or-armenian-studies-issues-statement-on-%e2%80%98h istorical-sub-commission%e2%80%99/
By Weekly Staff – on February 17, 2010
Following a vote at the Nov. 21, 2009, meeting of the Society for
Armenian Studies (SAS), which called on the SAS Executive Council to
prepare a statement concerning the `historical sub-commission’ in the
Armenian-Turkish protocols, and following a vote of the SAS membership
in support of the statement, the SAS Executive Council, on behalf of
the entire SAS membership, hereby issues the following statement
regarding the proposed historical sub-commission:
The recently signed protocols between the Republic of Armenia and the
Republic of Turkey call for a sub-commission with the vaguely defined
task of looking into existing historical problems for an impartial
examination of historical records and archives. The stated purpose is
to restore mutual confidence between the two nations. Although no
express reference is made in the protocols, there is an almost
universal agreement that the Turkish side would use the sub-commission
as a vehicle for perpetuating its denial of the Armenian Genocide and
casting doubt on the validity of the massive body of evidence
establishing it as genocide.
While the Turkish government, in keeping with a long-standing state
policy, continues to make every effort to question and deny the
veracity of the Armenian Genocide, President Serge Sarkisian has on a
number of occasions asserted that the genocide and loss of Armenian
patrimony cannot be questioned; that the genocide is a known truth and
must be recognized and condemned; and that the reality of the genocide
can in no way become a subject of discussion as part of the agenda of
the sub-commission.
The Society for Armenian Studies hereby firmly states that the
Armenian Genocide is an undeniable fact, established through
dispassionate, meticulous, and multilingual archival research by a
great number of experts, most of whom belong to respectable scholarly
bodies of renowned authorities such as the International Association
of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) and our own Society for Armenian Studies.
The veracity of the Armenian Genocide cannot and must not be subject
to discussion or to political give and take.
The Society for Armenian Studies was founded in 1974 by a group of
scholars from the universities of California, Columbia, and Harvard on
the initiative of Richard G. Hovannisian, Dickran Kouymjian, Nina
Garsoian, Avedis Sanjian, and Robert Thomson. It is dedicated to the
development of Armenian studies as an academic discipline.
The SAS Secretariat is located at the Armenian Studies Program of
California State University, Fresno. For more information, visit
ex.htm, email
[email protected], or write to Armenian Studies Program,
California State University, Fresno, 5245 N Backer Ave. PB4, Fresno,
CA 93740-8001.