Turkish Scholarly Reason !

Do you remember what Sedat Laciner, the JTW editor and the ISRO Director told me in his Letter 5 ? Talking about Cemal, Enver and Talaat he said :

They [Cemal, Enver and his friends] made great mistakes, yet I know that they did not make genocide, because they were Turkish.

Any reasonable person, will find that kind of response simply absurd!

Yet, it seems that the above is a well established concept in Turkey today .... "They Can't Possibley Commit Genocide because they are Turks."

In his blog, the Artyom Reader reported that, in the last Istanbul conference Mehmet Saray who presented in an emotional tone a paper entitled “Armenians and the Ottoman conception of the state” said the following at the end of his paper:

“The Turkish nation is the most noble nation of the world; friends, it is not possible for such a nation to commit genocide.”

Are those your so-called scholars Turkey ?!

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Gunduz Aktan Threatens THE United States Of America !!

Retired Turkish ambassador Gunduz Aktan, the notorious Armenian Genocide Denier, who quit the TARC after his failure in prove any of his lies, took the floor at a meeting organized by the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) Friday, saying :

'if U.S. Congress acknowledges allegations regarding the so-called Armenian genocide and if U.S. President George Bush uses the word 'genocide' (in his speeches) this will definitely have a political impact on our relations. This will constitutes a serious threat to the bilateral relations.''

Coming from an authoritarian Turkey, it was understandable that Aktan have NO idea about what does "A Parliament" mean, out of that ignorance Aktan stated:

''Acknowledgement of the allegations by the parliaments and heads of state does not have a legal liability. For example those allegations were acknowledged in France but later forgotten.''

Yet noted that ''the actual problem is political and psychological.'' [Indeed it's a psychological problem the one you have Mr. Aktan]

And to cover up his failure in TARC Aktan noted : "...it was impossible to convince the Armenians that a genocide hadn't been committed." [Well of course it is, and the reason is very obvious !!]

The full article as The Anatolian Times reported.

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Armenian Miss Universe Alice Panikian

Alice Panikian was crowned Tuesday March 21st, Miss Universe Canada 2006, in the he 55th annual Miss Universe® Canada Pageant held at Casino de Montreal. In addition to the main title, Alice won both "Miss Photogenic" special award & "Christina Swimwear's Swimsuit Contest."

Fifty two delegates from across Canada competed for the title of Miss Universe® Canada 2006 awarded on Tuesday March 21st, 2006. The contestants had arrived in Montreal on Saturday March 11th starting the Pageant activities and spent time getting to know each other, rehearsing for the show, and visiting Montreal and the surrounding area.

Miss Universe® Canada is the Canadian representative sent to compete at the annual Miss Universe® pageant. Canada is one of only four countries (along with France, Germany, and the USA) which have competed in each Miss Universe® pageant since its inception in 1952.

Pageant Finals Show (Tuesday, March 21st, 2006) The top 15 semi-finalists selected competed for the title of Miss Universe® Canada 2006 in front of ten-person judging panel as well as live audience in the traditional categories (Swimwear and Evening Gown), plus the addition of a live interview/question and answer segment.

You can find the complete final results here .

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Usc Cancels Conference On “Turkish Perspective” On The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian National Committee of America ANCA working with University of Southern California USC Armenian student groups managed to convince the USC to cancel the program featuring two speakers who are notorious deniers of the Armenian Genocide, Gündüz S. Aktan and Ömer Engin Lütem, that was to be held this week in USC.

Ironically, the deniers of the Armenian Genocide would've sopke in a program titled “Armenian ‘Genocide’, International Law and the Psychology of Destroying the Other” !!!

Full text of ANCA Press Release below.




Armenian National Committee of America
Western Region
104 N. Belmont, Suite 208, Glendale, CA 91206 * Tel. (818) 500-1918
Fax. (818) 246-7353 * Email.ancawr@anca.org

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release ~ 2006-03-23
Contact: Armen Carapetian ~ Tel: (818) 500-1918



LOS ANGELES, CA – The Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region (ANCA-WR) learned on March 22nd that a planned conference at the University of Southern California (USC) featuring leading deniers of the Armenian Genocide was canceled.

