No synonyms for genocide

ONE SHOULDN'T play geopolitics with genocide. The executive committee of the Anti-Defamation League for New England showed sound moral judgment this week when it acknowledged that, just like the destruction of the Jews in Europe and the Tutsis in Rwanda, the slaughter of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire was a horrific crime against humanity.

All three genocides had particular historical characteristics, but they have universal significance as a recurring evil that needs to be identified properly so that humankind recognizes its early stages and takes action to prevent mass slaughter.

But the national ADL apparently thinks that it can pick and choose among genocides. Yesterday it fired Andrew Tarsy, the regional director, for urging the national organization to acknowledge the reality of what happened from 1915 to 1917 in what is now Turkey. The ADL plans to run an advertisement in the Globe and other newspapers explaining its position.

In a telephone interview yesterday, James Rudolph, the regional ADL chairman, called Tarsy an extraordinary leader. Indeed, Tarsy was acting in the best ADL tradition of trying to unite people of different ethnic groups, in this case Jews and Armenians, to promote human rights.

The national ADL, in its ad, does condemn the killing of hundreds of thousands of Armenians but can't quite describe this crime for what it was: genocide. The ADL says it is worried about the fate of the Jewish community in Turkey and Turkey's strategic relationships with the United States and Israel.

But Turkey's treatment of its Jewish minority and its foreign policy shouldn't depend on a historical lie. If the national ADL doesn't acknowledge the genocide, it is complicit in a coverup.