 Publisher, The California Courier
Incredible, but true! Eilian Williams, a shepherd in Wales, has done more in support of the Armenian Cause than most Armenians, despite the fact that he is not related to Armenians by heritage or marriage. For all his good work, he has received no recognition and no appreciation. Most Armenians, except for a small circle in London, are neither aware of his existence nor his selfless efforts.
His first involvement with Armenians began in 1998 when an Armenian acquaintance asked him to arrange for the Armenian Church Choir to perform in Eisteddfod, a Welsh Cultural Festival. This prompted him to form the “Wales Armenia Solidarity” group.
On April 24, 2001, Mr. Williams organized the first Armenian Genocide commemoration in the Temple of Peace, located in Cardiff, Wales. He then succeeded in getting the National Assembly for Wales in October 2002 to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide and organized a special commemorative event in the National Assembly building, which was attended by Armenia’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Through his persistent efforts, the Gwynedd County Council in March 2004 became the first municipality in the UK to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
In October 2004, Mr. Williams arranged for the Prime Minister of the Republic of Nagorno Karabagh (Artsakh) to be received by the Presiding Officer (Speaker) of the National Assembly for Wales, thus boosting the legitimacy of Artsakh’s statehood.
Two years later, Mr. Williams was able to persuade the majority of the members of the National Assembly for Wales to support the Assyrian/Armenian Genocide Early Day Motion (EDM).
In January 2007, he organized the Hrant Dink Commemoration in the British Parliament. He also lobbied for the Armenian Genocide Motion in the House of Commons which garnered the signatures of 182 Members of Parliament.
On November 3, 2007, at the inauguration of the Armenian Genocide Monument in Cardiff, which Mr. Williams and John Torosyan helped organize, the Speaker of the National Assembly for Wales made scathing remarks about Turkey. Turkish hooligans tried to disrupt the solemn proceedings; several months later, they desecrated the Genocide Memorial.
Over the years, I had followed with great admiration the unpublicized activities of this “odar” shepherd of Wales. However, I had no direct contact with him until last month, when I received from him the text of a new Early Day Motion that he had submitted to the British House of Commons. The Motion demands that Turkey return the more than 2,000 Armenian, Assyrian and Syriac churches and religious monuments confiscated by the Turkish government after the 1915 Genocide to the jurisdiction of their respective Patriarchates as “a measure of restitution.”
The Motion further asks that the British government recognize the fact that these minorities were ethnically cleansed in the years following 1915, as was recently acknowledged by Turkish Prime Minister Rejeb Erdogan. The Motion has so far gained the support of 23 Members of the British Parliament.
This Motion attracted my attention because in recent months, I have been advocating such an initiative through my columns and lectures. I was pleasantly surprised when the Welsh shepherd sent me an e-mail last month informing that he had decided to take this action after reading my columns and particularly the remarks I had delivered at the House of Commons on May 7.
Armenian-Americans should follow the good example set by Mr. Williams and submit a similar resolution to the U.S. Congress. It would be practically impossible for any Member of Congress to oppose a motion that calls for the return of Armenian houses of worship to their rightful owner, the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul. Such a resolution would go beyond the mere acknowledgment of the Genocide, by seeking to restore some of the massive losses suffered by the Armenians.
European Armenians should go even further by filing a lawsuit in the European Court of Human Rights, seeking a judgment for the immediate return of the churches and religious monuments to the Armenian Patriarchate. It is unconscionable that these Armenian churches — the ones not yet destroyed — have been converted to mosques, warehouses and living quarters, and no one is contesting this shameful state of affairs! One can imagine the worldwide outcry if today’s German government were still holding on to a single synagogue that was confiscated by the Nazis during the Holocaust!
My hat off to Eilian Williams! I only wish that Armenians would emulate the righteous activism of this good shepherd whose efforts deserve proper recognition by the Republic of Armenia, the Church, and Armenians worldwide!
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Category: Main Issues
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Welsh Shepherd Does More for Armenian Cause than Most Armenians
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Dr. Israel Charny Condemns Denial of Armenian Genocide in British Parliament
Publisher, The California Courier
Senior Contributor, USA Armenian Life MagazineIn an earlier column I wrote about the special conference held at the British Parliament on May 7, organized by the British-Armenian All-Party Parliamentary Group. Dr. Israel Charny and I were invited as guest speakers. I spoke about “The Armenian Genocide and Quest for Justice.” Dr. Charny could not attend due to illness, however, his prepared remarks were read by Peter Barker, a former broadcaster of BBC Radio.
Dr. Charny is an internationally-known authority on the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide. He is the Executive Director of the Jerusalem-based Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide, past President of International Association of Genocide Scholars, Editor-in-Chief of Encyclopedia of Genocide, and author of several scholarly books. Dr. Charny’s lengthy paper was titled: “Confronting denials of the Armenian Genocide is not only honoring history, but a crucial policy position for confronting threats in our contemporary world.”
