The History of Genocide

Wednesday, 06 February 2008
The Kurdish Globe
By Hazhar Aziz Surme

Kurds now understand more than any other nation the Armenian genocide. Kurds know how they were manipulated by the Young Turks to participate in the Armenian genocide. Armenians have long forgiven the Kurds because they have realized their mistake. What will it take Turkish nationals to gain the same understanding as the Kurds?

Genocide had been introduced to many nations in practical terms.

Before including the term 'Genocide' into the international dictionaries, and before the disciplines and rules concerning genocide were set; before international communities dealt with it and punished the criminals of genocidal crimes and considering it as an obvious phenomenon, genocide had been introduced to many nations in practical terms and the history of it goes back to the centuries before the Christ.

Here, we study the historical examples of genocide:

The genocide as a phenomenon in history:

In 615 B.C., the Babylons had murdered Assyrians in a massacre, and murdered most of them, and destroyed the city of Nineveh, to the extent when the Greek leader (Xenophon) in (427-335 BC), after two centuries, passed through the Nineveh city, he did not note that once upon a time people lived in the city.

It is also worth mentioning that in 596 B.C., Abu Khuznasri, the Chaldean King (605-562 B.C.), brought down the city of Yahooda in Israel, and put an end to two Israeli revolutions, but in 539 B.C., the Persian King (Cyrus 1) freed the Jewish people by destroying the Babel city.

In February 1258, the Mongols and Tatters, led by Holako, attacked the city of Baghdad, and then killed children, women, detained and disabled people (Mongols made no difference between those who stood against them and those who surrendered themselves to them, both were murdered). Aa a result, they killed 80000 people of Baghdad's residents in a period of 40 days.

When America was discovered in 1492, the original residents were Indians, a people of millions, but after the mass-migration of Europeans to the Americas, the Indians became foreigners in their own land, furthermore, their number, centuries later, were fewer than ever. If they were not annihilated, where to did they disappear?!!

Another kind of genocide, that is taken place in a different way, is that of British Imperialism spreading opium in China of 19th century, having negative influence on the Chinese community. Chinese youths, as a result were not able to stand up for their country, as addicted consumers of opium, and this indeed was the aim of English colonialism. When China closed the opium stores in the country, it had a negative aspect against the British economy, this is perhaps why, three years later, in 1842, Britain succeeded to set the Treaty of Nanjing that was considered as a blow to China, and then Hong Kong submitted to British demands. This is historically called the Opium War.

With the start of the First World War in 1914, many genocidal operations were taking place against various peoples around Europe, as a result, and millions of people were victims.

During the First World War, In April 22, 1915, the Germans used the Chloral poisonous Gas against the Frenchmen, and soon afterwards, the Englishmen started the first poisonous attack in September 25, 1915.

In April 24, 1915, the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hammed and the Turkish Youth organization, tried to put an end to the Turkish Armenians (to forbid the separation of Eastern Armenian from Turkey), and created the most infamous massacre against the Armenians. Sultan Abdul Hammed had killed about 300 thousand Armenians on the first hand. Separately, the attacks of the Young Turkey had killed about a million and half of the Armenians and also made 800 thousand others displaced. That's why, the Republic of Armenia, in the most recent years, made this day a memorandum day for the major genocidal events that were taken place against Armenians in history.

In 1933, the Iraqi authority of the time, murdered and annihilated more than 4 thousand Assyrians in the district of (Smel) of the Duhok city.

Franko, the Spanish dictator, during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), was the cause of annihilating hundreds of thousands of people, especially in the Jernica town, that became the source of Pablo Picasso's inspiration in his famous painting.

During the Second World War, 1939-1945, 18 million people from Sharistan were annihilated. 70 thousand Jews, and millions of Russians, Polish, hundreds of thousands of French, Dutch and Yugoslavian people?etc. were also murdered.

In 1948, Israel in Deer Yaseen, in a mass killing, murdered 252 people. In 1979, Bokasa, a brutal dictator, in the Central African Republic, was in charge of beheading approximately 100 children.

Clearly, there are many more examples of genocide and annihilation that the racialist dictators committed against other nations. Examples of these dictators like: Troilus, Chowchesku, Saddam, Castro and Radovan Kardchic. The latter, under the name of racism, annihilated and murdered many peace-lover Bosnians, especially in the city of Srebrenitsa, where 40 thousand people became victims and were murdered.

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.

In order to prevent genocide, we need to learn about it

The Kingston Whig Standard Forum
Posted By Alan Whitehorn

This article gives a compelling reason why the genocide course taught in schools must include the Armenian genocide as a watershed event in history needed to explain other genocides that followed.

[...]
It is impossible to study modern history without understanding key political concepts, such as revolution, war, totalitarianism, genocide, freedom and security. Indeed, one would not seek insight into the modern history of many prominent countries without some reference to key concepts. For example, for France, we explore the causes and consequences of revolution; for Europe, we observe the enormous impact of world wars; to comprehend the Stalinist Soviet Union or Hitler's Nazi Germany, we carefully study despotic totalitarianism; we draw the important linkage between the end of slavery in the United States and the quest for freedom for all; and to assess postwar Germany, we need to comprehend the immense impact of the Holocaust.

Similarly, to understand genocide, we draw insight from the pioneering and heavily cited case study of the Armenian genocide of 1915.

The accounts of the Armenian genocide exist in considerable detail. More than nine decades ago, in 1915, the Toronto Globe, along with the New York Times, dutifully reported events as the shocking news, often drawn from clergy and neutral embassy officials, circulated around the world. Amongst the troubling headlines were the following: "Extermination the watchword"; "Million Armenians wiped out by Turks"; and "Million Armenians massacred by Turks." In confidential consular reports back to Washington and later in his wellpublicized memoirs, Henry Morgenthau Sr., the American ambassador to the Otttoman Empire's Young Turk regime, described with enormous despair the persecution, massive deportations and horrific massacres of the Armenians. American president Woodrow Wilson's visionary Fourteen Points for the post-First World War world included Article 12, relating to Armenians' suffering.

The inability of the legal terminology of the day to address the magnitude and scope of the Armenian massacres was a catalyst for Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin to give the wardevastated world of the 1940s the ominous term "genocide." Lemkin also convinced the newly formed United Nations to pass the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It was a landmark development in international law and the quest to foster global justice.

[...]

Genocide is a pressing global concern. The past can serve as a warning. We must not shove aside the evidence. We need to be solemn public witnesses to the fragments of the scarred bones of countless genocide victims. We must resist the "sin of indifference." Today, all of us need to honestly and frankly acknowledge what took place. We need to speak up in place of those who have been brutally silenced. Genocide must stop. Genocide denial must cease.

The first step to a better future begins today. We need to teach what happened. We need to analyse why genocide occurred. We need to listen to the victims and somehow comprehend what terrible deeds happened to them. We need to understand their quest for closure. A wide and full education on genocide is a key component in building the foundation for a more just and secure world. Without such an education, we learn too little too late, and too often with tragic consequences.

[...]

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.

