International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide
Turkey threatened to close its borders to Syrian and Iranian Jews fleeing persecution, thereby putting Jewish lives in danger.
[7] Since the creation of the Republic of Turkey, all Turkish governments have denied that any crime was committed against the Armenian people;[7][8] attempts to enlist other countries in this denial date to the 1920s.
[9][10] Sociologist Levon Chorbajian writes that Turkey's "modus operandi remains consistent throughout and seeks maximalist positions, offers no compromise though sometimes hints at it, and employs intimidation and threats" to prevent any mention of the Armenian genocide.
Charny later recalled having been accosted in Tel Aviv by Veissid, who told him that Turkey's border would be closed to Syrian and Iranian Jews fleeing persecution if the conference went ahead.
[28] Avner Arazi, the Israeli consul in Istanbul, wrote in an internal memo: "The main reason for our reckless attempts to cancel the conference was the hint that we received about Jewish refugees from Iran and Syria crossing into Turkey ... Veissid found that all the arguments he prepared against the conference were insignificant compared to the issue of the refugees.
[29] The Turkish government also argued that Armenian participants would undermine the uniqueness of the Holocaust;[30][31] this aspect did not prove as salient as the issue of Jewish lives, which was a top priority of the Israeli foreign ministry.
[32] Although Arazi said that a border closure would be unprecedented, international relations scholar Eldad Ben Aharon concludes: "It is clear that the lives of Iranian and Syrian Jews were at stake; the Turkish Foreign Ministry did not hesitate to use this sensitive situation to exert pressure on Israel.
"[27][34][35] Despite Wiesel's withdrawal, Charny was determined "that the conference would take place even if only a proverbial ten people were to attend";[36][37] he saw the Israeli government's position as cause for "unending shame".
[34] Several prominent individuals dropped out, including Arad and Hausner from Yad Vashem; Yoram Dinstein, rector of Tel Aviv University, philosopher Emil Fackenheim, historian Yehuda Bauer, and lawyer Alan Dershowitz.
[40] Frances Gaezer Grossman, a psychologist who presented a talk on "A Psychological Study of Gentiles Who Saved the Lives of Jews During the Holocaust" at the conference,[41] rebuffed attempts by Israeli consular officials to encourage her not to attend.
A spokesperson for the Turkish foreign ministry told The New York Times that Turkey was "not against the conference in Tel Aviv but oppose[s] any linkage of the Holocaust to the Armenian allegations".
[18][39] Lilli Kopecky, secretary-general of the Public Committee of Auschwitz and Other Extermination Camp Survivors in Israel, reported that "The organizers did a fantastic job in making the conference a success despite all the hardships.
[12] It included films on the Armenian genocide by J. Michael Hagopian and academic research by Hovannisian, Marjorie Housepian Dobkin, Vahakn Dadrian, Vahé Oshagan, and Ronald Suny.
In Davar, Nahum Barnea explained: "For years we spoke of the conspiracy of silence that the nations of the world maintained about the Holocaust for reasons of expediency or political exploitation, and now we know that this can also happen to us.
"[45] In Haaretz, Amos Elon condemned the behavior of Yad Vashem and Israel's refusal to recognize the Armenian genocide, stating, "What would Hausner and Arad say if the Italian government (in order to avoid hurting its German creditors-claimants) decided that in an international scientific conference on genocide in Rome, the Jewish Holocaust of 1940–1945 would not be mentioned?"
Elon concluded, "Participants returned to their home countries with a certain impression of Yad Vashem, its moral stature, and its political and intellectual independence.
[56] Historian Donald Bloxham considers the attempted cancellation of the conference "one of the more notorious episodes of Turkish denial" and states that it "contributed effectively to public awareness" of the genocide.
[59][60] Hovannisian states that "people of good conscience prevailed, refusing to put political considerations over moral or humanitarian impulses.
[63] On 21 June, Monroe H. Freedman, the legal counsel of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, told The New York Times that, the previous year, a Turkish diplomat (Mithat Balkan [tr]) had told him that if the Armenian genocide were included in the planned United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, "the physical safety of Jews in Turkey would be threatened and Turkey might pull out of NATO.
