Governor Siegelman,
It is with great anger and surprise that we learn of your decision to
support the proclamation of August 30th, as a Remembrance Day of the
so-called "Turkish tragedy" in Asia Minor.
It is astonishing that you can even consider such a motion. We as Greeks
still feel very strongly about the massacres of our people in Asia Minor
some eighty years ago, and we still live with the memories, passed down
from generation to generation.
Needless to say, Turkish oppression still continues to this day: for the
Greeks of Cyprus, for the remaining Christians in Asia Minor, for the
Kurds in south-east Anatolia, and even for their own citizens, as recent
reports from Amnesty International and other human rights groups have
shown.
Turning the events of the time around to support the fallacy of a "Turkish
tragedy" is a complete falsehood. At a time when Revisionism and Holocaust
denial are gaining ground in intellectual circles it surely cannot be of
any benefit for state officials to endorse these distortions of history.
With your proclomation you are saying: History is maleable, to be
interpreted in any way which is most beneficial to us.
Surely a man of your intelligence is aware of the fact that members of
Judaism, your own and your familes religion, are enduring the same type of
denial concerning their Holocaust in Hitler's Germany sixty years ago,
that the Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians are now with this new
proclomation.
Your endorsement of this kind of revisionism only encourages support for
organizations like the Institute for Historical Review and other Neo-Nazi
groups.
Do you compare yourself to them? Would you bow to pressure from such
groups if they were an important enough electorate? Would you deny the
Jewish Holocaust if it meant political gain?
If the genocide of our people is being denied, should we question the
events of 1940-45 and re-examine the legitimacy of Jewish Holocaust claims?
I rather think these are some of the questions you should be asking
yourself right now.
In a state with a large Greek and Armenian constituency it is
disappointing and short-sighted that you should choose to bow to pressure
from Turkish lobbyist groups. Greek and Armenian Americans have been
instrumental in the development of the New South and they deserve better.
Yours Sincerely
I. Ioannou