[Armenian]

A Genocide Denier at McGill University

Armenian Students face down a Turkish Professor...

Feb 27,2009

Montreal -- The neo-Nazi or the denier of the Holocaust and the Armenian, Rwandan and Cambodian genocides has now an academic environment to host their lectures in Canada. On Friday the 20th of February 2009, McGill University decided that its campus was an appropriate scene to allow the Turkish professor Türkkaya Ataöv to deny the Armenian genocide of 1915, during which 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by the Turks. Despite formal letters, protests, and meetings with the university administration initiated by the Armenian Students’ Association of McGill and Armen Karo Student Association, and supported by the International Association of Genocide Scholars, Amnesty International, Hillel Montreal and 15 other humanitarian and Armenian organizations including the Armenian Students’ Associations of Quebec and Ontario universities, the event still took place.

This lecture is one of the desperate attempts by the Turkish government to spread its denial propaganda, while international and domestic pressures increase to bring the state to accept its past and to recognize its crimes as genocide. In a country where the criminal code silences any discussions concerning the genocide, 200 Turkish intellectuals challenged their government in December 2008 by issuing a letter of empathy to the Armenians for the tragedies of 1915. The letter was supported by over 30 000 Turkish citizens.

The Armenian genocide is officially recognized by the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations and 20 countries including Canada, France, Russia, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany. The International Association of Genocide Scholars, representing the majority of historians from Europe and North America, published an open letter to the Turkish Prime Minister on June 13th, 2005, in order to remind him that it was not only the Armenian community, but hundreds of historians of different nationalities, independent of any government, who had studied and established the reality of the Armenian Genocide

Taking these facts into account, the argument of "freedom of expression" put forth by McGill University to justify a lecture aimed at whitewashing and distorting history is completely irresponsible, and casts doubt on its reputation. By allowing such a lecture on its grounds, the academic institution has been an accomplice in the 8th phase of genocide: denial.

The auditorium full at its seating capacity with an overwhelming majority of Armenians clearly took the lecturer off guard. At the beginning of the lecture, about 20 students stood up for a minute and held papers that read “No Room for Genocide Deniers in Canada ”and” Denial Is the Last Stage of Genocide”. During the lecture, the disoriented professor saw fit to skip large parts of his presentation, to interrupt his speech to read notes, and to use only the first page of the slideshow he had prepared. At his lecture in Ryerson University, Professor Ataöv described the west as racist and claimed that the Nuremberg trials against Nazi leaders were not fair.

Right before the questions’ period, Mardig Taslakian, a Member of the executive committee of the Armenian Students’ Association of McGill, took the floor and read the letter signed by 21 associations that was sent to the university’s administration. Mr. Ataöv was then bombarded with questions by the Armenian students who had come prepared with documents and references do demand justice. The teacher circumvented most questions by talking about subjects unrelated to the questions themselves, and tried to buy time by pretending to look for "sources" in his briefcase. When Kevork Kazanjian, President of Armen Karo Student Association, took the floor to ask a question, Turkish students crossed the line of civility in an attempt to prevent him from talking.

It is worth mentioning that none of the Turkish attendees had any questions for Professor Ataöv, to the point where the teacher felt compelled to secretly write a question and pass it along a member of the audience to ask. The humiliation of the teacher reached its peak when the Turkish student was unable to read the question, which further proved the failure of the lecture.
As Canadian students of Armenian descent, we hope this failed lecture will serve as an example to prevent further suffering and breechings of human rights and dignity in the future. We call upon all human beings who want to put an end to the horrendous cycle of genocides to stand up against the deniers and prevent them access to podiums in Canada. Finally, we hope that a proper apology will be given to the Armenian students in Montreal.

Armenian Students in Montreal