian community contacts in Turkey report that a total of 200-250 churches that date to 1915 and before offer Christian worship services at least once a year. Many churches do not offer services every week due to insufficient clergy or local Christian populations. Some churches of significance operate as museums, others have been converted into mosques or put to other uses. Still others have fallen into disrepair or may have been totally destroyed.”

“It took Ambassador Ricciardone, with the help of his many State Department colleagues, over a week to submit in writing a patently false misrepresentation about the destruction of Christian churches in Turkey, and another 10 days and a full wave of Senate and citizen pressure for him to finally take half a step back from the most offensive and obviously incorrect aspects of his response,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.

“He just keeps digging himself into a deeper hole as an apologist for Ankara. His use of false figures and euphemisms to try to twist his way out of his misrepresentation–while somehow still trying to stick to Turkey’s genocide denial narrative–clearly confirms that Ambassador Ricciardone is not the right representative of U.S. values and interests in Turkey.”

Last week, in a strongly worded letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian demanded a retraction, correction, and apology for Ricciardone’s statement covering up Ottoman and Republican Turkey’s systematic destruction of thousands of Christian churches.

“We have been troubled by his eagerness to embrace the government of Turkey’s false and hateful genocide denial narrative, at lengths beyond even the administration’s longstanding and shameful complicity in Turkey’s denials of the Armenian Genocide,” stated Hachikian in his Aug. 15 letter. “His verbal and written responses to questions during his Senate confirmation process, regarding the Armenian Genocide and other issues, ranged from evasive to deeply offensive.”

The ANCA has encouraged concerned citizens to contact Secretary Clinton via the State Department Comment Line to offer their views regarding Ricciardone’s misstatements.  The State Department can be reached at (202) 647-6575 (Press option #1) or online at http://contact-us.state.gov/app/ask.

His Eminences Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan and Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelates of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America Eastern and Western United States, respectively, and Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church Eastern United States, each issued powerfully worded spiritual messages in response to the ambassador’s statement.

In an Aug. 15 statement, Archbishop Choloyan stressed that the ambassador’s assertion was “so blatantly false that it cannot remain unchallenged.”  Setting the record straight, he noted, “The facts are quite clear. From the massacres of Armenians in 1895-96 and the Armenian Genocide in 1915, to the decades following the establishment of the Turkish republic, Christian houses of worship were systematically destroyed or confiscated. My own church’s hierarchal see, the Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia, was a victim of this process, and today is exiled in Lebanon. The archives of the Catholicosate contain hundreds of original deeds and other documentation of churches and church owned property that were confiscated.”

Archbishop Mardirossian concurred, stating, “The presence of an ambassador in Ankara who is unaware of or uninterested in the truth and the consequences of the Ottoman and Republican Turkish government’s genocide of Armenians, Assyrians, Syriacs, Greeks, and other Christians materially undermines U.S. interests, compromises American values, and weakens international efforts to defend religious freedom for peoples of all faiths.  Sadly, but unmistakably, with this hateful and hurtful statement, Ambassador Ricciardone has demonstrated that he is not the right candidate to effectively and responsibly represent the United States in Turkey.”

On Aug. 19, Archbishop Barsamian noted that Ricciardone’s response had “deeply offended Armenian Americans,” explaining that “the loss of these many hundreds of churches, their neglect and outright destruction, and the conversion of many of our sanctuaries into mosques, is a matter of intense pain to Armenians: an ongoing reminder of the loss of life and the destruction that we suffered as a result of the 1915 Genocide… In all charity, perhaps the ambassador is simply unaware of certain facts.  But mastery of the history of a country, its dark as well as bright chapters, is essential to serving the United States effectively and diplomatically in this important and complex region.”

According to Armenian Church experts, of the over 2,000 churches serving the Armenian community prior to 1915, less than 40 are functioning as churches today.

