Thursday, August 23, 2007

April 24, 1998


To Honor the 50th Anniversary of the U.N. Genocide Convention

We Commemorate the
Armenian Genocide of 1915

and Condemn the Turkish Government's
Denial of this Crime Against Humanity

On April 24, 1915, the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire began a systematic, premeditated genocide of the Armenian people — an unarmed Christian minority living under Turkish rule.More than a million Armenians were exterminatedthrough direct killing, starvation, torture, and forced death marches. Another million fled into permanent exile. Thus an ancient civilization was expunged from its homeland of 2,500 years.

The Armenian Genocide was the most dramatic human rights issue of the time and was reported regularly in newspapers across the U.S.The Armenian Genocide is abundantly documentedby Ottoman court-martial records, by hundreds of thousands of documents in the archives of the United States and nations around the world, by eyewitness reports of missionaries and diplomats, by the testimony of survivors, and by eight decades of historical scholarship.

After 83 yearsthe Turkish government continues to deny the genocideof the Armenians by blaming the victims and undermining historical fact with false rhetoric. Books about the genocide are banned in Turkey. The words "Armenian" and "Greek" are nonexistent in Turkish descriptions of ancient or Christian artifacts and monuments in Turkey. Turkey's efforts to sanitize its history now include the funding of chairs in Turkish studies — with strings attached — at American universities.

It is essential to remember that...

When Raphael Lemkin coined the wordgenocidein 1944 he cited the 1915 annihilation of the Armenians as a seminal example of genocide.

The European Parliament, the Association of Genocide Scholars, the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide (Jerusalem), and the Institute for the Study of Genocide (NYC) havereaffirmed the extermination of the Armenians by the Turkish government asgenocideby the definition of the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention.
Denial of genocide strives to reshape history in order to demonize the victims and rehabilitate the perpetrators.Denial of genocide is the final stage of genocide.It is what Ellie Weisel has called a "double killing."Denial murders the dignity of the survivors and seeks to destroy remembrance of the crime. In a century plagued by genocide,we affirm the moral necessity of remembering.

We denounce as morally and intellectually corruptthe Turkish government's denial of the Armenian genocide.We condemn Turkey's manipulationof the American government and American institutions for the purpose of denying the Armenian genocide.We urge our government officials, scholars, and the mediato refrain from using evasive or euphemistic terminology to appease the Turkish government; we ask them torefer to the 1915 annihilation of the Armenians as genocide.

This statement has been signed by more than 150 distinguished scholars and writers, including:

K. Anthony Appiah
Professor of Afro-American Studies & Philosophy, Harvard University.

Michael Arlen
Writer


James Axtell
Professor History, College of William & Mary


Ben Bagdikian
Former Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism, University of California at Berkeley


Houston Baker
Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania


Peter Balakian
Writer; Professor of English, Colgate University


Mary Catherine Bateson
Clarence J. Robinson Professor in English & Anthropology, George Mason University


Yehuda Bauer
Professor of Holocaust Studies, Hebrew University, Jerusalem


Robert N. Bellah
Elliott Professor of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley


Norman Birnbaum
University Professor, Georgetown University


Peter Brooks
Professor of Comparative Literature, Yale University


Robert McAfee Brown
Professor of Theology and Ethics Emeritus, Pacific School of Religion


Christopher Browning
Professor of History, Pacific Lutheran University


Frank Chalk
Professor of History, Concordia University


Israel W. Charny
Director, Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide, Jerusalem


Ward Churchill
Associate Professor of American Indian Studies, University of Colorado


Rev. William Sloane Coffin
Pastor Emeritus, Riverside Church, N.Y.C.


Vahakn Dadrian
Director, Genocide Study Project, H.F. Guggenheim Foundation


David Brion Davis
Sterline Professor of History, Yale University


James Der Derian
Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts


Marjorie Housepian Dobkin
Writer


Jean Bethke Elshtain
Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics, University of Chicago Divinity School


Kai Erikson
Professor of Sociology, Yale University


Craig Etcheson
Acting Director, Cambodian Genocide Program, Yale University


Helen Fein
Executive Director, Institute for the Study of Genocide, John Jay College of Criminal Justice


Lawrence J. Friedman
Professor of History, Indiana University


William Gass
David May Distinguished Professor of Humanities, Washington University


Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Professor of Afro-American Studies, Harvard University.


Carol Gilligan
Patricia Albjerg Graham Professor of Gender Studies, Harvard University


Langdon Gilkey
Kennedy Distinguished Visiting Professor of Theology, Georgetown University.


