Armenian Genocide Recognition is the Government of Canada Policy

June 18,2007
Armenian National Committee of Canada
Comité National Arménien du Canada
130 Albert St., Suite/Bureau 1007
Ottawa, ON
KIP 5G4
Tel./Tél. (613) 235-2622 Fax/Téléc. (613) 238-2622
E-mail/courriel:national.office@anc-canada.com
www.anccanada.org
For Immediate Release
Contact: Kevork Manguelian

Armenian Genocide Recognition is the Government of Canada Policy

PM Harper condemns foreign representatives' interference in Canadian domestic affairs

Toronto- During a roundtable discussion with the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC) on June 15, in a response to Horizon Weekly representative and the Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of Canada, Aris Babikian, the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, reaffirmed that the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Canada is a government policy and not “the position of the elected guys” as some insubordinate civil servants tried to represent.

The Prime Minister emphasized that “Canada’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide” is sometimes not easy “for the foreign service of Canada” to accept. The Prime Minister made it clear that the “ultimate position of the elected government is the position of the Government of Canada.”

Furthermore, in a response to NEPMCC President Tom Saras’ query about the interference in Canadian internal affairs of representatives of foreign governments and pressuring or coercion of Canadians and Canadian organizations to follow certain policies, the Prime Minister condemned such practices and said that he found it “unacceptable” for these diplomats to pursue such interference.

He reminded members of the media that as head of “the Government of Canada I cannot tell you what (to) write in your newspaper and foreign governments cannot tell what to write.”

Mr. Saras query refereed to a recent attempt by the Turkish Embassy to silence Mr. Saras after his condemnation of the assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. The Turkish Embassy launched a vicious campaign to discredit Mr. Saras and called for his resignation as NEPMCC president.

“We are proud to have such an honourable, moral, and visionary Prime Minister as Mr. Harper,” Jean Mgerditchian, president of the Armenian National Committee of Canada (ANCC). “After the Prime Minister's unambiguous clarification, we call on our civil servant to comply to the policies of the executive and legislative government vis-a-vis the Armenian Genocide,” concluded Mgerditchian.

Some 45 ethnic and mainstream media representatives attended the roundtable discussion.

The ANCC is the largest and the most influential Canadian-Armenian grassroots political organization. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout Canada and affiliated organizations around the world, the ANCC actively advances the concerns of the Canadian-Armenian community on a broad range of issues.

Regional Chapters/Sections régionales

Montréal – Laval – Ottawa – Toronto – Hamilton – Cambridge – St. Catharines – Windsor – Vancouver

Armenian orphans' legacy Canada's aid to victims remembered

Mon, April 23, 2007
Toronto Sun
By IAN ROBERTSON, SUN MEDIA

Lorne Shirinian always knew something dreadful lay in the past of the "Georgetown Boys" who visited his East York family home as adults.

The author of several books about the 1915-23 killings of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman-Turks heard whispers and saw visitors' tears.

It wasn't until years later that Shirinian realized his dad, Mapre, a realtor who died in 1988 at about 82, was one of 109 orphans brought to a farm in Georgetown for a new life, Shirinian told more than 600 members of the Armenian community at their Scarborough centre yesterday.

Many became farmers, others had trades, and all became "good Canadian citizens," Shirinian said. "It was a hard life ... many of them could never forget the murders of their entire families."

Each year, and until the last died about two years ago, many "Georgetown Boys" he met through his parents attended a Sunday service ahead of April 24, the date recognized by Canada as the anniversary of the genocide.

This year's 92nd memorial event focused on the children rescued by Ottawa. Numerous speakers and politicians urged young Armenians to keep alive the memory of the genocide and lobby for Turkey to stop denying that their Ottoman ancestors tried to destroy their culture, language and Christian faith.

Shirinian, 62, an English professor at the Royal Military College, learned from his parents and their visitors that "all of us were victims of some great wrong. It was a history I could have lost."

Keynote speaker Isabel Kaprielian-Churchill, an historian specializing in Armenian history, said the aid given to orphans by Canada "played a key role" shaping this country's attitude towards humanitarian aid and peacekeeping.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Conservatives modify position on Turkey

Turkey's state policy of denial continues to serve as a daily affront to all Armenians.