In his remarks presented at the British Parliament, Dr. Charny described the conference on the Armenian Genocide he attended two years ago in Istanbul. He found “the prevailing discourse stilted, blocked and rigid with denials.” The overwhelming majority of the statements were “one-sided rehashes of Turkish denial propaganda; a basic intellectual failure since they did not even mention or refer to or in any way acknowledge any of the voluminous documentation and evidences of the Armenian Genocide that are now part of world culture; and a great number were emotional diatribes rather than ‘scientific’ or properly scholarly contributions.”
In his paper, Charny singled out the presentation at the Istanbul conference of Prof. Yair Auron, his colleague from Israel, who spoke “in a strong resonant voice that there was no question but that the Armenians had suffered genocide at the hands of the Turks.”
In his London remarks, Dr. Charny’s also discussed the “failure of the State of Israel, but not of Israelis, to recognize the Armenian Genocide,” expressing his “deep regret and shame” that Israel (where he lives) and the United States (where he was born), “have failed seriously in their moral responsibility towards the Armenian people.” He felt “particularly wounded as well as angry at such failures by my Jewish people when we too have known the worst horrors of being victims of a major genocide, and therefore we should be all the more at your side as deeply committed allies in all aspects of preserving and honoring the record of the Armenian Genocide.”
Dr. Charny announced “the happy news [that] the battle for recognition and genuine respect for the memory of the Armenian Genocide [was won] on the level of everyday Israeli culture.” In great detail, he explained that “throughout the year there are major statements in our culture about the Armenian Genocide, including many full-length feature stories and interviews in all of our major newspapers and on our television. On April 24, there is powerful coverage, for example, this year on Roim Olam or Seeing the World, a major TV news magazine; there is an annual seminar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem at which this year the keynote speaker was Prof. James Russell of Harvard University, and it was my honor to be the keynoter the year before together with an influential member of the Knesset who was totally knowledgeable about the Genocide and totally clear about Israel’s error in not recognizing it; and there is of course an annual commemoration by the Armenian Community — it was there that the two ministers in the past announced their recognition of the Armenian genocide. During a too-brief period, we also had two ministers of the Israeli government who officially recognized the Genocide, and although the governments in question promptly disavowed these ministers’ statements as private and not speaking for the country, the records of those ministers honoring the Armenian Genocide on behalf of the State of Israel cannot be erased. I would say that both the everyday Israeli man on the street and the professional scholars of the Holocaust, such as Prof. Yehuda Bauer perhaps the ranking scholar of the Holocaust at Yad Vashem, are basically sympathetic and committed to paying homage to the Armenian Genocide. A few years ago four of us, including one of the above former ministers, Yossi Sarid, Prof. Bauer, Prof. Yair Auron, an indefatigable scholar of the Armenian Genocide and of Israel’s denials of same, and myself traveled together to Yerevan to lay a wreath at the Armenian Genocide Memorial.”
As he has done many times in the past, Dr. Charny expressed regret that “sadly and shamefully the pull of practical government politics still leads to official Israel cooperating with Turkey in gross denials of the Armenian Genocide. No less than the arch fighter for peace in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Shimon Peres, now President of Israel, then serving as Israel’s Foreign Minister, twice went notably out of his way to insult the history and memory of the Armenian Genocide.”
In a scathing letter, Dr. Charny told Peres in 2001: “You have gone beyond a moral boundary that no Jew should allow himself to trespass…. As a Jew and an Israeli, I am ashamed of the extent to which you have now entered into the range of actual denial of the Armenian Genocide, comparable to denials of the Holocaust.”
In response to a second “especially insulting” denial by Shimon Peres in 2002, Dr. Charny sent him one of my columns from The California Courier, with the following note: “I am enclosing with great concern for your attention an editorial in a leading US-Armenian newspaper calling on Armenia to expel the Israeli Ambassador. For your further information, the author of this editorial, who is the head of the United Armenian Fund in the US — comparable to our United Jewish Appeal — was for many years a delegate to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.”
Dr. Charny concluded his London remarks: “I am happy to emphasize that the people and the culture [in Israel] very strongly recognize and honor the [Armenian] Genocide, and know how serious and important it is for us and the whole world.” He expressed his sincere hope that “some day we will succeed in changing the official Israeli government position.” -
Mexico’s Ambassador to US Arturo Sarukhan Courageously Acknowledges “1915 Genocide By Turkey”
Armenian-Mexican Task Force Announced By Consuls General of Mexico and ArmeniaBy Appo Jabarian
Executive Publisher / Managing Editor
USA Armenian Life Magazine
Friday, July 3, 2009
Besides loving Mexico’s culture, people, tacos and tequila, Armenians around the world have one more reason to enhance their appreciation of the Estados Unidos de Mexico: Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan.
