The Turkish Ambassador to Washington has denied that he has ever implied that Jews in Turkey would be threatened if the 1914-15 massacre of Armenians in Turkey is included in the Holocaust Memorial Museum being planned for Washington.
Ambassador Sukru Elekdag said he was issuing a statement denying a report in a Washington Post article on the museum April 13, in which a “White House source” implied that the inclusion of the massacre in the museum “might have an impact on Jews in Turkey.”
“The proposition that Turkish citizens of the Jewish faith are, in any sense, potentially threatened by the Turkish government or the non-Jewish majority of the Turkish population is utterly groundless,” Elekdag said. “That I have ever said anything that would warrant an alternate conclusion is equally untrue.”
Rabbi Seymour Siegel, executive director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the committee planning the museum has been instructed by the Council to have the massacre of Armenians included. He noted that one of the most active members of the Council is an Armenian American, Set Momjian, of Huntington Valley, Pennsylvania.
Siegel stressed that he has had “cordial relations” with both the Armenian community in Washington and Turkish diplomats here. He said no Turkish diplomat has ever made “threats” or used “harsh words.”
He stressed that he does not believe that the massacre, which occurred under the Ottoman Empire, reflects on the pre###t-day Turkish government.Elekdag said that Jews in Turkey “enjoy the full rights of and privileges of Turkish citizens.” He noted that Turkey provided refuge to Jews fleeing the Spanish Inquistiion and for thousands of Jews escaping Nazi-occupied Europe, many of whom became Turkish citizens.
“The implication that Jewish Turks might be victimized because of a Museum in Washington might include reiteration of a 70-year-old misrepresentation regarding the treatment of Armenians during World War I is preposterous,” the envoy said.
Noting that 26 Turkish diplomats and their families have been assassinated by Armenian terrorists in recent years, Elekdag declared, “This in no way has affected the condition of life of the 60,000 Turkish citizens of Armenian descent.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
