Announcement

**Hovik** · 12-01-2005, 04:26 PM

The Genocide Education Project Launches Henry Morgenthau Ambassadorship
Program

PRESS RELEASE
The Genocide Education Project
51 Commonwealth Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 264-4203

Genocide Education Project | Genocide Education Project

https://www.GenocideEducation.org

Genocide Education Project | Genocide Education Project

https://www.TeachGenocide.org

Contact: Raffi Momjian ([email protected])

THE GENOCIDE EDUCATION PROJECT LAUNCHES HENRY MORGENTHAU AMBASSADORSHIP
PROGRAM

Page not found | Genocide Education Project

http://www.genocideeducation.org/pr/2005/11_22_2005b.htm

San Francisco, CA - The Genocide Education Project recently launched the
Henry Morgenthau Ambassadorship Program, whereby volunteer "Ambassadors"
are trained and provided with appropriate educational resources to reach
out to their local teachers, community schools, and school districts, to
help them fully incorporate the teaching of the Armenian Genocide into
their curricula. To enhance their efforts and success, Morgenthau
Ambassadors receive ongoing assistance from The Genocide Education Program.

"The Henry Morgenthau Ambassadorship Program is designed to broaden our
outreach effort by preparing volunteers with the tools they need to
successfully approach educators," stated Sara Cohan, Education Director
of the Genocide Education Project. "Providing educators with materials
and support can make all the difference concerning the teaching of the
Armenian Genocide."

Dr. Nicole Vartanian, Research Scientist and former U.S. Fulbright
Scholar based in Washington, DC added, "Teachers may not be teaching
about the Armenian Genocide due to a lack of knowledge of the history of
the Armenian Genocide and essential teaching tools needed to do so." She
concluded, "If we educate teachers about the Armenian Genocide, and
provide them with adequate instructional resources on the topic, we can
expect to see progress concerning the inclusion of this important
subject in mainstream curricula."

To become a Genocide Education Project "Morgenthau Ambassador,"
volunteers must complete a questionnaire available at
www.GenocideEducation.org or by contacting The Genocide Education
Project directly at (415) 264-4203 or [email protected].

####

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.

**Hovik** · 12-05-2005, 08:40 AM

Free Speech, Or Freely Rewriting History?

FREE SPEECH, OR FREELY REWRITING HISTORY?
By Michael Jonas

Boston Globe
Dec. 4, 2005

Steve Tolman is more accustomed to pushing solutions to the rising
scourge of drug abuse and supporting expanded healthcare coverage
than he is to defending the content of public school history curricula
and debating free speech issues.

But that's exactly where the bread-and-butter-focused Brighton state
senator finds himself these days. A 1998 law Tolman coauthored that
mandates the teaching of the history surrounding the deaths of 1
million Armenians at the hands of Turks in the early 20th century is
being challenged in federal court by a Turkish-American organization,
two Massachusetts high school teachers, and a student. They contend
that the statute stifles academic debate by shutting out the teaching
of contrary views more sympathetic to the Turks.

In a recent Globe op-ed column, the plaintiffs' lawyers, well-known
civil libertarian Harvey Silverglate and criminal defense specialist
Norman Zalkind, called the lawsuit another chapter in the "culture
wars," with their clients battling against those seeking to rein in
"an unrestrained mind, free of censorship and state orthodoxies."

Tolman, a blunt-speaking former railroad union leader, hardly seems
the poster boy for political correctness run amok. But his background
in union activism has made him a scrappy battler for the causes of
the underdog -- and it is in that vein that Tolman proposed inclusion
of material on genocide as part of the state-mandated high school
history curriculum.

"If people knew of these historical atrocities, maybe if they saw
something they disagreed with, maybe they'd be quicker to challenge
people, they wouldn't allow harm to be inflicted," Tolman says of his
bill, which also mandates teachings on the Holocaust and the British
role in the Irish famine of the 1840s. "It was under the guise that
they who do not know history are doomed to repeat it."

It's an ugly chapter in the history of World War I that Tolman says he
knows well from his childhood growing up in Watertown, which boasts
a large Armenian community. "I heard firsthand historical stories
-- horror stories -- from the grandparents of some of my friends,"
he says.

But the lawsuit against the Department of Education maintains that
the state abridged free-speech rights when it removed material from
the curriculum that questioned whether the events constituted true
genocide against Armenians.

Tolman, who urged the state to remove from the curriculum guide any
references to Turkish websites that contest the genocide label, says
he's all for freewheeling debate about matters on which reasonable
people may disagree. He says this simply is not such a case.

