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The former presidents of the International
Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) sent the following
letter to the Turkish Prime Minister:
November 3, 2009
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
TC Basbakanlik
Bakanlikir
Ankara, Turkey
FAX: 90 312 417 0476
Dear Prime Minister Erdogan:
The recent signing of protocols by the
governments of Armenia and Turkey that was brokered by leading
states of the international community marks the beginning of a
process that would lead to establishing diplomatic relations
between the two countries. Constituencies in both countries find
some or all of the protocols problematic. We the former
presidents of the International Association of Genocide
Scholars write to you to express our concern about one of them:
the establishment of a historical commission to study the fate
of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire in 1915.
We are sending you this amended version of the
Open Letter we wrote you in June 2005 to reiterate our objection
to your insistence that there be a historical commission, in
which Turkey would be involved. Because Turkey has denied the
Armenian Genocide for the past nine decades, and currently under
Article 301 of the Turkish penal code, public affirmation of the
Genocide is a crime, it would seem impossible for Turkey to be
part of a process that would assess whether or not Turkey
committed genocide against the Armenians in 1915.
Outside of your government, there is no doubt about the facts of
the Armenian Genocide, therefore our concern is that your demand
for a historical commission is political sleight of hand
designed to deny those facts. Turkey has, in fact, shown no
willingness to accept impartial judgments made by outside
commissions. Five years ago, the Turkish members of the Turkish
Armenian Reconciliation Commission pulled out of the commission
after the arbitrator, the International Center for Transitional
Justice, rendered an assessment that the events of 1915 were
genocide.
And, Prime Minister Erdogan, you have repeatedly
stated that even if a historical commission found that the
Armenian case is genocide, Turkey would ignore the finding.
As William Schabas, the current president of the
International Association of Genocide Scholars, said in his
letter to you and President Sarkisian, “acknowledgment of the
Armenian Genocide must be the starting point of any ‘impartial
historical commission,’ not one of its possible conclusions.”
Our previous letter, which was unanimously
approved by the members of the International Association of
Genocide Scholars, lays out the consensus among historians as to
the historical reality of the Armenian Genocide. We believe the
integrity of scholarship and the ethics of historical memory are
at stake.
HELEN FEIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR
THE STUDY OF GENOCIDE, John Jay College, New York City,
feinhelen@comcast.net;
ROGER W. SMITH, PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF
GOVERNMENT, COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY IN VIRGINIA;
theseus51@msn.com;
FRANK CHALK, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, CONCORDIA
UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL, AND CO-DIRECTOR OF THE MONTREAL INSTITUTE
FOR GENOCIDE STUDIES,
drfrank@alcor.concordia.ca;
JOYCE APSEL, PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL STUDIES, NEW
YORK UNIVERSITY,
jaa5@nyu.edu;
ROBERT MELSON, PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF POLITICAL
SCIENCE, PURDUE UNIVERSITY, AND PROFESSOR OF HOLOCAUST AND
GENOCIDE STUDIES, CLARK UNIVERSITY,
melson@polsci.purdue;
ISRAEL W. CHARNY, PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF
PSYCHOLOGY, HEBREW UNIVERSITY, JERUSALEM,
AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE ON THE HOLOCAUST AND
GENOCIDE,
encygeno@mail.com;
GREGORY STANTON, DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF
HUMAN RIGHTS, MARY WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, VIRGINIA, and
PRESIDENT, GENOCIDE WATCH,
gregoryhstanton@aol.com;
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