Dear Editor of HyeTert,

Is U.S. Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts truly a friend of the Armenian American community? Suffolk Law School in Boston has invited Markey to speak and receive an award at its commencement on May 17. The problem is that Senator Markey will sit alongside Abraham Foxman, director of the Armenian Genocide-denying Anti-Defamation League. Foxman will address the law school’s graduates and receive an honorary law degree, even though his statement of August 21, 2007 twisted the facts of the Armenian Genocide so that the latter could not legally qualify as genocide under the official United Nations Genocide law of 1948.

Honoring Foxman makes a mockery of the principles for which a law school should stand. One wonders if Suffolk has invited Foxman as revenge against Armenian Americans and others because the Massachusetts Governor’s Council recently rejected attorney Joseph Berman – an ADL National Commissioner

– to be a judge.

The National Lawyers Guild student chapter at Suffolk University and a thousand others have demanded that Suffolk President James McCarthy withdraw his invitation to Foxman. Their reasons include Foxman’s anti-Armenian bias and his hypocritical opposition to the U.S. Congress’s Armenian

Genocide Resolution.

Markey’s sharing the stage with Foxman would be an insult to international law. Then again, Markey has never criticized Foxman and the ADL’s genocide denials. Markey’s commitment to genocide recognition and prevention is in serious doubt.

Senator Markey should tell Suffolk’s president that he will not attend the commencement unless the invitation to Foxman is withdrawn. I suggest readers call Markey’s office in Boston (617-565-8519) or Washington, DC (202-224-2742), or email him at http://www.markey.senate.gov/contact. Please

say that sharing the stage with Abe Foxman is unacceptable.

Sincerely,

Berge Jololian

Watertown, MA 02472

Berge Jololian [berge@jololian.com]