January 26, 2007
rabble news
by Anthony Wing

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay recently modified the Canadian government's official acknowledgement of the 1915 Armenian genocide with a statement of support for the government of Turkey's proposal to establish a joint commission with Armenia to investigate the events of that period.

This apparent gesture of goodwill towards conflict resolution between neighbour states admits of an astonishing naiveté that may effectively kill the government's acknowledgement resolution first passed in 2004 by the Liberal government and briefly reaffirmed by the ruling Conservatives.

Even a cursory glance behind Turkey's proposal should have been enough to stay the Minister's hand: the government of Turkey, after denying for decades historical responsibility for the organized and bureaucratic extermination of an unarmed Christian Armenian minority by Ottoman Turks (which in recent years featured arrests and show trials for writers mentioning the genocide, including current Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk), first floated the joint-commission idea in 2005.

However, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) quickly revealed that this gesture amounted to a further act of aggression: Turkish authorities had sought the help of U.S. scholars to obfuscate the historical record and, the IAGS argued, this spurious scholarship would be used to sabotage such a panel. The IAGS expressed this in a June 2005 letter to the Turkish Government, re-sent nearly a year later:

We are dismayed that your government, in asking the Armenian government to establish a so-called objective commission to study the fate of the Armenian people in 1915, is refusing to acknowledge the resolved discourse on the Armenian Genocide in the mainstream international scholarly community outside of Turkey. We are concerned that your request is a political ploy designed to create controversy over the Armenian Genocide when in fact, outside of your government, there is none.

Also not open to debate is the government of Turkey's transparent record of human rights abuse. Eager to speed negotiations for terms of accession into the European Union, Turkey officially abolished the death penalty and state torture in a new Penal Code adopted in 2004; however, Amnesty International has since reported that torture and extrajudicial executions have persisted outside official detention centres, largely unchecked by a feeble investigation process.

Moreover, persecution of the Kurdish minority in the southeast has not abated, and the 32-year control of an impoverished military colony in the northern third of Cyprus bestows on Ankara the title of sole occupying power in mainland Europe since 1945; indeed, the EU recently suspended membership negotiations over Turkey's latest paltry concessions over the latter issue.

Here at home, the Harper government's decision to modify their Armenian genocide acknowledgement was criticized by columnist Jeffrey Simpson, but for a different reason: The Globe and Mail's sophist emeritus disagreed with the acknowledgement in the first place. For some time The New York Times had a policy that the term “Armenian genocide” could be used freely and without qualification; not so the Globe's editorial board, which twice recently allowed Simpson to place quotation marks around the word “genocide” when writing of the event.

Moreover in a recent Globe online Q&A, Simpson appeared to argue simultaneously that 1) the events of 1915 are a matter for genuine debate and 2) Canada should ignore 1). But in the case of 1), I am in agreement with Simpson, albeit on very different terms:

Rafael Lemkin, international law professor and U.S. War Department adviser during WWII, coined the term “genocide,” later furnishing a definition in his 1944 work Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. His proposal that the neologism enter language as a violation of international law was adopted by jurists at the Nuremberg trials and thereafter by the United Nations General Assembly. Appearing on U.S. national television in 1949, Lemkin was the first to call what happened to the Armenians “genocide.” Earlier he had elaborated on components of the term in an address to the Geneva Conventions:

The objectives of a [genocidal] plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.

Applying this calculus today, Turkey's state policy of denial continues to serve as a daily affront to all Armenians. Could it not therefore be put that zero acknowledgement of historical responsibility will postpone indefinitely the reconciliation and healing process for the affected group, thus perpetuating several of the articles of genocide as defined in the Geneva Conventions? This may well be the matter for genuine debate, not the “question” of whether the massacres occurred at all.

