The Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Shalom College, UNSW
Sydney 2052 AUSTRALIA
Telephone: +61 (2) 9931 9628
Facsimile: +61 (2) 9313 7145
Email: aihgs@shalom.edu.au

Sydney, Australia – VICTIM COMMUNITIES COME TOGETHER TO EXAMINE HOLOCAUST
AND GENOCIDE

For the first time in Australia, Jewish and Armenian communities will come
together to explore aspects of the Holocaust and Armenian genocide,
coinciding with the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide and the 60th
anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

During the Jewish cultural festival of Limmud Oz, Professor Deborah Lipstadt
of Emory University and Professor Ronald Grigor Suny of the University of
Chicago will participate in a panel discussion organised by the NSW Jewish
Board of Deputies and the Armenian Genocide Research Unit of the Australian
Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (AIHGS).

In a historic trial in Britain in 2000, Professor Lipstadt successfully
defeated Holocaust denier David Irving in his attempts to sue her and
Penguin Books for libel. Lipstadt recounts the drama in her new book History
on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving.

“Three or four survivor generations on, Armenians and Jews are still dealing
with the legacy, and the denial, of their attempted destruction. The time
has come for the two communities to share their experiences, and to learn
from each other. This event is an important step in that process,” says
Meher Grigorian, a Director of the AIHGS.

The Armenian genocide, which claimed up to 1.5 million lives during and
after the First World War, is still officially denied by the Turkish
government. Professor Suny’s visit comes following the surprise postponement
by Turkish officials of a pioneering conference that was to examine these
historical issues.

The conference was to take place on the 25th of May in Istanbul, organised
by Bogaziçi, Sabanci and Bilgi universities.

Following the postponement more than 150 Turkish scholars formally protested
the decision, claiming it an assault on university autonomy and academic
freedom.
The decision comes as Turkey begins European Union accession talks later
this year.

Professor Suny has authored many books, including most recently:
Intellectuals and the Articulation of a Nation (University of Michigan
Press, 1999) and A State of Nations: Empire and Nation-making in the Age of
Lenin and Stalin (Oxford University Press, 2001).

He has appeared numerous times on the McNeil Lehrer News Hour, CBS Evening
News, CNN, National Public Radio, and has written for The New York Times,
The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, New Left Review,
Dissent, and other newspapers and journals.

The joint communal event will take place at 7:00pm on Tuesday 5 July 2005 at
Shalom College, the University of New South Wales. For further information,
contact Meher Grigorian at mgrigor@bigpond.net.au