Armenian National Committee of Canada
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Press Release

March 5, 2009
Contact: Roupen Kouyoumjian

"Let the Garlic-Growing Armenians Beg to Join You [Azerbaijan]"
–Thomas Goltz’ Racist Remarks About Armenians

Ottawa, March 4 – At a lecture sponsored by the Assembly of
Azerbaijani-Canadian Organizations, with "kind assistance from the
Azerbaijani Embassy in Ottawa", American journalist and professor of
political science Thomas Goltz made racist and derogatory remarks about
Armenians in Ottawa earlier this week. Goltz’ remarks were in response
to a question from the audience on how to convince Armenians of
Nagorno-Karabagh to stay within the "current boundaries of Azerbaijan."
Goltz, who teaches at the Montana State University, replied: "By
building a forward-looking democracy you will be able to let the
garlic-growing Armenians beg to join you [Azerbaijan]."

Goltz was in Ottawa as a speaker, invited by the Azeri embassy and the
Assembly of Azerbaijani-Canadian Organizations, to talk about the events
of February 26, 1992 in the town of Khojaly in Nagorno-Karabagh. Goltz
delivered his speech "Khojaly Massacre: Crime and No Punishment", at the
National Archives of Canada. Some 60 people (mostly Azeris and Turks)
attended. Next day Goltz delivered a variation of the same lecture at
the National Press Club’s Newsmaker Breakfast series, hosted by the
Azeri embassy. About 20 people attended that gathering.

As an informal mouthpiece of the Azeri government, Goltz delivered
propaganda and rant against Armenians. First he talked about the
contradiction in the self-determination versus territorial integrity
concept of the United Nations. He then praised Azeri "secularist
attitude" and how Azeris preceded Ataturk in adopting this stance as a
governing model by five years.

Goltz accused Armenians of perpetrating "ethnic cleansing" in Khojaly
and said the Armenia argument that the Khojaly operation was a necessary
pre-emptive and defensive measure to relieve Nagorno-Karabagh’s capital
Stepanakerd from relentless shelling from Khojaly was "nonsense". He
asserted that Khojaly did not have military significance. He also mocked
Armenian claims that the heavy Azeri civilian casualties were the result
of Azeri internal strife and intrigue.

The most dramatic moment of the lectures occurred when Aris Babikian
from the Armenian National Committee of Canada (ANCC) successfully
refuted two controversial statements by Goltz. Goltz had paraphrased
two quotes from author Thomas de Waal’s book where supposedly the
current president of Armenia [Serzh Sarkisian] had said: "We showed to
the Azerbaijanis that we [Armenians] are not afraid of killing
civilians." The second quote cited by Goltz was from a book by the
brother of Nagorno-Karabagh military leader Monty Melkonian. According
to the American journalist, when Melkonian visited liberated Khojaly and
saw the Azeri corpses, he exclaimed: "What have you done?"

At the Newsmaker Breakfast lecture, Aris Babikian, executive director of
the ANCC, confronted Goltz and mocked him for his "command performance
of misrepresentation and revisionism." Babikian exposed Goltz’ hypocrisy
by pointing out that the American journalist had "conveniently forgotten
to mention the Sumgait, Baku and Maragh massacres of Armenians by
Azeris… and that had it not been for the Russian Navy 230,000 Armenian
inhabitants of Baku would have not survived."

Regarding the Khojaly killings, Babikian said: "Armenians did not claim
that Azeris had perpetrated the massacres of their own people. It was
the Azeri president, Ayaz Mutalibov, who made such a statement in an
April 2, 2004 interview published in Nezavisimaya Gazeta. In the
interview with Czech journalist Yana Mazalova, Mutalibov said that his
opposition, the National Front of Azerbaijan, were behind the killings
to undermine his authority and to topple him.

In further questioning, Babikian asked Goltz to explain why the bodies
of Azeri victims were found 11 km from Khojaly and 2 km from the most
heavily fortified Azeri military town of Aghdam. "Is it logical for
Armenians to follow Azeri 11 km, risking their own lives to eliminate
the enemy around Aghdam, instead of killing them in Khojaly?" Babikian
asked.

Babikian challenged Goltz to explain why so "many Azeri journalists who
had questioned Azeri government’s version of Khojaly events were jailed
or killed. Babikian cited the case of jailed Azeri journalist Eynulla
Fatullayev whose jailing was investigated by the European Court for
Human Rights.

Babikian asked Goltz to be honest and impartial when employing quotes
and to do so "without misrepresentation and misquotation so that they
can fit and augment his [Goltz’] narrative of the events."

The ANCC executive said that he found it strange that Goltz praised his
"old friend" the late "great" Aliyev as an "extraordinary guy" when
everyone in Azerbaijan knows that he was a despot and a man who stiffled
democracy while his son, the current president, follows in his father’s
infamous steps. Babikian said it was obvious that for Goltz "the lure of
the petro-dollar is much stronger than the lure of truth and
impartiality."

Goltz did not answer any of Babikian’s questions and skirted around
them.

Dr. Girair Basmadjian, president of ANCC, said: "We condemn such racist
and hate-disseminating lectures spewed by the mouthpiece of a foreign
government on Canadian podiums. It is unfortunate that some Canadian
Parliamentarians, Senators, and journalists had to hear such vile
statements without even raising an objection or questioning the
organizers and the speaker about the validity of their words and
action."

The ANCC leader added that "The Canadian government and police should
investigate the grave and far-reaching consequences of such hateful
speeches. We also would like to ask Canadian Parliamentarians to
disassociate themselves from this lecture and the anxiety it has caused
to the Canadian-Armenian community."

*****

The ANCC is the largest and the most influential Canadian-Armenian
grassroots political organization. Working in coordination with a
network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout Canada and
affiliated organizations around the world, the ANCC actively advances
the concerns of the Canadian-Armenian community on a broad range of
issues.

——
Le CNAC est l’organisation politique canadienne-arménienne la plus
large et influentielle. Collaborant avec une série de bureaux,
chapitres et souteneurs à travers le Canada et des organisations
affiliées à travers le monde, le CNAC s’occupe activement des
inquiétudes de la communauté canadienne-arménienne.

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress