Attendees Cite ADL’s Opposition to Armenian Genocide Recognition
ANCEM PRESS RELEASE
BELMONT, MA – Over 100 residents applauded the Belmont, MA Human Rights Commission September 6th decision to unanimously call on the local Board of Selectmen to sever ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), citing their ongoing opposition to Armenian Genocide recognition, reported the Armenian National Committee of Eastern Massachusetts (ANC-EM).
Belmont Human Rights Commission (BHRC) Chairwoman Laurie Graham presided over the town hall meeting which featured a groundswell of poignant statements by residents of Armenian, Jewish and diverse backgrounds citing that opposition to Armenian Genocide recognition is offensive to local citizenry and runs counter to the most basic principles of a local program promoting tolerance and human rights.
“We applaud the Belmont Human Rights Commission for standing up for truth and human dignity by rejecting ties with the ADL - an organization against Armenian Genocide recognition,” stated Aram Kaligian of the ANC-EM. “In Belmont and cities across Massachusetts, we are seeing democracy in action – our diverse communities speaking out, collectively, to support U.S. 
reaffirmation of the Armenian Genocide, in our ongoing struggle to stamp out genocide around the world.”
Belmont Armenian American community activist Lenna Garibian, a grand daughter of genocide survivors, stated that the question at hand was not about the reality of the Armenian Genocide but about the moral imperative to speak openly and honestly about this crime against humanity. “No Armenian should sit with a revisionist Turkish historian… to discuss whether the genocide happened or not. The world knows. Turkey knows. [ADL director] Abe Foxman knows. This was a genocide," explained Garibian who went on to note that HRC decision “sets a good tone moving forward, that Belmont will not tolerate an equivocation of the truth, of justice."
That sentiment was echoed throughout speeches given during the evening, with emphasis on ending Genocide and Holocaust denial in all forms. Massachusetts State Assemblywoman Rachel Kaprielian cited the resurging trend of Holocaust denial worldwide as survivors pass away and a political gap between the younger and older generations widens. “The survivors see what is coming down the road, just as their parents saw it,” explained Kaprielian. “You have so much power and ability to say to our government, ‘This is fact’, while there are still survivors alive,” continued Kaprielian.
Speakers also focused on U.S. affirmation of the Armenian Genocide, and overall commitment to ending this crime against humanity. Belmont resident Joyce Barsam quoted author Samantha Powers from her Pulitzer Prize winning book A Problem From Hell,stating “If only America had been made of more upstanders, instead of bystanders- America would be in a very different position today.” Barsam continued, stating “I am asking this committee to be upstanders instead of bystanders of the Armenian Genocide. We hope you stand up for the truth and the human rights that you are commissioned to support.”
Expressing concern about the ADL’s opposition to Armenian Genocide legislation citing the safety of Jews in Turkey, Belmont resident Lisa Sedrakian argued that “if Jews are affected in Turkey, it will be the Turks to blame, not the Armenian-American community.”
Watertown Town Council Member and sponsor of the resolution severing her town’s ties with the ADL Marilyn Petitto Devaney was forceful in her demands that the National ADL end its campaign against the Armenian Genocide Resolution. “I want the 
National ADL to stop lobbying to kill the Genocide Resolution [in Congress and the House], as they have done for years. This could be the year we prevail.”
Dr. Jack Nusan Porter, former Rabbi, Director of the Spencer Institute and a treasurer of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, who has been an outspoken opponent to the ADL's opposition to Armenian Genocide recognition, stated `I fear for the future of the ADL. I think this could tear it apart. You must send a powerful message to sever ties with the ADL now.'
ANC Eastern Massachusetts Representative Aram Kaligian was clear in the Armenian American community’s request of the BHRC members. “We urge you to stand with the Armenian American and Jewish American communities in helping the ADL national leadership come to the right side on this issue,” explained Kaligian, calling for unambiguous affirmation of the Armenian Genocide and support for Armenian Genocide legislation. Kaligian went on to urge attendees to “get the phone numbers of the Town Selectmen here, and call them and let them know how you feel about the ADL’s attempts to cast doubt on the tragic events of 1915. . . And if you think that you might feel a little uncomfortable calling up a stranger and telling him how you feel about the denial of the Armenian Genocide, I want you to remember the stories your grandparents told you about how they walked through the desert. . . They had the courage to live through these atrocities, the least we can do is have the courage to pick up the phone and call our Town Selectmen and demand that they not tarnish the memory of our grandparents.”
