GENOCIDE COURSE IRKS TURKS
By Bryn Weese, Sun Media
Toronto Sun, Ontario, Canada
Jan 17 2008
It wasn’t even on last night’s agenda, but a Toronto District School
Board committee spent more than an hour getting public input on a
proposed Grade 11 history course about genocide.
The education ministry has already approved the course, Genocide:
Historical and Contemporary Implications.
But the course is causing an uproar among local Turks because it also
deals with the killing of hundreds of thousands of Armenians during
the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1915 in modern-day Turkey.
Lale Eskicioglu, executive director of the Council of Turkish Canadians
(CTC), believes too many people dispute the idea of Armenian genocide
to include it under that title and is upset the community wasn’t
consulted during the course’s development.
"We cannot have the Armenian tragedy under that title (genocide),
but we want debate on this topic," she said, noting the CTC believes
university is a better place to teach the subject.
Eskicioglu was one of about 200 people — divided equally on whether
to include the subject or not — at a program and school services
committee last night.
Prof. Frank Chalk, director of genocide and human rights studies
at Concordia University in Montreal, said the facts of the centrally
planned extermination of Armenians are "incontestable," but some people
in the Turkish community might object because they feel it is a "blot"
on their community and reputation.
"Nobody here is accusing the Turkish people of genocide," he told
the crowd.
Board spokesman Nadine Segal said that although the course wasn’t on
last night’s agenda, the committee didn’t think it would be right to
ask interested parties to return at a later date.
"The program and school services committee wanted to honour the
community concerns by allowing them to present tonight," she said,
noting the board expected a high level of interest in the course.
A special committee is being struck to discuss the course further,
but the director of education will ultimately decide where, if at all,
the course should be offered.
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