"You cannot change historical fact by saying it did not happen,"
he says. "They tried to wipe out everything to make it look like
Armenians never existed," he says of the Turkish rampage. Tolman points
to a well-known 1915 telegram to the US secretary of state from the
American envoy to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau, in which he warns of a
"campaign of race extermination" underway against the Armenians.

Silverglate and Zalkind cite Bay State native and US Supreme Court
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes as providing support for their position
when he said the principle of free speech means freedom not only for
"those who agree with us, but freedom for the thought we hate."

But there is a difference between freedom of thought and speech and
state-sponsored teaching of thought that is widely viewed as repugnant
or at odds with the commonly accepted historical record.

Viewed in that light, this is less a matter of free-speech rights and
academic liberty than it is a question of deciding which matters fall
into the category of those to which there simply aren't two sides.

"There are neo-Nazis who say that the Holocaust didn't take place,"
says Tolman.

"Are we going to give them a right to say that when we establish
a curriculum?"

**Hovik** · 12-07-2005, 09:59 PM

Keeping The Holocaust Story Alive For A New Generation

KEEPING THE HOLOCAUST STORY ALIVE FOR A NEW GENERATION

Minneapolis Star Tribune, MN
Dec. 7, 2005

In Maplewood, a teacher is driven by a quest to make sure her students
remember the genocide.

Behind Hill-Murray social studies teacher Judith Bartel is a TV
screen showing the entrance to the Dachau concentration camp near
Munich. The slogan "Arbeit macht frei" means "work liberates." Ramin
Rahimian Star Tribune

Eric Hanson, Star Tribune Last update: December 6, 2005 at 12:05 PM
Printer friendly E-mail this story North Tough decisions on development

More students and less space

This land is our land, not yours, city says

Group hopes to be a voice for workers in Anoka County

Keeping the Holocaust story alive for a new generation This year,
Judith Bartel joked, she will finally have a decent textbook when
she teaches middle-school students about the Holocaust.

She ought to know; she wrote it. "Lost Words: The Holocaust" is
Bartel's first book but comes after more than a decade of teaching
the subject at Hill-Murray School in Maplewood and elsewhere.

A regional education coordinator for the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., Bartel also teaches workshops,
and she credited the museum with doing much for her Holocaust education
after her first visit in 1994.

She said she "floundered around" after proposing the semester-long
course at Hill-Murray but has found her way, incorporating the stories
of local survivors such as Henry Oertelt, of Little Canada, and Sabina
Zimering, of Minneapolis.

We spoke to Bartel about the book, about her philosophy of teaching,
and about why the Holocaust has proven to be so compelling a subject
for her.

Q You teach Holocaust studies at a Catholic school. And the church's
role in the Holocaust -- whether the church did enough to oppose it
-- is much debated. Does that come up in your teaching, given your
surroundings?

A Well, certainly. We deal with bystander issues, and the Catholic
church certainly falls into that. I encourage the students to --
that's one of their options for independent research. I had a young
man last year who did research and read "Hitler's Pope" and talked
about the Catholic church's responsibility. It's something that we talk
about very freely in our school. It's not like we're not supposed to
talk about it. You have to respect the church, certainly, but yeah,
it does [come up]. There are all sort of issues. I mean, there were
a lot of people -- it did not just happen. It happened because people
did nothing.

Q What do the kids think about the course?

A I have had numerous students come back and tell me that it was,
without question, the most valuable course they've ever taken. It's
going to be interesting this year.

Q Why so?

A Because we start out talking about present-day racism and intolerance
in the United States. Some people don't believe it still exists.

Q Have you seen a shift in that attitude, from when you began teaching
the course, to now?

A Yeah. ... I think that many students in Minnesota are not as aware
of the existence of prejudice and intolerance in our society.

Q No doubt that would be different if you were teaching in an urban
public school rather than a private suburban school.

A Yeah, I mean, we are definitely a suburban school, there's no
question about that. And it's whether they are -- you know, the
awareness is half of it. And if they don't see it, they're certainly
not aware of it.

Q Considering that demographic factor, is your class often your
students' first in-depth exposure to such issues?

A Mm-hmm, yeah.

Q So that makes your job interesting, I'll bet.

A Right. And that's why the Holocaust -- you know, there are other
genocides that have occurred. And there are genocides -- Darfur [Sudan]
is going on right now. What makes the Holocaust unique is that the
perpetrators were cultured, educated people. They were scientists,
they were doctors, they were leaders of the country. Germany was
the most cultured country in the world at that time. And if it can
happen there, it really is just the best historical -- plus we have
survivors. And we have a wealth of survivors in the Twin Cities area.

