Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region
104 North Belmont Street, Suite 200
Glendale, California 91206
Phone: 818.500.1918 Fax: 818.246.7353
[email protected]
PRESS RELEASE
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Contact: Armen Carapetian
Tel: (818) 500-1918
USC PROMPTLY CANCELS CONFERENCE ON `TURKISH PERSPECTIVE’ ON THE
ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
LOS ANGELES, CA – The Armenian National Committee of America – Western
Region (ANCA-WR) learned on March 22nd that a planned conference at
the University of Southern California (USC) featuring leading deniers
of the Armenian Genocide was canceled.
The USC Center on Public Diplomacy originally sponsored the
conference, entitled `Turkish-Armenian Relations: The Turkish
Perspective’, which was scheduled to take place on Sunday, March
26th. Former Turkish Ambassadors Gündüz Aktan and Ömer Engin
Lütem were invited to speak about the Armenian Genocide and
Turkish-Armenian relations. Aktam and Lütem are notorious deniers
of the Armenian Genocide, and the event announcement made no attempt
to hide that their discussion would not only distort history but
attempt to justify Ottoman Turkey’s extermination of its Armenian
population.
`The USC event, which was to have featured Turkish members of the
State Department’s discredited TARC initiative, is part of an
orchestrated national campaign to breath new life into the failed
effort,’ said Zanku Armenian, a member of the ANCA-WR Board of
Directors. `The ANCA-WR, working with USC Armenian student groups,
Alumni and school supporters, was able to demonstrate to USC officials
the misguided and sinister nature of this panel which led to its
cancellation. The cancellation, along with the March 22nd Los Angeles
Times editorial reaffirming the Armenian Genocide, sends a strong
message to those who deny the Armenian Genocide: ‘You are not welcome
in California.’ We applaud USC administrators for taking prompt
action to rectify this situation and thus protecting USC’s fine
reputation from being used in Turkey’s propaganda war.’
Outraged student groups called on USC administrators to ask why this
conference was organized. In a letter to the director of the USC
Center on Public Diplomacy, ANCA-WR Chairman Steven Dadaian called on
the organizers to drop the conference. The quick action to draw
attention to this issue by many groups and individuals resulted in the
ultimate cancellation once USC officials were made aware of the real
intent of the event.
The ANCA is the largest and most influential Armenian American
grassroots political organization. Working in coordination with a
network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the United
States and affiliated organizations around the world, the ANCA
actively advances the concerns of the Armenian American community on a
broad range of issues.
Editor’s Note: The text of the ANCA-WR letter to USC is attached
below.
#####
March 22, 2006
USC Center on Public Diplomacy
Joshua S. Fouts
3502 Watt Way, ASC Suite 103
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0281
Dear Mr. Fouts:
It has recently come to our attention that the USC Center on Public
Diplomacy is hosting a program called `Armenian `Genocide’,
International Law and the Psychology of Destroying the Other’
featuring two speakers who are notorious deniers of the Armenian
Genocide, Gündüz S. Aktan and Ömer Engin Lütem.
According to the description of the program issued by the Center,
Messrs. Aktan and Lütem have the extraordinary task of turning the
victims of the first genocide of the 20th century into the
perpetrators. Based on the program, it appears that Messrs. Aktan and
Lütem plan to argue the Turkish government’s official position that
(i) there were no massacres of Armenians, (ii) even if there were
massacres, the Armenians deserved them, (iii) the Armenians killed
more Turks than vice versa and (iv) the deaths were as a result of
`relocation’ and were not Genocide.
As today’s Los Angeles Times editorial clearly states, the facts
surrounding the Armenian Genocide are not in dispute. The Armenian
Genocide has been recognized by the United Nations, the United States
government and even the Ottoman courts who convicted the perpetrators
of the Armenian Genocide in absentia. The fact that USC is going to
provide a forum for Turkish foreign agents to deny historical facts by
making outright false statements is disturbing and a violation of your
own Code of Ethics. Genocide Denial is a form of hatred and bigotry
and it is outside the purview of accepted standards of civil discourse
within the academic community. It is a deliberate misrepresentation of
fact and a scientific fraud which must not be tolerated by the
University. What’s more, this panel is a threat to the University’s
academic environment because it frames the genocide as a historical
controversy.
All this is heightened by the fact that USC has an Armenian-American
student body of over a thousand students whose families are the direct
descendants of the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by Turks and now
officially denied by the Turkish government. This panel will
undoubtedly be considered an extremely offensive event which
disrespects the rights and dignity of not only your students but to
all the hundreds of thousands who are the victims and surviving
children of the Armenian Genocide.
We wonder what the reaction would be if USC were to host a
`discussion’ for neo-Nazis to argue that no Jews were killed, going so
far as to assert that while some Jews may have been killed during the
Holocaust, they deserved it. Would USC allow their name to be
associated with such a hypothetical event much less be sponsoring it?
Our organization is prepared to work with USC to minimize the damage
caused to the university’s image within the Armenian-American
community as a result of this program being scheduled if immediate
action is taken to cancel it. However, if USC chooses to proceed with
this program, our organization will be forced to take further action
to protest the University’s complicity in providing a forum for
genocide deniers.
We are requesting a meeting this week to discuss this urgent matter.
Please feel free to contact me at (818) 500-1918.
Sincerely,
[signed]
Steven J. Dadaian
Chairman, Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region
cc: Steven B. Sample
C.L. Max Nikias
Joseph Aoun
Vartan Gregorian