Reservations about the ambassador’s readiness to placate his foreign hosts and his willingness to accept the Turkish government’s talking points on religious tolerance at face value echo concerns expressed last fall by then-Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) who, during the last session of Congress, placed a hold on Ricciardone’s nomination to serve as U.S. ambassador to Turkey.  In an Aug. 16, 2010, letter to Secretary Clinton, Sen. Brownback voiced disapproval of Ricciardone’s tenure as U.S. ambassador to Egypt, noting, among other things, that “he quickly adopted the positions and arguments of his Egyptian diplomatic counterparts.”

In the wake of Brownback’s hold, Obama circumvented Senate objections by issuing a “recess appointment” of Ricciardone.  The Senate must approve his nomination in the upcoming months if Ricciardone is to continue to serve in Turkey for more than one year, of the usual three-year ambassadorial term.  The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will likely take up his nomination upon their return from the August Congressional recess.

22 Comments

  1. He should have stopped with the first sentence. The rest is hot air. The figure for continuously operating churches since 1915 is offensively inflated and off the wall.  They can be counted on one hand. But obliviousness is his stock in trade. Is he merely another rerun or is this the face of American diplomacy going into the future? 

  2. Thank you for ANCA in pursuing this matter. It would also be nice to hear from Srpazan Hovnan Derderian as Primate of Western region of USA. He is a bright cleric and I think he would be powerful. We need his voice as well.

    I was thinking that perhaps Mr. Ricciardone can enlighten us and publish the names of 200 to 250 churches that offer service at least once a year. We keep counting and we can’t come up with any such number. And building a museum and “allowing” sevice once a year doesn’t count Mr. Ambassador!!

    He also muddles up by mentioning “Christian” churches, giving the impression that non-Armenian churches are functioning. Greek and Assyrian churches have suffered the same fate as the Armenian Churches in Turkey and there definitely are not 200 active churches.

    Lastly, the good Ambassador mentions the lack of clergy. Well,  this is a direct result of Turkish republic’s policy of closing down seminaries and restricting religious education as well as not allowing non-Turkish born clerics to serve in Turkey. He makes it  sound like the people just don’t train in this area. Don’t attack the victims sir…

    And we all know why there is a lack of “local Christian population”, but may be ambassadorial candidates don’t study too much history. It only interferes with current statistics. For example, did you know that as 57% of exports of manufactured goods in the US go to Turkey?

  3. “According to Armenian Church experts, of the over 2,000 churches serving the Armenian community prior to 1915, less than 40 are functioning as churches today.”

    This in not Armenian Church experts opinion. Opinion such as “less than 40..” can be correctly interpreted equal to zero. Armenians deserve exact number from either so called church experts, editors or church officials!
    When we are ready to accuse others for such crimes, we must be very specifics. I have read similar inconsistent figures about number of Armenian leaders arrested on April 24, 1915. Do we know exactly how many, full name, and their profession? 

  4. Instead of this statement:
    Answer: With your permission, I would appreciate the opportunity to clarify the record. The corrected text should read as follows. Most of the Christian churches functioning prior to 1915 are no longer operating as churches. Christian community contacts in Turkey report that a total of 200-250 churches that date to 1915 and before offer Christian worship services at least once a year. Many churches do not offer services every week due to insufficient clergy or local Christian populations. Some churches of significance operate as museums, others have been converted into mosques or put to other uses. Still others have fallen into disrepair or may have been totally destroyed.

    A better response from him would have been the following: ” Ladies and Gents, I want to publicly apologize for my false statement.. I want to direct my apology to all American Armenians and Armenians around the world for such an uneducated answer..But it is not my fault because I am working for a state govt who promotes inaccurate statements to protect the most heinous human rights violaters identity.. I can’t do much myself as I walk, talk and sing how they want me to ..”””..

    How embarassing for him…  

  5. Mr Hartunian, there is our homework.  Let us collectively look into the actual statistics to give to the world.  How many churches do you know that function in Turkey currently.  Let everyone who knows anything on the location or the name of these churches write in, so that the whole world will know the truth based on verifiable data.  As for the inconsistencies about the names and the numbers of the Armenian leaders annihilated in 1915, who was counting?  A Genocide was being perpetrated.  And the names of everyone of the the 1.5 million Armenians killed are etched in our collective hearts and minds.  No names necessary.

