US Armenians seek to stop award for Davutoğlu

The largest U.S. Armenian group is trying to keep a leading Washington, D.C., think tank from honoring the Turkish foreign minister with an award due to what they call Turkey’s “aggressive denial of the Armenian genocide.”

In a statement Wednesday, the Armenian National Committee of America expressed its displeasure with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ plans to give Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu its Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service.

Davutoğlu is scheduled to receive the award, named after the 28th U.S. president, in Turkey on June 17, the Anatolia news agency reported when the center announced its decision in March, saying that he “had catalyzed the development of Turkey’s foreign relations, elevating its position in international discussions” since becoming foreign minister in May 2009.

“Through an ANCA action alert, Armenian-American and other anti-genocide activists are expressing profound anger and disappointment over the Woodrow Wilson Center’s plans to travel to Turkey to bestow the award on Davutoğlu,” ANCA said in its statement.

The organization said the activists had sent letters to members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, urging them to look into the center’s “controversial” decision.

The Woodrow Wilson Center receives one-third of its annual funding from Congress, according to ANCA. “Senators and representatives are being encouraged to formally investigate this matter and to share their concerns on this deeply troubling development directly with the leadership of the Woodrow Wilson Center,” its statement said.

The letter being sent to members of the U.S. Congress reads, in part: “This award dishonors President Wilson’s vision of justice for the Armenian nation. Mr. Davutoğlu 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.’”

ANCA has spearheaded U.S. Armenian efforts urging President Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress to recognize World War I-era Armenian deaths in the Ottoman Empire as “genocide,” a term Obama has declined to use since taking office in January 2009. Two resolutions calling for such recognition are currently pending in Congress.


/Hurriyet Daily News/