*Responds to ANCA Postcard Campaign during New Hampshire town hall meeting.
WATERTOWN–At a Voter Town Meeting Monday night in Derry–NH–Democratic Presidential hopeful Bill Bradley again called on the present-day Turkish government to acknowledge as genocide the 1915-23 killings and displacement of Turkey’s Armenian minorities. "The only way a society moves forward is to have a full accounting of its past–including its bad past–and the Armenian genocide is a fact," stated Bradley–in response to a question asked by retired US Foreign Service Officer Jeannette John of Nashua–NH.
John thanked Senator Bradley for speaking out during his July 22 speech at the National Press Club in support of United States recognition and Turkish acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide. "I urge you to bring this same thoughtful and principled approach to defending Section 907; condemning the dual Turkish and Azeri blockades; advocating Nagorno Karabakh’s right to self-determination; and calling for increased US support for a secure–prosperous–and democratic Armenia," John continued–as she read from an Armenian National Committee of America postcard. The postcard–one in a set of five–is part of the ANCA’s million postcard campaign calling on the five leading presidential candidates to support official US recognition of the Armenian Genocide and to condemn Turkey’s shameful campaign to deny this crime against humanity.
John told Bradley that her mother–a 16-year-old girl at the time of the Genocide–wouldn’t speak about the genocide until John herself was 19 years old. John recalled to Sen. Bradley that when–as a 19-year-old–she told her mother that she lost an earring–her mother replied–"oh–that’s nothing–we left so much over there."
"We are especially pleased that Bill Bradley’s thoughtful and principled stand against Turkey’s denial of the Armenian Genocide was carried by WNDS-TV to New Hamsphire’s more than three thousand Armenian American voters," said Grace Kehetian-Kulegian–Executive Director of the ANCA-Eastern Region.
"He has–with these words–demonstrated–once again–his commitment to human rights and reconfirmed his long-standing friendship with the Armenian American community," she added.
Bill Bradley’s Voter Town Meeting was held at WNDS-TV in Derry–NH. His statemen’s on the Armenian Genocide and a wide range of foreign policy and healthcare issues were included in an AP newswire story released earlier Tuesday.
