Hillary Clinton

Secretary of State Dismisses Genocide as Historical Debate’ in Public Comments to State Department Staff

WASHINGTON, DC–The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) sharply criticized remarks by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who on Jan. 26 dismissed the murder of 1.5 million Armenians as a “historical debate,” and argued that U.S. affirmation of this crime would open a “dangerous door.”

“The Obama-Biden Administration–with Secretary Clinton’s latest remarks–continues to dig itself deeper and deeper into a hole of complicity in Turkey’s genocide denial,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.

“It’s a sad spectacle to see Secretary Clinton hiding behind cynical appeals to scholars–the overwhelming majority of whom have already spoken forcefully against Turkey’s denials of the Armenian Genocide–to divert attention from President Obama’s, Vice President Biden’s, or her own promises to properly recognize this crime and, more broadly, to divert attention from the White House’s failure to meet its moral obligation to stand up against a foreign government’s veto of our defense of human rights,” Hamparian said.

Clinton’s comments came in response to a question, posed at a Jan. 26 “Town Hall Meeting on the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review,” regarding U.S. affirmation of the Armenian Genocide in the context of the recent French Senate adoption of anti-genocide denial legislation.

Clinton explained, “I think it’s fair to say that this has always been viewed, and I think properly so, as a matter of historical debate and conclusions rather than political. And I think that is the right posture for the United States government to be in, because whatever the terrible event might be or the high emotions that it represents, to try to use government power to resolve historical issues, I think, opens a door that is a very dangerous one to go through.”  Clinton argued, “we need to encourage anyone on any side of any contentious historical debate to get out into the marketplace of ideas.”

“The Secretary’s unfounded and offensive reference to historical debate’ in regards to the Armenian Genocide only emboldens the denials of the Turkish government–which, just today, again took steps toward deporting Armenians,” said Hamparian, referencing news emanating from Turkey of plans for a revisions to its immigration policy that