On Nov. 3, the former presidents of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) sent the following letter to the Turkish Prime Minister:
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, which 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 a 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, 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.
No accused criminal will plea guilty without a plea bargain. Republic of Turkey has been playing not guilty for almost a century. Furthermore, it blames the victims. If all the world recognize the validity of Armenian genocide, the Republic of Turkey will not admit. Therefore, Armenians and all others who care about their own kind must come to their senses to demand peace, security and justice in the region as well as in the in world. This is not going to happen as long as the United States and the Republic of Turkey issue joint statements that they have the same values.
Security in the region will not become realty as long as the Republic of Armenia is without Western Armenia so that can exist as a viable state.
I would like to thank you former Presidents of AIGS for your letter to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, I am sure Mr. Erdogan is a intelligent and wise person and I don’t believe he will ever recognise the Armenian Genocide because of Article Article 301 of the Turkish penal code.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan should stand and tell to his nation Republic of Turkey the truth, to speak out about his personel knowledge about what happened to the Armenians, it needs courage.
The only way to get the Republic of Turkey to recognise the Armenian Genocide and other criminal chapters of its own history (quite a few chapters actually!); and learn European, liberal, democratic/civilised values; and to stop bullying the Republic of Armenia in particular and Armenians worldwide and all its other neighbours (Cyprus, Greece, Kurds) …
The only way to achieve all that is to DISMANTLE The Republic of Ostrich! In exactly THE SAME WAY THE NAZI STATE WAS DISMANTLED in 1945 – indeed the way the victorious allies planned to dismantle the Ottoman Empire after it was utterly defeated and surrendered to the Allied Powers in 1918.
All the evidence – including the excellent letter of former presidents of IAGAS and Mr Harutunian’s letter above – indicates Turkey will continue to behave deliberately and purposefully like an ostrich for as long as it has not been dismantled by the democratic world community.
The protocols were signed October 10, 2009. This letter is dated November 3, 2009.
Why did it take so long for this “amended version of the Open letter sent in 2005” to be sent to Ankara?
Moreover, where has the IAGS been hidding all these years??? Such letters should be sent on their behalf every April 24th to not only the Turkish government, but to every government worlwide that still tows Turkey’s line of denial.
Andrew, it seems you do not follow the news at all, but are ready to criticize nevertheless. The IAGS has issued several statements in recent years, and statements in the immediate aftermath of the signing of the protocols as well. One letter, for example, signed by its current president William Schabas, was released shortly after the signing of the protocols.
HELEN FEIN, ROGER W. SMITH, FRANK CHALK, JOYCE APSEL, ROBERT MELSON, ISRAEL W. CHARNY and GREGORY STANTON should accept genocide against Native American, African American and Palestinians first, before they accuse the Turkey.
They should send a open letter to US President Obama and Israel Prime Minister Olmert.
Thanks
Alipasha; The issue now is the Armenian Genocide. The abovementioned respectful historians researched extensively about the Armenian Genocide that has been committed systematically by the so called Young Turks headed by Talaat Pasha. Turkey now has been in denial for 94 years and denial of such a horrendous Genocide of more than 1.5 Million Armenian civilians is the continuation of the Armenian Genocide by the so called governments of Turkey until today.
I happen to feel for just as much about the American Indians, the African Americans, the Darfurians as well as the Palestinian civilians; however the former Presidents of the IAGS Historical Commission they can speak for themselves and I am sure that if they researched about the American Indians; the African Americans, the Darfurians and the Palestinians, they would very much support their causes as well.
I can only say thanks to the very respectful Former IAGS Presidents of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) for their extensive research and their just stand for the Armenian Genocide recognition. Thank you dear Presidents.
Dashnaks would say that HELEN FEIN, ROGER W. SMITH, FRANK CHALK, JOYCE APSEL, ROBERT MELSON, ISRAEL W. CHARNY, and GREGORY STANTON are more Armenians than Karabakhis Sarksyan.
Hye, when those who commit Genocides are not to pay for their crimes – and the world has not chosen to join together to pursue such bullies, more Genocides will follow… And why not?
They take all they want, lands, humans, destroy cultures, and more… Genociders have won above the civilized nations of the world… and why not? Who steps forward to stop the despots? When shall a Turkey return the lands and more – my grandparents and their children, whom I never
knew – slaughtered by the Turk who is unrepentant – even brazen before the world. Hence
Genocides will continue – whenever, wherever, by whomever… And why not? Who is there to stop
Genocides – and bullies continue – unabated and unafraid of the rest of the world’s opinions. Why not?
Manooshag
Dear Manooshag jan; I couldn’t agree with you more. Indeed if the major powers of today such as Russia, the USA, France and Britain are openly agreeing with the illegal written protocols and siding wholeheartedly with the denialist Genocidal Turkey who has been denying the Armenian Genocide for more than 94 years; what is there to say other than they are openly being on the side of the belligerent country (Turkey). After Turkey annihilating more than 1.5 Million Armenians and stealing Armenian historical lands, not wanting to pay any reparations and now the world’s civilized nations are pressuring Armenia’s president with illegal protocols that are similar in nature of the illegal Kars Treaty to agreeing Turkey’s stolen lands from us and calling them their territory, why would Turkey repent and come to their senses? The rest of the world sees all these unjustices and the murderers of the world will come forth and do their heinous deeds as they know that they will go unpunished. After all, the so called civilized nations that are in power today are closing their eyes to the Armenian Genocide’s recognition and to the Darfurians. The immorality that is reining in today’s super powers is not right. My own grandparents and all my relatives which I haven’t seen them as well were viciously and barbarically murdered by the Turkish government from 1915 through 1923. Today the super powers that claim to be democratic and civilized are being on the side of belligerent Turkey who are in denial and denial is the continuation of the Genocide. Thus the Armenian Genocide continues, it has never stopped.