TMCNet
April 14 2006

Canceled USC event featuring Turkish ambassadors draws controversy

(Comtex Business Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)LOS ANGELES, Apr 13,
2006 (Daily Trojan, U-WIRE via COMTEX) –An event at the University
of Southern California Center for Public Diplomacy featuring two
former ambassadors from Turkey was canceled late March, days before
its scheduled date, amid complaints and controversy about its
intended subject. Former Turkish ambassadors Gunduz Aktan and Omer
Lutem were scheduled to speak at USC to coincide with their visit to
Los Angeles, Calif., for an event at the Los Angeles World Affairs
Council.

The event was canceled, however, after administrators at the USC
Center for Public Diplomacy realized that the original topic of the
event had been changed, said Joshua Fouts, director of the center.

“When we first scheduled the event, it was described as an event
about Turkish civil society and Armenian relations,” Fouts said. “The
final description that was e-mailed described the event as a
discussion about the genocide.”

But despite the official reason given by USC, members of both the
Turkish and Armenian communities in Los Angeles expressed differing
opinions regarding USC’s decision.

Days before the event was scheduled to occur, members of the Armenian
community, including the Western region office of the Armenian
National Committee of America, sent a letter to Fouts encouraging the
university to cancel the event.

In the letter, Steven Dadaian, chairman of the ANCA Western region
office, wrote that the event would provide a forum for the Turkish
ambassadors to make false statements and deny historical facts about
the Armenian genocide.

“(Genocide) denial is a deliberate misrepresentation of fact and a
scientific fraud which must not be tolerated by the university,”
Dadaian wrote. “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.”

The letter went on to warn Fouts that “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.”

The letter to the university was written because “we didn’t want
these (genocide) deniers to have this platform in front of students,”
said Armen Carapetian, director of the ANCA-Western Region.

“(Aktan and Lutem) were going to talk about the Turkish perspective,
but the world community has already acknowledged that the Armenian
genocide occurred. All they have to do is throw a shadow of doubt
into it and confuse people,” Carapetian said.

One former student, who is Turkish, responded to the cancellation
with an e-mail of his own.

In the e-mail sent to USC administrators March 30, Evren Ugurbas,
former president of the USC Turkish Students Association, accused the
university of violating free speech and buckling to political
pressure for canceling the event during which the ambassadors were to
discuss Turkish-Armenian relations.

In the e-mail, Ugurbas wrote that the cancellation of the event,
which had been planned and scheduled by the USC Center for Public
Diplomacy, “was a grave and embarrassing mistake (the university)
made by cowardly resorting to censorship under partisan pressure by
local activists.”

The Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles scheduled the event with the USC
Center for Public Diplomacy, which “enthusiastically welcomed our
efforts,” said Engin Ansay, Consul General of Turkey in Los Angeles.

The purpose of the event, Ansay said, was to promote positive
relationships between the Turkish and Armenian communities by
discussing the long-debated Armenian genocide and “how best to remedy
the situation and shed light on this dark period in history.”

Turkish Consul General Ansay said, “It was not an exercise in Turkish
propaganda. We’re just trying to find a dialogue. There can be a
fruitful cooperation between the Turkish and Armenian communities,”
he said.

Ansay said that the consulate was surprised to hear from USC
informing it of the cancellation.

“We were astonished, flabbergasted, because where is the freedom of
speech? It was a big blow to everyone who heard about it. USC is a
respectable institution but we regret that it happened,” he said.

But Carapetian said that USC had been misinformed about the event.

“I think that they had heard from one side, and it was our
responsibility to let our community know and weigh in on the subject.
It was freedom of expression on our side,” he said.

In a press release posted on ANCA’s Web site, the organization
applauded the university for the cancellation, stating that “(t)he
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.”

But Fouts said the Armenian community’s efforts had no bearing on the
center’s ultimate decision to cancel.

Instead, the reason behind the cancellation dealt with the relevance
of the intended discussion to the Center for Public Diplomacy’s
mission, he said.

“We have a great relationship with the Turkish Consulate, but we
can’t afford to host an event not central to public diplomacy,” he
said. “At the same time that we realized this, the Armenian community
was contacting us about it. As much as the Armenian community would
like to take credit for (the cancellation), it was just a
coincidence.”

Regardless of the reasons behind the cancellation, Armenian students
were satisfied with USC’s decision.

“They tried to change the topic before anyone realized it,” said
Nerses Ohanyan, a senior majoring in aerospace engineering and a
member of the Armenian Student Association. “But I’m very glad that
this event didn’t happen regardless of the reasons.”

Ugurbas, the Turkish former student who wrote the e-mail to
administrators, expressed concern that opposing viewpoints could not
be considered.

“(The Armenians) are talking, and we are listening. But we also want
to reflect our opinion. In a community like this we should understand
each other,” he said.

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