PROFESSOR CRITICIZED FOR GENOCIDE VIEWS
Rosaura Figueroa and Erin McKenzie
Daily 49er
paper1042/news/2008/02/13/News/Professor.Criticize d.For.Genocide.Views-3206284.shtml
Feb 13 2008
CA
Professor Ali Igmen was the focus of defamatory remarks, sent possibly
to him by a CSULB faculty member, for his insistence on the existence
of an Armenian genocide.
The Scholars in Conversation on the Armenian Genocide forum on
Tuesday proved to be controversial on the most personal of terms
for Ali Igmen, director of the oral history program at the Cal State
Long Beach History Department. Igmen was targeted during the forum’s
discussion and debate on allegations of propagandizing his views on
the hotly debated existence of an Armenian genocide.
According to Igmen, the allegations came from a tenured professor
from another college at CSULB who attacked Igmen’s credibility for
supporting definition of the events as genocide.
The tensions surrounding the controversial subject may have led to
an increased police and security presence at the presentation.
Protesters were told to stand in the back room before the disputed
Armenian genocide forum took center stage.
The panel discussion included experts Richard Hovannisian from UCLA
and Taner Akcam from the University of Minnesota, who discussed their
investigative findings with a full audience of students, professors
and guests.
Both Hovannisian and Akcam emphasized the Turkish rejection of any such
genocide taking place between 1915 and 1918. The Turkish government
claims the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians was a result of a civil war
and the targeting of Turks by Armenian rebels, rather than genocide.
"It is important for a society to face its own history," Akcam said.
Few Turkish scholars are willing to discuss the topic openly and are
apprehensive about using the word genocide, according to Akcam. He
also said that avoiding the term allows for the liberty of denial.
The panel did not include any scholars who supported the Turkish’s
government stance on the issue.
"Some students approached me and said that both sides were not
represented," said Igmen after the forum. "But they were civil and
polite, and I was not upset by them."
About a dozen supporters clapped as an open question-and-comment
session highlighted the absence of any opposing viewpoint.
"[It’s] not possible to consider a denialist point of view," said
Akcam.
Hovannisian added that to invite a scholar who supported the Turkish
government’s official stance was equivalent to inviting a Holocaust
denier to a forum on the genocide of the Jewish population and others
during the times of Nazi Germany.
According to Akcam, the Turkish government has done a cleansing of
national archives in order to destroy proof pertaining to an Armenian
genocide. He referred to the absence of any such incident in Turkish
textbooks as a case of social amnesia and denial.
However, Akcam said that not all proof could be destroyed because
the Armenian genocide was a massive state effort that left trails.
Hovannisian said the 800 accounts he has gathered from survivors of
the genocide were proof that could not be ignored. He also compared
the Armenian genocide to background music – it’s there all the time,
but we never listen to it.
Akcam called for a need of more Turkish scholars who are willing to
recognize and discuss the Armenian genocide as a crime.
"Turkey must change their language," said Akcam.
Currently, the word genocide is considered a national threat to the
Turkish government, according to Akcam.
Hovannisian pointed to fear of financial repercussions as one reason
for the Turkish government’s unwillingness to acknowledge an Armenian
genocide, which he described as unique because it fulfills all five
aspects of the United Nations’ definition of genocide.