History course proposal upsets Canadian Turks

2008-01-07 00:00:00.0 History course proposal upsets Canadian Turks By Louise Brown Education Reporter An unusual new course about genocide to be offered in Toronto high schools this fall has sparked anger among Turkish-Canadians for including the Turkish killing of Armenians in 1915. The Grade 11 history course, believed the only one of its kind at a high school in Ontario and possibly Canada, is designed to teach teenagers what happens when a government sets out to destroy people of a particular nationality, race or religion, through three examples: the Holocaust which exterminated 6 million Jews in World War II, the Rwandan slaughter of nearly one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994, and the Turkish killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923. "These are very significant, horrible parts of history, and without sounding hackneyed, we hope we can learn something from them so we can make a better world for our children's children," said Trustee Gerri Gershon, of the Toronto District School Board, who proposed the course after a moving tour in 2005 of the Nazi death camps in Poland. "This isn't a course to teach hatred or blame the perpetrators – no, no, no," said Gershon. "Our goal is the exact opposite: To explore how this happens so we can become better people and make sure it never happens again." But the Council of Turkish Canadians has gathered more than 1,200 signatures on an online petition opposed to the course for calling the Armenian killings a "genocide" and inciting anti-Turkish sentiment. The Turkish government has long denied the slaughter was a genocide, but rather part of the wartime casualties of World War I, with both sides guilty of some provocation. "To pick Armenia as a genocide when it is so controversial – especially when there are atrocities by other countries that could have been chosen – is just wrong, and will inadvertently lead to the bullying of Turkish-Canadian children," argues Ottawa engineer Lale Eskicioglu, executive director of the council and author of the petition, which she will present to school board staff at a meeting this month. "Children of Turkish descent already face bullying, racism and hatred in the school yards. We rely on our schools to provide a shelter free from hate-inciting propaganda and not contribute to the divisions between ethnic minorities," she says. School board Superintendent Nadine Segal says teachers already are being trained to handle these issues "with sensitivity to the cultural mosaic in our schools," and insists the course is not designed to "point fingers, but to examine the early warning signs of genocide and the role of the perpetrator and bystander. "Our own Canadian government has recognized the Armenian genocide as uncontestable reality, the original genocide of the 20th century, and the course has been approved by the Ontario Ministry of Education," says Segal. "But students will also be doing independent studies of their own choosing that will allow them to examine other examples of genocide. The goal is to help students gain a deeper understanding of human rights and their responsibilities as global citizens." Kudos for the new course have been rolling in from historians and human rights advocates, Segal adds, including former United Nations special envoy Stephen Lewis, author Joy Kogawa and genocide historian Frank Chalk, co-director of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University. The course is being designed with the help of experts from UNICEF, York University, the Canadian Centre for Genocide and Human Rights Education, the University of Toronto and the Holocaust Centre of Toronto. Schools from as far away as Montreal have asked for the curriculum, says Segal. Both Segal and Gershon cite the International Association of Genocide Scholars' unanimous declaration of the Armenian killings as "genocide" in 1997. However, Eskicioglu calls the course "propaganda by the Armenian diaspora" and notes that although Prime Minister Stephen Harper has recognized the Armenian tragedy as genocide, his government also supports Turkey's call for an "impartial" joint historical review of events – a move Armenians refuse to take part in. "We are asking either for the removal of the genocide course from the curriculum," says the petition, "or removing any discussion of the Ottoman-Armenian tragedy from its contents." Gershon says she would oppose any such change. Torstar Syndication Services Reprinted from Toronto Star, in the "News" section. Copyright © 2008 Torstar Syndication Services. Displayed by permission. All rights reserved. Toronto Star logo is a registered trademark of Torstar Syndication Services. The iCopyright logo is a registered trademark of iCopyright, Inc.

Armenian genocide topic in class

2 Nov. 2007
Advertiser-News

VERNON —Vernon teacher Phil Tintle presented Sam Azadian with a plaque in appreciation of his commitment to telling the story of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. Now in his 80s, Azadian has been a regular visitor to Tintle’s Issues of Conscience class at Vernon Township High School for several years and always captivates the students with his ability to make history come to life, albeit sadly. Azadian, co-founder and chairman of the Times Square Armenian Genocide Commemoration, grew up with a father, mother and sister who survived and escaped the 20th century’s first genocide.

In the Spring of 1915, the Turkish government ordered the systematic deportation of the Armenian people. Village by village and town by town, men, women and children were taken away and murdered. An entire nation was destroyed and the Armenian people were effectively eliminated from their homeland of nearly 3,000 years. The genocide was from 1915 to 1923. Over one million people died in 1915 alone. To this day, the Turkish government claims the people were just “casualties of war,” blaming World War I on causing the deaths. Congress recently tried to pass a resolution condemning the killings as a genocide, but strong opposition killed the measure, at least for another year.

Azadian was invited by Tintle to speak to his class, which covers the topic of genocide throughout history. As a result of his commitment to his family history and Armenia, Azadian has been named Man of the Year by both the Knights of Vartan and the Armenian General Athletic Union.

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.

Survivors tell horrors of genocide

May 18, 2007
Medill Reports Chicago
by Deanna Hartley

Cold-blooded murder, starvation and disease were part of their daily lives. They may be from different age groups, ethnicities and religions, but they will always be bound by their experiences.

They have survived the world’s greatest atrocities and are speaking out in the hope of preventing future genocides.

The most recent accounts of horrific acts of genocide are coming out of Darfur, a region of Sudan where militias and rebel groups are waging a war that began in 2003. But genocide has occurred in other places, also on a huge scale.

This week Northwestern University convened a panel on genocide throughout history including Armenia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda and Darfur.

The panel was titled "Silenced Voices"--the poignant accounts of those who suffered silently during the genocide but now are being heard. . Here are their stories:

Atrocities in Armenia

Greg Bedian told the panel his grandmother was 10 when she survived the Armenian genocide of 1915. Her family was forced to march from their hometown of Bursa across what is now Turkey, but her father didn’t want her pregnant mother to travel. She watched in horror as her father and pregnant mother were shot and killed.

During the march, she woke up to find her youngest sister dead from exposure, starvation and thirst, but she was forced to desert the corpse and continue the journey.

On a regular basis she witnessed as people were raped, looted and sold into slavery. She managed to run away and work as a servant for an Arab family. She worked hard and didn’t get paid, so she ran away again and was put in an orphanage.

After the genocide, she traveled to Constantinople and later to the United States. It was not uncommon to place advertisements in ethnic Armenian newspapers to search for missing relatives—that’s how she found her long-lost sister in France.

“We’ve lost so much of our Armenian culture,” Bedian said. “I still feel like I’m a victim of the genocide; they’re stealing my culture, my life.”

The Horrors of the Holocaust

Dave Gewirtzman was one of just 16 out of 8,000 Jews to survive the Holocaust from the Polish town of Losice. He was 14 when the town was bombed during World War II because it housed a renowned synagogue.

Gewirtzman recalled watching as the Nazis covered people’s heads with bags, hit them until they collapsed and tossed them out of windows.

Once, he narrowly escaped death at his school. An armed man stormed in and demanded to know if there were any Jewish children in the classroom. He almost beat and kicked the teacher to death because she remained silent. One frightened student pointed to Gewirtzman, who ran out the back door.

