ADL Rehires Regional Director After Armenian Genocide Dispute

BOSTON--The Anti-Defamation League has rehired its New England regional director a week after he was fired for publicly saying the group should change its national policy by recognizing the 1915 killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide. Andrew Tarsy got his job back Monday after talks with the Jewish group's national director Abraham Foxman. Foxman, after criticism over Tarsy's firing from Jewish and Armenian-American groups, said last week the Armenian killings "were indeed tantamount to genocide." But he said his human rights group would not support a pending Congressional resolution that calls the massacre Genocide, saying it was "a counterproductive diversion and will not foster reconciliation between Turks and Armenians." Foxman said in an interview with The Boston Globe on Monday that he and Tarsy "see eye to eye" after talks held over the last week. "And after our conversation, I decided to take him back, to reinstate him. And I'm delighted he's back." The regional board of the New York-based ADL had unanimously asked Foxman to bring Tarsy back. Tarsy said in a statement Monday that he is "delighted to be back on the job." "I am proud that ADL has made a very significant change confronting a moral issue and acknowledging the Armenian genocide for what it was," Tarsy said. "This was an act of leadership by Mr. Foxman and ADL." The ADL's governing body will also take up the Armenian issue when it meets in November, he said. Turkey's Ambassador to Israel Namik Tan said Monday that he expected Israel to lead American Jews to reverse the stance of the Anti-Defamation League, which recently decided to recognize the Armenian genocide. Tan said that Israel , whose stance concerning the events of 1915 has not changed, should not let US Jewish groups change their position. Tan said that Turkey expected Israel to make US Jewish groups heed its calls and ensure that the US Congressional resolution recognizing the Genocide is not approved.