The USC Center on Public Diplomacy originally sponsored the conference, entitled “Turkish-Armenian Relations: The Turkish Perspective”, which was scheduled to take place on Sunday, March 26th. Former Turkish Ambassadors Gündüz Aktan and Ömer Engin Lütem were invited to speak about the Armenian Genocide and Turkish-Armenian relations. Aktam and Lütem are notorious deniers of the Armenian Genocide, and the event announcement made no attempt to hide that their discussion would not only distort history but attempt to justify Ottoman Turkey’s extermination of its Armenian population.

“The USC event, which was to have featured Turkish members of the State Department’s discredited TARC initiative, is part of an orchestrated national campaign to breath new life into the failed effort,” said Zanku Armenian, a member of the ANCA-WR Board of Directors. “The ANCA-WR, working with USC Armenian student groups, Alumni and school supporters, was able to demonstrate to USC officials the misguided and sinister nature of this panel which led to its cancellation. The cancellation, along with the March 22nd Los Angeles Times editorial reaffirming the Armenian Genocide, sends a strong message to those who deny the Armenian Genocide: ‘You are not welcome in California.’ We applaud USC administrators for taking prompt action to rectify this situation and thus protecting USC’s fine reputation from being used in Turkey’s propaganda war.”

Outraged student groups called on USC administrators to ask why this conference was organized. In a letter to the director of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, ANCA-WR Chairman Steven Dadaian called on the organizers to drop the conference. The quick action to draw attention to this issue by many groups and individuals resulted in the ultimate cancellation once USC officials were made aware of the real intent of the event.

The text of the ANCA-WR letter is provided below.

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


#####


March 22, 2006

USC Center on Public Diplomacy
Joshua S. Fouts
3502 Watt Way, ASC Suite 103
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0281

Dear Mr. Fouts:

It has recently come to our attention that the USC Center on Public Diplomacy is hosting a program called “Armenian ‘Genocide’, International Law and the Psychology of Destroying the Other” featuring two speakers who are notorious deniers of the Armenian Genocide, Gündüz S. Aktan and Ömer Engin Lütem.

According to the description of the program issued by the Center, Messrs. Aktan and Lütem have the extraordinary task of turning the victims of the first genocide of the 20th century into the perpetrators. Based on the program, it appears that Messrs. Aktan and Lütem plan to argue the Turkish government’s official position that (i) there were no massacres of Armenians, (ii) even if there were massacres, the Armenians deserved them, (iii) the Armenians killed more Turks than vice versa and (iv) the deaths were as a result of ‘relocation’ and were not Genocide.

As today’s Los Angeles Times editorial clearly states, the facts surrounding the Armenian Genocide are not in dispute. The Armenian Genocide has been recognized by the United Nations, the United States government and even the Ottoman courts who convicted the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide in absentia. The fact that USC is going to provide a forum for Turkish foreign agents to deny historical facts by making outright false statements is disturbing and a violation of your own Code of Ethics. Genocide Denial is a form of hatred and bigotry and it is outside the purview of accepted standards of civil discourse within the academic community. It is a deliberate misrepresentation of fact and a scientific fraud which must not be tolerated by the University. What's more, this panel is a threat to the University's academic environment because it frames the genocide as a historical controversy.

All this is heightened by the fact that USC has an Armenian-American student body of over a thousand students whose families are the direct descendants of the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by Turks and now officially denied by the Turkish government. This panel will undoubtedly be considered an extremely offensive event which disrespects the rights and dignity of not only your students but to all the hundreds of thousands who are the victims and surviving children of the Armenian Genocide.

We wonder what the reaction would be if USC were to host a “discussion” for neo-Nazis to argue that no Jews were killed, going so far as to assert that while some Jews may have been killed during the Holocaust, they deserved it. Would USC allow their name to be associated with such a hypothetical event much less be sponsoring it?

Our organization is prepared to work with USC to minimize the damage caused to the university’s image within the Armenian-American community as a result of this program being scheduled if immediate action is taken to cancel it. However, if USC chooses to proceed with this program, our organization will be forced to take further action to protest the University’s complicity in providing a forum for genocide deniers.

