SUBJECT: https://www.turkishnews.com/en/content/2009/06/02/canada-ryerson-apologizes-for-ataov-event/
To: Sheldon Levy, President and Vice-Chancellor, pres@ryerson.ca
Cc: Kanizehn Wadia, Executive Secretary to the President, kwadia@ryerson.ca
Erin McGinn, Director, Office of the President, emcginn@ryerson.ca
Carrie-Ann Bissonnette, Special Assistant, Events & Special Projects, c2bisson@ryerson.ca
Alan Shepard, Provost and Vice President Academic – alan.shepard@ryerson.ca
Dr. Heather Lane Vetere, Vice Provost, Students – hlvetere@ryerson.ca
Terry Gillin, Dean of sociology, tgillin@ryerson.ca
Mustafa Koc, Professor, Sociology Department, mkoc@soc.ryerson.ca
June 3, 2009
Re: Intolerance to reasoned, scholarly debate
Dear President Levy:
I am responding to the apology you issued to the Armenian students for the scholarly seminar organized by the Turkish students at Ryerson University on February 18, 2009, featuring Professor Turkkaya Ataov, a researcher who authored of more than 80 books. I found your apology biased, unfair, and unscholarly. Here are my reasons and thoughts:
BIAS IN THE TERM “ARMENIAN GENOCIDE”
If one cherishes values like fairness, objectivity, truth, and honesty, then one should really use the term “Turkish-Armenian conflict”. Reducing this complex human tragedy that affected all the people of the area down to “Do you accept or deny Armenian Genocide” simply shows one’s anti-Turkish bias. The question should be re-phrased “What is your stand on the Turkish-Armenian conflict?”
Turks document it clearly that it was an inter communal warfare mostly fought by Turkish and Armenian irregulars, a civil war which is engineered, provoked, and waged by the Armenian revolutionaries, with active support from Russia, England, France, and other countries, as well as Western media and missionaries, all interested in the vast resources of the collapsing Ottoman Empire for different reasons and to varying degrees, against a backdrop of a raging world war.
Armenians, on the other hand, ignoring Armenian agitation, raids, rebellions, terrorism, treason, territorial demands, and Turkish victims killed by Armenians, claim that it was a one way genocide, a claim never tested at a court of law but mostly based on hearsay and forgeries.
GENOCIDE ALLEGATIONS IGNORE “THE SIX T’S OF THE TURKISH-ARMENIAN CONFLICT”
While some in unsuspecting public may be forgiven for taking the blatant and ceaseless Armenian propaganda at face value and believing Armenian falsifications merely because they are repeated so often, it is difficult and painful for someone like me, the son of Turkish survivors on both maternal and paternal sides, whose story is hardly ever heard due to censorship induced by Armenian pressure groups.
Those seemingly endless “War years” of 1912-1922 brought three separate but consecutive wars on Ottoman soil (The Balkans, WWI, and the Independence Wars) and wide-spread death and destruction on to all Ottoman citizens. No Turkish family was left touched, mine certainly included. Those nameless, faceless Turkish victims are killed for a second time today with politically motivated and baseless charges of Armenian genocide. Those wars were brought onto Turks, not vice-versa, fought on Turkish soil, not in England, France, or Russia, and Turks were only defending their home, not out for conquest.
ALLEGATIONS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ARE RACIST AND DISHONEST HISTORY
They are racist because they ignore the Turkish dead: about 3 million during WWI; more than half a million of them at the hands of Armenian nationalists.
And the allegations of Armenian genocide are dishonest because they simply dismiss
THE SIX T’S OF THE TURKISH-ARMENIAN CONFLICT:
1) TUMULT (as in numerous Armenian armed uprisings, 1878-1921)
2) TERRORISM (by well-armed Armenian nationalists and militias victimizing Ottoman-Muslims, 1882-1922)
3) TREASON (Armenians joining the invading enemy armies, 1914-1921)
4) TERRITORIAL DEMANDS (where Armenians were a minority, not a majority, attempting to establish Greater Armenia, the would-be first apartheid of the 20th Century with a Christian minority ruling over a Muslim majority, 1878- present )
5) TURKISH SUFFERING AND LOSSES (i.e. those caused by the Armenian nationalists: 524,000 Muslims, mostly Turks, met their tragic end at the hands of Armenian revolutionaries during WWI, documented by the Turkish Historical Society. This figure is not to be confused with about 2.5 million Muslim dead who lost their lives due to non-Armenian causes during WWI.)
6) TERESET (temporary resettlement) triggered by the first five T’s above and amply documented as such; not to be equated to the Armenian misrepresentations as genocide.)
VERDICT WITHOUT DUE PROCESS AMOUNTS TO LYNCHING
Those who take the Armenian “allegations” of genocide at face value seem to also ignore the following:
1- Genocide is a legal, technical term precisely defined by the U.N. 1948 convention (Like all proper laws, it is not retroactive to 1915.)
2- Genocide verdict can only be given by a “competent court” after “due process” where both sides are properly represented and evidence mutually cross examined.
