As a member of the “ragtag group of activists in Boston” mentioned in the JTA article “In 5768, establishment faced new upstarts” in the Sept. 26 Chronicle, I must object to the writer’s statement that the Anti-Defamation League “reversed its refusal to recognize the Armenian genocide.”
In fact, the ADL worded its August 2007 release in such a way as to actually contravene the international legal definition of genocide.
The phrasing circumvents the “intent” required by the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention by suggesting that Armenians died simply as a “consequence” of World War I conditions and not from a planned program of extermination — which just happens to be Turkey’s position.
The Massachusetts Municipal Association and 12 of the 13 Massachusetts communities that dissociated from the ADL’s No Place for Hate program did so after the ADL’s statement, judging it unacceptable.
The ADL has been playing a double game, issuing a disingenuous statement while simultaneously advancing the Turkish government’s agenda by opposing a Congressional resolution formally affirming the Armenian genocide.
Moreover, ADL leaders have repeatedly endorsed Turkey’s call for a historical commission to investigate the Armenian genocide, much like Ahmadinejad’s 2006 conference that purported to examine the Holocaust.
This denying tactic has been condemned by the International Association of Genocide Scholars, as well as groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Laura Boghosian
Lexington, Ma.
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