Canadian Article

[Joseph]

TURKEY CAN'T HIDE FROM ITS PAST
Harry Sterling, Citizen Special

Ottawa Citizen
May 11, 2006 Thursday
Final Edition

'The Armenian claims are a direct attack on our identity, on Turkey's
history."

With these words Turkish embassy counsellor Yonet Tezel explained his
government's decision to recall its ambassador to Canada, Aydemir
Erman, for "consultations." The move followed recent remarks by
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper associating his government with
Canadian parliamentary resolutions describing the deaths of 1.5 million
Armenians in Turkey during the First World War as an act of genocide.

Turkey has made a similar move against the French government for
contemplating a proposed law making denial of the Armenian genocide
a crime.

As a further indication of its displeasure, Turkey has announced
it is cancelling participation of Turkish fighter aircraft in an
international military air exercise May 17 to June 24 in Cold Lake,
Alta.

Despite its actions directed at Ottawa and Paris, Turkish authorities
stressed the recalls were only "... for a short time for consultations
over the latest developments about the baseless allegations of
Armenian genocide."

While the statement by the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan was essentially pro-forma, for many it was indicative of
Turkey's inability to confront an issue that is never going to go
away until the Turks come to terms with it.

Turkish governments have always maintained that the large-scale
deaths of Armenians during the First World War and after occurred
when the then-Ottoman government was trying to put down Armenian
nationalists aligned with invading Russian forces and was not an act
of premeditated genocide. They also insist the figure of 1.5 million
deaths is inflated and that during that turbulent period hundreds of
thousands of Turks in eastern Turkey also died.

While these explanations are widely shared by the Turkish population,
some Turks have called for a more open-minded approach to the issue,
including Turkey's internationally recognized author Orhan Pamuk.

He was subjected to widespread criticism and physical threats for
commenting during an interview about the Armenian genocide and
repression of the country's Kurdish minority, both considered taboo
subjects, especially by Turkish nationalists. He was charged with
denigrating the nation and faced a stiff prison sentence. However,
as a result of international pressure, particularly from the European
Union -- which Turkey wants to join -- the government dropped the
charges on technical grounds.

A number of Turkish academics have also voiced support for examining
the genocide issue with more of an open mind. One way to do this would
be to open up Ottoman-era archives and other documentary sources,
including Russian military reports that might shed light on what took
place during fighting in the region.

Investigations carried out by German and U.S. analysts concerning the
deaths concluded that the catastrophic defeat of Turkish troops engaged
against Russian forces during the early stages of the First World
War, and the Turkish army's claim it had been stabbed in the back by
Armenian nationalists, resulted in the Turkish military disarming and
executing countless Armenian men as traitors, regardless of whether
they were engaged in an anti-Turkish insurgency.

The Turkish army purportedly then rounded up Armenian women and
children, ordering their deportation via the Syrian Desert, resulting
in massive deaths.

Turkish authorities dispute such findings, maintaining there was
no official policy to exterminate Armenians and that most deaths
were caused during the deportation to Syria due to lack of adequate
provisions at a chaotic time in eastern Anatolia.

Notwithstanding contradictory views on what transpired nine decades
ago, what is incomprehensible to many outside Turkey is why current-day
Turks are unable to look back on those horrific developments in a
more balanced fashion, instead of insisting Armenian claims have
absolutely no foundation in truth.

One reason that has been cited concerns the Turkish military, seen as
the true power in Turkey. The modern-day Turkish military founded by
Kemal Ataturk has always seen itself as the defender not just of the
country's independence, but also of its national honour and dignity.

The Turkish officer caste takes its role in society extremely
seriously, even executing a prime minister for allegedly endangering
the stability of the state. Anything that could raise doubts or
undermine the military's ability to present itself as guardian of
Turkey's national honour and territorial integrity, or which portrays
Turks behaving in a barbaric fashion, is unacceptable.

This, some claim, is why it's near impossible to confront the realities
behind the tragic fate of Turkey's Armenian population 90 years ago
-- or Turkey's treatment of its Kurdish population -- since it could
undermine Turkey's own idealized perception of itself as a modern,
liberal society.

