Turkish group claims U of Minn. ‘blacklisted’ site

Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS – A Turkish advocacy group has sued the University of Minnesota, claiming one department “blacklisted” its website because of the group’s pro-Turkish viewpoint on the killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 95 years ago.

The university’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies listed the Turkish Coalition of America’s site as “unreliable” because the Washington-based group disputes that what happened to the Armenians was genocide, The Minnesota Daily reported Wednesday. The center’s list was removed from its website last month.

The coalition’s lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court, claims that University of Minnesota students and professors generally avoid using the group’s website because they fear “adverse consequence, including the loss of academic standing.”

The suit alleges violations of constitutional rights and defamation, and seeks unspecified money damages and any other remedies the court deems appropriate.

The university’s general counsel, Mark Rotenberg, told the newspaper that the lawsuit had no merit and the university would seek to have it dismissed. Rotenberg said he was “perplexed” the plaintiffs sued after the information was removed.

“The faculty and the university have a right to voice their opinions on the reliability of source materials that are found on the Internet,” Rotenberg said.

Turkey and Armenia have long been locked in a bitter dispute over the deaths of Armenians in Turkey. Many historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks in what constituted genocide around the time of World War I. Turkey disputes the claim, saying the toll has been inflated and those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

The coalition said the genocide question is a “genuine historic and legal controversy.”

Along with the university, the lawsuit names the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies’ director, Bruno Chaouat, and the university’s president, Robert Bruininks.

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