PLAYING WITH GENOCIDE INQUIRIES
We must digress briefly for an example of how former government officials work their way into genocide inquiries that are best left to those more suitable.
Former Defense Secretary William Cohen (of the Turkish-affiliated TCG) and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright chaired the Genocide Prevention Task Force mentioned above.
As private citizens, Cohen and Albright opposed the Armenian Genocide Resolution. Their appointment to the GPTF was thus justifiably criticized as incompatible with its very purpose.
The GPTF was jointly convened by the Congressionally-funded, so-called US Institute of Peace, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the American Academy of Diplomacy (AAD).
The latter is composed of former high-level US State Department officials. AAD's chairman is retired ambassador Thomas Pickering. He was formerly a VP of Boeing, the same company that has beseeched Congress not to pass the Armenian Genocide Resolution.
The GPTF's final 147-page report (Preventing Genocide: a Blueprint for US Policymakers) contained just two miniscule references to the Armenian genocide. Sure enough, they used the terms "forced exile" and "atrocities", not genocide. The report was also widely criticized by scholars.
Incidentally, who sits on the AAD's Board? If you guessed the ubiquitous Marc Grossman of the Wilson Center and pro-Turkish TCG, you'd be correct.
CORPORATE PERKS
The WWC provides many benefits to corporations that contribute money to its WilsonAlliances. For example, they receive "complimentary use" of the WWC's facilities, the Reagan Federal Building, blocks from the White House. They also get "private customized meetings with [WWC] staff and scholars to discuss policy issues that are specific to your business interests."
Did WWC/Turkish-affiliated corporations use "private customized meetings" to urge the WWC to honor Davutoglu, perhaps in expectation that it would enhance their "business interests" with Turkey?
Did any WWC/Turkish-affiliated lobbying firm or person ask the WWC to give Davutoglu an award?
We don't know the answers to these questions. Only those corporations, lobbyists, and other figures, together with Lee Hamilton and WWC personnel, can answer them, preferably under oath.
In a phone message, Sharon Coleman McCarter, WWC Communications Director, said that the Center is honoring the Turkish Foreign Minister because of "public service to his country and the world." Turkey, or some Turks, may like its foreign minister, but, as this writer has shown, he has certainly done nothing to benefit "the world."
McCarter also claimed that Davutoglu "is in the Wilsonian tradition" because, like Wilson, he has been in academia and government. If you teach and then enter government service, you're automatically "Wilsonian" and thus a candidate for the WWC award? This is preposterous.
INSULTING PREVIOUS AWARDEES
Who have the nearly 150 previous WWC awardees been? Mostly Americans: philanthropists, doctors, members of Congress, former diplomats, architects, actors, and the like.
They range from James Baker, Dr. Denton Cooley, Betty Ford, Frank Gehry, John Glenn, and Amb. Howard Leach to Janet Napolitano, Dolly Parton, Gen. Colin Powell (and his wife), Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Andrew Young.
There are also some foreign political honorees, such as former Indian President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, and some relatively non-controversial figures from Brazil and South Korea.
The threatening, blustering, genocide-denying Davutoglu, from a country with a wretched human rights record, would stand out in the Wilson Center's Public Service roster like a sore thumb.
It would be an insult to previous awardees.
For its Public Service Award, the WWC had its pick of thousands of principled individuals from the US or elsewhere doing vital humanitarian work, including the recognition and prevention of genocide. Instead, the WWC has engaged in the worst kind of political pandering by selecting Davutoglu.
THE SMITHSONIAN AND THE ATC
The rot may go even higher, up to the WWC‘s parent, the famed Smithsonian Institution, three-quarters of whose annual $1 billion budget comes from taxpayers. It, too, is a member of the genocide-denying American Turkish Council.
The Smithsonian is supposed to be respectful of America's multi-ethnic heritage and pay homage to our country's history, part of which is Wilson's support of Armenians and condemnation of Turkey for committing genocide. There is no good reason for the Smithsonian to be a member of the ATC, which is primarily a lobby for Turkish-affiliated corporations. It should withdraw from the ATC.
And what must the WWC do to return to its Wilsonian roots?
REFORMING THE WWC
The WWC must abandon its plans to honor Davutoglu. Those who care about Wilson's legacy — members of Congress, ordinary Americans, and those whose relatives were lost to Turkish genocidal acts — must contact the WWC and insist on this.
Congress and the Attorney General must launch investigations into possible conflicts of interest at the WWC, particularly regarding its corporate and Turkish connections. The WWC director and staff must testify under oath.
Wilson Center personnel, and those affiliated with it, particularly scholars, must speak out publicly against pandering to corporations and lobbying organizations.
Those whose business or personal interests may conflict with their WWC role should resign.
The WWC must reject all tainted corporate cash.
Recognized genocide scholars should be invited to speak at the Wilson Center and write in its Wilson Quarterly. The WWC should create a principled program on genocide.
The WWC must establish a meaningful, ongoing dialogue with those persons and their descendants who have been victimized by Turkey's genocides.
The WWC must return to its Congressional mandate by truly rededicating itself to Wilson's "ideals, concerns, and accomplishments" and by advocating against genocide and for the human rights and dignity of all people.
David Boyajian is an Armenian American freelance journalist.
Comments (closed)
MihranK
2010-05-17 05:51:34
I welcome and thank Mr D. Boyajian's investigative journalism for exposing the sham at the centre of Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The Board of Directors of this institution must look into all this wrongdoing and rectify this serious breach or else the name of Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars will be tainted for good.
I would like to see all Armenian organisations in the USA to tackle Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars head on, as its an insult to the Armenian Nation, but also on the integrity of the congress for not having checks and balance mechanism in place in order to stop such manipulation.