Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide

Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian, is leading the annual commemoration of the Armenian Genocide in the State Capitol this morning. Live video is available here now.

Still No Word from Essel on the Holocaust Deniers

More than day since a story broke that CD2 Candidate Chris Essel organized a fundraiser with a Turkish-American organization that denies the Armenian Genocide ever took place there is radio silence from her campaign.  As well local journos and blogs, other than the LA Weekly and Mayor Sam, have yet to pick up on the explosive story.

In the meantime, video has surfaced of Essel's opponent Paul Krekorian, following the passing of a resolution recognizing the Genocide by the California Assembly (which received a landslide bi-partisan vote of 77-3), speaking at a protest at the Los Angeles Turkish Consulate where Krekorian notes his family lost members in the Genocide.

We will continue to wait for some statement from Essel.

More on Essel and the Armenian Holocaust Deniers

So far, rather than come out and admit she made a mistake by attending and co-hosting a fundraiser with an organization who is on official record that the Armenian Holocaust did not happen, supporters of Chris Essel appear to be digging in their heels and at least on this blog are regurgitating bigoted propaganda claiming - against historical fact and the general consensus - that 1.5 million Armenian citizens were not slaughtered by the Ottoman Turkish government during the time of World War I.

Dr. Efraim Zuroff - one of the chief Nazi hunters for the Simon Wiesenthal Center (whose Museum of Tolerance acknowledges the Genocide) in Israel told the Jerusalem Post that its imperative Israel and the world's Jewry must acknowledge the historical basis for the Genocide despite the fact that Turkey is one of the few Islamic nations in the world that has good relations with the Jewish state.

A Simon Wiesenthal Center official told the Jerusalem Post in August, 2007 that the Armenian Genocide should be recognized as a historical fact despite "the political ramifications." We have "an obligation to tell the truth about historical events - even if they sometimes create certain problems for us,"said Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the chief Nazi hunter of the Wiesenthal Center.

Dr. Zuroff was joined by Morton Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America, who told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last week that it is "imperative for Jews to acknowledge the truth of the Turkish genocide against Armenians, notwithstanding Turkey's relationship with Israel." He added: "It's high time for Turkey to acknowledge that truth of history and move on."

At worst, this is a confounding moral problem for Essel and at best an incredibly horrific decision made by her campaign team. The longer this sits out there without an explanation, apology and return of the funds (and more appropriately a donation of the funds to an organization such as the Armenian National Committee) Essel's campaign and viability - as well as her character - will remain seriously in question.

Essel: Holocaust Denier?

The LA Weekly is reporting that CD2 candidate Chris Essel recently attended a fundraiser for her held by the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, an organization whose official position is that the Armenian Genocide never happened. The Armenian Genocide was an extremely tragic event in which nearly 3/5th of the Armenian population at the time (over 2.5 million people) was butchered, massacred, and killed by the Ottoman Turk government in 1915-1916. To this day, the Turkish government denies this Holocaust - rivaled only by the Holocaust of Nazi Germany - ever happened, despite the fact that historians say it did. As well the US and many other governments are officially on the record that the genocide took place.

Essel says that she herself is on record as acknowledging that the genocide is historical fact yet she justifies that she attended the event because she does not discriminate against supporters. Also attending the event were leaders of the Azerbaijani community who lead an effort in the State Legislature - and defeated by Essel's opponent Paul Krekorian - to condemn the Armenian government. The event was promoted on local Turkish and Azerbaijani websites showing videos denying the holocaust, praising Essel and condemning Krekorian.

Though the Armenian Genocide is less known by Americans than the slaughter of six million Jews by the Hitler regime in Germany, it is rated as a holocaust on the same level and is viewed as so by Holocaust scholars and organizations such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center. For Essel to attend this event it is truly on par with a politician attending an event sponsored by the Institute for Historical Review, a prominent Holocaust denying organization.

We can accept her at her word that she acknowledges the Armenian Genocide. However for a politician in a city and council district with a significant Armenian community - or any community for that matter - Essel's attendance at the Assembly of Turkish American Associations was an extraordinary poor choice.