Watertown fight flares anew
Councilor chided over ADL stance
WATERTOWN - The Armenian National Committee of Massachusetts took the president of the Watertown Town Council to task this week for saying he felt comfortable with the Anti-Defamation League's assurances that it recognizes the Armenian Genocide.
Sharistan Melkonian, the committee chairwoman, sent a letter Monday to Clyde L. Younger saying the group was "shocked" to read his comments in an article in last Sunday's Globe.
In an interview with the Globe nearly two weeks ago, Younger said he felt comfortable after receiving a letter from the league's national director, Abraham H. Foxman, on Oct. 3 that, Younger said, clarified the ADL's position on the genocide.
"We would welcome a sincere, unambiguous acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide by the Anti-Defamation League," Melkonian said in the letter to Younger. "Rather, what we have observed is an organization engaged in a double game: issuing disingenuous statements that do not actually recognize the Armenian Genocide but are crafted in such a way as to mislead the public."
The group has asked Younger to clarify his comments.
In an interview Tuesday, Younger said he has heard from Armenian activists who worry that his position might mean the council will no longer pressure the league to better explain its stance or to have Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts drop its support for the league's No Place for Hate program - or worse yet, that the town might resume the program.
Those fears are unfounded, as his view of the letter "doesn't change anything," Younger said.
"That's just my personal opinion. The council has not voted on the matter whatsoever," he said. "I feel they [the ADL] have stated it is a genocide."
While the issue isn't slated to be discussed at next Tuesday's council meeting, that does not preclude it from being on the agenda of a future session, said Younger.
"Part of it is probably my problem," Younger added. "I don't know what the litmus test is for the ADL and I guess I need further feedback [from people] that read that memo and see how they interpret it."
Younger said he spoke with an assistant to Foxman on Monday and reiterated a request to have Foxman or another league representative come to Watertown to discuss the issue with the council at length. He has even offered to go to New York to meet with league officials, he said.
Younger said he was told that Foxman was out of the country until after the Nov. 4 presidential election.
"They're not promising anything," he said.
Formal recognition of the Armenian Genocide by both the league and the US Congress has been a hot-button issue in Watertown, which has a large Armenian-American population.
In August 2007, the town dropped its participation in the league's No Place for Hate antibias program for what it considered a deliberate effort by Foxman and the league to avoid labeling the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks from 1915 to 1923 as a genocide, as well as the league's opposition to a congressional resolution that sought official recognition of the genocide by the US government. 