Q You tell some of their stories in the book.

A The survivors that I met are absolutely my energy source, because
they are just the most amazing people. I just spent a weekend with a
survivor from Washington, D.C., who at age 11 survived for about 2½
years in the Polish woods by herself. And she is going to speak to my
middle-schoolers when I take them to Washington, D.C., in April. She
is just an amazing person. ... I very definitely used information
that I have gathered from survivors. ... And I put these [local]
people in. ... It's the "ordinary" survivor, they are extraordinary.

Q It's a very aged population, a resource that won't be around forever.

A It is. And we talk about this when we get together at the museum. We
talk about it all the time. There are videos out there, but it's
just not the same. And those of us who are so passionate about this
topic feel very, very responsible to continue telling this history. It
almost becomes a mission. And the more I have contact with survivors,
I definitely feel that responsibility. And that's what keeps me going,
doing what I'm doing, and teaching as many children as I can, so
that they cannot forget. People will say: Well, why is it important
to study the Holocaust? The answer is not "So that it doesn't happen
again" -- because it already has. It's so that people remember. Look
at the Armenian genocide. One of the things that Hitler said was,
"Nobody remembers it." Nobody did anything about it, and no one
remembers it. And you know, to get people to think, maybe we should
be involved in helping in Darfur. Genocide is something that is not
going away, unfortunately.

--Boundary_(ID_aaShUOuioMVQyMlb/H2MGA)--

**Hovik** · 12-15-2005, 05:22 AM

Mass Killing And Genocide In The Twentieth Century

MASS KILLING AND GENOCIDE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

AllAfrica.com
H-Net (East Lansing)
Dec 14 2005

BOOK REVIEW
Paul B. Miller

Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century
By Benjamin A. Valentino

Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004. 253 pp. Index. $29.95
(cloth), ISBN 0-8014-3965-5.

Reviewed by: Paul B. Miller, Department of History, McDaniel College
and the International University of Sarajevo.

Published by: H-Genocide (August, 2005)

The End of Genocide: A Hopeful Approach to a Seemingly Hopeless
Human Phenomenon.

There is something strangely heartening about Benjamin Valentino's
book, Final Solutions, on the plainly disheartening topic of genocide
and mass killing in the twentieth century. For if the author is right
about the critical role of a relatively narrow political or military
elite in the most heinous crimes of our time, then genocide/mass
killing may not be quite the mystery it would seem. And if its origins
can be understood in clear terms that apply to a wide range of case
studies, then perhaps something can be done to prevent it.

This is, after all, the real goal of all genocide scholars, who
are concerned as much, if not more, with the pragmatic consequences
of their work in stopping the killing as they are with its purely
scientific value.

Generalizing about any human phenomenon--especially genocide throughout
the entire world and previous century--seems like a formula for
disappointment. Yet in an ironic twist, Valentino has avoided this in
part by stretching his subject to include what he calls "mass killing,"
or "the intentional killing of a massive number of noncombatants"
(p. 10). How massive? Here Valentino is uncomfortably explicit in
suggesting the figure of "at least fifty thousand intentional deaths
over the course of five or fewer years," though if his theory works,
he argues, it should hold for lower numbers as well (pp. 11-12). The
point is not so much the specific number (and one of the beauties
of the UN's Genocide Convention is that it does not put a numerical
requirement on a genocide finding), but understanding how the mass
murder of innocent, unarmed civilians becomes the policy of states.

Valentino is certainly not the first scholar to theorize about the
origins of genocide/mass killing. His broad perspective, however,
allows him to make some rather pointed and compelling critiques of
earlier explanations such as social cleavage, scapegoating, and raw
governmental power. In undermining the "plural society theory" that
Leo Kuper and others have proposed to explain genocide, for example,
he reminds us that in Cambodia perpetrators and victims came from
the same social and ethnic groups, and that many victims, in fact,
belonged to dominant ethnic groups (see Chapter 1). Similarly, if less
predictably, the author draws on such incidents as French behavior in
Algeria to undercut the notion that genocide/mass killing takes place
in a proportional relationship to political power and that democracy
provides a check on this type of violence. He is equally dubious of
scapegoating as the principal motivation, citing Michael Mann's recent
study of Holocaust perpetrators as proof that personal grievances were
rarely necessary to shape behavior. While these theories, Valentino
concludes, have "strong intuitive appeal .. they are simply too common
to serve as accurate indicators of.

this relatively rare kind of violence" (p. 28).