  6. Surb Khach church on the Akhtamar island next to Lake Van just got it’s cross installed, so maybe it counts as a church that provides Holy Mass once a year.  Who knows?

  7. When he talks about 200 churches having a Christian service at least once a year, he might be counting the tourists who fall on their knees in the crumbling ruins, when they are on pilgrimage. If a group of tourists visits 15 churches, he could count that as 15 church services for that year.

  8. Here is the number from Eastern Diocese’s website:

    “At present the jurisdiction of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople includes some 35 churches in Istanbul and its suburbs, and in the provinces, as follows:

    Kayseri: St. Gregory the Illuminator Church.

    Diyarbakir:
    St. Giragos Church. Iskenderun: Church of the Forty Martyrs. Vakiflikoy, Samandag: St. Mary Church.”

    So I am counting 39. The approximation comes because not all of them are open all of the time. Even in Istanbul the churches do not all have Sunday services every week. Some are only open in the summer for example, near areas where people have summer houses. At any rate there are 39 churches under the “command” of the Patriarchate of Istanbul. However, the good ambassador says Christian churches which confuses the issue. Therefore one has to find out how many Greek and Assyrian churches are functioning. I would say not too many. The Greek population of Istanbul is down to 2,000 and with the Greek seminary closed since the 70’s they are even in deeper  problem. 

  9. Mr. Berch, thank you for your comment. I do not have any doubt about your last statement. However, we have been criticized rightfully so by our adversaries about asserting different numbers of Armenian martyrs. As to history of our churches in Historic Armenia, I think we should pledge a scholarship for this research. I pledge the first $1000.00 for the comprehensive research on Armenian Churches in the world. 

  10. “He should have stopped with the first sentence.
    Diran, He must have started by sincere apology to All Americans and to all Armenians. Now, He has admitted that he lied to Congress under oath. He must be indicted for perjury! 

  11. It has to be said: The “insufficiency of local Christian populations” is exactly what Talat Pasha was aiming for.  Now it becomes an excuse to strangle the truth one more time, this time very clumsily.

  12. From Curio:
    Question: How many mosques that used to exist in present-day Armenia are functioning as mosques today? Same question for Nogorno-Karabagh.
    Answer: Zero and zero.

  13. Random Armenian-Istanbul’s Greek population used to be around 250-300,000. Even in the republican era it was greater than the Armenian population (hence double the number of churches). They were slowly but surely pushed out by events such as the punitive Wealth Tax, the events of September 6-7,1955 and various Cyprus crises, to name just a few…

    Demirmen – What exactly is your question? Are you implying that there used to be thousands of mosques in Armenia that the Armenian army used as target practice as they did in Turkey, or demolished it on purpose to erase the memory of any Turk that lived in Armenia, or used it to house their farm animals?

  14. I swear these denialists Turks are just diallerious with their dumb question of how many mosques are in Armenia forgetting that THEIR mosques ARE on ancient Armenian lands… Helloooooo Demirmen.. did you hear me???? YOUR MOSQUES are ON OUR LANDS ALREADY.. so to answer your question.. MANY AND THEN SOME.. so get over your dumb horse and study history before you open your mouth.. you don’t want to sound dumb on public pages do you???  

    Oh here is what I wrote to another budy of yours…(pay attention to the bolded sentence)… Until you do what I requested, you should not open your greedy mouths going forward.. 

