InternationalActivists protest Wilson Center award to Turkish FM
Ask for congressional inquiry
Published: Thursday May 20, 2010
Ahmet Davutoglu. Armenian Reporter
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Washington - Plans by a Washington think tank to award Turkey's foreign minister have generated protests by Armenian American activists.
According to Turkish media reports, Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, a congressionally-funded entity that is part of the Smithsonian Institution, selected Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as a recipient of its public service award to be presented in Turkey on June 17.
Additionally, Turkish billionaire Ferit Sahenk who chairs the Turkish-U.S. Business Council (TAIK), is due to receive an award for "corporate citizenship."
Massachusetts activist David Boyajian initiated the campaign publishing a commentary about Wilson Center's plans on May 8. Boyajian has since been joined by others writing letters of protest both to the Wilson Center and Congress.
On May 19, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) issued an action alert urging Armenian American and other anti-genocide activists to ask members of Congress to look into the Center's decision.
"This award dishonors President Wilson's vision of justice for the Armenian nation," the ANCA-prepared letter argued.
"Mr. Davutoglu represents a government that, in its aggressive denial of the Armenian Genocide and ongoing obstruction of justice for the Armenian nation, makes a mockery of the Wilson Center and its founding commitment to fostering scholarship commemorating 'the ideals and concerns of Woodrow Wilson.'"
Letters of protests have noted President Wilson's leadership in condemning the Armenian Genocide and efforts to assist its victims. They have argued that an award to a senior official in the government that continues to deny the Genocide would contradict President Wilson's legacy and also views of many in the U.S. Congress, which funds the Wilson Center.
Wilson Center's outgoing president is Lee Hamilton, a former chair and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who had a mixed record on recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
In Congress until 1999 Rep. Hamilton (D-Ind.) repeatedly issued statements in support of April 24 commemorations and occasionally co-sponsored recognition legislation.
At the same time in his statements for the record he avoided using the term genocide and consistently likened circumstances of Armenian deaths to a "civil war."