Among the many nations that have opened their doors and hearts to the survivors of the Armenian Genocide, Mexico stands out as being a pluralistic sovereign state that has appointed a principled and courageous Armenian-Mexican seasoned diplomat, a respected expert on international affairs and an astute political strategist to its most important?ambassadorial post, the one in the United States.
As Mexico’s top diplomatic representative in Washington, Ambassador Sarukhan leads his country’s efforts on such crucial issues as trade, proliferation of illegal firearms, immigration, curtailing of the traffic of illegal drugs, among others.
Amb. Sarukhan is also credited for fostering good relations between the Armenian-American and Mexican-American communities. His insightful remarks in late 2008 inspired Shahe Mazbanian, a vice-president of business development at Bank of America, to summon help from his long-time friend and mentor Alberto G. Alvarado, Los Angeles District Director of the US Small Business Administration, to jointly lobby with their respective communities for active co-operation. Their efforts paid off in an impressive way. Both the Regional Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Armenian-American Chamber of Commerce jointly organized a June 25 breakfast meeting in Los Angeles’ Biltmore Hotel in honor of Ambassador Sarukhan.
At the meeting, the Consuls General of Mexico and Armenia, Juan Marcos Gutierrez-Gonzalez and Grigor Hovhannissian separately spoke about the necessity of establishing strategic partnership between the Mexican and Armenian communities. As a direct result of this timely initiative, they announced the formation of a task force that would promote cooperation in the sectors of health, economic development, education and culture (Please see related news article by clicking on the following link: ).
The Consulates General of Armenia and Mexico spearheaded the co-operation efforts. In a pre-taped video message, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA.) expressed his appreciation for the initiative and congratulated the two consulates.
In a November 21, 2008 interview granted to The Armenian Reporter, Amb. Sarukhan emphasized that “communities like the Armenian and the Mexican communities are natural allies. They share agendas and challenges in this country. Many of them have come here driven by the same problems of lack of economic opportunities. Both are hard working societies. [In the past] the Armenian community faced the prejudice and racism and discrimination in this country that Mexican communities are facing today.”
He stated that “It would make more sense if Armenian and Mexican communities work together especially in the West Coast and New England where we have the highest concentration of Armenian-Americans to bring down the bombastic nature of the debate, to look at the opportunities and the challenges in an objective and forward-looking way.”
Mr. Sarukhan’s candid position regarding his Armenian roots is not only uplifting for the Armenian Youth, but also enriching for Mexico’s international image. His grandparents arrived in Mexico in the early 1930s. His grandfather was a Russian-Armenian also named Artur Sarukhanian, and grandmother, a survivor of the Genocide arrived in Mexico with the idea of coming to Canada. Having read a lot about Mexico, Sr. Sarukhan decided to stop in Mexico on their way to Canada. The elder Sarukhanians fell in love with Mexico and they stayed in Mexico. Amb. Sarukhan was born in Mexico.
The prestigious website of The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars named after Woodrow Wilson, president of the United States from 1913 to 1921, and a great friend of The Democratic Republic of Armenia (1918-1921), writes: “The grandson of refugees in Mexico, Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan is a career diplomat who joined the Mexican Foreign Service in 1993, and currently serves as Mexico’s Ambassador to the U.S. He was posted to the Mexican Embassy in the United States as a junior diplomat, served as Chief of Staff to the Ambassador, and was the head of the counternarcotics office at the Embassy. In 2000 he became Chief of Policy Planning at the Foreign Ministry and was appointed by the President as Mexican Consul General to New York City in 2003. He resigned from this post and took a leave of absence from the Foreign Service in 2006 to join Felipe Calderón’s presidential campaign as a foreign policy advisor and international spokesperson and became the Coordinator for Foreign Affairs in the Transition Team. In November of 2006 he received the rank of Ambassador and in February of 2007 was appointed Mexican Ambassador to the United States.”
During the breakfast meeting’s question and answer period, Appo Jabarian of USA Armenian Life Magazine asked: “Amb. Sarukhan, at the beginning of your remarks you have used the term ‘1915 Genocide by Turkey.’ Does it mean that the government of Mexico officially recognizes the Armenian Genocide, or have you simply stated the facts as they are?”
Amb. Sarukhan posed for a moment and then answered with a humorous flair. He said that “the newspapers are good at killing flies and diplomats,” causing an eruption of laughter. He then stated courageously that his remarks reflected his personal belief. He went on to elaborate that by telling the truth we can build a better future. He added that the truth can overcome everything; and can liberate even those who want to hide it.
