BALAKIAN TO SPEAK ON LEMKIN AND ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AT CJH CONFERENCE

Noyan Tapan
Nov 11, 2009

NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 11, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Peter Balakian,
an Armenian American Professor and author of numerous books, will be
part of a day-long symposium on the life and work of Raphael Lemkin,
sponsored by the Center for Jewish History and American Jewish
Historical Society and held at the Center for Jewish History on
Nov. 15.

Hayrenik weekly reports that the conference will present scholars
examining the legacy of Raphael Lemkin as a lawyer, scholar, teacher,
linguist, writer, and tireless advocate of international efforts to
prevent genocide. An exhibition of selections of Lemkin’s papers and
accompanying materials from the collections of the American Jewish
Historical Society will accompany the conference. Scholars from
around the world and across the United States will participate in the
conference. They include Peter Balakian, Colgate University; Vartan
Gregorian, Carnegie Corporation; Steven Leonard Jacobs, University of
Alabama; William A. Schabas, National University of Ireland, Galway,
and others.

Balakian will discuss the impact of the Armenian Genocide on
Lemkin’s thought, and then explore how Lemkin’s fuller understanding
of cultural annihilation can be understood by examining the range
of the Turkish government’s eradication of Armenian intellectuals,
cultural institutions, and artistic heritage.