The author next challenges another implicit assumption concerning the
cause of genocide/mass killing: that it is popular with and supported
by the larger society. Most scholars, I imagine, will find little
to disagree with in the chapter "The Perpetrators and the Public,"
which reviews such classic literature in the field as Christopher
Browning's Ordinary Men (contrasted very favorably with Daniel
Goldhagen's drastically different conclusions for the same group
of men); the authoritarian personality experiments of psychologists
Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo; and studies of what makes soldiers
willingly risk their lives for causes that have little direct impact on
them personally. Valentino argues that the motivation for mass killing
lies in situational factors and the initiative of a relatively small
but powerful cohort rather than in broad public support and deeply
ingrained ideological hatred. This is well supported by the chapter's
diverse range of evidence. Indeed, this chapter could stand alone as
an overview of the growing scholarly consensus concerning what makes
people kill. The larger issue, however, is why.

To answer this, the remaining nearly three-quarters of Final Solutions
is a meticulous examination of the "specific situations, goals, and
conditions" that lead political and/or military leaders to embark upon
a policy of genocide/mass killing (p. 66). In chapter 3, the author,
who has a social scientist's penchant for lists and categorization,
identifies six primary motives: communist, ethnic, territorial,
counterguerrilla, terrorist, and imperialist. Citing communist, ethnic,
and counterguerrilla mass killing as the most prevalent and deadly,
his work then devotes a chapter to each. Thus, in addition to the
usual case studies of ethnic genocide such as Armenia, the Holocaust,
and Rwanda, Valentino's work includes a lengthy chapter on the Soviet
Union, China, and Cambodia, as well as the counterguerrilla mass
killings in Guatemala and Afghanistan.

Moreover, and crucial to his argument, he ends each chapter by
examining regimes that were considerably less violent and never
became genocidal--such as Cuba, South Africa, and the Philippines
during its counterinsurgency against the Huk rebellion of 1947-1953.

The upshot of all these case studies, several of which could constitute
worthy summaries for undergraduate teaching, is that, with the
exception of Cambodia, genocide/mass killing is "rarely a policy
of first resort" (p. 240). Rather it is a conscious and rational
strategy chosen to achieve a certain aim. The Nazis tried several
means to remove Jews from their expanding territories, including
forced emigration and expulsion, before turning to extermination.

Even Stalin only unleashed the Ukrainian famine once more restrained
methods of agricultural collectivization failed. And the author
outlines a similar process with regard to the Guatemalan regime's
escalating violence against its peasantry in view of the rural
population's growing support for the insurgency. While this reviewer
is unfamiliar enough with the Guatemalan case that he would have
appreciated some background on this 1970s insurgency, the author's
points were clear and well-taken: What matters is what the leaders
want to do and how they decide that genocide/mass killing is the
best way to do it. In other words, killing innocent people in large
numbers is explained as a tactical decision based on a clear vision of
the end result. In effect, Valentino moves us beyond what motivates
people to kill directly, to the larger issue of what motivates their
leaders to order them to do so.

It is a compelling, well-conceived and, certainly, important
argument, though like most broad-based arguments it leaves some
instances to slip through the cracks of the author's six motivational
typologies. Consider, for example, the often lethal behavior of the men
under the command of Bosnian Muslim Naser Oric in the Serb villages
surrounding Srebrenica. Now on trial in The Hague for war crimes,
Oric was operating without the authority of the Bosnian leadership in
Sarajevo and very much in response to the aggression of the Bosnian
Serb army (which was receiving aid and directives not only from their
civilian leadership in Pale, but from Belgrade itself). Valentino
may argue that Oric's actions, as those of similar rebels acting
on their own fears and authority, never reached the proportions of
mass killings in which he is interested. They did, however, terrorize
the Bosnian Serb population around Srebrenica as much as Guatemalan
peasants were terrorized by their own government.

And though the Bosnian Serbs certainly did not need any additional
motivation for their clearly conceived program of ethnic cleansing
and genocide, Oric's actions were, we know now, on their minds when
they entered Srebrenica in July 2005.

This criticism may strike some as unfair since it perhaps overextends
Valentino's carefully conceived definition of mass killing. It does,
however, indicate that deeper (or different) motives such as revenge
or simply fear, can also provoke episodes of genocide/mass killing,
particularly when a formal governing authority is absent or limited.

I mention this because Valentino's arguments can at times seem overly
optimistic in light of his effort to outline policies that predict
and prevent genocide/mass killing, the main theme of his conclusion.

A good example of this occurs at the end of the chapter on communist
mass killings when, with a tip of the hat to Francis Fukuyama,
Valentino postulates that if there is an "end of ideology," or at
least to this particularly deadly one, and "if no similarly radical
ideas gain the widespread applicability and acceptance of communism,
[then] humanity may be able to look forward to considerably less mass
killing in the coming century than it experienced in the last" (p.