He then spent two years hidden under a pig sty on a Polish farm with his family.

“I saw some things that no human being should ever witness,” Gewirtzman said. “I would wake up some mornings, look around and see corpses sometimes covered with newspapers … some people went crazy and drank their own urine because there was no water.”

One morning, armed men informed Gewirtzman that he would be executed that evening, but two other youngsters who were mistaken for Gewirtzman and his friend were accidentally shot instead.

He later worked in a labor camp. After the Holocaust, he went to Italy and later to the United States. “We found freedom in this country and started a life with dignity,” he said.

Captivity in Cambodia

Leon Lim was a medical student in Phnom Penh at the time the genocide began. In early 1975, he was forced from his home and into a labor camp, where he stayed until 1979.

Lim said he was forced to work in a rice field from early morning to late night. On the brink of collapsing from starvation and exhaustion, he would only get a handful of rice to eat everyday. He often watched helplessly as people around him died.

“They killed people for complaining, working too slowly, often for no reason at all,” he said.

He watched as they hammered nails in the back of people’s heads, hung children upside down, smashed people’s heads against trees and used the sharp edges of palm trees to behead people. People would construct makeshift tombs for their loved ones in ditches and cover the corpses with leaves.

When the Khmer Rouge regime ended, Lim walked for six weeks to the border of Thailand where he spent three years in refugee camps working as a medic. He moved to the United States in 1981 and now teaches at Northside College Preparatory High School in Chicago and is co-founder of the Cambodian American Heritage Museum and Killing Fields Memorial in Chicago.

Riots in Rwanda

Jacqueline Murekatete was a 9-year-old carefree child when her parents and six siblings were killed in the Rwandan genocide in 1994

Growing up, she said she was aware that Tutsis—her ethnic group—were discriminated against and sometimes persecuted, but she never imagined the massacre that would follow.

Even churches weren’t havens anymore as people were burned alive in them. “Who thought that they would kill people in a house of God?”

Murekatete was on vacation at her grandmother’s when the genocide began. Both escaped in an ambulance at night thanks to a Hutu man her uncle bribed. It was a risky move considering there were roadblocks guarded by armed men who would butcher Tutsis with machetes upon sight.

A Hutu family agreed to hide them temporarily, but one morning Murekatete woke up to screams of “I know there are cockroaches in there; let us exterminate them.”

“I thought it was the end,” Murekatete said. “Even though I wanted to scream, I couldn’t utter a single sound.”

Because of the imminent danger, Murekatete’s grandmother put her in an orphanage run by Italian priests—that was the last time she saw her grandmother.

“Despite hearing of people being killed around me, I always thought that my [family] was safe and that hope kept me going,” she said. Murekatete later found out that her Hutu neighbors—family friends who came over to her house for food—slaughtered her family and relatives with machetes.

“We were living a nightmare and our only crime was our ethnicity,” she said.

Slayings in Sudan

Abrahim Adam’s family was scattered by the militias backed by the Sudanese government and his 15 siblings were divided among six refugee camps.

“It’s too painful to talk about the genocide,” he told the panel. “The most painful thing is the rape of women.”

He said that young girls were raped in front of their families and killings were a common occurrence.

“Genocide is not only ethnic cleansing, it’s also destroying 800 years of our history and culture,” he said.

Adam wants to know why the international community isn’t rising up to stop the injustice. “Are the numbers [of those being killed] not big enough for them?”

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.

Exclusive: Shameful Over Sensitivity

Gregg Bemis
Author: Gregg Bemis
Source: The Family Security Foundation, Inc.
Date: May 4, 2007

When truth surrenders to fears of insensitivity, there are dark days ahead. FSM Contributing Editor Gregg Bemis studies the absurd lengths to which “sensitivity” has gone, both in the U.S. and throughout the West. Isn’t it clear by now that cultural diversity is the opposite of inclusiveness? Gregg has answers.

Shameful Over Sensitivity
By Gregg Bemis

In England in the year 2000, Mr. Justice Gray wrote a 300-page opinion destroying David Irving’s ridiculous lawsuit against author Deborah Lipstadt for criticizing Irving’s insanity at denying the Holocaust. Now a school in England has shown the ultimate cowardice, or head in the sand if you prefer, by removing the Holocaust from the history curriculum of one of their schools. The reason: because the continued recognition and teaching of this monstrous black moment of history is “insensitive” to the feelings of Britain’s Muslim community who deny the occurrence of the Holocaust. What total rot!

What have we come to? It is bad enough that we have become so skittish that any truth that offends cannot be expressed verbally or in writing. Any action, no matter how innocently undertaken, if it offends is not allowed. I’m not talking about courtesy versus offensive rudeness. I’m talking about history and realities. When our Ambassador to Armenia inadvertently used the word “genocide” referring to a dark period in the history of Turkish Armenian relations, he was sacked. This is despite the fact that the U.S. Congress has from time to time had bills of recognition of the fact up for voting.

When I attended Stanford University what seems like 100 years ago, the student body, such as it was, was fully integrated and inter-related. Now the University in its fervent attempt to be politically correct, and to recognize diversity, has created “theme” houses and “theme” organizations thereby driving peoples and cultures into separate camps. This emphasizes dissimilarities rather than likenesses. Does this create harmony? No. Does this create acceptance of multi-cultures? No. It puts a premium on recognizing and supporting differences, separating not bringing together.

Does America resolve its current problems of integration and acceptance of minorities by ignoring our early history of abuse of Native Americans or of our participation in the slave trade? I don’t think so. In fact the honor we have bestowed on President Lincoln for his efforts to abolish slavery and hold the Union together play a major part in any history of America. And surely the special considerations we have bestowed on Native Americans, whether too much or too little, certainly do not derive from attempting to sweep our history under the rug.

Recently PBS has been doing a series on the Muslims, their culture and their religion. Two renowned videographers with encouragement from PBS produced an exemplary portrayal of the differences and conflicts between the moderate versus the extreme sides of the culture. The ever present, mind numbing, politically correct, left wing upper management faction at PBS killed it. Reportedly they didn’t want to offend the extremists. In what possible way is that helping to educate Americans or support the right to diverse thinking?

So, coming back to the United Kingdom, have things become so scary, so out of control in Britain that one of the greatest monstrosities of the 20th century has to be erased from the history books? The Holocaust was a fact, not a myth. In its calculation and practice, it was one of the most extreme examples of “man’s inhumanity to man”. This decision no longer to include this historical fact in the British school curriculum is a shocking reflection of how far under the tent the camel has pushed its nose. When truth surrenders to fears of insensitivity, there are dark days ahead indeed.


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.

Teaching About Genocide: The Law and The Reality

4/24/2007
Chicago Public Radio
Producer: Spitzer, Gabriel

People around the world today are commemorating the Armenian Genocide. During World War One and earlier, more than a million Armenians died in massacres and death marches under Ottoman Turkish rule.

The vast majority of scholars consider it the first genocide of the 20th Century – though the Turkish government fervently denies it.

Illinois is one of 11 states that require schools to teach about genocides. But it’s unclear how many are meeting that mandate … and whether teachers have what they need to follow the law.

Chicago Public Radio’s Gabriel Spitzer has the story.