Through their pro-active co-operation, the Armenian- and the Mexican-American communities across the United States, can achieve substantial moral, political, and economic gains. Both communities come from similar backgrounds of family-values.
The success and the longevity of their inter-ethnic alliance should serve as a model that can be emulated by Armenian-Americans in establishing similarly fruitful alliances with other communities. -
Sarkisian Signals Frustration With Turkey
Armenia — President Serzh Sarkisian.
06.07.2009
Sarkis Harutiunian
After months of upbeat statements, President Serzh Sarkisian signaled on Monday his frustration with Turkey’s failure so far to unconditionally normalize relations with Armenia despite concessions made by him.
“We want to eliminate closed borders remaining in Europe and to build normal relationships without preconditions,” he said, commenting on Turkish-Armenian relations after talks with the visiting President Demetris Christofias of Cyprus. “But in that endeavor, we do not intend to allow [anyone] to use the negotiating process for misleading the international community.”
“Unfortunately, in our case, failure to honor mutual agreements leads to greater distrust and a deeper gap and requires much greater efforts in the future,” said Sarkisian. He did not go into further details.
Sarkisian and his foreign minister, Eduard Nalbandian, have until now sounded cautiously optimistic about prospects for the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey and the reopening of their border. Both men have effectively downplayed Ankara’s renewed linkage between Turkish-Armenian reconciliation and the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The Armenian president has been under fire from his political opponents over a lack of tangible results in Armenia’s unprecedented rapprochement with Turkey that began shortly after he took office in April 2008. He faced particularly strong criticism at home and in the worldwide Armenian Diaspora in late April after Ankara and Yerevan announced a still unpublicized “roadmap” to normalizing bilateral ties.
The announcement came on the eve of the annual remembrance of more than one million Armenians massacred by the Ottoman Turks during World War One. The timing is believed to have made it easier for U.S. President Barack Obama to backtrack on his pledges to officially recognize the massacres as genocide.
Sarkisian’s harshest critics have accused him of willingly sacrificing U.S. recognition of the Armenian genocide without securing the lifting of the 16-year Turkish blockade of Armenia. They have also condemned his apparent acceptance of a Turkish proposal to form a commission of historians that would look into the 1915 mass killings and deportations of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.
Armenia — President Serzh Sarkisian (R) meets with his Cypriot counterpart Demetris Christofias in Yerevan on July 6, 2009.
Speaking at a news conference with Christofias, Sarkisian said they discussed the Turkish-Armenian dialogue and the Karabakh conflict in addition to issues related to bilateral ties. In a joint statement, the two leaders said they will strive to deepen the Armenian-Cypriot relationship.
Christofias voiced support for Armenia’s efforts to forge closer links with the European Union, of which Cyprus is a member. “Armenia can regard Cyprus as its envoy to the European Union,” he said.
https://www.azatutyun.am/a/1770699.html
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ARMENIAN LOBBY TRYING TO STOP TURKISH LOBBY
From:Center for Armenian Remembrance <[email protected]>
Petition Against Six Denialist CorporationsIt has come to light that, contrary to their public statements of being good corporate citizens and champions of human rights, six American and British mega-corporations have been secretly lobbying the United States Congress not to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
In the American system, it is customary for corporations to lobby Congress only on taxes and trade rules related to their specific businesses. It is however highly unusual and downright shameful for corporations to do the bidding of their foreign clients.
BAE Systems Inc., Goodrich Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp., Raytheon Co., United Technologies Corp. and energy producer Chevron Corp are spending over a million dollars a week to lobby Congress.
The world-wide Armenian community cannot match this level of expenditure. We can however raise our righteous voice by signing the petition below. The collected signatures will be hand delivered and emailed to the corporate heads and key stockholders of these companies.
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CALIFORNIA ACTION ALERT
We need more emails sent please!
Kindly circulate this message as widely as possible!
Thank you.
Ergün KIRLIKOVALI,
TURKISH FORUM
*****
To: All Turkish-Americans and Friends
Step 1 – Please select one of the 17 sample letters below (or create your own wording)
Step 2- Add your name, address, and day phone
Step 3- E-mail the Assembly Members below today!
