News

TURKEY SEEKS HELP OF ISRAEL AND U.S. JEWS TO FIGHT U.S. SENATE
RESOLUTION MARKING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By WOLF BLITZER ; Jerusalem Post Correspondent and news agencies; Asher Wallfish;
939 words
24 October 1989
The Jerusalem Post
(Copyright 1989)

WASHINGTON - Turkey has asked Israel, its supporters in Congress and the American Jewish
community to help kill a proposed Senate resolution commemorating the 75th anniversary of the
Ottomon Empire's genocide of Armenians.
Quietly, Israeli diplomats and some American Jewish political activists have agreed to help Turkey
even as other American Jewish leaders have complained that they have no business intervening in such
a sensitive matter.
But sources at two Jewish groups, who asked that neither they nor their organizations be identified, said
the request had placed them in a quandary since the natural inclination of American Jewry had been to
support the resolution.
"As a people which was itself a victim of genocide, we feel natural sympathy for the Armenians. But
Israel wants to foster its relations with Turkey, which it views with great importance," said one source.
One major Jewish-American organization prepared a press release supporting the resolution, but "it was
killed at the last minute before being issued," one of the sources said.
Turkey bitterly denies that any Armenian genocide ever took place.
The politically explosive amendment, sponsored by Republican minority leader Robert Dole of Kansas,
was narrowly approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee by a vote of 8-6.
A last-minute compromise effort by Democratic Senator Howard Metzenbaum, who is Jewish, to
soften the language of the bill in order to ease Turkey's concerns was defeated by a 7-7 vote.
So far, Dole has not moved to get the legislation scheduled for a full Senate vote.
The Bush administration opposes the legislation, fearing that it could upset U.S. relations with Turkey,
an important Nato ally.
An editorial last week in The Wall Street Journal adopted a similar position, also recalling that Turkey
has recently been forced to accept hundreds of thousands of Turkish refugees from Bulgaria as well as
Kurdish and other refugees from Iraq and Iran.
An Israel Embassy source yesterday refused to comment on the matter, insisting only that Israeli
diplomats were closely following the situation.
Over the years, Turkey has often sought to enlist the support of Israel and its politically influential
backers in the U.S.
Usually, according to informed sources in Washington, the Turkish government has first put pressure
on Turkey's small Jewish community to ask for such political assistance from Israel and the American
Jewish community.
Paul Berger, a well-known and influential Washington lawyer and Jewish activist, has been formally
retained by the Turkish Jewish community.
The Turkish government, for its part, has hired International Advisers, Inc., a recently-created firm of
political consultants to lobby on its behalf in Washington. Among those involved in the firm are
Richard Perle, a former assistant secretary of defence in the Reagan administration; Douglas Feith, a
former aide to Perle at the Pentagon; and Mark Epstein, a former Washington director of the Union of
Councils for Soviet Jews. All of them are Jewish.
Morris Amitay, another powerful Washington lawyer and former executive director of the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the pro-Israeli lobby in Washington, is now winding up a six-
month association with International Advisers.
Israeli officials, over the years, have feared that Turkey might reduce the level of its diplomatic
relationship with Israel unless it quietly helped the Turks in Washington. Last week, Israel was
delighted when Turkey, a Moslem country, voted against a Libyan-sponsored resolution at the UN
General Assembly to reject Israel's credentials. Last year, Turkey abstained.
Although the 1915-1923 massacres in which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians died took place before
the emergence of the modern Turkish state from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, Turks view the
genocide accusation as a blood libel.
"It is not the job of the U.S. Congress to pass judgments on history. We believe the charge of genocide
is a false charge and extremely offensive to Turks," said Daryal Batibay, deputy chief of mission at the
Turkish Embassy. Turkish officials have said passage of the resolution would poison relations with
Washington.
A State Department spokeswoman said last week that "the administration ... hopes Congress can
respond to the concerns of the Armenian people in a manner that does not offend our vital friend and
ally, the Republic of Turkey."
If the full Senate passes the resolution, April 24, 1990 will be declared a day commemorating the
Armenian genocide.
Batibay said the resolution was losing support and 15 senators had withdrawn their names from the list
of co-sponsors. According to the Jewish sources, most American Jewish organizations had decided to
stay out of the dispute. But if asked their opinions by legislators, many were expected to follow the
administration line.
(BOX) MKs back efforts to remember massacres
Fifteen MKs from six factions in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee have signed a
statement of support for "efforts to preserve the memory of the Armenian massacres during World War
I."
The signatories condemned "all efforts to consign mass murders of any kind to oblivion."
The MKs declared that "we can comprehend the sufferings of the Armenians because we too are a
persecuted ... people."
The l5 are from the Alignment, the Likud, Mapam, the Citizens Rights Movement, the National
Religious Party and Agudat Israel. Factions which are not represented on the committee were not asked
to sign the statement.
The 15 MKs did not mention the word "Turk" at any point.