**
Ron Levitsky’s public-school education in Des Plains was a little thin on late Ottoman Imperial Turkey.

He’s probably not alone on this one. History teachers have a tough time getting kids to remember what happened at Gettysburg, let alone the Eastern Anatolia region in Europe.

But Levitsky, now an 8th-grade history teacher in Northfield, says that means students miss one of the 20th century’s most important historical chapters.

LEVITSKY: I honestly had not even heard about the Armenian Genocide for the longest time. And ironically one of my closest friends is Armenian and he began to tell me about this. And I began to investigate, and I was really shocked to find out that this had happened.

Levitsky says he did learn about the Holocaust in school.

Illinois has mandated teaching the Holocaust since 1990. But Levitsky says most students aren’t learning about other genocides – like those in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

LEVITSKY: Looking, you know, 30 years, nothing much has changed. And that shocks me. And my students, the fact that they are generally shocked that there are these other genocide, that there’s a pattern. If it was just the holocaust, it’s an aberration. But when the kids began to see that there’s a pattern, they’re really shocked.

(Ambi library)

In the library here at Sunset Ridge School, groups of students are using art to explore the meaning of genocide.

This group of four is composing a poem.

STUDENTS: The destruction of Smyrra was so great, that they just all started to be exterminate ... the number was difficult to calculate … guys, let’s just not have it rhyme. …. Yes, we’re having it rhyme, Patrick … (fade under)

It looks a lot like any hands-on type learning project. Some kids are quiet, a few are gabbing while others meticulously draw or write.

But students say this class is different. They say genocide is hard to talk about, but on a gut level they know it’s important.

This is Charlie Engelman.

ENGELMAN: When Mr. Levitsky, our teacher like mentions it in class, you can tell, we all kinda get quiet and like don’t really laugh or talk as much as we usually do during class time. I didn’t know that people could be that bad and do such horrible things. Sure, there are bad leaders out there, but who could, like, order, like, hundreds of thousands of people to walk through a desert until they starve and die? I mean, like, what’s the point of that?

(fade to black)

Those same feelings of shock and outrage moved a group of state legislators.

Two years ago, they pushed through a bill forcing Illinois to pull its investments form Sudan – a rebuke to that government over atrocities in Darfur.

Fresh off that fight, the lawmakers moved to raise awareness about genocide.

Senator Jacqueline Collins sponsored a bill to require schools to teach about a range of genocides. She says she sees it as an extension of the human-rights legacy of Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy.

COLLINS: This is a way of validating that this atrocity did occur, we were a witness to it, and never again. The law passed with overwhelming support.

But some critics complain there’s no provision to enforce or even measure compliance with the law, and no money to help schools implement it.

Dr. Jeff Ellison heads the history program at Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School. He says the new requirement joins a long list of unfunded social science mandates.

ELLISON: (Flipping pages). Holocaust, Irish Famine … study of women …. Arbor and Bird Day are among the mandates. And it’s in the same grouping as genocide.

Ellison conducted and published the only rigorous study of how well Illinois schools are teaching the Holocaust.

He found that the vast majority of teachers do cover the Holocaust. But he says there’s little consistency in what or how much educators are teaching. The law just requires a unit of study. That could mean a three-week exploration, or a 15-minute lecture.

Now beside the Holocaust, the expanded mandate throws in an additional half-dozen genocides to learn about.

ELLISON: I’ve spent 15 years of my life trying to understand the Holocaust. And if it took me that long, how are we going to expect teachers to so quickly learn about all of the contexts that these genocides take place?

Ellison’s study found the biggest variable affecting how much time teachers devote to the Holocaust was whether or not they had any training – the more teachers knew, the more they taught.

Senator Collins argues teachers already have what they need.

COLLINS: I mean, a lot of this material you can pull just from the internet. I don’t think it takes training to view history from a moral perspective. To say what’s wrong or right. There’s no special training, it just means being human.
With no money attached to the mandate, the burden falls largely on teachers and school districts.

It’s up to them to pay for training, to buy materials and develop curriculum.

(Ambi hallway)

The crux of Ron Levitsky’s curriculum is forcing students to ask themselves how they would act in the face of injustice.

LEVITSKY: Learning doesn’t mean you do anything. That leap from learning to doing is huge. And all we can do here is kind of prepare you, and hope that when the time comes, and hopefully it never would come, that you’d be able to take that leap.

The law now requires schools to teach this subject, but it doesn’t tell them how.

So educators have to ask themselves: why is it important to teach genocide? Is it a history lesson about a war? Or part of a broader education on character and respect? Or is it, as Senator Collins says, to make real that ringing pledge of Never Again?

Ron Levitsky teaches his students that it’s all of those things…and that’s just the start.

I’m Gabriel Spitzer, Chicago Public Radio.

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.

Ignoring the Holocaust teaches kids wrong lessons

Apr 15, 2007
The Toronto Star
By Anna Morgan

Society must not be bullied into hiding hard truths, writes Anna Morgan

In one of the most definitive statements on the Holocaust, The Banality of Evil, Hannah Arendt argues that the greatest crimes in history were executed by ordinary people who were convinced their conduct was socially acceptable and even normal.

It's an important lesson to keep in mind on this Holocaust Remembrance Day.

But how do societies become convinced that the acts of fanatics are normal?

It begins when leadership gives in to bullies and their beliefs.

Sometimes, political figures support or turn a blind eye to racist or misogynist causes to win over popular sentiment. Other times authorities remain silent to avoid an unpopular confrontation at the cost of a principled stand.

It can start with the best of intentions.

These days, for example, it's not unusual to see history and current events approached in a way that does not alienate minority cultures.

However, what starts as a form of sensitivity to diversity can sometimes turn into political bullying by a minority, or even a minority within a minority.

A recent London Daily Mirror article reported on a government study that found some British teachers opted out of teaching the Holocaust to avoid provoking a reaction from Muslim students.

It makes one wonder what the feared reaction might be.

To avoid dealing with the potentially anti-Semitic response that such lessons might provoke, at least one British school has reportedly decided to drop the event from its history lessons altogether.

If true, an educational tool will be lost.

While it is important to be sensitive to minorities in the classroom, it is equally crucial to use the education system to promote a principled approach to the world around us.

Teachers need to be prepared to confront their students through discussion and lessons that counter prejudices.

By refusing to inform students about the experience of the Jews in World War II, some British schools have allowed Holocaust deniers to prevent the teaching of empathy and critical analysis of historic events.

Not only will children at those British schools not learn the truth about World War II, but bullies and racists will be allowed to impose their views on teachers. This type of action can paralyze societies and prevent them from doing what is otherwise right.

In a recent conference held in Detroit by Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam movement, the keynote speaker was Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

In his address, beamed in by satellite, he used the forum of a major African American gathering to accuse "the U.S. and the West of exaggerating the level of conflict in the country's troubled Darfur region." BBC News reported that the Sudanese president went on to condemn Israel, Britain and the United States for "unfairly" targeting Sudan for political gain.

Let's hope the international community doesn't stop spreading the word about Darfur – where reports indicate that 200,000 people have died and more than 2 million have fled their homes – for fear of provoking the Sudanese and their supporters.

Otherwise, bullies will once again prevent the world from learning the truth and pursuing a solution to a new Holocaust in the making.

Unfortunately, it's easy to fall into the trap of accepting bullying behaviour.

During the first Gulf War in the early 1990s, the Canadian Armed Forces stationed in Bahrain gave in to this pattern when they refused to place a woman or a Jew as a liaison officer in the host country.

Out of a false sensitivity to the local culture, they were bullied into pandering to inappropriate prejudices.

Canadians have worked hard to create a society envied around the world. Being able to integrate minorities is an important part of who we are.

However, silence in the face of Holocaust denial, which is nothing but ignorance and racism, will not make Canada a better place to live – any more than ignoring the bully in the playground creates safer schools.

Empowering educators and bystanders to deal with classroom bullying in a positive way is a key step in ensuring that children understand the importance of standing up for what's right instead of tolerating and being sensitive to what's wrong.

It's a lesson for schools and society at large.

Ontario marked the importance of Holocaust Remembrance Day in1998 when it was the first jurisdiction to hold Holocaust commemoration ceremonies in the Legislature.

And now, it is especially fitting that Ontario recently hosted the "I Am Safe Conference" on bullying and victimization to coincide with this time of year.

Because when it comes to oppression, Arendt's lesson is that the extraordinary and the ordinary often go hand in hand.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anna Morgan is a Toronto writer. Her book, My Worst/Best Sleepover Party, co-authored with her sister Dr. Rachael Turkienicz, is a children's book about bullying.

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.

Genocide starts with bullying, Coloroso says

April 5, 2007
Canadian Jewish News
By CAROLYN BLACKMAN Staff Reporter

TORONTO - Ask parenting expert Barbara Coloroso if writing a book about genocide is a giant leap for her, and she’ll immediately say “no.”

Speaking about her new book, Extraordinary Evil: A Brief History of Genocide, Coloroso, author of such books as Kids are Worth It, Parenting Through Crisis, and The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander, said it’s “actually a short walk from bullying to hate crimes to genocide.”

A former Franciscan nun, and mother of three, Coloroso, 58, will speak about her new book on April 17 at Beth Tzedec Congregation at an evening sponsored by the Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto’s parent association.

Other sponsors include Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, Hillel of Greater Toronto, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto’s Holocaust Centre of Toronto, and federation’s Latner Centre for Jewish Knowledge and Heritage.

In a phone interview from her home in Colorado, Coloroso said that she began examining the Holocaust, as well as the Armenian and Rwandan genocides, after seeing Elie Wiesel’s book Night while walking through an airport.

“I had never studied the subject, and he brought it to the fore for me. I began to realize how much I didn’t know.”

She found a parallel between behaviours exhibited in bullying and those exhibited in genocide.

“They both share the dehumanization of the victims and a routinization of cruelty. The premise I take on bullying is that it is not about conflict or anger, it is about contempt for another human being,” Coloroso said.

“Once you make another person a cockroach or a rat, you can do anything to them without shame or compassion. Bullying is a hostile act that is intended to harm. When one group determines that another group is ‘it,’ they can do or say anything.”

Conflict, she noted, is often used to mask genocide.

“The United States and Canada got involved in World War II to stop the war, not to stop the genocide. They didn’t see the genocide through the fog of war,” she said.

“If there is a war going, genocide can be diverted. Hitler needed war to complete his genocide.”

Coloroso, who has visited Rwanda three times to work with orphans and to lecture at the university there, said that “[genocide] is a very short walk from anyone saying ‘You’re less than me.’ When a student calls another student a name, that is step one.

“Boys and girls do verbal bullying very well, and other kids laugh.”

What they’re showing, she said, is that the person who is bullied is not worthy of being treated with dignity and regard. “He’s a loner and a loser.”

Every bully incident has a bully and a bystander, Coloroso said, “and there are no innocent bystanders. You could not have not the Holocaust without Hitler, but you also would not have it without the bystanders. The bully needs support, and cheering on. Bystanders get pleasure from seeing the pain of others.”

The challenge is to raise kids with a sense of “I am unique, you are unique, and together we can create ‘we,’” she said.

“Deep caring is as much caught as it is taught, so kids have to see you behave with deep caring. Let them see what you do when you hear a racist joke, let them see how you treat hired help, and let them see you act with compassion and loving kindness.”

Coloroso said she is “tragically optimistic” in that “I recognize what is going on, and I’m not wearing rose-coloured glasses.

“However, we can make a difference. We can get a group of people to step in and do the right thing. Deep caring always out-trumps dogma. [The challenge] is not to cut people out of the circle of concern.”

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.

As genocide anniversary approaches, Armenian group prepares exhibit

Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Dover-Sherborn Press
By Bev Wax/Correspondent


SHERBORN — Massachusetts is recognized in having one of the largest Armenian-American populations in the country. In Sherborn, there are just a few. But last Thursday, March 1, this small group gathered to plan a monthlong exhibit at the town library focusing on the culture and religion of their ancestors.

The informal “committee” will also strive to remind and educate local residents about “The Armenian Genocide” that occurred in the early 1900s. The tragic event will officially be commemorated in late April.

That evening, approximately a dozen adults, many bringing along their young children, met at the home of Nicole and Will Whittesley. While his in-laws are of Armenian descent, Whittesley volunteered to run the meeting while his wife was busy hosting and looking after their own little ones.

Her parents, John and Barbara Berberian of Shrewsbury, were there to support the group’s effort and, of course, babysit their grandchildren. Both agreed on the importance of teaching history through sharing family stories. Mrs. Berberian described how her husband’s parents “miraculously found each other” in Watertown, realizing they were raised in the same Armenian village. She said, “They came to this country, were hard-working and extremely appreciative that doors were opened to them.”

More than 1.5 million Armenians died during the genocide which took place between in Turkey between 1915 through 1918 and then again from 1920 to1923 when the country was under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Several governments, including those of Turkey and the United States, do not officially recognize the genocide.

Reportedly, eyewitness accounts have documented numerous acts of state-sponsored massacres, adding further weight to the genocide argument. Many Armenians were forced out into the surrounding dessert in traveling to the Syrian town of Deir ez-Zor.

Lucy Almasian, Sherborn’s town clerk for numerous years, said, “Many died in these death marches … but our parents never talked about these massaces.”

At the gathering, a coffee table was overflowing with her collection of Armenian artifacts and books. One of these was a small “oud,” a pear-shaped stringed instument known to be played in Middle Eastern music. Almasian brightened when she spoke of her relative, Will: “He was the best oud player, truly one of the best.”

The fact that the Turkish government ordered the evacuation of ethnic Armenians at this time is not disputed. The claim of ethinic cleansing is still debated. Those labeling the action as genocide claim the Ottoman government provided no care for the Armenians during this deportation and likened it to the Holocaust. The Republic of Turkey said the Armenian deaths were a result of the turmoil, disease and strife of World War I.

The issue is controversial and emotional. Most attending that night recalled heartbreaking stories of a family member’s survival. Attorney Anthony Barsamian mentioned he had met Hrant Dink, editor of the bilingual Armenian/Turkish Agos newspaper, while attending an international law conference last September. Dink was shot outside his office on Jan. 19 of this year. Well known for speaking about the Armenian genocide, Dink’s murder sparked worldwide protests.

