PRESS RELEASE
UCLA AEF Chair in Armenian History
Contact: Prof. Richard Hovannisian
Tel: 310-825-3375
Email: Hovannis@history.ucla.edu
Release: May 2, 2006
Richard Hovannisian in International Forums on Genocide
UCLA — Professor Richard Hovannisian, Holder of the Armenian
Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Armenian History at UCLA,
has since late March and throughout the month of April continued his
on-going activities related to raising awareness of the Armenian
Genocide and its legacy. During this period, he traveled to Salt
Lake City, Yerevan, Worcester, San Francisco, and Lyon, France, to
deliver lectures work with teachers, and participate in international
symposiums on human rights and genocide.
Utah to Armenia
At the invitation of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at
the University of Utah, Dr. Hovannisian spoke on March 27 on “The
Armenian Genocide: Premeditation or the Radicalization of War,”
in which he assessed the somewhat conflicting historiography about
the decision-making process and perpetration of the genocide. Because
the University of Utah Press recently published a volume by Professor
Guenther Lewy which is aimed at disqualifying the Armenian “tragedy”
as genocide and which subtly utilizes and furthers the arguments of
all previous deniers and the Turkish government, Hovannisian spent
considerable time in the discussion period giving examples not only
of the factual errors in the seemingly-balanced book but also of the
author’s selective cut-and-paste methods that take out of context
entirely what is actually stated in the sources he cites. Although
Lewy insists that he has “no ax to grind,” he has in fact sharpened
it with premeditation, just as he previously has done in volumes that
discount the enormity of the Gypsy annihilation during World War II and
the treatment of the American Indians during U.S. colonial expansion.
To further research on and recognition of the Armenian Genocide, the
Boghossian Brothers, originally from Lebanon and now with offices in
Europe, have given a sizable grant to the All-Armenia Fund to reward
the author or creator of the most effective work on the genocide.
Richard Hovannisian was in Yerevan in late March and early April to
serve as the co-chair of the international jury that reviewed and
ranked the submissions for the first competition. Two presidential
prizes, each carrying a monetary gift of $10,000, were awarded for
the best submission from a resident of Armenia and one from abroad.
The jury selected Verjine Svazlian of Armenia for her work in oral
history and the collection of the woeful songs of exile that were
sung in Turkish by Armenian women deportees (now also published in
Turkey), and Edgar Hilsenrath of Germany for his Story of the Last
Thought, a powerful novel about the genocide and memory which has
been translated into several languages.
Genocide Education
Immediately after returning to Los Angeles, Hovannisian was the keynote
speaker on April 5 for an in-service teachers’ workshop of the Glendale
Unified School District on why and how to teach about the Armenian
Genocide. The teachers, according to Sara Cohan, Education Director of
Genocide Education Project which coordinated the event, were deeply
moved and impressed by the “smooth and thoughtful” presentation
and “compelling overview” of the Armenian experience. Hovannisian
previously participated in similar teacher workshops coordinated
by Facing History and Ourselves, Inc., in Los Angeles, Montebello,
Santa Barbara, Los Gatos, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Brookline,
Worcester, New York City, Annandale-on-Hudson, Long Island, Memphis,
and West Palm Beach.
Professor and Dr. Vartiter Hovannisian traveled to Clark University in
Worcester on April 19-20 at the invitation of President John Bassett
to take part in the celebration of the successful completion of the
fundraising campaign for the Kaloosdian-Mugar Chair of Armenian
Genocide Studies and Modern Armenian History. This is the only
position in Armenian Studies in the United States that carries the word
“Genocide” in its title, with the first chair holder being Dr. Simon
Payaslian, a graduate of UCLA’s Armenian History program.
During a dinner for major donors hosted by President and Mrs. Bassett
at their residence, the Harrington House, Hovannisian delivered a
congratulatory message and challenge to attract and support students
to the program. Then, following an engaging public lecture by Professor
Payaslian on his recent book, United States Policy toward the Armenian
Question and Armenian Genocide, he reflected briefly on the issue of
pragmatism versus humanitarianism in foreign policy.
Richard Hovannisian was in San Francisco City Hall on April 25
as the keynote speaker for the Bay Area’s commemoration of the
Armenian Genocide. Following the greetings of Mayor Gavin Newsom
and other civic officials and remarks in Armenian by Dr. Antranig
Kasbarian, Hovannisian addressed the large gathering on the theme
of universalizing the Armenian experience as a way of integrating
it into collective human memory. He noted the progress made toward
that goal in recent years and the challenges that still have to be
met in the long but unflagging struggle of the Armenian people for
international recognition and condemnation of the crime and for acts
of contrition and restitution by the perpetrator side.
Lyon, France
>From San Francisco, Dr. Hovannisian traveled to Lyon to participate
in a international symposium on April 28-29 under the honorary
presidency of Mary Robinson, former president of the Irish Republic
and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The conference
was organized by “Le Collectif Reconnaissance,” an alliance of
fifteen human rights groups, with support from a variety of French
academic institutions, municipal and regional administrations, and
the French Senate and Ministry of Culture. The primary themes of the
conference were devoted to Genocides and Crimes against Humanity;
The Consequences of Genocides; and The Prevention of Genocides:
Obstacles and Dynamics for Action. Each of the three themes was
further divided into particular topics. Opening addresses were made
by Jules Mardirossian, president of “Le Collectif Reconnaissance,”
and Jean-Jack Queyranne, former president of the Rhone-Alpes Region.
For the session on the political consequences of genocide, Richard
Hovannisian was asked to speak on a topic that appeared in the program
with the lengthy French title, “The Crime and Its State Denial Are
the Foundations of the Successor State That Oppresses the Survivors
and Nourishes Antagonisms: The Example of the Armenian Genocide and
Kemalist Turkey.” In his presentation, Hovannisian traced the patterns
of denial from the very beginning of the Genocide in 1915 through the
forced exodus of the survivors and appropriations of Armenian goods
and properties by the Kemalist regime in the 1920s.
He analyzed the efforts of the Turkish state to deceive and to suppress
memory of the crime, a campaign that has gone through several distinct
phases and now continues into the twenty-first century. General and
specific aspects of genocide and its prevention were addressed by
the twenty-five conference participants, who included, among others,
Roger Smith of the United States, Yair Auron of Israel, and Sevane
Garibian, Janine Altounian, and Kevork Kepenekian of France. A powerful
visual display, mounted under the direction of Daniel Meguerditchian,
incorporated the crimes committed against the Armenians, Ukrainians,
Jews, Gypsies, Cambodians, Tibetans, and Rwandans and other African
peoples.
While in Lyon, Professor Hovannisian visited the newly-dedicated
Armenian memorial in the heart of the city at the Place Bellecour.
Designed by architect Leonardo Basmadjian, the monument includes
thirty-six aesthetically-placed columns and a ground-level,
gold-lettered stonework with a trilingual commemorative inscription
in French, English, and Armenian: “In the memory of the 1,500,000
Armenians, who were exterminated by the ‘Young Turk’ government during
the years 1915-1918, and of the victims of all genocides and crimes
against humanity.”
END