151). That's a pretty big "if," and perhaps Rwanda and Darfur have
already disabused the author of such thinking. Yet when a young
scholar expresses this kind of optimism, it's difficult to be too
critical. And in terms of sheer numbers and barring nuclear threat,
he may, we can only hope, be right.

When first asked to review this work, my response was that as a
historian rather than a political scientist like the author, perhaps I
was not the right person for the job. While Final Solutions certainly
demands to be read by scholars from a wide array of disciplines, I was
reluctant to critique something that required specialized disciplinary
or theoretical knowledge. I must admit too that I struggled in the
beginning to understand Valentino's methodology of "process tracing,"
(defined awkwardly in the introduction as "identifying the causal
processes which link the factors and conditions implicated by the
strategic perspective to the outcome of mass killing" [p. 7]). But as I
got further into the work, I realized that this term almost elegantly
captures the author's patient efforts to understand genocide not as
a foregone conclusion, but rather as the carefully chosen means to
achieve any number of state policies or ideologies. Hence the apt
title of this work is even more literal than it may originally seem.

I offer this information on my academic background not as an excuse
for any shortcomings in my understanding of Valentino's important
work and/or my conveyance of his methodology and conclusions to
H-Genocide readers, but rather because it inevitably shades some
additional criticisms that I have, despite my overall admiration for
the author's breadth of learning and the conclusions he has drawn.

First, readers should be aware that, despite Valentino's frequent
references to "my research" (see, for example, pp. 2, 4, 23, 71, 227),
this book is actually based on the research of others. Granted this
is not so much a criticism of the book's contents and contentions, but
rather the way in which they are presented by the author (and viewed by
an, admittedly biased, archive-oriented historian). While his sources
are acknowledged and his book is amply footnoted (though there is no
bibliography), its conclusions rest upon an impressive synthesis of
research over the past half century or so rather than on any original
surveys, interviews, primary source work, or other research program.

This bears mentioning because it sometimes leads the author to
overstate the obvious, perhaps in an overzealous effort to derive
maximal meaning from what is basically a synthetic work. Thus, for
example, in chapter 3 he previews some rather intuitive factors that
make genocide/mass killing more likely, including: "the higher the
priority that communist leaders assign to the radical transformation
of society"; "the more rapidly ethnic cleansing is carried out"; and
"the greater the physical capabilities for mass killing possessed by
the perpetrators" (pp. 74-90). Equally self-evident is the author's
claim that "the Holocaust was unique because each of the millions of
lives it extinguished was unique, never to lived again [sic]" (p.

177). Certainly less obvious and more in need of a gentle corrective
is the assertion that in Nazi ideology the Jews occupied the lowest
rung of the human racial hierarchy (p. 168). In fact the Hitlerian
worldview conceived of Jews less as the ultimate sub-race than
the preeminent anti-race, admired, as Valentino acknowledges, for
preserving their "racial" distinctiveness for thousands of years,
yet feared for their inimitable capacity to contaminate Aryan blood.

A work of this scope is bound to make a few missteps, and it is
certainly not this reviewer's intention to belabor them. Final
Solutions succeeds in providing us not only with a workable explanation
for genocide/mass killing, but also with many important suggestions
for what we might do to stop it. And for such a difficult and pressing
topic as this, the sense of hope that Valentino's scholarship delivers
is perhaps its most lasting and welcome attribute.

Citation: Paul B. Miller. "Review of Benjamin A. Valentino,
Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth
Century," H-Genocide, H-Net Reviews, August, 2005. URL:
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev...31381128105048.

Copyright � 2005 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the
redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational
purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author,
web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net:
Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For any other proposed use,
contact the Reviews editorial staff at [email protected].

**Reincarnated Am** · 12-22-2005, 07:06 PM

Armenian Genocide Studies At Ottawa-carleton Catholic Schools

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE STUDIES AT OTTAWA-CARLETON CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

The Armenian Church Canadian Diocese successfully organized an Ecumenical and Interfaith Martyrs' Prayer Service to mark the observance of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, on April 15, 2005, at Notre Dame Basilica, the Roman Catholic Archdiocesan Cathedral of Ottawa. At this time, upon the conclusion of this most memorable year of observance of the Armenian Genocide, the Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Canada has been informed that the Ottawa Carelton Catholic School Board, will be including the study of Genocide, in their school curriculum.