Here in Massachusetts, the Assembly of Turkish Associations, a lobbying group which works closely with the Turkish government fighting against the recognition of the genocide, has filed a lawsuit with the state. It is based on the argument that removal of genocide denial sources violates First Amendment rights to free speech.

The ATAA calls for the inclusion of its Web site and others in a list of educational sources that is provided as part of a teacher’s guide of genocide education provided by the state. The Armenian National Committee for the Eastern Region is confident its efforts will prevail to counteract the ATAA’s effort to reinsert genocide denial materials into the state’s human rights curriculum guide. Barsamian explained there is a motion to dismiss currently being considered by Judge Mark Wolf. However, this may take months, and all parties are patiently waiting to hear the decision.

During its brief meeting, the informal “committee” decided the library exhibit must include information on the genocide. Three original letters from genocide survivors are planned to be on display. But the group also intends to focus on the country’s rich, cultural heritage.

As one of the oldest and most historic civilizations in the world, Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity as its official religion. Although it is constitutionally a secular state, the roots of the Armenian church go back to the first century. The exhibit includes a miniature wooden “Khachkar,” a state cross that often is used at gravesites and commemorate events. They can range in height from 2 to 11 feet.

Always keeping the children in mind, the exhibit includes a first and second book of Armenian words. The alphabet consists of 38 letters dating from 405 A.D. A wide collection of books about Armenia surrounds the display case located near the first-floor entrance.

As part of the commemoration in April, Nancy Barsamian is also hoping to air the independent documentary “Beautiful Armenians” by Tamar Salibian on Sherborn’s community access channel. In “Beautiful Armenians,” Salibian reflects on the interrelation of culture, family and memory. Part travelogue, part family chronicle, part meditation, “Beautiful Armenians” starts in the United States and eventually moves to the Middle East.

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.

FIRST WEB CLASS ON THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE LAUNCHED

PRESS RELEASE

The Genocide Education Project
51 Commonwealth Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 264-4203
info@GenocideEducation.org
www.GenocideEducation.com
www.TeachGenocide.com

Contact: Sara Cohan - sarac@genocideeducation.org

FIRST WEB CLASS ON THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE LAUNCHED:
WWW.LEARNGENOCIDE.COM
http://www.genocideeducation.org/pr/2007/01_10_2007.htm

San Francisco, CA, January 10, 2007 - The Genocide Education Project has launched Genocide and the Human Voice: Nicole's Journey, the first online classroom about the Armenian Genocide.

Genocide and the Human Voice: Nicole's Journey uses contemporary learning technology and methodologies to provide a stand-alone lesson students attend online. Recognizing the limited amount of class-time school teachers have compared to the many important and required topics they must address, The Genocide Education Project created an opportunity for high school teachers to introduce their students to the history of the Armenian Genocide, without having to devote full class time to it. This Internet lesson fulfills the World History curriculum requirements of the 11 U.S. states which currently require instruction on this important
history. The online class is also designed to be used as supplemental coursework for curriculum on Armenian Genocide.

"This online lesson brings the first genocide of the 20th century into the education system of the 21st century," stated Sara Cohan, Education Director. "We believe that the more we make up-to-date, quality educational options available to teachers, the more they will choose
toinclude the Armenian Genocide in their course curriculum."

Through the voice of Dr. Nicole Vartanian, Genocide and the Human Voice: Nicole's Journey provides a background to the history of the Armenian Genocide and the effects genocide denial on subsequent generations. Based on Nicole's real life journey to her grandmother's village in Eastern Turkey, the lesson illustrates the continued pain that genocide brings and the fortitude of those searching for truth. After an introduction to the history of the Armenian Genocide and Nicole's grandmother's moving story of survival, the lesson walks students through a series of emails that Nicole sent her mother describing her many observations and thoughts as she undertook her journey.

The plan concludes with "The Eight Stages of Genocide," created by Dr. Gregory Stanton, president of Genocide Watch, a non-profit organization committed to predict, prevent, stop, and punish genocide and other forms of mass murder. Using the events of the Armenian Genocide as a case study, students learn the common stages of all genocides, proving a global perspective on the subject.

Teachers use the website www.learngenocide.com to create an online classroom, assigning students a private log-in name and password to access the lesson plan section of the site. Once students have completed the assignments, they are stored online for teachers to access at a later date.

The readings and assignments are geared toward high school students and mature middle school students. Each section includes an assignment composed of short answer questions and a writing component. Students read and listen to historical text, survivor testimony and a variety of other material giving them a better understanding of genocide and its impact on a nation of people and its future.

Created by the award-winning web design company, Infivia Communication Visuelle, of Montreal, Canada, the lesson employs the latest interactive web features, including segments in which Nicole is heard reading her emails to her mother, cell phone conversations, and other material, engaging and suitable for high school students.

####

The Genocide Education Project is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization that assists educators in teaching about human rights and genocide, particularly the Armenian Genocide, by developing and distributing instructional materials, providing access to teaching resources and organizing educational workshops.

Ozge Can Ozcanli GS, Cengiz Pehlevan GS and Mert Akdere GS: Slavery and justice report misleads on Armenian 'genocide'

Issue date: 12/6/06 Section: Columns
Brown Daily Herald
By Ozge Can Ozcanli, Cengiz Pehlevan and Mert Akdere

For centuries - longer than the lifetime of the United States - the Christian and the Muslim population of the Ottoman Empire had lived peacefully in Anatolia. However, with the decline of Ottoman rule, nationalistic movements began to tear the empire apart. In the 19th and early 20th century, the Balkan nations gained independence, and with considerable help from European and Russian interventions, relations between Muslims and Christian Armenians in modern-day eastern Turkey began to degenerate.

The Ottoman Empire was not "the peaceful paradise" that today's Turkish nationalists and their supporters portray it to be. Also external interventions were not the cause of its break-up. Religion served as the primary test which established who was included and who stood outside the political community in the history of the Ottoman period. Minorities lived peacefully as long as they accepted their dhimmitude; that is, they accepted to be the lawful subjects of the Sultan, exhibited a submissive attitude and were convinced of the superiority of the Turkish nation or race. The non-Muslim population were never anything but second-class citizens. They were required to symbolically exhibit their inferiority. For instance in clothing and the use of beasts of burden. There were also restrictions on the construction of places of worship. The most heavily felt restriction on non-Muslims, however, was fiscal differentiation. Non-Muslims had to pay higher taxes. Tax collection procedures were left to the tax collecting officers themselves. Corruption was widespread in the Ottoman Empire especially during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Armenians had two options: either convert to Islam (which many did) and thus have access to the same rights as the Turkish Muslim majority, or, continue to live as Armenians but not with the same rights as the majority. To be an Armenian under the Ottoman rule was both oppressive and very humiliating; something that present-day Turks cannot possibly fathom. Hence the Empire collapsed under the rise of nationalist movements among the subject peoples starting with the Balkans.

Many aspects of this history still need to be illuminated through objective studies; however, many historians agree that, during World War I, the Armenian population in Eastern Anatolia rose in an armed revolt in alliance with Russia, the enemy of the Ottomans.