Daniel Goldhagen
Associate Professor of Government & Social Studies, Harvard University


Sandor Goodhart
Director of Jewish Studies, Purdue University


Vigen Guroian
Professor of Theology and Ethics, Loyola College


Geoffrey Hartman
Sterling Professor of Comparative Literature, Yale University


Seamus Hearney
Harvard University; Nobel Laureate for Literature


Judith Herman
Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School


Raul Hilberg
Professor of Political Science Emeritus, University of Vermont

Richard G. Hovannisian
Professor of Armenian and Near Eastern History, UCLA

Kurt Jonahsson
Professor of Sociology, Concordia University


Alfred Kazin
Writer, Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus, CUNY Graduate Center


Steven Kepnes
Director of Jewish Studies, Professor of Religion, Colgate University


Ben Kiernan
Professor of History, Yale University


Robert Jay Lifton
Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, John Jay College of Criminal Justice and The Graduate School of the City University of New York


Deborah E. Lipstadt
Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies, Emory University


Norman Mailer
Writer


Eric Markusen
Professor of Sociology, Southwest State University, Minnesota


Robert Melson
Professor of Political Science, Purdue University


Saul Medlovitz
Dag Hammarskjold Professor of Law, Rutgers University


W.S. Merwin
Wrtier


Arthur Miller
Writer


Henry Morgenthau III
Writer

George L. Mosse
Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Hebrew University, Jerusalem


Joyce Carol Oates
Writer


Grace Paley
Writer


Harold Pinter
Writer


Robert A. Pois
Professor of History, University of Colorado


Francis B. Randall
Professor of History, Sarah Lawrence College


Nicholas V. Riasanovsky
Sidney Hellman Professor of European History, University of California, Berkeley


Leo P. Ribuffo
Professor of History, George Washington University


David Riesman
Henry Ford II Professor of Social Science, Harvard University


Nathan A. Scott
William R. Kenan Professor of Religious Studies Emeritus, University of Virginia


Christopher Simpson
Professor of Communications, American University


Roger Smith
Professor of Government, College of William & Mary


Susan Sontag
Wirter


Wloe Soyinka
Nobel Laureate, Woodruff Professor of the Arts, Emory University


Max L. Stackhouse
Stephen Colwell Professor of Christian Ethics, Princeton Theological Seminary


Charles B. Strozier
Professor of History, John Jay College of Criminal Justice and The Graduate Center, City University of New York


Rose Styron
Writer; former Chair Freedom to Write Committee, PEN American Center


William Styron
Writer


Ronald Suny
Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago


Raymond Tanter
Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan


D.M. Thomas
Writer


John Updike
Writer


Kurt Vonnegut
Writer


Derek Walcott
Professor of English, Boston University; Nobel Laureate for Literature


Cornel West
Professor of Philosophy & Religion, and Afro-American Studies, Harvard University


Howard Zinn
Professor Emeritus of History, Boston University


A Statement by Concerned Scholars and Writers

March 7, 2000

View image of document

126 HOLOCAUST SCHOLARS AFFIRM THE INCONTESTABLE FACT OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AND URGE WESTERN DEMOCRACIES TO OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZE IT

At the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Scholars' Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches Convening at St. Joseph University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, March 3-7, 2000, one hundred twenty-six Holocaust Scholars, holders of Academic Chairs and Directors of Holocaust Research and Studies Centers, participants of the Conference, signed a statement affirming that the World War I Armenian Genocide is an incontestable historical fact and accordingly urge the governments of Western democracies to likewise recognize it as such. The petitioners, among whom is Nobel Laureate for Peace Elie Wiesel, who was the keynote speaker at the conference, also asked the Western Democracies to urge the Government and Parliament of Turkey to finally come to terms with a dark chapter of Ottoman-Turkish history and to recognize the Armenian Genocide. This would provide an invaluable impetus to the process of the democratization of Turkey.

Below is a partial list of the signatories:

Prof. Yehuda Bauer
Distinguished Professor
Hebrew University
Director, The International Institute of Holocaust Research
Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

Prof. Israel Charny, Director
Institute of the Holocaust and Genocide, Jerusalem
Professor at the Hebrew University,
Editor-in-Chief of The Encyclopedia of Genocide

Prof. Ward Churchill
Ethnic Studies
The University of Colorado, Boulder

Prof. Stephen Feinstein, Director
Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
University of Minnesota

Prof. Saul Friedman, Director
Holocaust and Jewish Studies
Youngston State University, Ohio

Prof. Edward Gaffney
Valparaiso University Law School

Prof. Zev Garber
Los Angeles Valley College

Prof. Dorota Glowacka
University of King's Collage
Halifax, Nova Scotia

Dr. Irving Greenberg, President
Jewish Life Network

Prof. Herbert Hirsch
Virginia Commonwealth University

Prof. Irving L. Horowitz
Hannah Arendt Distinguished Professor
Rutgers University, NJ