The BHRC voted overwhelmingly to sever ties with the ADL – a decision considered seriously by two Belmont Selectmen present at the proceedings. According to the Belmont Citizen Herald, Selectman Paul Solomon said “he was in total support of the HRC's position. ‘This is in advance of the [selectmen's discussion], but I will support their stand.’” Selectman Dan Leclerc stated he was “in the process of processing [the decision.]”
The BHRC vote to sever ties comes as cities affiliated with the ADL’s “No Place for Hate” tolerance program throughout Massachusetts reconsider their ties to an organization with a history of Armenian Genocide denial and which continues to oppose Congressional Armenian Genocide legislation (H.Res.106 /S.Res.106). Watertown was the first to disaffiliate with the tainted NPFH program, followed by a suspension of ties by Arlington, and decisions by the towns of Newton, Needham, Newburyport, Bedford to cut ties if the ADL does not alter its policies on the Armenian Genocide.
For complete information about the Abe Foxman / ADL controversy surrounding the Armenian Genocide visit http://www.noplacefordenial.com/
Memorable Remarks from the Belmont Human Rights Commission Hearing on Severing Ties with the ADL Due to its Opposition to Armenian Genocide Recognition
Commissioner Conny Williams (Belmont)
Belmont Human Rights Commission
“I am suggesting that we sever our ties because we think the ADL is inconsistent in its proclamation of being against human rights violations and of fostering No Place for Hate. I would not want to express this with any reluctance….The pain that I feel is that an organization that is sponsoring this program [NPFH] could take this stance that it has taken.”
Rachel Kaprielian (Watertown)
Massachusetts State House Delegate
“In communities like Belmont, like the other communities that have NPFH, it isn’t just about acknowledging the Armenian Genocide, it’s acknowledging all genocides. Here, now, in the future. This is an important moment in time. It would be such an incredible experience to see a resolution passed when there are still survivors left on Earth.”
Marilyn Petitto Devaney (Watertown)
Member of the Watertown Town Council
“I was asked by the Local NPFH committee in Watertown to give them 90 days. The Armenian community has been waiting for over 90 years and they [ADL] have deprived the Armenian people from the right to their history. Years ago there was a resolution in Congress to recognize the Holocaust. Who would be against that, who would deprive them from having that resolution, but the ADL has. They said [the ADL] that to have a resolution in Congress would be counterproductive. That resolution for the Holocaust wasn’t counterproductive and this isn’t.”
Michael Collins (Belmont) 
Belmont Against Racism Board Member
“We are very pained by this because on one hand we have been people who have supported the goals of the NPFH campaign, but having listened to everyone here tonight we are going back to our board and recommend that we would be supportive of the Town severing its relationship with the ADL, as much as we really want the work to continue.”
Dr. Jack Nusan Porter (Newton)
Director of the Spencer Institute and a Treasurer of the International Association of Genocide Scholars
“People ask me ‘why would Abe Foxman want to do this?’. I can tell you why. Abe Foxman sees everything through the prism of Israel. The Turkish government has played a kind of a political blackmail and has influenced him [Foxman] by saying that Israel will be harmed. The Turkish Jewish community will be harmed. This is blackmail, this is utter nonsense. The state of Turkey could never enter the EU if it harmed the head of a single Jew in Turkey and if it hurt Israel. But it still uses these tactics and these arguments and they work! My view is that you have to send a powerful message now before the November meetings in which you state categorically that you want to sever ties with the ADL at this moment. It’s not a question that you are against No Place for Hate. We all are in favor of this wonderful program, but you only want to sever the ADL’s connection to it. If the ADL changes its position you can always go back to the ADL connection.”
