CANADIAN FILMMAKER EGOYAN PRAISES HARPER’S STANCE ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By: Jennifer Ditchburn

CP
10, MAY, 2006 – 3:47 pm

OTTAWA (CP) – Celebrated filmmaker Atom Egoyan, perhaps the most
famous Canadian of Armenian decent, praised Prime Minister Stephen
Harper for his controversial recognition of the Armenian genocide.

“I think the Harper government has taken a courageous stand in its
early days, on several issues that could have faded into history
but bear scrutiny,” Egoyan said in an interview Wednesday. “It’s
interesting to me that very often Conservative governments seem to
be more morally responsible than one might imagine.”

Harper recently became the first Canadian prime minister to publicly
declare that the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians during
the First World War constituted a genocide.

The remark has caused a diplomatic row with the Turkish government,
including that country’s withdrawal from an international military
exercise in Canada.

The Turkish press has speculated that Canada could be prevented
from competing for the lucrative sale of reactors for Turkey’s first
nuclear plant.

Egoyan, who devoted his 2002 film Ararat to the issue of an Armenian
genocide, says he has faced plenty of pressure from the Turkish
government over his film and his views, and doesn’t think governments
or individuals should bend on recognition.

“Ultimately, I believe that the only way to have any sort of move
on this issue is to try and seek recognition from as many different
places as possible and isolate the Turkish government,” Egoyan said
from Toronto.

“That’s the only way change will be effected.”

The House of Commons passed a resolution in 2004 characterizing what
happened in Armenia as genocide, but the Liberal government at the
time said it did not constitute government policy. Harper’s comments
went further than any previous government by commemorating what he
termed a “genocide.”

“Ninety-one years ago the Armenian people experienced terrible
suffering and loss of life,” Harper said last month.

“We must never forget the lessons of history. Nor should we allow
the enmities of history to divide us.”

But history has certainly set Turkey against any other government
that has examined the issue of a genocide. Turkish officials have
said there were deaths on both sides during that time, and that they
are casualties of war.

Ankara recently withdrew its ambassador to Canada over Harper’s
remarks, and has now pulled its jet fighters and support aircraft
out of an exercise at a Canadian Forces base in Alberta, scheduled
for next week.

The Turkish embassy wouldn’t comment on suggestions that Canada could
be barred from competing for a contract to outfit a major nuclear
plant project.

But an official noted that the Turkish Foreign Affairs department had
been communicating frequently with Harper’s office to try to dissuade
him from wading into the issue, fearing the Armenian community was
swaying the government.

“There is no scholarly consensus on this, so one way is to go after
politicians and try and change history,” the official said of the
Armenian community.

A similar row is going on between Turkey and France. The French
government is proposing a law that would criminalize denial of the
Armenian genocide, a much more incendiary issue there because of its
large Turkish immigrant population.

To date, 23 countries have recognized the Armenian genocide.

Harper’s comments were not a complete surprise to those who follow
the issue closely.

The Conservative party, and the Canadian Alliance and Reform parties
before it, were consistently supportive of any move to recognize the
death of 1.5 million Armenians during the reign of the Ottoman Empire.

MP Jason Kenney in particular, now parliamentary secretary to Harper,
has pushed for recognition for years.

“It just is a question of fundamental justice for me. I’ve done a
lot of reading of the historical record, and I don’t think this could
legitimately be called as anything but a genocide,” Kenney said.

“This is a particular aspect of the history of the 20th century that
the world needs to never forget.”