The above is a denialist story woven by Turkey's propagandist state machinery. There is no proof of any revolt in terms of a mass national liberation movement backed by a powerful armed organization. The burden of proof lies with those who advance this absurd notion. Armenians were under Ottoman rule since the 14th century. Within the Ottoman State, the Armenians were recognized as a millet or a religious community with its own laws concerning personal status as well as its leader, the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Within this system, one had dual loyalties, one to the sultan and the other to the religious community to which one belonged. By the 18th and 19th centuries several transformations had taken place both in the Ottoman State and among the Armenians. There were waves of reforms that resulted in the secularization and democratization of the Armenian community through the adoption of the National Constitution in 1860. The Armenian National Constitution, 16 years after its ratification by the Ottoman State, became the basis of the Ottoman Constitution. The Ottoman State redefined citizenship through its reforms, Tanzimat of 1839-1876 that culminated in the Islahat or the Reform decree that adopted the notion of equality of all the members of the State including the dhimma. It is rather ironic that only after the adoption of the modern notion of citizenship that the massacres and atrocities that culminated in the 1915 genocide of the Armenian people took place in the Ottoman State. Indeed, the modernization of the Ottoman State and the creation of the Republic of Turkey are linked to the genocide of 1915. As The genocide took place in the context of the transformation and transition from millet based Empire into Republic and Nation State. This was due to Turkish national identity defined in exclusionary ways. In spite Ottoman exclusionary practices through the adoption of Islamic practices with respect to non-Muslims, it was still inclusionary and unifying of all subjects regardless of ethnicity and religion.

This revolt was viewed as a security threat and the empire ordered a forced relocation of Armenians from the region. During the relocation process, hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed by famine, epidemics or by attacks from Muslim gangs and some corrupt policemen. The Turkish government, together with many international historians, refuses the contention that these unfortunate events represented an organized, one-sided "genocide" such as what took place recently in Rwanda. The debate around this issue - whether the word "genocide" should be used to describe the killings - is very sensitive for both ethnic Turks and Armenians.

It is true that they were armed Armenian formations before and during WWI, but they were not entrenched in the Armenian population which was dispersed throughout Anatolia. Nor these communities appear to have supported massively these armed groups. Such support did not exist in Sebastia or Kesaria or even in Istanbul where more than two thousand members of the Armenian elite were killed. Both the Armenian Church and the Dachnak party swore allegiance to the Sultan after the onset of the war and called upon Armenian communities to remain loyal to their sovereign. Most Armenians who were deported to the killing fields of Syria and Iraq came from regions far away from the front where indeed there were no history of armed activities. The armed uprising notion is just a lame excuse to justify mass killings, murder, rape, mass conversions to Islam in order to cause ultimately the death of a nation.

An observant mind can recognize an interesting connection between the debate surrounding these killings, the recent visit of Nobel Prize recipient Orhan Pamuk's visit to Brown and the October report of the University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice. The middle section of the report proposes the killings of Armenians during World War I as an undeniable example of genocide; Pamuk, meanwhile, had recently talked about these killings in an interview and, as emphasized many times by the press, he "faced potential jail time" in Turkey as a result.

Mass killings do not amount to genocide. Such killings would not have amounted to genocide if there were no criminal intent of the Turkish Ottoman ruling elite to administer the final solution to the Armenian question. It would not have been a genocide if it was not aimed at a specific national group or parts thereof. It was most of all a genocide because there are no Armenians today in Anatolia which in itself is a proof that a successful genocide did take place. The results speak of themselves. Another important argument is to put an equivalence between Muslim and Armenian deaths in Anatolia. One has to again assess results. There are no Armenians in Anatolia today whereas there are millions of Muslims in Anatolia. How do we explain the disappearance of Armenians but not of Muslims???

This contributed to his image as a repressed writer, making him seem like a perfect participant at the Freedom to Write Literary Festival at Brown. However, unlike the festival's other participants, none of Pamuk's books have been banned, nor has he ever been imprisoned. On the contrary, he has been one of the best-selling authors in Turkey. As for "potential jail time," Pamuk was indeed charged under the controversial Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, but his trial never started; the court dropped it under a technicality (undoubtedly a result of popular opposition.

Article 301 punishes all those who dare to insult Turkishness. The genocide of Armenians, let alone Armenians, constitute an affront to Turkishness because the very idea or concept of Armenia puts into question Turkish identity as it is known today. Armenia is arguably the only national group who has lived in Anatolia that knows how the Turkish identity came about through sheer violence. If Turkey embraces human rights and democracy, Turks would begin to ask questions about themselves and soon enough they will discover who they really are. Armenia is there to remind their real roots. This is why the very concept of Armenia is a threat to the established Turkish political order. This is why a nation of 7 million
people is seen as a major threat by a nation ten times Armenia's size. The genocide issue is just an epiphenomenon of a much more serious existential issue for Turks. Otherwise how can we explain the emotional intensity of Turks when every time the "genocide" issue is raised.

Turkey's Article 301, which is also mentioned in the slavery and justice report, is often misrepresented or misunderstood. The article does not specifically forbid talking about the Armenian killings or terming them genocide. It forbids "public denigration of Turkishness," and since it is vaguely worded, it is often misused by zealous prosecutors in cases such as Pamuk's. Criticisms of such misuses and the anti-democratic nature of the article have followed deservedly from both Turkish and international society.

However, it should be clarified that no one in Turkey has been put into prison for terming Armenian killings a "genocide" based on Article 301. On the contrary, despite Pamuk's claims that no one except him talks about the killings, the genocide claim is being debated among Turkish scholars just like it is in other countries.

Ironically, some exemplary democracies such as Switzerland and France are passing legislation specifically to ban the freedom to say that the Armenian killings were not genocide. Other countries, like Canada and Belgium, have passed resolutions to recognize the events officially as "genocide."

The authors lament that some Western democracies have passed or intend to pass legislation that would "... ban the freedom to say that the Armenian killings were not genocide." Such legislation is meant to deter those who intend to harm others through their negation. As Sévane Garibian (a bright young French jurist) said in Libération: It is not the opinion that is punished, but the harmful effect of spreading the opinion expressed in bad faith that by law needs to be proven in court. There is a difference between the act of wilfully spreading a hateful ideology and doubts expressed during historical research. The denialists should be forewarned that they will be held accountable when they put into question the reality of a crime of genocide which in itself is determined by the intent to cause harm. This is the reason why denialism and the state policy of denial of the present Turkish state is the last stage of genocide.

This political campaign is absurd given the fact that there is no consensus among historians regarding the issue. Distinguished scholars of Ottoman history like Roderic Davison, J.C. Hurewitz, Bernard Lewis and Guenter Lewy, among many others, have rejected the genocide label for the atrocities committed in Eastern Anatolia during World War I. Moreover, in the United States, historical scholars mobilized in 1985 against a similar Armenian Genocide Resolution proposed by politicians in the House of Representatives. Over 60 American academicians who specialize in Turkish, Ottoman and Middle Eastern studies from prominent universities such as Princeton, Columbia and University of California - Los Angeles wrote a letter to the House, which was simultaneously published in the New York Times:

"… As for the charge of 'genocide' no signatory of this statement wishes to minimize the scope of Armenian suffering… throughout the years in question, the (Eastern Anatolian) region was the scene of more or less continuous warfare, not unlike the tragedy which has gone on in Lebanon for the past decade. The resulting death toll among both Muslim and Christian communities of the region was immense. But much more remains to be discovered before historians will be able to sort out precisely… the (nature of) the events which resulted in the death or removal of large numbers of the eastern Anatolian population, Christian and Muslim alike."

