ARF HOSTS ‘ARMENIANS AND THE LEFT’ CONFERENCE

Yerkir
14.04.2006 15:37

YEREVAN (YERKIR) – The Armenian Revolutionary Federation concluded
a weekend-long conference entitled Armenians and the Left on April
9th, when featured speakers Robert Fisk and Noam Chomsky spoke at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in front of a crowd of 750
about War, Geopolitics and History: Conflict in the Middle East.

During his lecture, Fisk explained why the Armenian Genocide must be
known in order to understand how the region has been condemned since
World War I to foreign intervention, chronic war and >mass slaughter.

The conference began on April 7 at the New York Society for Ethical
Culture, where over 1,000 people attended a lecture by Fisk about the
Middle East and US journalism. The crowd featured many out-of-town
guests, including twenty members of the Armenian Youth Federation
of Canada as well as travelers from Philadelphia, Washington, D.C.,
Boston and Los Angeles.

The conference’s main events took place on Saturday, April 8, when
twenty activists, scholars, and opinion makers gave presentations at
the CUNY Graduate Center in Manhattan. Presentations took place in six
panels on a variety of critical topics, including human rights in the
Caucasus, women and political power, globalization and imperialism,
Armeno-Turkish dialogue, Armenian political identity, and reparations
for mass crimes against humanity.

Fisk also promoted his most recent book, The Great War for
Civilization, in which he dedicates an entire chapter to the Armenian
Genocide, which he described as `The First Holocaust.’ Fisk announced
his plans to travel to Van and other areas of Western Armenia to
promote the Turkish language edition of his book.