Aram Kaligian (Belmont)
ANC Eastern Massachusetts Representative
“We urge you to stand with the Armenian American and Jewish American communities in helping the ADL national leadership come to the right side on this issue. We urge the Belmont No Place for Hate committee to sever its ties with the Anti-Defamation League until such time that the organization properly and unambiguously acknowledges the Armenian Genocide and supports congressional affirmation of this crime against humanity. Anything less would jeopardize efforts to protect and uphold the civil rights and dignity of the Belmont’s Armenian-American citizenry.”
Lenna Garibian (Belmont)
“I have two daughters at home, one is 7 the other is 5. The thought of them – the image of them wandering the desert together alone, without me or my husband to protect them, terrifies me. The thought of the two them holding on each other’s hands, not knowing what to do, hungry, weak, and scared---until one of them lets go of the other, chills me. And the thought of one of them having to live with that guilt for the rest of her life, like my grandmother did, so enrages me.”
“For these reasons, it is impossible to accept anything less than unequivocal genocide acknowledgment and support from the ADL and NPFH. However commendable some of its programs are, the NPFH program has no business in this town while the ADL holds to its position. And finally, no, I cannot offer patience, to this process, so that Mr. Foxman can return 
in November with the right spin on the Armenian Genocide.”
David Boyajian (Newton)
“The question may appear to evolve around the Armenian Genocide but it does not. It could be about any genocide. It could be about any issue of human rights that your sponsor distorted for its own political purposes. The issue is simple: if you, as a human rights commission are as serious about human rights as your mission statements say you are, you will sever ties with the ADL without delay.”
Luder Sahakian (Needham)
As the premiere human rights defender in the US, the world community would have expected the ADL to rigorously uphold 
settled history. Instead, the ADL has for over 15 years consciously placed politics over principle, it has parroted Turkish policy, been complicit in genocide denial and continues to oppose congressional resolutions affirming the reality of the Armenian genocide. . . The ADL has depleted its moral authority and legitimacy and cannot be expected to credibly sponsor and manage any anti-hate program so long that it exercises a form of hate itself.”
Rev. Harutunian (Belmont)
“When the Armenians came to this country they found a land of opportunity, particularly here in Massachusetts. This country has offered us so much, but one thing that the United States till now has not offered has been that this would be a land of healing for the Armenian people. Because when you’re victim of a violent crime whether it’s an individual, subgroup or a nation, until the story is validated, accepted, affirmed, and responded to with appropriate outrage, he 
crime continues to scar [them] and that’s truly the story of the Armenians. I can’t imagine a community like this […] wanting to be associated with an organization that is actively hurting our own people in this community. I strongly ask you to reconsider the association that we have with them.”
Lisa Sedrakian (Belmont)
“There can be no reconciliation between Turks and Armenians without Turkey’s recognition of the genocide and its acceptance of the Ottoman government’s role in perpetrating that genocide. There can be no reconciliation without truth. I cannot stand by when the US its 
relationship with Turkey based on ignoring the truth about the Armenian genocide. We should have the ADL’s true commitment and conviction behind their position on the Armenian Genocide before we, the town of Belmont, have a relationship with them.”
Joyce Barsam (Belmont)
“Every person in this room has a story, an odyssey of how we happen to be here instead of living in Turkey. I want to bring to the committee’s attention a very important distinction that Samantha Powers made in her book ‘A Problem From Hell’. ‘If America had been made up of more upstanders instead of bystanders, we would be in a very different position today’. I am asking this committee to be upstanders instead of bystanders of the Armenian Genocide. We hope you stand up for the truth and the human rights that you are commissioned to support.”
Jirair Hovsepian (Belmont) 
“The ADL has been operating in a selective manner by which to defend human rights. It would pick and choose which human rights issue to defend and which to ignore, or even sidestep or diminish some issues of human rights violations of the magnitude of the Holocaust such as the Armenian genocide. It would politicize a human rights issue, while its ‘ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike’(quoting from the ADL 1913 charter). The ADL has lost the moral ground and cannot be trusted to guide and protect the human rights values of all our fellow citizens in Belmont.”
BELMONT HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION UNANIMOUSLY VOTES TO SEVER TIES WITH THE ADL
