ISRAEL CHARNY SUGGESTS INCLUDING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN AN ISRAELI UNIVERSITY CURRICULUM
By Tamar Minasian

AZG Armenian Daily
18/05/2006

The third sitting of the Armenian Genocide experts’ group of the
World Armenian Congress with the participation of 21 members from 17
countries was held yesterday. The work of the experts group launched
after the meeting with foreign minister Vartan Oskanian in the morning
that was assessed very positively by WAC chairman Ara Abrahamian:
“This was the first time we had a very serious discussion on the
stance of the state and WAC in this issue.”

Head of the chair of Armenian Studies at the UCLA, Richard
Hovhannisian, said that at all previous meetings they tried to outline
the paths that would bring to international acknowledgement of the
Armenian Genocide as well as the steps that will follow recognition
and legal grounds for applying to international structures.

“I am one of those who are concerned over bringing the issue to
international courts,” Prof. Mihran Dabag of the Center for Armenian
Studies at the Bochum University, Germany, says. “The court means a
decision based on the materials provided by both sides, and in my view,
the historicity of the Genocide is over doubt and it is not up to the
courts to decide. For that reason we need to boost our fight against
denial standing firm on legal ground. My greatest wish is that our
focusing on Genocide’s recognition does not harm our future plans.”

Dr. Israel Charny from Israel suggests opening an Armenian chair
at one of the biggest Israeli universities and organize lectures on
the Genocide alongside with Holocaust classes and thus contribute to
Israeli state’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

It is planned to hold a large-scale conference on Armenian
Genocide in 2007 and invite representatives of the Armenian
government. Mr. Abrahamian suggested to hold 2 more sittings of the
WAC’s expert’s group to clarify their stances and the work ahead. The
range of questions is rather broad: when was the Armenian genocide
perpetrated, what was its continuation, what should be the steps
following Genocide recognition by foreign states, should we apply to
international courts or not, what are our demands from Turkey? Ara
Abrahamian said that there are 3-4 different answers to these questions
but they do not conflict with each other but rather supplement each
other. He said that they have agreed with the Foreign Affairs Ministry
to put forward their written proposals and views and begin joint work.