Don’t forget to write

Published: Saturday March 17, 2007

The Armenian Genocide resolution in the House of Representatives has the support of over 40 percent of the members of the House. To date, 182 members have signed up as cosponsors, joining Rep. Adam Schiff, who introduced the resolution.

The Genocide resolution also has powerful opponents, however, among them the government of Turkey and the executive branch of the United States government.

With such opponents, supporters of the Genocide resolution cannot take anything for granted. The fight for the resolution is going to be difficult and ugly.

We reported last week that some of the opponents of the resolution acknowledge that they've "lost the battle for history." Former U.S. ambassador to Turkey Morton Abramowitz said, "I think Turkey has lost, here at least, the battle of history. I don't think there is anything you can do here which will convince legislators that this is an open question, that you got to leave it to the historians. I don't think that it is, rightly or wrongly, an effective argument here."

But Mr. Abramowitz was not suggesting giving up the fight against the resolution. He was simply suggesting a shift in tactics. The focus, he argued, should be on the alleged importance of Turkey to the United States.

Already, we see a concerted effort to sway the opinion of lawmakers through the columns of influential newspapers. The Wall Street Journal on March 3 published an article by Mark Parris, another former ambassador to Turkey, saying the resolution will result in "a train wreck with an important, long­standing American ally: Turkey." The Washington Times on February 20 ran an editorial under the title, "Pelosi's pandering against Turkey." The Washington Post's op-ed columnist Jackson Diehl weighed in with a condescending article titled, "The House's Ottoman Agenda," claiming the resolution "has the potential to explode U.S. relations with Turkey, sway the outcome of upcoming Turkish elections and spill over into several other strategic American interests, including Iraq and Iran."

Armenian-Americans are usually diligent about responding to such articles. That there is an onslaught of them should not deter us; nor should we be content with responding to only one of them.

Kudos to those who have made the effort to respond. On this page, we reprint the letters of the Armenian National Committee of America's chair, Ken Hachikian, Dr. Dikran Abrahamian from Canada, and USAPAC's Ross Vartian, published in the Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, the Washington Times published responses by Nick Larigakis, executive director of the American Hellenic Institute; Jules Boyadjian of the Armenian Youth Federation, Valence, France; Leon Baronian of Los Angeles; and Stephen S. Elgin of Bethesda, Md.

Of course, we need not wait for articles, good and bad, to write letters to the editor. Nor must the paper be a Washington or national paper; elected officials are sensitive to opinions expressed in their local papers.

Most newspapers make guidelines available for letters to the editor. It's good to consult these guidelines and follow them. It's also good to match the length of previous letters the paper may have published on foreign-policy issues. The challenge is to write respectfully and persuasively.

The sheer number of responses also contributes to at least one of the submissions being selected for publication.  If the editors get a high number of replies, then they know they hit a nerve and cannot or should not ignore the subject.

Last week we urged our readers to write to their representatives in the House and to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Let us meanwhile be vigilant about what the national and local media have to say and be diligent and prompt in letting our views be known.

After 92 years, we know we have justice and truth on our side. But after three decades of pursuing this cause through Congress, we have learned that justice and truth are not always enough to win the day, at least in the short term. Especially because victory seems so close this time, we cannot afford to slacken our efforts to see this resolution passed. We know all too well that its opponents will try to give all manner of extraneous reasons to derail the resolution once again. But at the end of the day, the voice of the people counts for something, too. And that voice - your voice - needs to be heard.