California State Assembly / Committee on Education / Phone
(916) 319-2087
Committee Members
District
Phone / Fax
E-mail
Julia Brownley – Chair
Dem-41
(916) 319-2041
Fax: (916) 319-2141
Brian Nestande – Vice Chair
Rep-64
(916) 319-2064
Fax: 916-319-2164
Tom Ammiano
Dem-13
(916) 319-2013
Fax: (916) 319-2113
Juan Arambula
Dem-31
(916) 319-2031
Fax: (916) 319-2131
Joan Buchanan
Dem-15
(916) 319-2015
Fax: (916) 319-2115
Wilmer Amina Carter
Dem-62
(916) 319-2062
Fax: (916) 319-2162
Mike Eng
Dem-49
(916) 319-2049
Fax: (916) 319-2149
Martin Garrick
Rep-74
(916) 319-2074
Fax: 916-319-2174
Jeff Miller
Rep-71
(916) 319-2071
Fax: 916-319-2171
Jose Solorio
Dem-69
(916) 319-2069
Fax: (916) 319-2169
Tom Torlakson
Dem-11
(916) 319-2011
Fax: (916) 319-2111
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Letter 1
No to SB 234
Dear Assembly Member,
Senate Bill No. 234 will cause division, polarization, and isolation among our children simply because it attempts to teach scholarly contested political controversies and views as routine, settled history.
Case in point: Rwanda was declared “genocide” by the International Court of Justice under the rules of the UN Genocide Convention, but, Darfur/Sudan was not; the latter was charged with crimes against humanity and other war crimes. If you cannot see the difference, that SB 234 deceives you, too.
Another case in point: The Jewish Holocaust is a court-tested verdict (Nuremberg, 1945), whereas Armenian allegations of genocide have not yet seen the inside of a “competent tribunal” because of fears that Armenian hearsay and forgeries may not stand the scrutiny.
If we choose to declare any event in history anything we want, just by the number of votes cast by legislators, what kind of message are really sending our children about scholarship in history or other social sciences? Forget education, think legislation?
Dear Assembly Member, whatever happened to the time honored dictum: “Teach the children well?”
I urge you to vote NO on SB 234 !
Sincerely,
(name, address, day phone)
Letter 2
Please vote No on SB 234 !
Dear Assembly Member
In these economic hard times, California is paying huge sums to Armenians who have been brought here on false documentations as “relatives” just to campaign and act against Turkish Americans and Azeris.
This, in addition to these representatives of Armenian origin debasing the properly court-recognized genocide victims and wasting our public state resources in time, money and energy year after year for hate campaigns.
Proof? Simple: Just take out the reference to Armenian mythical genocide and let’s see if they still are sponsoring these bills.
Please do not be a party to advancing Armenian interests which run against the American interests.
California first !
I urge you to vote No on SB 234 !
Sincerely,
(Name, address, day phone)
Letter 3
No on SB 234 !
Dear Assembly Member
Make no mistake: this is an Armenian bill against Turkey and Turks, thinly camouflaged by other, more proper human tragedies. We live in California, America, not Armenia.
Turkey and Armenia should be allowed to settle their differences over sensitive historical subjects via appropriate local and international research institutions, as Turkey offered in 2005 and Armenia refused.
If the allegations of crimes against humanity were to withstand the cross examinations and scrutiny of the court room, as described in the 1948 UN Genocide Convention, then it is declared a genocide. Without such impartial investigation followed by judicial proceedings, like Nuremberg Trial, it is inappropriate for the California legislature to label the massive suffering of multiethnic society in Eastern Anatolia in the course of World War I as a solely “Armenian genocide”, totally ignoring the Muslim (mostly Turkish) victims of Armenian revolutionaries and irregulars, Armenian rebellions, treason, and territorial demands. Senate is not the place to sort historical debates.
Please do not be a party to advancing Armenian interests which run against the American interests.
California first !
I urge you to vote No on SB 234 !
Sincerely,
(Name, address, day phone)
Letter 4
No on SB 234 !
Dear Assembly Member
This is a bill by the Armenian lobby against Turkey and Turks. We live in California, America, not Armenia.
Teaching students such a one-sided, politically-loaded and unprofessionally-legislated version of history is inappropriate for the State of California, which is committed to ethnic diversity.
If the learning objective of oral histories is to give students a glimpse of past, we should not uphold only one interpretation of history falling prey to political interest groups. Thousands of Turkish-Americans in California have a family history connecting to sad events of World War I, and it would be absolutely un-American for our education system to isolate and discriminate against them by imposing a legislated interpretation of history.
Please do not be a party to advancing Armenian interests which run against the American interests.
California first !
I urge you to vote No on SB 234 !
Sincerely,
(Name, address, day phone)
Letter 5
No on SB 234 !
Dear Assembly Member
I respectfully oppose this bill, basically by the Armenian lobby against Turkey and Turks, and agree with the sentiments voiced by the Turkish-American Legal Defense Fund on it:
“ An act to… (require) oral history indoctrination of public school students in a single, disputed thesis of an historical controversy …”
This bill would result in the further indoctrination of California’s public school students in the Armenian genocide thesis of World War I, despite the genuine historical dispute over how to properly characterize these events.
This bill is both educationally wrongheaded and unconstitutional under the First Amendment and
the exclusive foreign relations power of the federal government. Any Member who votes for SB 234 would be flouting his or her oath or affirmation to support the Constitution.