We are requesting a meeting this week to discuss this urgent matter. Please feel free to contact me at (818) 500-1918.


Sincerely,

[signed]

Steven J. Dadaian
Chairman, Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region

cc: Steven B. Sample
C.L. Max Nikias
Joseph Aoun
Vartan Gregorian

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Newly Declassified Files Reveal Early Opposition to Armenian Genocide Recognition

A series of formerly classified State Department cables, recently made available through the National Archives and Records Administration, provide first-hand insights into the cooperation during the early 1970s between the U.S. and Turkish governments seeking to block the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the United Nations, Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) reported.

"These files provide new insights into the depths to which our own government has sunk in its complicity with Turkey's denial of the Armenian Genocide," said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.

Yerkir reported today.

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Pat. Mesrob II Mutafyan Criticizes Hrant Dink

I supported and I will support any step of the Armenian and Turkish governments, aimed at normalizing relations.

Constantinople Patriarch Mesrob Mutafyan stated in an interview with the Hurriyet. He called the conference at Istanbul University, where Turkey's official and unofficial stances over the Armenian Genocide can be voiced, very important. Resported today Pan Armenian News

Touching upon Agos newspaper editor Hrant Dink's article, in which the latter accuses the Patriarch in efforts to subordinate the Armenian community, Mutafyan said, «Hrant Dink compared me with a member of a sect, who blindly attaches community members to himself. He tries to compromise the community and me. Of course, I will work to unite the community based on the Bible. It is normal,» Istanbul-based Marmara newspaper reports.

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Will America "Give In" To Turkish Pressure ?!

An article in The Online Edition of "The Independent" published today, about the contraversial possible recall of Amb. John Evans, US ambassador to Armenia.

Do not forget to write to the Secretary of State through the website of the Department of State using the following link in the "contact us" page Write to Secretary Of State .

Full text of the article published March 23, in the website of "The Independent"

Row over US ambassador's Armenia genocide remark
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
Published: 23 March 2006

Protests are growing over the possible recall of the US ambassador in Armenia after he described the 1915 massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks as genocide. If he is recalled, it would be seen as giving in to Turkish pressure.

Officially, John Marshall Evans remains - for the time being at least - Washington's man in Erevan. "Ambassador Evans is our ambassador, and he continues ... to exercise that honour and privilege," a State Department official said last week.

But that assurance has satisfied neither the ethnic Armenian community in the US, nor members of Congress from southern California where the community is centred. Their suspicion is that a successor for Mr Evans has already been lined up, and he will be ordered home. Adam Schiff and Grace Napolitano, representing districts in the Los Angeles area, have taken up the matter with the State Department. "I expressed my opposition to any disciplinary action being taken against the ambassador for speaking the truth," Mr Schiff said.

Mr Evans caused a diplomatic sensation in February 2005 when he flatly called the massacres a genocide, during an appearance at the University of California at Berkeley. It was "unbecoming of us as Americans to play word games here," he declared. "I will today call it the Armenian genocide."

By doing so, he became the first US official to use the loaded word in an Armenian context. Like the Clinton administration before it, the Bush administration has always referred to the slaughter as a massacre or a tragedy, but not as a genocide. The circumspection is widely seen as an effort not to upset Turkey, an important US ally in the Middle East that shares borders with Iraq and Iran.

The stand-off follows successive efforts by Mr Schiff to introduce a bill specifically recognising the events of 1915 as an act of genocide - efforts that have been blocked at the White House's behest.

Protests are growing over the possible recall of the US ambassador in Armenia after he described the 1915 massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks as genocide. If he is recalled, it would be seen as giving in to Turkish pressure.

Officially, John Marshall Evans remains - for the time being at least - Washington's man in Erevan. "Ambassador Evans is our ambassador, and he continues ... to exercise that honour and privilege," a State Department official said last week.