Mr. John Podgorski, Director of Religion, at OCCDSB, is working on the development of this initiative, and states: "Genocide remains a very important educational topic for Catholic schools. The Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School Board is developing an educational resource that would give students and teachers a deeper understanding of genocide as a profound social justice issue. Documentation related to the Armenian genocide will be incorporated as a basis for independent learning and seminar presentations in grade 12 Religious Education.

Besides, the unprecedented success that the ecumenical and interfaith Martyrs' Prayer service represented for the Armenian Community in Ottawa, this initiative is a positive and major advancement that will help to raise awareness and understanding of this important issue. Deacon Hagop Arslanian, Assistant to the Primate and Mrs. Ani Mardian of Ottawa, will provide further support for this program.

ԱԶԳ Վերլուծական - Ազգ

http://www.azg.am/?lang=EN&num=2005122301

Լրահոս edit post Հաջիզադեն պատասխանել է Փաշինյանին 14/11/2024 edit post Գրետա Թունբերգն այցելել է Հայոց ցեղասպանության հուշահամալիր 14/11/2024 edit post Կյանքը ցույց տվեց, որ քաղաքականության մեջ նախկին-ներկա հասկացություններ չկան. Արտակ Զաքարյան 14/11/2024 edit post Պատասխանատու վարչապետը չի գոռում �Արցախը Հայաատան է, և վերջ�, ու հրաժարվում հոկտեմբերի 19-ին Պուտինի` պատերազմը դադարեցնելու առաջարկից. Էդուարդ Շարմազանով 14/11/2024 edit […]

**Gavur** · 01-06-2006, 05:37 PM

Education As A Tool For Combating Armenian Genocide And Holocaust Denial

PRESS RELEASE

The Genocide Education Project
51 Commonwealth Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 264-4203
[email protected]

Genocide Education Project | Genocide Education Project

https://www.GenocideEducation.org

Genocide Education Project | Genocide Education Project

https://www.TeachGenocide.org

Contact: Raffi Momjian - [email protected]

EDUCATION AS A TOOL FOR COMBATING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AND HOLOCAUST DENIAL

Page not found | Genocide Education Project

http://www.genocideeducation.org/pr/2006/01_05_2006.htm

SAN FRANCISCO - The Holocaust Center of Northern California and The
Genocide Education Project hosted lecturer Dr. Paul Bartrop, a prominent
Holocaust and Genocide Studies Fellow at Deakin University in Melbourne,
Australia, on Sunday, December 18 at the Holocaust Center in San
Francisco. Dr. Bartrop addressed members of the Armenian community and
Holocaust Center community about the role and importance of education to
thwart genocide denial.

In his lecture, Dr. Bartrop pointed out some recent examples of denial,
noting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust,
writer Orhan Pamuk's trial in Turkey for insulting the country with
mention of the Armenian Genocide, and the lawsuit against the
Massachusetts Board of Education for removing denial literature on the
Armenian Genocide. Bartrop contended that if we study genocide, we must
study attempts to deny it as well, since denial is the final phase of
genocide and its use completes the process of annihilation.

Bartrop discussed some of the challenges of dealing with denial in the
classroom ~V to what extent should students be exposed to deniers, how
teachers can help students understand and question the motives of
genocide deniers, and how to combat denial. At a minimum, he asserted,
students should know that deniers exists, recognize their motives and be
prepared to answer questions of opposition. These are lessons in social
responsibility.

Bartrop went on to discuss the various forms and processes of denial,
including either rationalizing or trivializing genocide, how deniers
falsify research findings, misquote or dismiss the veracity of the
evidence to the contrary. "Teaching about genocide is a matter of
self-interest if we wish to live in a civilized society which elevates
humanity and denigrates barbarism of the kind the perpetrators of
genocide have practiced," concluded Dr. Bartrop.

Raffi Momjian, Executive Director of The Genocide Education Project
stated, "Both our communities are being dehumanized to this day, the
Jewish community continues to face anti-Semitic forces, while the
Armenians must deal with denial of their genocide." He concluded, "We
are convinced that the most effective way to combat anti-Semitism and
denial is through education."

Morgan Blum, Head Educator of the Holocaust Center of Northern
California, commented, "We were very pleased to have an opportunity to
host an event of common interest for both the Armenian and Holocaust
Center community. We can gain great perspective by studying the unique
aspects of the Holocaust and Armenian Genocide, as well as understanding
the common elements which adds to the richness of Comparative Genocide
Studies."

####

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. For more information,
call (415) 264-4203 or visit www.GenocideEducation.org or
www.TeachGenocide.org.

Founded in 1977, the Holocaust Center of Northern California is the
region's most important resource for Holocaust education, research and
remembrance. The Center strives to educate people of all ages about
the consequences of racism, hatred and indifference. For more
information, call (415) 777-9060, or visit the website at www.hcnc.org.