In 28 Nov. 1995 a petition was made by more than 120 academicians in USA about "Taking A Stand Against The Turkish Government's Denial of the Armenian Genocide and Scholarly Corruption in the Academy" because of the funding by Turkey to professors including some of the signatories with intent to revise the factual history in favor of Turkey's denial of the Armenian genocide in direct contravention to academic freedom at universities.

One of the authors of this letter, Stanford Shaw, was threatened by a bomb attack to his house in 1977 by an Armenian terrorist group. Armenian fanatics did not hesitate to use terror during the 1970s and 1980s in an attempt to force Turkey to accept the term "genocide" and agree to land reparations. Unfortunately, a total of 41 people lost their lives in over 200 terrorist attacks in 20 countries as a direct result of this campaign.

Turkey came a long way from first not admitting that Armenians ever existed in Turkey to presently admitting that there was a massive massacre of Armenians and throwing the blame on its Armenian population. The harm that Turkey caused and still causes to the survivors results in desperate acts by some. Turkey needs to cross its psychological hurdle and admit that the act of the massive massacre is premeditated genocide. The massacre and eradication of Armenians was made by the Central Committee of the Committee of Union and Progress after wide-ranging and in-depth discussions. Foreign observers confirmed that the government had a fear of the Armenians that was out of all proportion to the powerless condition in which they lived. The most incriminating evidence confirming that the intention behind the deportation was genocide comes from Mordtmann, the German Consul General in Istanbul. In his report of 30 June 1915, he writes that leading unionist and Istanbul director of police Ismail Kanpolat, pointing to a map of Anatolia, said that the deportation of Armenians would extend to the whole of Anatolia. 'This cannot be explained by military exigencies,' Mordtmann wrote, recalling that Talaat had told him a few weeks earlier: 'What we are talking about is the elimination of the Armenians. The genocide was implemented through a dual mechanism. First, an official deportation order was sent to the provincial regions by the Interior Ministry, then there were separate, unofficial orders for the annihilation of the deportees, issued by the CUP Central Committee and conveyed to the provinces through party channels. Some of the governers refused to accept the Central Committee's instructions that deportation was to be understood as annihilation. In several vases , uncooperative officials were actually murdered. The documents leave no doubt that Talaat Pasha was the overall coordinator of the deportations and massacres. Many telegrams sent by Talaat about orderly deportation and humane treatment of the deportees ... were ... to appease the German ambassador in Istanbul. Talaat is mentioned in consular reports as a liar. The German ambassador described Talaat as 'ruthless' and 'two-faced'. Austrian ambassador Pallaviccini called him a person 'playing a double game.

It is naive to think that proponents of the genocide theory are engaged in a mere quest for truth, given that historical debate is being stifled and Turkey's attempts to engage in this debate are being turned down. As recently as March 2005, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan invited the Armenian government to establish a joint commission of Turkish, Armenian and international historians to investigate archives of all related countries and sort out the true nature of the events that transpired. The offer was rejected - by Armenia.

This invitation is a smokescreen to make appear to EU that Turkey is open minded regarding its recognition of the Armenian genocide. In fact with its Penal code article 301 and the closed borders with Armenia as well as lack of diplomatic relations with Armenia Turkey is holding Armenia in ransom and forcing the Diaspora to abandon its pursuit of the recognition of the Armenian genocide. Turkey's official call for a panel of historians to determine whether the Armenian Massacres constitute a Genocide or not sounds dishonest. Many such studies have already been carried by renowned historians and scholars over years and resolutions taken. One is the 2000 resolution of The International Association of Holocaust and Genocide Scholars, which said, with only 6 dissenting/abstaining votes, that it was Genocide. None other than Elie Wiesel was on the list of those signing the resolution.

Subsequently, on June 7, 2005 in an open letter to the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, the International Association of Genocide Scholars clearly stated the following: "We want to underscore that it is not just Armenians who are affirming the Armenian Genocide but it is the overwhelming opinion of scholars who study genocide: hundreds of independent scholars, who have no affiliations with governments, and whose work spans many countries and nationalities and the course of decades." Israel Charny is the President of the IAGS.The Center for Transitional Justice was commissioned to do a study for TARC. They did. Their report concluded that it was Genocide. The membership of TARC, the Turkish Armenian Reconciliation Commission, was half-Turkish and half-Armenian.

What's lacking is not the historical evidence, it's the absence of political will of the Turkish government to face its own past without which "the gap between the two sides" cannot be narrowed.

Ironically, the slavery and justice report dedicates a good portion of its volume to such "Truth Commissions" and counts them as a rubric of reparative justice. However, for some reason the report never mentions Turkey's invitations but claims the country is in constant denial.

It is rather disappointing that in a report prepared by academics at Brown in the name of truth and justice, the debate surrounding this issue - and Turkey's attempts to investigate it objectively - has been ignored completely.

Despite overwhelming proof that the genocide did take place, we still have to confront articles such as these. They would not have been published if it were not for the official denialism practiced by the Turkish state. Turkey escaped punishment as a result of international circumstances and was successful in reversing its defeat and since then it nurtures what Dadrian calls a truculence. And now this truculent state wants to be part of Europe where the defeat of the most truculent state (Deutschland) paved the way for the formation of the European community. It is not surprising that European states are asking Turkey to shed its Lausanne truculence as a condition to be worthy to be called a European state.

Ozge Can Ozcanli GS, Cengiz Pehlevan GS and Mert Akdere GS are members of the Brown Turkish Cultural Society.

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.

UST's Genocide Intervention Network chapter receives grant

Wednesday, December 6, 2006
University of St. Thomas, Minnesota USA

The St. Thomas chapter of the Genocide Intervention Network has received a $5,000 grant from the Minneapolis Foundation. The funds will help support the chapter's spring-semester work in education about genocide, particularly about the situation in Darfur, Sudan. GI-Net plans to bring three major speakers this spring about genocides of the 20th century: Armenia in 1915, the Holocaust, and Rwanda in 1994.

The chapter also will organize and sponsor a mini-conference in February for students, faculty and community leaders from throughout the Twin Cities to work collaboratively for genocide education, divestment of funds from businesses supporting the Sudanese government, and advocacy for nonviolent resolution to the genocide in Darfur.

The Genocide Intervention Network is a national organization that envisions a world in which the international community is willing and able to protect civilians from genocide and mass atrocities. GI-Net has more than 600 chapters around the world; members educate their communities, advocate for action by their elected officials, and raise funds directly for civilian protection and human security.

Learn more about the national Genocide Intervention Network. To learn about the St. Thomas chapter, contact Sarah Hogan, student president, or Dr. Ellen Kennedy, faculty adviser.

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.