But like Germany, Turkey must confront the realities of the past if
it expects to be accepted as a nation capable of dealing open-mindedly
with its own history, however disagreeable that might be.

Harry Sterling, a former diplomat, is an Ottawa-based commentator. He
served in Turkey.


------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Gavur]

The bonds of history

Globe and Mail, Canada
May 12 2006


PATRICIA MARCHAK

acting director, Liu Institute for Global Issues

University of British Columbia -- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan says he wants a bilateral academic inquiry into the mass
killing of Armenians in the early 1900s (Turkey Tried To Head Off
PM's Verdict On 'Genocide' -- May 11), but I can save him the
trouble. A few years ago, for a book I was then writing on genocide
and crimes against humanity, I conducted a search of the academic and
journalistic literature on the Armenian deaths of 1915-16 in the
Ottoman Empire. I found many references to the genocide, including
exhaustive histories and analyses of why it occurred, even some
sympathetic accounts of why Turks felt threatened by European
attempts to carve up the empire and Armenian attempts to get
Europeans involved.

Sympathetic accounts by non-Turks, however, did not go so far as to
pretend it was not a genocide. The only accounts that denied the
genocide were by Turks, who claimed variously that the deaths were
caused by the chaos of the First World War and by Armenian political
actions. What seems to be difficult for Turks to understand is that
the motivations (fear of political opponents, for example) do not
constitute an acceptable reason for committing genocide.

[Gavur]

Turkey can’t bully history

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Editorial/503211.html

WHY would you resettle hundreds of thousands of people in a desert, without providing for their basic needs – unless you meant to murder them?

How could up to 1.5 million people of a single nationality – or even 500,000, if one accepts the current Turkish government’s figures – lose their lives simply due to "civil unrest," as Turkey now tries to claim?

The answer, as historians from countries around the world have documented – with evidence that is simply overwhelming – is that the Ottoman governments ruling Turkey during and just after the First World War set out to exterminate Armenians as a people.

The Armenian genocide – or Armenian Holocaust, as it’s also known – became an international scandal when news of massacres and mass starvations of Christian Armenians inflicted by Muslim Turks in the tottering, war-ravaged Ottoman Empire first hit Western newsstands in 1915. That Turkey continues to deny the magnitude of the slaughter, or the full complicity of the country’s former governments in the mass killings, remains a scandal today.

More than denial, in fact. For Turkey actively, and shamefully, continues to attack anyone who speaks the truth about what happened to the Armenians more than nine decades ago. After Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement last month commemorating a sombre anniversary, the beginning of the genocide in 1915, Turkey recalled its ambassador to this country for consultations, and warned that Canadian-Turkish relations could be seriously damaged. It did the same to France, where lawmakers are set to pass a law making it a crime – punishable by five years in prison or a fine of 45,000 euros – to deny the existence of the Armenian genocide, similar to a current law on the books there referring to the Nazi Holocaust of about six million Jews during the Second World War.

Turkey has criminally prosecuted its own countrymen for saying the genocide ever happened.

The Turks, however, cannot bully history. Dozens of countries – including Canada and France – have officially recognized the Armenian genocide. Those responsible were indicted by the international community for crimes at the end of the war. Many were tried in absentia and found guilty.

And although it is not a formal requirement, several EU officials have stated that Turkey’s pending membership in the European Union may depend upon that country finally acknowledging what most of the world already knows to be true – the Armenian genocide, at the hands of the Turks. Turkey’s continued defiance of history, and world opinion, is a road leading nowhere but upon itself.

Mr. Harper did the right thing in acknowledging what historians note was the 20th century’s first holocaust. Turkey’s butchering of the Armenians – whose pre-war population of some two million people was reportedly reduced by three-quarters – eventually led to the international community’s decision to set up an independent Armenia, which, to this day, faces a completely closed border along its Turkish frontier. If Turkey wishes to move ahead in its relations with other countries, it should acknowledge what is one of the darkest stains in its history.

[Joseph]

See the part in bold

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/291545

History course proposal upsets Canadian Turks



1,200 people sign petition against class that labels 1915 mass killing of Armenians as a genocide

Jan 07, 2008 04:30 AM
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.