    August 22, 2011 | Permalink | Reply

    Robert- did you not say you were not going to come back to our pages .. Avery provided you YOUR typed comments many times over.. and yet you still are here..
    Can you say a LIAR????? …
    In any case.. I am glad you can reference Wikipedia for all your comments.. Yeah the exact words you used is in Islam in Armenia in Wikipedia..but that is rarely a strong fact… why don’t you provide an official document where it states that the last one was bulldozed down…
    Also, as one of my friends here said one is enough for the number of muslims living in Armenia (I know you are illiterate about Armenia and history all together because you would not make such an insensitive comment), especially when Turks converted enough of OUR churches to be mosques and God knows what else…you already know….why don’t you return and restore EVERY SINGLE CHURCH OF OURS into what it was, then talk about Armenia not having enough mosques… This is where Hypocrite works pretty well don’t you think Robert???…

     

  15. F. Demirmen,
    There is one operating in Yerevan that I know of. It was renovated by Iranians and currently active serving Iranians in Yerevan. That counts, unless you have something against Iranians. Also, There used to be more churches in Yerevan as well but from what I understand they along with the mosques were torn down by the soviet authorities. The mosque in Yerevan, called the Blue Mosque, was preserved because the Armenian writer Charents argued with the authorities that it should be saved for historical reasons. At least this is what the tourist guide at the mosque said. I have not been able to confirm it independently. Anyone know?
    Here’s something you may be interested in Demirmen, an Armenian church in Yerevan demolished by Soviet authorities.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Peter_and_Paul_Church,_Yerevan

  16. Ani,
    Yes, the numbers makes sense for historical reasons, but currently there are far fewer Greeks in Istanbul than Armenians.
    I’ve heard that some of the Armenian churches used to be Greek churches. I don’t know which ones, when or how they became Armenian. I’m guessing that this makes some sense given that the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople was not established until 1461.

  17. Random Armenian,

    There may be fewer Greeks than Armenians currently, but the churches were built in the old days when the reverse was true. The Greek Patriarch does its utmost to keep them going, hence the larger number.  As far as I know there haven’t been many (if any) Armenian churches built in Istanbul since the early 1900’s. I know that at some point after the Turkish Republic ws established (you know the democratic secular, republic) it was against the law to build a church. In fact, for a while it was against the law to repair something that was broken. You had to get permission to get something fixed, which was invariably denied.

    I don’t know if there were many Armenian churches that used to be Greek churches. It is possible, but they are quite different architecturally. However, it is possible.I think there might have been a religious authority in Constantinople before 1461, i.e. in the Byzantine days. I think 1461 is the Ottoman decree establishing the patriarchate.

    I don’t know where you live, but Khajag Srpazan in the US Eastern Diocese probably has a lot of information on the subject. If not, he can at least point you in the right direction. I would urge you to contact him. Another source may be NAASR. And if you can read Armenian I can probably find you other sources. All the best.

  18. From Curio:

    To Random Armenian,
    Thanks for your polite and sensible answer.

    To Ani,
    My questione didn’t need elaboration, and was answered by Random Armenian.

  19. Demirmen,

    I think I was hyper-sensitive. I may have mistaken your question for a rhetorical one. I did not mean to offend you and I apologize if I did. I am truly sorry.

  20. F. Demirmen:    —-Why should mosques exist in Armenia to start with? Is Armenia a native land for Muslim Turks or their extension Azeris? We could understand why some 3000 Armenian churches and monasteries existed in Ottoman Turkey before being detonated, desecrated, and turned into mosques or barn toilets by ‘civilized’ Turks. Because eastern provinces of Turkey were ancient Western Armenian lands invaded by the Seljuks and colonized by the Ottomans. But to draw a parallel with mosques existing in Armenia is out of reality. Yes, several existed in the capital because at some point there was a portion of population practicing Islam, but Armenia historically never was the ancestral lands of the Muslims, whereas Western Armenia emptied of Armenians in 1915-1923 by savage murders and deportations has beed our homeland for several millennia.

  21. you weren’t hyper-sensitive Ani. You interpreted the question quite correctly, same as Karo, and he answered that sort of question only way it can be answered. That’s a standard retort  Turks and Azeris pose whenever we bring up our destroyed, desecrated churches and other religious artifacts, such as Khachkars. And the answer is always what Karo gave. 

    Islam 1,000 years old.
    Christianity 2,000 years old.
    Christian Armenians 1,700 years old.
    Christian Armenians predate Islam by 700 years. 
    Armenian Churches predate any Mosques by several centuries.
    What was there first and what was destroyed/replaced by whom.

    End of story. 

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