I urge you to vote No on SB 234 !
Sincerely,
(Name, address, day phone)
Letter 6
No on SB 234 !
Dear Assembly Member
I respectfully oppose this bill, which attempts to teach a hotly debated controversy as settled history, at taxpayer’s expense.
The Turkish-Armenian conflict is a genuine historic controversy because the human tragedy and its characterization singly as Armenian genocide are disputed among reputable scholars of the era and region. SB 234’s advocacy of a single viewpoint constitutes nothing less than educational malpractice.
Reputable experts either take issue with the genocide characterization, or provide an historical narrative which clashes with the California model curriculum on human rights and genocide. A recently launched website lists these scholars and excerpts of their works. They include: Arend Jan Boekestijn, Youssef Courbage, Bertil Duner, Gwynne Dyer, Edward J. Erickson, Philippe Fargues, Michael M. Gunter, Eberhard Jäckel, Yitzchak Kerem, Bernard Lewis, Guenter Lewy, Heath W. Lowry, Andrew Mango, Michael E. Meeker, Justin Mccarthy, Stephen Pope, Michael Radu, Jeremy Salt, Stanford Shaw, Norman Stone, Hew Strachan, Elizabeth-Anne Wheal, Brian G. Williams, Gilles Veinstein, And Malcolm Yapp. please visit:
Please, let’s all strive to teach the children well.
I urge you to vote No on SB 234 !
Sincerely,
(Name, address, day phone)
Letter 7
No on SB 234 !
Dear Assembly Member
I respectfully oppose this bill, which attempts to teach a hotly debated controversy as settled history, at taxpayer’s expense.
Contrary to popular belief in California, the genocide thesis for the Armenian tragedy does not command a consensus in the community of Middle East and Ottoman scholars.
The United Nations has refused to endorse it. And both the governments of Great Britain and Sweden have in recent years chosen not to endorse Armenian genocide resolutions after careful consideration.
Consider for example a central figure routinely summoned in favor of the Armenian thesis: United States Ambassador Henry Morgenthau. His reports were based on hearsay, not personal eyewitness evidence. He never strayed beyond Istanbul during his 26 months as U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. He never visited the regions where he said great crimes were committed. He could not speak Turkish, Greek, French or Armenian, the four languages used in the Ottoman capital. He reported events selectively for political impact. On November 26, 1917, Morgenthau confessed in a letter to President Wilson that he intended to write a book vilifying Turks and Germans to, “win a victory for the war policy of the government.” Moreover, he admitted that his works were edited and sometimes changed by his Armenian assistants: Arshag K. Schmavonian and Hagop S. Andonian, neither of which, the historical record has shown, visited the areas in rebellion.
Please, let’s not stray from the truth. Let’s all strive to teach the children well.
I urge you to vote No on SB 234 !
Sincerely,
(Name, address, day phone)
Letter 8
No on SB 234 !
Dear Assembly Member
I respectfully oppose this bill, which attempts to teach a hotly debated controversy as settled history, at taxpayer’s expense.
The genocide claim for the Armenian tragedy does not command a consensus in the community of Middle East and Ottoman scholars. The United Nations has also refused to endorse it. Governments of Great Britain and Sweden have in recent years chosen not to endorse Armenian genocide resolutions after careful consideration. No countries in Asia or Africa have recognized it. Only a handful of countries where Armenian Diaspora exerted political pressure recogniexd Armenian claims.
Moreover, while the Ottoman Archives are fully open, key Armenian archives remain closed. All of the relevant evidence is has not yet been made available. There has never been an impartial, independent tribunal or commission that has evaluated the Armenian genocide thesis, in contrast to judicial affirmations of the Holocaust or the Rwandan genocide. That glaring omission is not for the absence of an available judicial forum. The International Court of Justice enjoys jurisdiction to determine genocide accusations under the United Nations Genocide Convention of 1948. The ICJ recently adjudicated Bosnia’s claim of genocide against Serbia and Montenegro (February 26, 2007).
I urge you to vote No on SB 234 !
Sincerely,
(Name, address, day phone)
Letter 9
No on SB 234 !
Dear Assembly Member
I respectfully oppose this bill, which attempts to teach a hotly debated controversy as settled history, at California taxpayer’s expense and at a time of financial crisis.
The Ottoman Armenian tragedy is matched by the Ottoman Muslim tragedy that left 2.4 million corpses in Anatolia alone, yet the former is exhaustively taught in California while the latter is completely ignored. To teach the mutual tragedies and sorrows as an episode the precursor of Holocaust-like wickedness is educationally preposterous.
Indeed, SB 234 betrays a Christian bigotry that traces back to the Crusades and it dishonors President George Washington’s celebration of the United States as “giving to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”
I urge you to vote No on SB 234 !
Sincerely,
(Name, address, day phone)
Letter 10
No on SB 234 !
Dear Assembly Member
I respectfully oppose this bill, which attempts to teach a hotly debated controversy as settled history, at California taxpayer’s expense and at a time of financial crisis.
I note for the Committee’s reference that the Republic of Turkey has proposed to the Republic of Armenia an international commission of experts to determine the facts and characterizations relevant to the Armenian thesis and to accept its findings as authoritative and conclusive. The Armenian government appears to have now endorsed at least some sort of historical reckoning with Turkey in the recently announced rapprochement roadmap unveiled on April 23. Many U.S. Armenians have criticized this approach, preferring history to be written by politicians, swayed by voting clout, rather than by truth.
I would respectfully suggest that most Assembly Members are poorly equipped by scholarship or otherwise to make an educated assessment of the Armenian thesis. Accordingly, to vote in support of SB 234 would be more an act of religious faith than of secular knowledge.
I urge you to vote No on SB 234 !
Sincerely,
(Name, address, day phone)
Letter 11
No on SB 234 !
Dear Assembly Member
The First Amendment prohibits government from compelling its citizens to endorse or promote speech that they dispute. Justice Robert Jackson, chief prosecutor before the Nuremberg Tribunal, wrote that the First Amendment prohibits government from stipulating what is orthodox in politics or otherwise by majority vote.
The Supreme Court has strictly policed the public school environment where the need for freedom of inquiry and thought to develop citizens fit for self-government are at their zenith. Thus, school authorities were prohibited from removing books from school libraries because of antagonism towards their viewpoints. The Court elaborated on the importance of academic freedom in teaching social studies.
“…No one should underestimate the vital role in a democracy that is played by those who guide and train our youth… No field of education is so thoroughly comprehended by man that new discoveries cannot yet be made. Particularly is that true in the social sciences, where few, if any, principles are accepted as absolutes. Scholarship cannot flourish in an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust. Teachers
and students must always remain free to inquire, to study and to evaluate, to gain new maturity and understanding; otherwise our civilization will stagnate and die.”
I urge you to vote No on SB 234 !
Sincerely,
(Name, address, day phone)
Letter 12
No on SB 234 !
Dear Assembly Member
The Supreme Court rejected state to impose ideological conformity on teachers through loyalty oaths or
otherwise. Justice William Brennan explained:
“Our Nation is deeply committed to safeguarding academic freedom, which is of transcendent value to all of us and not merely to the teachers concerned. That freedom is therefore a special concern of the First Amendment, which does not tolerate laws that cast a pall of orthodoxy over the classroom. “
And then there is this: “ …The classroom is peculiarly the ‘marketplace of ideas.’ The Nation’s future depends upon leaders trained through wide exposure to that robust exchange of ideas which discovers truth ‘out of a multitude of tongues, [rather] than through any kind of authoritative selection’….”
I urge you to vote No on SB 234 !
Sincerely,
(Name, address, day phone)
Letter 14
No on SB 234 !
Dear Assembly Member
Honorable Assembly Member,
I respectfully oppose SB 234, which facially concerns a new oral history component in the teaching of social studies in California. While oral histories are an important educational tool in engaging young people to have a better understanding of our past, SB 234 is inappropriate because we believe oral histories should not be a mandated component of this curriculum and we are concerned about the required expenditures assumed by this bill.
SB 234 is classic pork barrel politics, adding a new requirement to a subject that is already required to be taught in order to graduate and adding a new cost to California taxpayers, all to please a particular constituency. I am also concerned that the potential costs of this bill are poorly defined. California is facing unprecedented budgetary pressures and making cuts to basic educational programs and services.
No on SB 234 !
Sincerely,
(Name, address, day phone)
Letter 15
No on SB 234 !
Dear Assembly Member,
I note that the California Model Curriculum on Human Rights and Genocide asks that students be taught critical thinking especially on controversial subjects. The Armenian case cries out for a multiplicity of viewpoints to be heard so that students can judge for themselves and draw their own lessons from the events. I recommend that if an oral history component is to be mandated, that it not be limited to victims of just one side of the Turkish Armenian controversy, but also to Muslim victims as well.
SB 234 has no clear measurement or accountability tools. It does not provide sufficiently clear guidelines to ensure that history is accurately represented in all cases. Case in point: the use of the term Armenian genocide is simply disrespectful of the widespread suffering and loss felt by all communities during WWI at the fall of the Ottoman Empire. During that time Muslims and Christians suffered alike from a variety of causes, tragedy was mutual, and Armenian complicity was wide and deep.
No on SB 234 !
Sincerely,
(Name, address, day phone)
Letter 16
No on SB 234 !