**Hovik** · 01-12-2006, 07:20 PM

NEW DOCUMENTARY ABOUT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

AZG Armenian Daily #003
12/01/2006

New York, NY (January, 2006) -- The Armenian Genocide is the complete
story of the first Genocide of the 20th century - when over a million
Armenians died at the hands of the Ottoman Turks during World War I.

This unprecedented and powerful one-hour documentary, scheduled to air
April 17th at 10pm on PBS, (check local listings for possible changes)
was written, directed and produced by Emmy Award-winning producer
Andrew Goldberg of Two Cats Productions, in association with Oregon
Public Broadcasting.

Featuring interviews with the leading experts in the field such
as Pulitzer Prize-winning author Samantha Power and New York
Times best-selling author, Peter Balakian, this film features
never-before-seen historical footage of the events and key players of
one of the greatest untold stories of the 20th century. The Armenian
Genocide is narrated by Juliana Margulies and includes historical
narrations by Ed Harris, Natalie Portman, Laura Linney and Orlando
Bloom, among others. "What the word 'Genocide' connotes is a systematic
campaign of destruction. If you simply call the horrors of 1915
'crimes against humanity' or 'atrocities,' it doesn't fully convey
just how methodical this campaign of slaughter and deportation really
was, and I think that's why historians look at the record and they
really can come to no other conclusion but that this word, Genocide,
applies to this methodical campaign of destruction," says Samantha
Power. Filmed in the US, France, Germany, Belgium, Turkey and Syria,
the program features discussions with Kurdish and Turkish citizens
in modern-day Turkey who speak openly about the stories told to them
by their parents and grandparents. To this day, Turkey denies the
Genocide occurred and maintains this position steadfastly. The film
includes testimony by former Turkish Diplomat Gunduz Aktan to US
lawmakers in the year 2000, where he explains the official Turkish
position on the issue. "The Turkish people firmly believe that what
happened to the Armenian people was not Genocide," Aktan says. "As
Turkey seeks to join the European Union, 90 years later, this film
can give people a much better understanding of why this issue is such
an important and current part of the international conversation about
Turkey's role in the world today," said Goldberg.

**Hovik** · 01-14-2006, 08:54 PM

Armenian Assembly Refutes Denialist Position
Files Motion To Dismiss In Federal Cour

Armenian Assembly of America
1140 19th Street, NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202-393-3434
Fax: 202-638-4904
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.armenianassembly.org

PRESS RELEASE
January 13, 2006
CONTACT: Christine Kojoian
E-mail: [email protected]

ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY REFUTES DENIALIST POSITION
FILES MOTION TO DISMISS IN FEDERAL COURT

Washington, DC - The Armenian Assembly, having filed a motion in
December to intervene in the pending Massachusetts lawsuit brought by
the Assembly of American Turkish Associations (ATAA), firmly responded
to those seeking to deny and rewrite history in Massachusetts
classrooms, by filing a motion to dismiss in the matter of Griswold v.
Driscoll ("the Armenian Genocide case").

"The Armenian Assembly has put together an outstanding legal team to
confront the challenge in this case, as well as any others that may be
brought in the future," stated Assembly Board of Trustees Vice President
and Counselor Robert A. Kaloosdian, who along with Board of Trustees
President Carolyn Mugar, are co-chairing the Assembly committee managing
this legal initiative. "We have dedicated ourselves to the study,
research and affirmation of the Armenian Genocide, not only in
Massachusetts, but across the country, as evidenced by the creation of
the Armenian National Institute (ANI). The Assembly helped publish a
comprehensive guide on the Armenian Genocide in the U.S. Archives
thoroughly documenting with official testimony the 1915 atrocities.
Together with ANI, the Assembly continues to actively promote Genocide
education and curriculum, including most recently, the new Genocide
curriculum adopted in New Jersey," Kaloosdian continued.

The motion to dismiss clearly states that the ATAA and its revisionist
associates failed to state a claim for which relief can be granted -
pointing out that the plaintiffs lack standing to sue, and that there is
not any "conceivable violation of the First Amendment." The motion to
dismiss further states that "Turkey has long denied responsibility for
the Armenian Genocide, despite incontrovertible evidence not only that
the Armenian Genocide occurred but that the Ottoman Turkish government
was responsible."

