Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 1989, Page 17
Special Report
Israel Lobby Joins Turks to Oppose Armenian Remembrance Resolution
By Claudia Wright
The Turkish government has been joined by the Israeli Embassy and its Washington lobbyists in a battle to stop the US Senate from establishing a national day of remembrance for Armenian victims of massacre and deportations during World War I.
In Jerusalem, Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Arens explained Israel's opposition to the Armenian legislation by linking it to Türkiye's vote this year against expulsion of Israel from the UN General Assembly.
Türkiye Taken by Surprise
The national day resolution was timed by the Armenian Assembly of America to take the Turks by surprise. On Sept. 29, Senate Republican leader Robert Dole of Kansas introduced a bill designating April 24, 1990, as a day of remembrance for "genocide" of the Armenian people from 1915 to 1923.
"I do not believe," Dole declared, "that Senate action on this resolution need in any way affect our strong security ties with Türkiye, nor our close friendship with the Turkish people." Earlier, discreet negotiations between State Department officials and Armenian representatives had modified the text of the resolution so that the actions are explicitly identified with the "governments of the Ottoman Empire. . . prior to the establishment of the Republic of Türkiye."
Taken unawares by the Dole move, which at the outset was co-sponsored by 56 senators, Turkish officials rejected the language as unacceptable, and restricted US military operations in Türkiye and suspended construction at some US bases.
There are personal as well as political factors in the current debate. After Dole was severely wounded in World War II, he was treated for many years by an Armenian doctor. He reportedly attributes his rehabilitation from his wounds to this doctor's efforts.
On a visit to Soviet Armenia last August, Dole was asked by an Armenian journalist about his attitude toward the genocide resolution. "My position is Armenia's position," Dole said. After returning from Yerevan, Dole prepared legislation for the commemorative resolution, as well as for five million dollars in additional US aid to Armenia for earthquake relief.
During the last presidential election, Dole, then-Vice President Bush and Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis all issued statements explicitly endorsing the Armenian Day of Remembrance.
In addition, Senator George Mitchell, the Democratic leader in the Senate, has his own election debt to the Armenian community. Gus Barber, an Armenian American from Maine who has been a major financier of Mitchell's campaigns, is pressing the senator to honor his past pledges.
Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY), who supports the Turks on the issue, acknowledges he has been the target "of the greatest lobbying campaign that I've had for a little while." In the first test of strength, Senator Simpson persuaded the Judiciary Committee to postpone consideration until Oct. 17.
The White House then dispatched national security adviser General Brent Scowcroft to tell senators that the bill would endanger US security interests in Türkiye. US Ambassador to Türkiye Morton Abramowitz-a long-time friend of the Jewish community in Türkiye-was recalled to Washington to lobby the Senate.
The Judiciary Committee nevertheless voted 8 to 6 to send the resolution to the floor of the Senate. Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) sought to gain more time for the Turkish effort by putting a hold on any floor action, and on Oct. 18 the State Department announced it was opposing the resolution. "We hope the Congress can respond to the concerns of the Armenian community in a manner that does not gravely offend our vital ally and friend, the Republic of Türkiye," spokesperson Margaret Tutwiler explained.
In a sharp reaction, Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) then reopened old Senate reports of the genocide. He was joined in a colloquy with Senator Claiborne Pell, the Democratic chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, which appears in the Congressional Record for Oct. 20, and reveals the current Turkish fear, shared in US military circles, of resurgent nationalism in Armenia and the other Caucasian republics bordering Türkiye.
Israeli Role an Embarrassment
The role of American Jews and the Israel lobby on the Turkish side has proved to be visible and embarrassing. Senate officials first warned the Armenians that the Turks had mobilized the support of Israel's Ambassador to the US, Moshe Arad, and other Israeli diplomats. In addition, the Jewish community in Türkiye engaged a Washington lawyer, Paul Berger, to lobby senators, and has sent a Turkish Jewish representative, Lorry Burla, to Washington to assist him.
International Advisors, Inc. (IAI), the lobbying firm created last January by former head of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Morris Amitay, to join in the fight. IAI is backed by the law firm of Feith and Zell, which has a branch in Tel Aviv.
Details of their activities provoked controversy among Israelis and American Jewish groups who recalled Hitler's comment, when plotting the Nazi liquidation of European Jews: "Who remembers the Armenians?"
Knesset Member Yossi Sarid declared in Jerusalem: "The Israeli intervention is scandalous. The Jews should be the last to join in denying the existence of another genocide."
This was precisely what two Jewish senators, Howard Metzenbaum and Arlen Specter, did. During the Judiciary Committee debate on Oct. 17 they reversed their earlier support for the Armenian resolution and adopted the Turkish position. Metzenbaum said: "The loss of life of the Jews in Germany, I think that was genocide. Certainly something like 1.4 million Armenians lost their lives. . . But I believe it goes too far to describe it as genocide."
Specter repeated the line. "The difference is that there is no one who disputes that there was a Holocaust involving the murder and genocide of 6 million Jews. . . I have gone through the materials [regarding the Armenians] and I do not believe, based upon the information at hand, it is possible to make a conclusive determination."
In their effort to uncover the Senate record of the Armenian genocide, senators also revealed the strategic threat to current US military interests in Türkiye which Armenian nationalism represents. In 1919 President Woodrow Wilson drew a map of an expanded republic of Armenia, which the US planned to support during the treaty negotiations with Germany after World War I.
This territory included all of what is today the Soviet Republic of Armenia, together with the Turkish provinces of Van, Bitlis, Diyarbakir and Erzurum. In effect, the 1919 American plan for Armenia would have eliminated much of eastern Türkiye. This is the region where today the US has military installations targeted on the Soviet Union.
Claudia Wright is a Washington correspondent for publications in the United States and Europe.
