TURKISH DENIAL CAMPAIGN CONTINUES IN CALIFORNIA

armradio.am
15.07.2009 10:33

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.’"

"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

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.