Clark Recognizes Armenian Genocide

[gamavor]

Armenian National Committee of America

888 17th St., NW, Suite 904

Washington, DC 20006

Tel: (202) 775-1918

Fax: (202) 775-5648

E-mail: anca@anca.org

Internet: www.anca.org

 

PRESS RELEASE

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 15, 2003

Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian

Tel: (202) 775-1918

 

CLARK ISSUES STATEMENT RECOGNIZING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

 

-- "What happened in 1915 was genocide," states Democratic

Presidential Candidate

 

WASHINGTON, DC - Democratic Presidential Candidate General Wesley

Clark discussed the horrors of the Armenian Genocide and called for

strengthened U.S. resolve to prevent future atrocities, reported

the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA.)

 

In an open letter to the Armenian American community, transmitted

to the ANCA earlier today, General Clark referenced the efforts of

the United States and NATO allies to stop the atrocities in the

Balkans in 1999. "Back in 1915, Armenians in the Ottoman Empire

got no such rescue," explained Clark. Noting that the Ottoman

Turkish authorities "rounded up and executed Armenian leaders in

Constantinople and other towns, they desecrated Armenian churches,

and they ordered the deportation of the Armenian people," Clark

stated "what happened in 1915 was genocide."

 

General Clark concluded that while many of the survivors of the

Armenian Genocide who had sought safe haven in the United States

have passed away, "we owe it to their memory, and to the memory of

the hundreds of thousands who perished, to never forget the

Armenian genocide, and to strengthen our commitment to preventing

such horrors in the future."

 

"We welcome General Clark's recognition of the Armenian Genocide,

his commitment to ensuring that those who perished are never

forgotten, and his dedication to preventing such horrors in the

future," said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. "We look

forward to sharing Mr. Clark's views with Armenian American voters

throughout the United States as part of our expanding ANCA Voter

Education Campaign."

 

The full text of General Clark's statement is provided below.

 

#####

 

FULL TEXT OF STATEMENT BY DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

GENERAL WESLEY K. CLARK (Ret.)

 

 

CLARK 04

www.clark04.com

 

December 12, 2003

 

OPEN LETTER TO THE ARMENIAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY

 

In 1999, while I served as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, I

had the privilege of commanding a NATO operation that prevented a

genocide in the Balkans. The United States and its NATO allies

halted atrocities being perpetrated against Kosovo Albanians and

gave the Albanians the freedom they needed to shape their own

destinies. Back in 1915, Armenians in the Ottoman Empire got no

such rescue.

 

Under the cover of World War I, the Ottoman authorities rounded up

and executed Armenian leaders in Constantinople and other towns,

they desecrated Armenian churches, and they ordered the deportation

of the Armenian people, sending hundreds of thousands of men, women

and children, old and young, into the barren desert, where were

murdered en route, or where they died of starvation and disease.

The precise death toll is unknowable, but it is likely that some

one million Armenians were killed. What happened in 1915 was

genocide.

 

Nearly ninety years have passed since these horrors were

perpetrated, and most of the Armenians who miraculously managed to

survive the slaughter have passed away. The United States welcomed

many of these Armenian survivors as refugees, and we embraced them

as citizens. We owe it to their memory, and to the memory of the

hundreds of thousands who perished, to never forget the Armenian

genocide, and to strengthen our commitment to preventing such

horrors in the future.

 

Sincerely,

 

General Wesley K. Clark (Ret.)

 

 

Just to remind you that General Clark was very close to ignite a III World War when he ordered British troops to attack the Russian contingent in Kosovo during the Airport ordeal. I saw the "General" the other day on the TV crying for the moslem victims of the ethnic cleansing in former Yougoslavia, but I haven't seen him crying for the thousends 'cleansed' serbs and croats from the adjacent areas.

His statement about Armenian Genocide is simply political trick.

[phantom]

I think we should ask this Clark bozo what it was that effected such a profound change in his attitude towards the Genocide? And why should we trust what he has to say now? It wasn't that long ago that he helped kill the Genocide Resolution, and now all of a sudden he has seen the light!

[gamavor]

Don't trust them - ridicule them! Anglo-Saxo-Jewish monkeys!!!

[America-Hye]

A number of influential Armenians are in key positions in his campaign. The ANCA leadership have been attempting to open his eyes for some months now. What has your boy Bush done vis-a-vis the Genocide? You know what I think that you guys can do with your arch-conservative political views. The plane to take you back where you came from is waiting on the tarmac.

[Stormig]

Of course he is going to recognize it. He has to do better than George W. Bush whom a lot of Armenians fell for because he promised to have it recognized. What's the next step?

[Vigil]

I hope this potential presidential candidate will end the forgotten fire between Armenians and Turks. The bigger governments are the ones that play these political tennis matches that end up creating more problems for everyone. I am positive that if the international community wanted to recognize the genocide, which is a violation of international human right laws, it would bring an age of peace in that region. Tragically, it does not push for reconcilation and forces two groups of people to hate one another for crimes commited by another government in an age of nationalistic ideals.

 

RoA has tried its best to be civil and is trying to formalize relations, but what Turkey is asking in return is a disgrace to our people and our past. I would rather die then see the day that we have to swallow our pride and spit on the graves of our dead ancestors for the sake of opening borders. The Turkish government must fess up to its actions and as long as it does not people will look down on its countrie's past.

 

Hitler once asked "who now remembers the Armenians?" and judging from the stance of the international community no one does.

Edited May 31, 2004 by Vigil

[Armat]

Generally underdogs will say anything to every minory group to get votes specially when they know they're down on every poll.He's got no chance of winning.Why throw away the votes.

I voted for Ralph Nadur and he end up taking precious votes from Gore.That was really stupid.If Ralphy stepped down early, Gore would have been the president and no gulf war etc.

[THOTH]

No Armat - nader was the right choice for you - I voted for him as well - and will gladly do so again. If Gore didn't do what he had to do to deserve your vote then he shouldnt have gotten it...even though the final esults were ahall we say less then desireable....(but they didn't rest on the actual vote count anyway...did it much....)

[Armat]

Thoth I hear you but since he knew he had no chance of winning then he should of indorsed Gore.He got selfish in the end.I would have rather seen Gore as the president then Bush.

[gamavor]

For too long American political campaigns have drained significant part of financial resources of the Armenian Diaspora for futile causes. Every single hard earned Armenian cent invested into foreign political campaigns is just treachery. Instead, invest in the future of Armenia. At least there will be pay off at the end. During the Bush campaign an Armenian co-student of him donated $200,000.00 for his election, instead of donating valuable medical equipment for some Armenian hospitals. Our common future is the well being of Armenia. The rest is immaterial. I realize that there are some 'business necessities' that dictate some kind of participation, but beyond that is just sheer idiotism.

I will post some more on this topic, just to show you the hypocrisy of the candidates. The only democratic candidate that worths consideration is John Kerry. You know why? He looks like Armenian!!!

[vika182]

Nader was the right choice and had we had a more intelligent public, he would have won...sadly, we live in America....

 

anyway everyone "recognizes" the genocide in their ellection campaigns....its all crap, we need to stop voting for these wasp children of millionaires who hove no clue how to govern...gore sucked too....better than bush, but still bad.

 

anyway gore won, but the us system is so dumb they cant even count votes...or vote correctly for that matter.

 

why cant intelligent people ever win in politics? we need to diversify the politcal system....one catholic president in US history and everyone else was an ugly middle aged male wasp...not a good thing in "the most advances country" in the world. india even had a female Pres...were very far behind.

 

America is a bastard, you want a country where people are smart, politics is just youre in the wrong place... they will never recognize the genocide here...puch is enjoying the ass hes getting from turkey way too much.

 

did you hear about him detaining uc citizens in a naval prison and taking away their rights to see a lawyer, etc? yet hes criticiszing Chirac for the stupid head scarf thing...no ones buying it georgy...they know you are a power hungry, money hungry, selfish pirck.

 

well good bye, i can already hear the cia coming up the steps to arrest me...

[Armat]

Vika

where are you writing from?Don't worry about Bush He has to arrest more then half of the US population now.

 

Gamavor

I disagree with you.Political involvement is critical for Armenia.Sucessful model here are jews(not to bring this again but true)Jews cotribute heavily to both parties and you know the rest.

You want influance you got to pay or be like 60 million silent spanish speaking "minority" without any voice.

Edited December 18, 2003 by Armat

[gamavor]

Armat, what you are saying is what I call 'business necessities'!

[vika182]

Im in manhattan, i go to columbia here....

 

being politically active is important, but we need to become more powerful....become involved in things, what i meant is that we cant vote for people who just claim theyre going to recognize the genocide becuase they lie...turkey is too important to the us. they were very important to france and swiz too...but in those countires, history and the truth matters.

 

US is just like engliand, politicians who dont care about justice...we need to take things into our own hands...like get through th media, get involced in the shool systems...its a longshot for the US to accept the genocide when no one here knows that it happened.

 

were making headway....in my european history classes, the genocide was actually mentioned in the textbook, lol, and were not on pbs, and are vaguely being mentioned in movies and tv shows...and system of a down is doing a HUGE job...thats what we need to do, thats how the jews did it, with movies like schindler's list and with getting their story told in the school system. we need to convert the public before wer can convert the politicans.

 

everyone knows how horrible turkey is and everyone realizes in secret documents that karabagh belongs to armenia...but they will never come out and say it.

[Armat]

Why Did Presidential Candidate Clark

Switch Sides on Armenian Genocide?

 

By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

 

Democratic Presidential Candidate General Wesley Clark issued a statement on

December 15, 2003, recognizing the Armenian Genocide. "The Ottoman

authorities rounded up and executed Armenian leaders in Constantinople and

other towns, they desecrated Armenian churches, and they ordered the

deportation of the Armenian people, sending hundreds of thousands of men,

women and children, old and young, into the barren desert, where [they] were

murdered en route, or where they died of starvation and disease," Clark

said. "What happened in 1915 was genocide."

 

He concluded by saying: "We owe it to their memory, and to the memory of the

hundreds of thousands who perished, to never forget the Armenian Genocide,

and to strengthen our commitment to preventing such horrors in the future."

Armenian-Americans obviously welcome the statement of General Clark who

served as NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Europe. The recognition of the

Armenian Genocide by Clark is politically significant since he could be the

next President or Vice President of the United States. In fact, during a

talk show last Sunday, Clark said that Howard Dean, who is currently the

leading Democratic presidential contender, had asked him to be his running

mate.

 

Gen. Clark's position on the Armenian Genocide is also important because of

his Jewish background which makes him particularly sensitive to crimes

against humanity. Even though he was raised a Southern Baptist by his mother

(his father died when he was 4 and his mother remarried), Clark told the

Jewish magazine, the Forward last January that he descends from "generations

of rabbis" from Minsk. Clark cited his Jewish heritage for feeling "sick"

that in 1994 the "U.S. didn't encourage the U.N. to stop the genocide" in

Rwanda.

 

While Armenian-Americans appreciate Gen. Clark's recognition of the Armenian

Genocide, they cannot forget the fact that three years earlier he signed a

statement along with several others, including notorious genocide denier

Richard Perle, the former Assistant Secretary of Defense, urging the House

International Relations Committee to reject the then pending congressional

resolution on the Armenian Genocide.Here are brief excerpts from the lengthy letter signed by General Clark:

"The potential for damage to U.S. interests in a vital region dramatically

outweighs, in our judgment, any acknowledgment of past atrocities during

World War I and its aftermath.... Now is not the time to test the will of an

indispensable ally which, for over forty years, has proven its loyalty and

strategic importance.... Turkey's cooperation is essential to promote U.S.

strategic interests in the region. Yet with the adoption of this resolution,

no Turkish government will be able to be as forthcoming as in the past,

given its public's strong sensitivities to events clouded by history....

Passage of the resolution would strengthen the hand of those in Turkey who

oppose Turkey's further integration into the West and would deliver a severe

blow to U.S. interests in the region. We urge you to carefully weigh the

implications of this resolution and vote against wherever it may be

considered, either in committee or on the House floor."

 

This potentially damaging letter, signed by 13 former high-ranking military

and intelligence officials, arrived just before the Committee voted on the

Armenian Genocide resolution. The Committee, nevertheless, approved the

resolution by a vote of 24 in favor and 11 against.

Gen. Clark and his supporters can make the case that he is only now

recognizing the Armenian Genocide after learning more about this issue. He

certainly should not be faulted for deciding to side with the truth. But he

should know that some might question his sincerity co nsidering that his

change of mind occurred in the midst of a presidential campaign.

In order to make his statement more convincing, Gen. Clark needs to provide

the following explanations to the Armenian-American community:

 

1) Why did he agree to sign that letter in October 2000, opposing the

Armenian Genocide resolution?

 

2) Does he still subscribe to the faulty notion that the Genocide resolution

would have damaged U.S. national interests?

 

3) Would he as President support a congressional resolution on the Armenian

Genocide? His Dec. 15, 2003 statement does not state if he would support

such a resolution.

 

4) Would he place his Dec. 15, 2003 statement as well as his answers to the

above four questions on his campaign web site (http://www.clark04.com/)?

Armenian-Americans have been taken for a ride before by many presidential

candidates -- George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald

Reagan -- who did not keep their campaign promises after the election.

Unless Gen. Clark addresses the above issues, his statement of Dec. 15, 2003

will not get him the level of support he seeks from the Armenian-American

community.