[1.5 million]

Well they really must include the denial aspect of Genocide in the course - if they haven't figured it out already - it will also bring what might just be considered dry past history into the current context as something that is real and occuring today. Perhaps they could even have students do research projects where they contact the Turkish Embassy with 20 questions or such - just to see the garbage that will spew out. Bravo!

[Joseph]

Kingston Whig-Standard (Ontario), Canada
January 14, 2008 Monday
Final Edition


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

by: alan whitehorn
Pg. 5


Over the past two years, there has been considerable research,
discussion and debate about a Grade 11 course being developed for the
Toronto District School Board. The course is to deal with the painful
yet crucial topic of genocide. The proposed outline seeks to draw
upon both historical and contemporary aspects. The issue of the
subject matter of the course has been discussed on CBC-Radio's As it
Happens, has received coverage in national newspapers and has even
become the target of an online petition by some members of the
Turkish community.

One would expect that the Toronto District School Board's efforts at
developing a comparative genocide and human rights course would be
universally applauded, given the topic's genesis in the founding of
the United Nations. The inclusion of the Armenian genocide, which is
often seen in scholarly analysis as the first major genocide of the
20th century and as an important template for other genocides, would
seem an obvious choice. So why the controversy? What is the
background? What is the path ahead?

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.

Any comprehensive review of the substantial genocide literature will
reveal that the Armenian genocide is a pivotal case study that is
included in most of the key texts and edited case studies on
genocide. One important example is the pioneering book The History
and Sociology of Genocide, by Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn, two
founders of Concordia University's Montreal Institute for Genocide
Studies. Globally, the Armenian genocide is such an important case
study and template that the International Association of Genocide
Scholars, the distinguished academic organization of leading
researchers and authors in the field of genocide studies, has
formally declared its official recognition of the historic 1915
genocide. In Canada, both our Senate and the House of Commons have
formally recognized the Armenian genocide.

Acclaimed international scholar Gregory Stanton, author of
groundbreaking work on the Cambodian genocide, one of the first to
forewarn the world about the Rwandian genocide, and founder of the
Genocide Watch, provides an analytical outline on the eight stages of
genocide. Ominously, he warned that the last stage of genocide is
"denial."

Political regimes can offer many excuses why they find it
inconvenient, for reasons of state. to acknowledge past injustices.
Even democracies find it difficult to admit past misdeeds. Too often,
genocidal regimes or their successor states are even less likely to
acknowledge their past horrific deeds. Article 301 of the Turkish
penal code, which forbids insulting the Turkish state, has often been
used to intimidate and silence those within Turkey who dare raise the
topic of the Armenian genocide. Neither Orhan Pamuk, a Nobel Prize
winner in literature, nor Hrant Dink, the assassinated editor of Agos
magazine, were spared from that draconian decree.

Powerful attempts at censorship overseas can spill across borders in
troubling ways. It is, therefore, all the more important for
educators, researchers, writers and citizens in democracies to speak
up in solidarity with brave Turkish voices today, and even more so
for those who were brutally killed en masse.

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.

The Toronto District School Board's course on genocide is long
overdue. Its content should be comprehensive, in depth, and should
deal with difficult issues in a frank and forthright manner. Such a
course could be a model for other school boards across the province
to embrace.

My generation has done too little. The next generation carries our
hope. However, as teachers, parents and grandparents, we are,
nevertheless, fearful. The young deserve a better world. We can help
them achieve it with a deeper and broader education.

Genocide education is one crucial tool for a more just and safer
world, and perhaps with it "Peace on Earth" will become more than
just a seasonal greeting.

- Alan Whitehorn is a professor of political science at the Royal
Military College of Canada, was a former J.S. Woodsworth Chair of
Humanities at Simon Fraser University, and is a cross-appointed
professor at Queen's University.

[Joseph]

Armenian National Committee of Canada
Comité National Arménien du Canada
130 Albert St., Suite/Bureau 1007
Ottawa, ON
KIP 5G4
Tel./Tél. (613) 235-2622 Fax/Téléc. (613) 238-2622
E-mail/courriel:[email protected]

https://www.anccanada.org

PRESS RELEASE

January 18, 2008
Contact: Kevork Manguelian



Turkish Ultranationalists Try to Silence Prominent Canadians


Toronto-The Turkish Government's propaganda machine tried to intimidate and
silence many prominent Canadians who had come forth to make deputations
during the monthly meeting of the Toronto District School Board's (TDSB)
program and services committee.