But that assurance has satisfied neither the ethnic Armenian community in the US, nor members of Congress from southern California where the community is centred. Their suspicion is that a successor for Mr Evans has already been lined up, and he will be ordered home. Adam Schiff and Grace Napolitano, representing districts in the Los Angeles area, have taken up the matter with the State Department. "I expressed my opposition to any disciplinary action being taken against the ambassador for speaking the truth," Mr Schiff said.

Mr Evans caused a diplomatic sensation in February 2005 when he flatly called the massacres a genocide, during an appearance at the University of California at Berkeley. It was "unbecoming of us as Americans to play word games here," he declared. "I will today call it the Armenian genocide."

By doing so, he became the first US official to use the loaded word in an Armenian context. Like the Clinton administration before it, the Bush administration has always referred to the slaughter as a massacre or a tragedy, but not as a genocide. The circumspection is widely seen as an effort not to upset Turkey, an important US ally in the Middle East that shares borders with Iraq and Iran.

The stand-off follows successive efforts by Mr Schiff to introduce a bill specifically recognising the events of 1915 as an act of genocide - efforts that have been blocked at the White House's behest.

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After France & Switzerland, Now Germany !

After the French & Swiss laws prohibiting the Denial of Armenian Genocide, last week Berlin-Brandenburg Bundesland adopted a similar law prohibiting denial of the Armenian Genocide (paragraph 189).

Ironically, the Talaat Pasha rally gave a totally negative effect



The compelete story as reported in Defacto March 20, 2006 , reads :

LAW ON GUILT OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE DENIAL ADOPTED IN BERLIN-BRANDENBURG

In Germany, Berlin-Brandenburg Bundesland adopted a law on guilt of the Armenian Genocide denial (paragraph 189). From now on it is prohibited to call ?a lie? the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire in the territory, Regnum reports.

It is noteworthy that on the very day Turks were going to hold a demonstration in Berlin to commemorate Talaat Pasha, however, because of the resolution adopted, police thoroughly checked all the posters and transparencies in order to register facts of the Genocide denial.

Berlin-Brandenburg is the first in Germany and the second in Europe region in the number of Turks (the first is in Istanbul). Over 1 million Turks live only in Berlin. So, as the Armenian Turkologists note, Germany, the main Turkey?s ally in the EU, has confirmed its position on the resolution adopted by the Bundestag, which can bring about a chain reaction everywhere in the EU.

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PBS Forced Producer to Revise Content of Genocide Documentary

By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
March 23, 2006

The Ombudsman for PBS, Michael Getler, revealed in a commentary last week that unnamed "top PBS officials" were involved in editing and revising the content of Andrew Goldberg’s documentary on the Armenian Genocide that most PBS stations plan to air on April 17.

Getler quoted these PBS officials as saying: "We worked with the producer [Goldberg] through his final editing to ensure that the program met our standards. We, through Oregon Public Broadcasting, vetted its content with a historian and journalist unconnected with the show." These officials were also quoted as saying that they "were in contact with him [Goldberg] requesting script revisions" as he "was finishing" the documentary.

This alarming revelation becomes even more ominous when coupled with the fact that PBS officials decided to supplement the show with a 25-minute debate on the Armenian Genocide with the participation of two genocide deniers.

These PBS officials and producer Goldberg should disclose to the public which segments of the documentary were added, deleted or altered as a result of such outside intervention. Could it be that the two Turkish denialists who were interviewed within the documentary were added at the insistence of PBS? What else was changed due to the censorship of the work of an independent producer? Furthermore, PBS should reveal the names of the “historian and journalist unconnected with the show” who “vetted” the documentary. Who are these two individuals and what changes did they recommend?

Getler stated in his lengthy commentary (4 times as long as this column) that PBS has received more than 6,000 e-mails protesting the panel discussion. More than 18,000 individuals have also objected by signing an online petition. As a result, Getler reported that PBS stations in 8 of the 10 largest American cities do not plan to air the panel. This proves that the executives running the largest PBS stations nationwide disagree with those at PBS headquarters who decided that there was a need for such a panel! The programming directors of these major PBS stations said that the panel discussion did not add anything to the documentary.

The Ombudsman made one serious factual error in his commentary. He wrongly claimed that "a resolution [on the Armenian genocide] has not made its way through the full House or the U.S. Senate." Both in 1975 and 1984 the full House adopted resolutions to observe "a day of remembrance for all the victims of genocide, especially the 1.5 million people of Armenian ancestry who were the victims of the genocide perpetrated in Turkey between 1915 and 1923."

Jacoba Atlas, the Senior Vice President of PBS programming, and her colleagues, by insisting on the airing of the panel discussion, have caused significant damage to the reputation and operations of PBS, making it the target of criticism by members of Congress, major newspapers such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, TV stations, and tens of thousands of viewers who signed petitions and sent letters and e-mails to PBS.

On March 9, the Los Angeles Times published a commentary by Aris Janigian titled: "PBS’ Perverse Genocide Debate." He accused Atlas and PBS of being "complicit in a murderous lie" by providing airtime and a forum to "deniers" and "falsifiers" of the Armenian Genocide. The L.A. Voice published an editorial on March 9, ridiculing both Atlas and PBS for treating the Armenian Genocide as a myth.

Current magazine published a lengthy article in its March 6 issue, titled: "Panel show riles rather than soothes genocide furor." The magazine quoted Atlas as making yet another nonsensical statement as to why the panel discussion was necessary: "Our own presidents – both Bush and Clinton – did not call it genocide. Because they have declined to call it genocide, it raises questions. The Turkish government does not call it genocide." This is the same official who recently announced that PBS considers the Armenian Genocide "settled history!" If PBS acknowledges the facts of the Armenian Genocide, why then question it and put on the air deniers who say that it is a myth? Regarding statements made by U.S. presidents on the Armenian Genocide, one wonders why Atlas is ignoring the fact that Pres. Ronald Reagan issued a Presidential Proclamation in 1981 in which he used the term "Armenian Genocide"? Must every U.S. president utter the words Armenian Genocide before Ms. Atlas is satisfied that it is genocide? So what if the Turkish government does not call it genocide? The President of Iran does not recognize the Holocaust. Is that enough reason for Atlas to dispute the facts of the Holocaust and air a debate on PBS with neo-Nazis?

Prof. Dennis R. Papazian, who initially was reluctant to support the campaign against the panel discussion, sent the following e-mail to this writer after watching the tape of the debate between Omer Turan and Justin McCarthy (genocide deniers) and Peter Balakian and Taner Akcam: "I have just previewed the post documentary discussion and it made me sick to my stomach to see Justin McCarthy and the Turks come out with blatant lies and deceptive assertions. I thought Taner and Peter ‘won the debate,’ but the denialists undoubtedly would plant doubt in the minds of innocent American viewers.” He then told this writer: “You did right to lead the attack against the showing of the ‘discussion.’ I personally would rather have neither shown than to show the discussion."

In a new twist to his long-standing denialist views, Prof. McCarthy was quoted by WNBC-TV in New York City as saying on March 1 that he would classify the events of 1915 as "mutual genocide," with both sides killing each other. McCarthy has gone from being completely wrong to being half right! He is for the first time accusing the Turkish leaders of committing genocide against the Armenians! One wonders what his Turkish handlers would think of his new admission?

Two weeks ago, in an e-mail to this writer, Wayne Godwin, the then Acting President and Chief Operating Officer of PBS, made a lame, but understandable, attempt to come to the defense of Ms. Atlas, claiming that the decision on the panel was reached by "the entire senior content team." If that is true, then “the entire senior content team” at PBS has made a grave error, thus making it even more problematic than a mistake by a single executive.

Finally, around 20 members of Congress have signed a joint letter to PBS asking that the panel discussion not be aired. As Congress provides a significant portion of the PBS budget, PBS executives can ill afford to ignore such letters from those who hold the purse strings.

Please continue to sign the online petition and circulate it to everyone in your e-mail address book or organization. Here is the link to the petition: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/pbspanel. Also, send an e-mail to Ms. Atlas at: Jatlas@pbs.org as well as to the new president of PBS: Paula Kerger at: Pkerger@pbs.org.

Link to the article

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