Armenian Assembly of America
1334 G Street, NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202-393-3434
Fax: 202-638-4904
Email: [email protected]
Web:
PRESS RELEASE
July 14, 2009
Contact: Michael A Zachariades
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (202) 393-3434
TURKISH ASSOCIATION APPEALS LANDMARK MASSACHUSETTS COURT RULING
Turkish Denial Campaign Continues in California
Washington, DC – Last month, the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly)
reported that Turkey’s ongoing global campaign to suppress the truth
about the Armenian Genocide was dealt a major blow in a U.S. District
Court. Chief Judge Mark Wolf issued a ruling in favor of the
Massachusetts Department of Education (Department), which allows the
Department to continue teaching the facts of the Armenian Genocide, and
other crimes against humanity, in public schools across the
Commonwealth, as constitutionally protected government speech.
Shortly after this landmark decision, as part of an ongoing campaign to
derail human rights education, the Assembly of Turkish American
Associations (ATAA) indicated, through a June 23 letter to the editor of
the Boston Globe from its attorney Harry Silverglate, that it intended
to appeal Chief Judge Wolf’s decision in the case of Griswold v
Driscoll. The appeal was officially filed on July 13, in U.S. District
Court in Massachusetts.
"The Armenian Assembly appreciates the court’s ruling in the matter and
will work to ensure that it is sustained on appeal. This decision
clearly demonstrates to Turkey and its revisionist allies that history
cannot be rewritten to further Ankara’s state-sponsored denial
campaign," said Assembly Board of Trustees Chairman Hirair Hovnanian.
Carolyn Mugar, the Board’s President, added, "Given the overwhelming
historical and legal evidence documenting the incontestable fact of the
Armenian Genocide, this ruling is a victory for all those concerned
about genocide education and prevention."
When this suit was initiated four years ago, the Assembly immediately
responded by hiring one of the nation’s preeminent First Amendment
expert, Duke University Professor Irwin Chemerinsky, and co-counsel
Arnold Rosenfeld of the firm K&L Gates LLP. Throughout this process, the
Assembly, along with others, challenged the ATAA at every turn by filing
a series of pleadings including an amicus curiae (friend of the court)
brief. The brief was intended to assist the Court in bringing the case
to a conclusion in favor of the Commonwealth.
Assembly’s Board Vice-Chair and Counselor Robert A. Kaloosdian chaired
the committee that responded to the lawsuit: "Through the federal
court’s ruling, the Griswold case rejected ATAA’s attempt to require the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts Board of Education to insert
‘contra-genocide’ citations into its curriculum guide. Judge Wolf wrote
in his decision that ‘plaintiffs do not have a right to receive
contra-genocide information in the classroom.’ In addition he wrote that
‘the curriculum guide required defendants to include materials
concerning the ‘Armenian Genocide.’"
"I expect ATAA’s latest attempt to thwart history and stifle education
to be rejected on appeal," said Rosenfeld. "It is a constitutionally
significant legal victory that Chief Judge Mark Wolf of the U.S.
District Court in Massachusetts reaffirmed the First Amendment right of
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to present the unfettered truth about
the Armenian Genocide to its students. Hopefully, this important ruling
will succeed in conveying the horrors of the international crime of
genocide to those who did not bear witness themselves and will lead to a
public outcry that will not tolerate similar illegal acts intended to
destroy national, ethnical, racial or religious groups."
Van Krikorian, Assembly Board of Trustees Member and Counselor, who
along with Rosenfeld, prepared and presented the amicus brief before
Judge Wolf, argued that if the court accepted the ATAA’s claims, it
would open the door for any extremist group, such as Holocaust deniers,
to challenge curriculum matters in court.
"This ruling sends a message not only to the ATAA, but also to others
who may seek to distort history," said Krikorian. "This was certainly a
direct blow to ATAA’s plan to get a favorable ruling here and then
repeat the tactic in every school district across the country. The
court’s decision cuts them off, destroys that plan and protects the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Department of Education from being
subject to manipulation from a genocide denialist organization, which is
carrying out its campaign of dishonesty from coast to coast," added
Krikorian.
ATAA Threatens to Oppose Human Rights Education and Passage of
California Genocide Awareness Act
Handing the ATAA and its allies another defeat in its nationwide
denalist campaign, on July 8, the California Senate Education Committee
unanimously passed Senate Bill 234, the "Genocide Awareness Act," which
requires the California Curriculum Commission to include an oral history
component related to genocides as part of its high school curriculum,
including the Armenian Genocide.
At the California Senate Education Committee public hearing, the ATAA
and Armenian Genocide denier Bruce Fein testified against the passage of
the Genocide Awareness Act. He also questioned whether the mistreatment
of the Armenians, and the parallel cases in Cambodia and Darfur were
genocide, despite the fact that the California legislature has
repeatedly recognized and annually commemorated the Armenian Genocide
since 1968.
The Assembly was an early proponent of SB 234, and is on record
supporting its passage.
Recently, the ATAA escalated its longstanding strategy of harassment by
making the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) the target of a defamation
suit brought by Guenter Lewy, a former professor at the University of
Massachusetts, who is being supported in the lawsuit by the so-called
Turkish American Legal Defense Fund. The Southern Poverty Law Center was
founded in 1971, as a civil rights law firm combating racism and
prejudice in the U.S. In 1991, the SPLC established Teaching Tolerance,
an educational program to help K-12 teachers foster respect and
understanding in the classroom. Teaching Tolerance is now one of the
nation’s leading providers of anti-bias resources.
The lawsuit follows the publishing of an article entitled "State of
Denial" in which the SPLC criticized several academics, among them Lewy,
stating, "Revisionist historians who conjure doubt about the Armenian
genocide and are paid by the Turkish government provided politicians
with the intellectual cover they needed to claim they were refusing to
dictate history rather than caving in to a foreign government’s
present-day interests."
It is of note that Lewy is represented by attorneys Bruce Fein and David
Saltzman, of Saltzman & Evinch, P.C. Saltzman’s partner, Gunay Evinch,
is the President of the ATAA.
Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America is the largest
Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding
and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a 501(c) (3)
tax-exempt membership organization.
###
NR#2009-059