PRESS RELEASE
Armen Karo Student Association
397 Boul Des Prairies, 3rd Floor
Laval, Quebec
Canada H7N 2WP
Email: armen.karo@gmail.com
Tel: 450-505-1032
Web:
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Toronto – More than 200 were in attendance at the colloquium organized by
the Armenian Students’ Association at Ryerson University. The colloquium was
titled `Genocide and its Aftermath: Education for Prevention’ and was
organized on the occasion of the 95th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
The event took place on Thursday, March 18 and materialized with the support
of the Ryerson University Administration and Staff, who were determined to
hold the event as a response to Ryerson University’s inadvertent
participation in an event featuring Armenian Genocide denial on campus last
year which was cosponsored by the Federation of Turkish Canadian
Associations.
The participating academics were Dr. Gregory Stanton, Dr. Yair Auron, and
Dr. Frank Chalk, all of whom delivered important messages on genocide
recognition, prevention and denial. Stanton spoke about the methods used by
perpetrators in denying genocide and made references to how the Turkish
Government employs them in Turkey and abroad. Auron discussed the State of
Israel’s unwillingness to recognize the Armenian Genocide and the irony of
genocide denial by a state whose people suffered the same fate. He outlined
the many occasions were the Jewish people referenced the Armenian Genocide
and used stories of Armenian resistance, such as Musa Dagh, as a source of
inspiration during the genocide of the Jews, and showed disappointment
toward the modern day denial practiced by Israel for the sake of personal
interests. Chalk gave the audience insight into tools and methods at our
disposal with which states can act as watchdogs and help prevent cases of
genocide. Through his discussion on the Will to Intervene, Chalk expressed
concern about humanity’s continued failure in preventing genocides, despite
increased knowledge and understanding on the matter. He highlighted Canada’s
continued commitment to execute the Responsibility to Protect as a means to
preventing future cases of genocide.
The audience had the opportunity to ask questions to the panel after the
lectures. Interesting discussions took place on the Turkish Prime Minister’s
recent threats to deport Armenians living in Turkey, recent Turkish
denialist behaviour in light of recognition by the Foreign Affairs Committee
of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Swedish parliament, and on the
issue of reparations. The Turkish Government and its affiliates will
unfortunately continue to operate their denial machine internationally, but
will fail to achieve their goals, as long as our academic institutions
dedicate the time and resources, as Ryerson University did with this
lecture, to educate and spread awareness about the harms of genocide denial
and the consequences of our failure to prevent future cases of genocide.
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For pictures please visit:
y/3-genocide-prevention-at-ryerson
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress