Letter: ADL District Committee of US and Canada Appeals to President Obama

Most reassuring was specially your statement made on April 12, 2007, which said in particular: “For those who aren’t aware, there was a genocide that did take place against the Armenian people. It is one of these situations where we have seen a constant denial on the part of the Turkish government and others that this occurred.”

In April 2009, your statement about the Martyrs’ Day Commemoration, unfortunately fell short of your earlier pledges, allowing the Turkish government to pretend a breakthrough in Armenian-Turkish relations and then retract.

However, we do believe that your other public and private relevant statements in Ankara and your administration’s relentless political actions have brought about a change in the Turkish government’s longstanding intransigence. We believe that those changes must not stand in your way to fulfill your pledge and moreover deny Turkish policymakers a way to find subterfuge in America’s hesitation.

For many years, the premise that using the word “Genocide” may harm American-Turkish relations has proven wrong. Every time Turkey makes headway in that direction, America’s moral paradigm is compromised. Hiding festering wounds will not help healing.

Thanks to your leadership, recent protocols were made public by the respective foreign ministries of Armenia, Turkey and Switzerland. Those advances must not pre-empt America’s moral standing, nor the credibility of its foreign policy.

We urge you at this critical time for the entire Caucasus region to confront Turkish leaders with the historic truth. That will help, in the first place, to heal the deep wounds in the history of the Turkish people, thereby laying the foundations of a true democracy, allowing that country to join the family of civilized nations.