Dear Assembly Member,
The desired educational outcome of this mandate is unclear. If it is to help students to understand past transgressions in international politics and societies, then there is ample support in the existing curriculum, which, though I disagree on its one-sidedness in addressing the Armenian-Turkish conflict, is certainly substantial. Then the terms of this bill need to be broadened to include oral histories from various wartime victims. California is too diverse to allow such an important issue as oral histories to be provided by only five communities. The scope of voices heard by students should include other key historical events such as the Iraq War, El Salvador, Guatemala, Vietnam and Korean history as well as many others.
No on SB 234 !
Sincerely,
(Name, address, day phone)
Letter 17
No on SB 234 !
Dear Assembly Member,
Turkey and Armenia should be allowed to settle their history in the judicial arena and diplomatically; not by California legislation. We ask you to remove the explicit focus on the “Armenian genocide”. Unlike the Jewish Holocaust, which was a horrific event, documented and proven at court (Nuremburg Trial), the large scale suffering of the Armenian people during a time of war has not been adjudged to have constituted the crime of genocide.
Furthermore, to teach it, labeled as such, creates a bias in the curricula and will not allow for a honest dialogue to take place. If the learning objective of oral histories is to give students a glimpse into the past, let’s give them the chance to see all sides of this past. Turkish Americans should also be encouraged to explain how their grandparents’ villages were razed and their relatives were put on a train, alone, to Istanbul to be raised in an orphanage or by other family members.
No on SB 234 !
Sincerely,
(Name, address, day phone)
===============================================================
Dear _____________:
I am deeply concerned by the recent possibility of consideration and passage of State Resolution No. SB-234, which seals a one-sided approach to a genuine historical controversy to which the United States is not a party.
The resolution in question is based on a spurious historical allegation that has not been historically or legally substantiated to this date. As such, it is not only without foundation, it is also inconsiderate, to the extent that it defames Turkish people as genocide perpetrators.
Numerous American scholars, all experts in the history of the Ottoman Empire, dispute the majority of the findings in the resolution, leading to the conclusion that although Armenian civilian losses during World War I were tragic, the events of 1915 were not tantamount to genocide. Armenians did not suffer alone and that millions of Turks also lost their lives during the same period from similar causes, including massacres by Armenian rebel bands.
I note that the resolution highlights the need to eliminate hatred. Yet I must question why this resolution, which embodies a festering enmity by certain extremist Armenian Americans toward Turks should be put to the vote. I cannot imagine how the passage of the said resolution, promoted by the same ethnic constituency, fosters peace, tolerance and dialogue among the many ethnic communities represented in California or in the USA.
The above notwithstanding, Turkey has no fear of its past and is willing to examine it, wherever that may lead. On April 10, 2005, Turkey ’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan invited Armenian President Robert Kocharian and the people of Armenia to establish a Joint Historical Commission to study the events of 1915 and share its findings with the general public. Turkey ’s Foreign Minister at the time Abdullah Gül added that historians from other countries, including the United States , would be welcome to take part.
Our past President Bush has acknowledged the wisdom of this approach, stating, “We look to a future of freedom, peace, and prosperity in Armenia and Turkey and hope that Prime Minister Erdogan’s recent proposal for a joint Turkish-Armenian commission can help advance these processes.” Our last Secretary of States Ms.Rice has also urged Turkey and Armenia to study their past together, saying, “These historical circumstances require a very detailed and sober look from historians. And what we’ve encouraged the Turks and the Armenians to do is to have joint historical commissions that can look at this, to have efforts to examine their past and, in examining their past, to get over their past.”
SB Res 252 will jeopardize American national interests and security, as it will damage US-Turkish relations. Turkey is a key ally of the United
States . In 2007, the last time such a Resolution in US Congress was introduced, former Secretaries of State Alexander Haig, Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, James Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger, Warren Christopher, Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell stated: “We must recognize the important contributions Turkey is making to U.S. national security, including security and stability in the Middle East and Europe. The United States continues to rely on Turkey for its geo-strategic importance. Turkey is an indispensable partner to our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan , helping U.S. troops to combat terrorism and build security.” And, the leader of the Armenian Church in Turkey , Archbishop Mesrob II has unequivocally stated, “Our children should grow up in friendship and brotherhood and not be poisoned by the seeds of hatred. … The proper platform to discuss this subject could only be a forum composed of Turkish and Armenian historians, and under conditions of equality and freedom.”Ultimately, the message is clear: history ought not to be legislated. Only through genuine dialogue can Turks and Armenians reconcile their diametrically opposed narratives in a mutually acceptable manner.
In light of the above, I would respectfully urge you not to support this resolution SB-234, which not only defeats the goal of ethnic harmony but also runs counter to the policy of the current and pasted US-Administration.
Sincerely,NAME ADDRESS &PHONE