As for Canada, there is absolutely no place for credulity as we begin to emerge as a world leader in 21st century international jurisprudence. The United States government sponsored and encouraged Rafael Lemkin's efforts to entrench genocide into international law, yet in 1994 the U.S. proxy at the United Nations helped block a resolution to assist the UN Rwanda mission on the eve of the 100-day genocide of close to one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

This avoidable event may have occasioned the demise of peacekeeping, and after an intervening period of UN confusion and indecision it was Canada who seized the initiative with their support of the “Responsibility To Protect” commission. The latter's 2001 report provided a template for the policy behind Canada's current Afghan deployment, but if our leaders still hope to maintain a conscientious world leadership in foreign policy, missteps of this magnitude must be addressed.

The world's failure to remember the Armenian genocide was an inspiration for both Adolf Hitler, who borrowed its techniques of cattle-car transport and pit-burial for the Final Solution, and Rafael Lemkin, who made an indivisible contribution to human rights, international law and language in the wake of the Holocaust. If the Canadian government supports the formation of a joint commission to look into “genocide allegations,” then we should immediately appoint a committee to investigate whether the 1922 discovery of insulin has really been of any help to diabetics.

The Foreign Affairs Minister must interrupt his human rights posturing with China to condemn forthwith Turkey's latest attempt to avert the world's gaze from the 20th century's first genocide.

Anthony Wing is a Toronto writer.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Statement by the Hon. Irwin Cotler, MP (Mount Royal), Opposition Critic for Human Rights

January 22, 2007
I would like to express my shock and deep sadness at the tragic assassination of journalist Hrant Dink. This action was an assault on democracy and freedom of expression - the ultimate silencer.

As editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian Agos newspaper, Mr. Dink was one of Turkey's most prominent Armenian voices and someone who sought dialogue and reconciliation between Turks and Armenians while remaining faithful to his journalistic credentials.

I hope the perpetrators will be brought to justice and that any incitement against those who speak of the genocide of Armenians will come to an end.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay Reaffirms Canadian Government’s Recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Armenian National Committee of Canada
130 Albert St., Suite 1007
Ottawa, ON
KIP 5G4
Tel. (613) 235-2622 Fax (613) 238-2622
E-mail:national.office@anc-canada.com

For Immediate Release
Nov.16,06 Contact: Kevor Manguelian Tel. (613) 235-2622

Ottawa—Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay reaffirmed the Canadian government’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide, during a round table discussion with the National Ethnic Press and Media Council (NEPMCC) on Nov. 8. The minister also clarified his position on the Turkish Government’s proposal to create a historians’ commission to study the Armenian Genocide.

Minister Mackey assured the Canadian-Armenian community that the Canadian Government’s policy on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide has “not changed. Nothing has changed in that regard,” stressed Mr. MacKay.

In response to a question from Aris Babikian, Horizon Weekly representative to NEPMCC and the executive director of the Armenian National Committee of Canada (ANCC), Mr. MacKay stated: “Canada would support a joint study that would involve participation from academics from both countries with the inclusion, perhaps, a neutral country that would be acceptable to both. So a dialogue around what is clearly incredibly sensitive and loaded issue could lead to greater meeting of minds plus an opening of a dialogue on other important issues—trade, travel, greater communication, the blockade of Armenia—is useful exercise that might bring about some greater healing.”

In response to studies by more than 450 historians and international organizations confirming the uncontested historical reality of the Armenian Genocide, Mr. MacKay said: “I am not disputing what you [Babikian] said in terms of the amount of study that has accrued already.”

In a related story, Robert Kocharian, president of Armenia, replied to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s proposal to form a historians’ commission by saying: "A suggestion to address the past cannot be effective if it deflects from addressing the present and the future. In order to engage in a useful dialogue, we need to create the appropriate and conducive political environment. It is the responsibility of governments to develop bilateral relations and we do not have the right to delegate that responsibility to historians. That is why we have proposed and propose again that, without pre-conditions, we establish normal relations between our two countries."

“Minister MacKay’s clarifications are greatly appreciated by the ANCC and the Canadian Armenian Community. To build neighbourly and friendly relations Armenia and Turkey must talk and establish joint intergovernmental commissions to discuss all outstanding issues between the two countries,” said Babikian. “After all Armenia and Turkey are bound to coexist and prosper next to each other.”