During the Jan. 16 meeting the TDSB committee provided an opportunity to two
Turkish representatives (Ozay Mehmet of the Council of Turkish Canadians,
and Lale Eskicioglu) and four Canadians (Prof. Frank Chalk, director of the
Montréal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies; David Warner,
former Speaker of the Ontario Legislative Assembly; Leo Adler, prominent
criminal lawyer and human rights advocate; and Hon. Jim Karygiannis, MP) to
present their points of view on the board's Grad 11 'Genocide: Historical
and Contemporary Implications' curriculum.


The Turkish representatives protested the inclusion of the Armenian Genocide
in the curriculum. The prominent Canadians' group praised the TDSB for its
moral fortitude, vision, and commitment to develop such a timely curriculum
and asked for the inclusion of the Armenian Genocide in the curriculum.

Mr. Warner read a letter signed by prominent Canadians from all walks of
life, urging the TDSB to "stand firm by its decision and not to be swayed by
politically-motivated pressure groups." Among the signatories were Stephen
Lewis, Gerald Caplan, Jack Layton, Bob Rae, Joy Kogawa, Amir Hassanpour,
Jacques Kornberg.

During the presentations of Chalk, Warner, Adler and Karygiannis,
ultranationalist Turks hackled the speakers and tried to stop them from
speaking. Several times committee chair, trustee Chris Bolton, was forced
to call for order and ask the Turkish representatives not to disrupt the
meeting.

After the meeting, members of the Turkish group approached some of the
pro-Genocide inclusion speakers and taunted them with abuse and profanities.
The scene was reminiscent of the trials of many righteous Turkish
individuals who in recent years have challenged the Turkish Government on
its denial of the Armenian Genocide and have been silenced under Article 301
of the Turkish penal code.

At the meeting, Aris Babikian, executive director of the Armenian National
Committee of Canada, tabled a petition in support of the curriculum. The
petition carried 2,643 signatures. Among the signatories were many teachers
from the TDSB system.

For the past two years the TDSB has been developing 'Genocide: Historical
and Contemporary Implications' curriculum for Grade 11 students. The course
comprises of three genocide case studies: the Armenian Genocide; the
Holocaust; the Rwandan Genocide, in addition to other cases of ethnic
cleansing and crimes against humanity.

The course has been approved by the Ontario Minister of Education. An
overwhelming majority of principals, teachers and program directors have
commended the TDSB for this timely project. They have also indicated that
they are eager to teach the program.

In the last two months the Turkish denial machine has launched a vicious
campaign of falsehood, misrepresentation, unsubstantiated accusations,
innuendo and revisionist historical discourse to persuade the TDSB to remove
the Armenian Genocide from the curriculum.



######


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


Regional Chapters/Sections régionales

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

[Gavur]

They bring shame on normal Turks.

[imported_crusader1492]

Armenian National Committee of Canada
Comité National Arménien du Canada
130 Albert St., Suite/Bureau 1007
Ottawa, ON
KIP 5G4
Tel./Tél. (613) 235-2622 Fax/Téléc. (613) 238-2622
E-mail/courriel:[email protected]

https://www.anccanada.org

During the presentations of Chalk, Warner, Adler and Karygiannis,
ultranationalist Turks hackled the speakers and tried to stop them from
speaking. Several times committee chair, trustee Chris Bolton, was forced
to call for order and ask the Turkish representatives not to disrupt the
meeting.

After the meeting, members of the Turkish group approached some of the
pro-Genocide inclusion speakers and taunted them with abuse and profanities.
The scene was reminiscent of the trials of many righteous Turkish
individuals who in recent years have challenged the Turkish Government on
its denial of the Armenian Genocide and have been silenced under Article 301
of the Turkish penal code.

They bring shame on normal Turks.

As much as I would all like to beleive otherwise, when it comes to the Armenian Genocide, this type of behavior is normal for Turks.

[Gavur]

They bring shame on normal Turks.

Crusader ,
Trust me normal Turks do exist (a minority but) in Turkey.