3- For a genocide verdict, the accusers must prove “intent” at a competent court and after due process. This could never be done by the Armenians whose evidence mostly fall into five major categories: hearsay, mis-representations, exaggerations, forgeries, and “other”.
4- Such a “competent court” was never convened in the case of Turkish-Armenian conflict and a genocide verdict does not exist (save a Kangaroo court in occupied Istanbul in 1920 where partisanship, vendettas, and revenge motives left no room for due process.)
5- Genocide claim is political, not historical or factual. It reflects bias against Turks. Therefore, the term genocide must be used with the qualifier “alleged”, for scholarly objectivity and truth.
POLITICAL LYNCHING OF THE TURKS BY ARMENIANS TODAY
Recognizing Armenian claim as genocide, therefore, will deeply insult Turkish-Canadians and Turks around the globe and poison the otherwise excellent relations currently enjoyed between the Canada and Turkey. It will, no doubt, please Armenians but disappoint, insult, and outrage Turkey, one of Canada’s closest allies and a partner in NATO. Turks stood shoulder to shoulder with Canadians in Gulf War, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and more. Genocide charge, unproven and unjustified, is the worst insult that can be dished out to an entire nation and a democracy respecting human rights, not to mention a close friend, an staunch ally , and a reliable partner in a troubled part of the world.
History is not a matter of ” gut feelings, thoughts, beliefs, conviction, consensus, political resolutions, or propaganda.” History is a matter of unbiased research, honest peer review, thoughtful debate, and meticulous scholarship. Even historians, by the U.N. definition, cannot decide on a genocide verdict, which is a special task reserved for a “competent court” with its legal expertise and due process.
What we witness today amounts to lynching of the Turks by Armenians to satisfy the age old Armenian hate, bias, and bigotry. Values like fairness, presumption of innocence until proven guilty, objectivity, balance, honesty, and freedom of speech are stumped under the fanatic Armenian feet.
Those who claim genocide verdict today, based on the much discredited Armenian evidence, are actually engaging in “conviction and execution without due process”. Last time I checked with the dictionary, that was the definition of “lynching”.
Isn’t it about time to stop fighting the First World War after almost a century and give peace a real chance?
Perhaps an even better question is, isn’t it time to allow the historians, researchers, and scholars to take over this debate?
The capability to explore and discuss contentious issues in a rational, scholarly manner is one of the trademarks that makes a University community a stimulating and exciting place. Your apology to Armenian students, implying that the Turkish-Armenian controversy should be represented like settled history in line with untested, unproven Armenian allegations, deals a blow to academic freedom and freedom of speech, thus vibrancy of a university.
After all, what good is a university if reasoned, scholarly debate is not allowed?
Peace,
ERGUN KIRLIKOVALI
Turkish Forum Advisory Board Member
Son of Turkish Survivors from Both Maternal & Paternal Side
www.turkishforum.com
www.turkla.com
www.ethocide.com
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| Ryerson Apologizes for Ataov Event and Reaffirms its commitment to uphold the Truth | ||||||||||
| Toronto, Ontario; On February 18, 2009, The Department of Sociology at Ryerson University, and the Federation of Canadian Turkish Associations organized an evening lecture on campus titled “Elaborations on Turkish strategies to dealing with issues around Armenian Allegations and beyond”. The lecture was delivered by Professor Turkkaya Ataov, a leading denier of the Armenian Genocide. The lecture was equivalent to Neo-Nazi propaganda presented to deny the Jewish Holocaust. Prof. Ataov trivialized the reality of the Armenian Genocide and presented the usual Turkish Government’s views.Ryerson University’s student body was outraged by the fact that such an event had been cosponsored by a department of their university and raised concerns through letters and by signing petitions which included names of approximately 300 Ryerson students.
After several meetings with department heads and administration, Dr. Sheldon Levy, the president of Ryerson University, in a letter to Sally Sahagian, the president of the Armenian Students’ Association at Ryerson University, apologized to the Ryerson community by stating, “On behalf of Ryerson University, I would like to apologize for the pain and suffering experienced in particular by the members of the Armenian. Community as a result of this event” He then assured the student body that the university’s views were in line with that of the Canadian Government, the International Association of Genocide Scholars and the hundreds of historians and experts researching the topic internationally. Dr. Levy stated, “Ryerson University supports Prime Minster Harper’s statement on behalf of all Canadians that the Armenian Genocide is a historical fact, unquestionably part of the historical record with tremendous suffering.” Ryerson University’s response indicated that although the university is a space where students can practice their freedom of speech, the university will not become an accomplice to racism and genocide denial. This form of hate propaganda has no place in our academic and scholarly circles. The administration of Ryerson University, through its principled stand, has proven to remain true to the role of the university as an institution committed to upholding the truth. The Armenian Students’ Association at Ryerson University together with all its members and the Armenian Community at large would like to thank the Ryerson University administration for identifying genocide denial as a threat to academia and society at large, consequently taking a principled stand against the crime of genocide. For more info, please contact Sally Sahagian – ssahagian@gmail.com. |
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