Rabbi Dr. Steve Jacobs
Temple Sinai Shalom
Huntsville, Alabama
Associate Editor of The Encyclopedia of Genocide

Prof. Steven Katz
Distinguish Professor
Director, Center for Judaic Studies
Boston University
Prof. Richard Libowitz
Temple University

Dr. Marcia Littell
Stockton College
Exec. Director, Scholars' Conference
On the Holocaust and the Churches

Franklin Littell
Emeritus Professor
Temple University

Prof. Hubert G. Locke
Washington University
Co-founder of the Annual Scholar's Conference
On the Holocaust and the Churches

Dr. Elizabeth Maxwell
Executive Director of the International Scholarly
Conference on the Holocaust, London, England

Prof. Erik Markusen
Southwest State University, MN

Prof. Saul Mendlowitz
Dag Hammerskjold Distinguished Professor
of International Law
Rutgers University

Prof. Jack Needle, Director
Center for Holocaust Studies
Brookdale Community College
Lincroft, NJ

Dr. Philip Rosen, Director
Holocaust Education Center of the Delaware Valley

Prof. Alan S, Rosenbaum
Dept. of Philosophy
Cleveland State University

William L. Shulman, President
Association of Holocaust Organizations City University of New York

Prof. Samuel Totten
The University of Arkansas
Assoc. Editor of The Encyclopedia of Genocide

Prof. Elie Wiesel
Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities
Boston University
Founding Chairman of the United States
Holocaust Memorial Council
Nobel Laureate for Peace


I hereby declare that the originals of these one hundred and twenty-six signatories are on file in my office. All affiliations supplied are for identification purposes only.

Dr. Stephen Feinstein, Director,
Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
University of Minnesota

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Whomever posted the above bits of propaganda neglected to focus on the essay's statement: "And no one, it seems, is fighting for the proposition that historians, rather than politicians and interest groups, should pronounce on historical truths." Genocide scholars belong in the category of "interest groups"; their interest rests with affirming genocides, but only the genocides (or would be genocides) of their choosing. Genocide scholars begin with the conclusion first, the reverse of the way a true scholar is expected to operate. Genocide scholars omit facts not in keeping with their agendas. Furthermore, Jewish Holocaust scholars go along, forming their opinions on the overwhelming Armenian propaganda that exists, because they irrationally fear questioning the Armenians would lead to the questioning of the Holocaust. What they do not realize is that they are inviting questions on the very real genocide perpetrated by the Nazis, because when they compromise the truth for the Armenians, one then would wonder what else they would be untruthful about.

The famous authors who were connived into signing the 1998 commemoration above will forever live with the shame of neglecting the performance of objective and independent research, and helping to perpetuate hatred against Turkish people. "On April 24, 1915, the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire began a systematic, premeditated genocide of the Armenian people," this foolish statement begins, even though there is absolutely no factual evidence whatsoever demonstrating premeditation. The activists among the Christian minority were certainly not "unarmed," as the statement later erroneously reports: the terrorist groups (primarily Dashnaks and Hunchaks) were arming themselves for years and were financed by Russia, as well as the other enemies of the Armenians' Ottoman nation. "More than a million Armenians were exterminated through direct killing, starvation, torture, and forced death marches" is another horrible statement, as those dying from famine and disease (the real toll was around half a million; the pre-war Armenian population was around 1.5 million, and as the statement continues "Another million fled into permanent exile." We subtract one million survivors from 1.5 million to arrive at the true mortality, and "permanent exile" is another inaccurate statement. Every Ottoman-Armenian who had left was given the right to return, per the Gumru/Alexandropol and Lausanne Treaties) cannot be put in the "extermination" category, particularly when most of the over 2.5 million other Ottoman victims were dying of these very same causes.

This is all ugly propaganda, and Mr. Silverglate is a hero for getting to the crux of the matter, as we have read from his concluding remarks: "What irks me is the attack on those who disagree with him, who are now becoming known as'genocide deniers,' a category of 'haters.' Not only is this viewpoint poisonous to the notion of open and unfettered discourse, but it is also plainly inaccurate, since it ignores the work of credible scholars who have formed more nuanced responses to the Armenian question. How can a civilized discussion of such an important historical event, resulting in so many deaths, be conducted if one side is always demonized in this fashion?" In other words, Armenian genocide propaganda perpetuates the true hatred, by demonizing a people that the true evidence tells us tried to protect the Armenians. (Big undertakings taken at the last moment out of necessity -- the Armenians posed a serious threat to their surrounded Ottoman nation -- often bring chaos, particularly when the nation has few resources to do the job properly. Witness the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq, where a modern and wealthy nation was in charge.)
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