By Appo Jabarian / Executive Publisher/Managing Editor / USA Armenian Life Magazine
For nearly a century, Turkey has been aggressively spending millions of dollars in the international arena in order to push forward its denialist agenda on the Armenian Genocide.Besides monetary resources, Ankara has been making major efforts to bully various nations away from recognition of the Genocide.
But all the expenditures and efforts continue to prove futile. The Turkish Genocide of Armenians has now become a universally recognized fact. Placing the final nail on the coffin of Turkish denialism is the U.N. International Court of Justice. This week, the official website of the United Nations’ International Court of Justice has featured Publisher of The California Courier Harut Sassounian’s groundbreaking article titled “All Three Branches of US government Recognize the Armenian Genocide.”
Thanks to Sassounian’s timely article, the U.S. record on recognition of the Armenian Genocide has once and for all been put in a strong perspective. Sassounian’s research on U.S. legal actions on the facts of the Genocide has revealed that “With all three independent branches of the US government going on record reaffirming the Armenian Genocide, the United States has gained its rightful place in the list of righteous nations that have recognized the Armenian Genocide. In fact, in many respects, the United States has compiled a more extensive record of acknowledging the Armenian Genocide than most other countries that have merely adopted a legislative resolution on this issue.”
During the last few years, while certain Armenian American lobbyists sadly opted for spinning the wheel on Genocide recognition, many activists clamored for more accomplishments in the nation’s capital, and in U.S. and international corridors of powers.
Various Armenian American lobbying groups can do more good if they take into consideration the common knowledge that the Genocide is a universally recognized fact, and that Armenian Americans collectively may move on to addressing a host of vital issues:
1) On the home front, they can make efforts to
Actively encourage the Armenian American youth to enter politics;
Inspire larger circles of Armenian American youth to serve this great country by enlisting in the armed forces;
Pave the way for increased Armenian American participation in local, state, and federal government elected offices and workforce;
2) On the lobbying front,
Propose congressional resolutions officially condemning Turkey’s dismal record on human rights and on Ankara’s suppression of the identity of ethnic minorities in Turkey;
Propose other Congressional resolutions calling on Turkey to abolish its unfair and universally rejected repressive law — Article 301 on the so-called “insulting Turkishness;”
3) On the Armenian Cause, in conjunction with world Armenians, Armenian Americans need to
Develop a short-term and long-term master plan on the successful resolution of the Armenian Cause;
Co-ordinate worldwide boycott of tourism to Turkey and its exported products;
Promote divestment of Turkey;
Alert nations of the world on the threats posed by the re-emergence of Pan-Turkism or Pan-Turanism that actively promote the creation of the New Turkish Ottoman Empire; and last but certainly not least,
4) On Armenia and Artsakh, it is vital that Armenian Americans focus more on
Assisting the people of Armenia in containing post-Soviet corruption, monopolies, nepotism and gross mismanagement of Armenia’s natural and national resources;
Pursuing continuous renewal of U.S. foreign policy on military assistance parity to Armenia and Azerbaijan;
Soliciting increased foreign aid to Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno Karabagh);
Urging formal U.S. recognition of Republic of Artsakh’s independence;
Ensuring Armenia-Artsakh’s consolidation of its political, economic, social and military strengths;
Lobby for freezing U.S. foreign aid to, and U.S. investments in Azerbaijan as long as Baku fails to stop its military aggression against Artsakh (Nagorno Karabagh) and Armenia.
While it is necessary for Armenian Americans to be vigilant on the issue of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide; and be willing to punish the deniers, they should also rearrange their list of priorities, and re-channel their resources.
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