"The ATAA's lawsuit represents the latest chapter in a well-funded, but
doomed campaign by Turkey and its paid lobbyists to deny the Armenian
Genocide - the first genocide of the 20th Century," said Chairman of the
Assembly Board of Trustees Hirair Hovnanian. "The suit even runs
counter to the growing trend in Turkish society toward acknowledging its
history. In defiance of this current trend, the Turkish government
continues to persecute those who refer to the genocide within its
borders. A Turkish author, Orhan Pamuk, among others, has been
prosecuted simply for speaking the truth. Apparently, the Turkish
government also seeks to dictate what Americans can and cannot say in
this country as well," Hovnanian continued.

In 1998, the Massachusetts State Legislature unanimously passed
legislation requiring the Board of Education to formulate guidelines for
a curriculum designed to provide instruction on several well-documented
human rights abuses, including the Armenian Genocide. In compliance
with this requirement, the Department of Education prepared a draft
guide and released it for public comment. Everyone in Massachusetts,
including the plaintiffs, was accorded many opportunities to present
their materials to the Department of Education. Proposed revisions to
the draft guide were considered, in some cases adopted, and in some
cases rejected, and a final guide was then prepared.

Having failed to insert their denialist materials into the guide, the
ATAA brought suit in Federal Court arguing a tired and discredited
practice that the "other side" of the story should be taught. Last
week, the ATAA filed another document opposing the Motion to Intervene,
and can be expected to oppose the Motion to Dismiss as well.

"It is more than ironic and even hypocritical that an organization
basing its argument on 'free speech' would seek to deny the Armenian
Assembly of America, speaking on behalf of the Armenian-American
community of Massachusetts, the opportunity to express its views on this
critical matter," said Kaloosdian.

The Armenian Assembly is the largest Washington-based nationwide
organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian
issue. It is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.

####

NR#2006-002

**Hovik** · 01-14-2006, 08:55 PM

International Institute For Genocide And Human Rights Studies

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GENOCIDE AND HUMAN RIGHTS STUDIES
(A Division of the Zoryan Institute)
255 Duncan Mill Rd., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, Canada M3B 3H9
Tel: 416-250-9807 Fax: 416-512-1736 E-mail: [email protected]

Home | genocide-studies

https://www.genocidestudies.org

PRESS RELEASE CONTACT: George
Shirinian

DATE: January 13, 2006 Tel:
416-250-9807

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GENOCIDE AND HUMAN RIGHTS STUDIES ANNOUNCES 2006
UNIVERSITY PROGRAM

Toronto, Canada - The International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights
Studies (A Division of the Zoryan Institute) is pleased to announce the
fifth year of the Genocide and Human Rights University Program (GHRUP), to
be held in Toronto, July 31-August 11, 2006.

"While the GHRUP is a mature program, now in its fifth year, we are
continually looking for ways to improve it, and there are some important
innovations for 2006," commented Prof. Roger W. Smith, Director of the
IIGHRS. "For example," he continued, "we have added a unit on theories of
genocide and another on international law and genocide. This has given us
the opportunity to invite some new and very talented scholars to the
faculty, which now numbers twelve. It is interesting how the program has
evolved to run the gamut of subjects, from the theoretical to the practical,
from theories of genocide to genocide as a crime in international law," he
remarked.

This 2-week, fully accredited course features world-renowned genocide
scholars and provides a structured forum for analyzing universal questions
related to genocide, such as:
What is genocide and why does it take place?
What is the relation between genocide and human rights?
Why does genocide denial occur?
How does geo-politics impact human rights and can even lead to genocide?
Why should you study human rights and the prevention of genocide?

The mission of the Genocide and Human Rights University Program is to help
develop a new generation of scholars to engage in research and publication
in the field of genocide and human rights studies. This goal is achieved
through a comparative and interdisciplinary analysis of such cases of
genocide as the Jewish Holocaust, the Cambodian Genocide, and the Rwandan
Genocide, among others, using the Armenian Genocide, the archetypal genocide
of the 20th Century, as a point of reference.

The program also seeks to help develop an academic-level educational support
system for those who wish to work toward the prevention of genocide.

The program strives to show, through the study and sharing of the genocidal
traumas of many peoples, that genocide and the gross violation of human
rights is a universal human experience and that, as such, it must be the
concern of all individuals and institutions.

The program will appeal to a wide variety of students interested in various
cases of genocide and the broader issues of human rights. Applicants must be
current university students with three years or more of undergraduate
experience.

Scholarships are available for qualified students. Please inquire.

Details and registration information are available on the program's web
site, www.genocidestudies.org.

For more information, contact the International Institute for Genocide and
Human Rights Studies, 416-250-9807, [email protected].

Announcement

Forum Rules (Everyone Must Read!!!)

Genocide Education

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