An Investigative Report

Referring to Turkey’s crimes against humanity, Wilson spoke these words in Salt Lake City a year after WW I:  “Armenia is to be redeemed so that at last this great people, struggling through this night of terror … are now given a promise of safety, a promise of justice.”

America and Armenia

In the spring of 1920, under the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres, the European Allies asked Wilson to arbitrate the boundary between Turkey and Armenia within the four Armenian provinces of “Erzerum, Trebizond, Van, and Bitlis.”  Wilson agreed. He had already sent 50 American researchers to survey the people and land.

In November, the president delivered the US decision: Armenia would include more than 40,000 square miles within those four provinces and a Black Sea coastline.  Europe also asked America to accept a mandate over Armenia — that is, physical protection from Turkey while Armenians got back on their feet.

Though Congress, in a post-war isolationist mood, eventually declined his appeal for the Armenian mandate, Wilson’s written request noted that “the hearings conducted by the subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations have clearly established the truth of the reported massacres and other atrocities from which the Armenian people have suffered.”

The Senate report, Wilson went on, embodied his “own convictions and feelings with regard to Armenia and its people.”  Americans, he said, “have made the cause of Armenia their own” and had responded with “extraordinary spontaneity and sincerity.”  These were understatements.

Turkey signed the Treaty of Sèvres but later repudiated it.

Incidentally, had Turkey fulfilled its obligations under Sèvres and Wilson’s binding arbitration, much of the Kurdish issue would have been resolved 90 years ago.  The treaty stipulated an autonomous Kurdish zone — just below the Armenian provinces — in southeastern Turkey and, conditionally, in northern Iraq that may eventually have become independent.

Under Turkish and Soviet attack, in December of 1920 independent Armenia was forcibly Sovietized, cut to a fraction of its size, and became landlocked.   The Armenian provinces remain under Turkish occupation to this day, while Turkey blockades what remains of Armenia.

The WWC Defies Congress

The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Act of 1968 was unambiguous: The WWC was meant to express the 28th president’s “ideals and concerns” and memorialize “his accomplishments.”

If it proceeds with its award to Davutoglu, the WWC will be reaffirming its disregard for Wilson’s “ideals and concerns” regarding the genocide, America’s support for Armenians, and liberating their land from Turkish rule.   Similarly, Wilson’s “accomplishments” — securing aid for Armenian survivors.

U.S. arbitration of Armenia’s boundaries under the Sèvres Treaty, and more — are being ignored and mocked by the WWC.

The WWC is insulting Armenian Americans and all those who survived the Turkish nightmare.

If Lee Hamilton’s own claim that WWC takes “a historical perspective” were true, it would not honor a man — and by extension the Turkish government — who unashamedly negate the historical record.

Is the Wilson Center seeking to discredit the Treaty of Sèvres on its 90th anniversary by honoring Davutoglu?

Massacring History

The WWC may try to claim that it has dealt substantially and fairly with its namesake’s views and accomplishments regarding the Armenian genocide.

As near as can be determined from a search of the WWC’s public records, however, that claim would be false.  This writer has found very little about the genocide, and most of that is from a Turkish revisionist perspective.

Two years ago, the WWC’s Southeast Europe division did host a scholar who discussed Turkish policy and the Armenian genocide. And twenty-four years ago, the WWC’s Wilson Quarterly had a one-page piece about an article published elsewhere that discussed the genocide.

In contrast, four years ago, the Wilson Quarterly published a sycophantic review praising a widely criticized book by a notorious genocide denier.  And two years back, a former U.S. State Department official who dealt with Turkey (and is presently an advisor for the Turkish Policy Quarterly) wrote a mere two sentences about the Sèvres Treaty — solely from the Turkish perspective — in a WWC-sponsored paper about Turkey.  The Wilson Center’s website contains a nine-year old article written by a former U.S. Army officer who denies the genocide.

This is a disgraceful record.

A year ago, the editors of the journal Genocide Studies and Prevention initiated a symposium that critiqued the report of the US-sponsored Genocide Prevention Task Force (GPTF).  While the symposium used the WWC’s facilities, the WWC was not a cosponsor, reportedly took little or no part, and thus cannot claim credit for it.

In any case, nothing can justify the Wilson Center’s proposed award for Davutoglu.

The question begs to be asked:  Does the WWC have any questionable links to Turkey or Armenian genocide deniers?

Turkish-Tainted Corporate Cash

A look at WWC’s funding sources reveals that it is up to its neck in corporate cash, including Turkish-tainted cash.

One major corporation — Boeing — that is a member of the WWC’s so-called WilsonAlliances wrote a letter to Congress asking it to defeat the Armenian Genocide Resolution (Res. 252).