The Anti Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish organization in the US, yesterday issued a statement and claimed that “If the word genocide had existed in 1915, the tragedy that befell the Armenians living in the Ottoman territories would have been called as genocide”.

In that statement it was also stressed that the Organization would continue to be against the adoption of a Congressional resolution supporting Armenian allegations, and such a resolution might damage the relations between Turkey, Israel and the United States and put the Turkish Jewish community at risk.

Describing the events of 1915 as “genocide” is historically and legally baseless. Furthermore, contrary to the claim made, there is no consensus among the historians on how to qualify these events. Moreover, it was Turkey who proposed to Armenia the establishment of a joint history commission to find out the historical facts. Armenia has yet to positively respond to this proposal. The attempt of the ADL to rewrite the history is in contradiction with the realities and the rationale behind this is incomprehensible.

On the other hand, the Jewish community in Turkey is a part of our society and its members do not have any reason to worry.

We consider the statement of the ADL as an injustice to the unique character of the Holocaust, as well as to the memories of its victims. We expect it to be rectified.