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[YeReVaN]

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GENOCIDE SCHOLARS

President: Robert Melson (USA)
Vice-President: Israel Charny (Israel)
Secretary-Treasurer: Steven Jacobs (USA)

Respond to: Robert Melson, Professor of Political Science Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 USA


April 6, 2005


Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
TC Easbakanlik
Bakanlikir
Ankara, Turkey
FAX: 90 312 417 0476

Dear Prime Minister Erdogan:

We are writing you this open letter in response to your call for an “impartial study by historians” concerning the fate of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

We represent the major body of scholars who study genocide in North America and Europe. We are concerned that in calling for an impartial study of the Armenian Genocide you may not be fully aware of the extent of the scholarly and intellectual record on the Armenian Genocide and how this event conforms to the definition of the United Nations Genocide Convention. We want to underscore that it is not just Armenians who are affirming the Armenian Genocide but it is hundreds of independent scholars, who have no affiliations with governments, and whose work spans many countries and nationalities and the course of decades. The scholarly evidence reveals the following:

On April 24, 1915, under cover of World War I, the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire began a systematic genocide of its Armenian citizens – an unarmed Christian minority population. More than a million Armenians were exterminated through direct killing, starvation, torture, and forced death marches. Another million fled into permanent exile. Thus an ancient civilization was expunged from its homeland of 2,500 years.

The Armenian Genocide was the most well-known human rights issue of its time and was reported regularly in newspapers across the United States and Europe. The Armenian Genocide is abundantly documented by thousands of official records of the United States and nations around the world including Turkey’s wartime allies Germany, Austria and Hungary, by Ottoman court-martial records, by eyewitness accounts of missionaries and diplomats, by the testimony of survivors, and by decades of historical scholarship.

The Armenian Genocide is corroborated by the international scholarly, legal, and human rights community:

1) Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin, when he coined the term genocide in 1944, cited the Turkish extermination of the Armenians and the Nazi extermination of the Jews as defining examples of what he meant by genocide.

2) The killings of the Armenians is genocide as defined by the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

3) In 1997 the International Association of Genocide Scholars, an organization of the world’s foremost experts on genocide, unanimously passed a formal resolution affirming the Armenian Genocide.

4) 126 leading scholars of the Holocaust including Elie Wiesel and Yehuda Bauer placed a statement in the New York Times in June 2000 declaring the “incontestable fact of the Armenian Genocide” and urging western democracies to acknowledge it.

5) The Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide (Jerusalem), the Institute for the Study of Genocide (NYC) have affirmed the historical fact of the Armenian Genocide.

6) Leading texts in the international law of genocide such as William A. Schabas’s Genocide in International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2000) cite the Armenian Genocide as a precursor to the Holocaust and as a precedent for the law on crimes against humanity.

We note that there may be differing interpretations of genocide - how and why the Armenian Genocide happened, but to deny its factual and moral reality as genocide is not to engage in scholarship but in propaganda and efforts to absolve the perpetrator, blame the victims, and erase the ethical meaning of this history.

We would also note that scholars who advise your government and who are affiliated in other ways with your state-controlled institutions are not impartial. Such so-called “scholars” work to serve the agenda of historical and moral obfuscation when they advise you and the Turkish Parliament on how to deny the Armenian Genocide.

We believe that it is clearly in the interest of the Turkish people and their future as a proud and equal participant in international, democratic discourse to acknowledge the responsibility of a previous government for the genocide of the Armenian people, just as the German government and people have done in the case of the Holocaust.

Sincerely,

[signed]
Robert Melson
Professor of Political Science
President, International Association of Genocide Scholars

[signed]
Israel Charny
Vice President, International Association of Genocide Scholars
Editor in Chief, Encyclopedia of Genocide

[signed]
Peter Balakian
Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities
Colgate University

[Murtaza]

[quote="YeReVaN"]News Releases


Yeftan Turkyilmaz is the first and so far the only Turkish scholar given access to Armenia's state archives and he believes the reason for that is more simple than one might think.

"Interestingly, people in Turkey believe that Armenia's archives are closed, especially for Turkish citizens," says Turkyilmaz. "That is not true. Here I am easily working with them."

Did I miss something? Or this two sentence conficting each other?
Why so far only he get access to enter archives?

And he also say "Interestingly, people in Turkey believe that Armenia's archives are closed, especially for Turkish citizens," this.
What a coincidence.

And Yeftan is not a Turkish name.
Didnt ever hear it.
Dont think It is turkish.

Why do you not accept Erdogan proposal?

[Murtaza]

By the way by closing the border and not recognizing the Armenian Genocide, you are not doing yourselves any favor. You are NEVER going to join the European Union if you keep the border closed and deny the Armenian Genocide.

I dont care EU. I wont accuse my ancestor for some money.
Honour of my ancestor is not for sale.
Accept Erdogan proposal.

And If historian say "Yes there is a Genocide". Then come and say what you want.(And mostly Turkey will accept genocide.)

I will support you too. If they so. Without this you are just a fanatic.

[YeReVaN]

Turks don't go to Armenian to study the archieves because they have no desire to see the truth. Armenian archieves have always been open. Many international used the archieves. The problem is that your government is bs-ing you . Your schools are brainwashing you with the help of your government. . Other than turkish sourses you try to look to third party sourses and you will gradually realise how much your government lied to you.

[YeReVaN]

Historians have already said there was a genocide. That's what you don't know because your government decided not to tell you. READ ABOVE.
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GENOCIDE SCHOLARS

President: Robert Melson (USA)
Vice-President: Israel Charny (Israel)
Secretary-Treasurer: Steven Jacobs (USA)

Respond to: Robert Melson, Professor of Political Science Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 USA


April 6, 2005


Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
TC Easbakanlik
Bakanlikir
Ankara, Turkey
FAX: 90 312 417 0476

Dear Prime Minister Erdogan:

We are writing you this open letter in response to your call for an “impartial study by historians” concerning the fate of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

We represent the major body of scholars who study genocide in North America and Europe. We are concerned that in calling for an impartial study of the Armenian Genocide you may not be fully aware of the extent of the scholarly and intellectual record on the Armenian Genocide and how this event conforms to the definition of the United Nations Genocide Convention. We want to underscore that it is not just Armenians who are affirming the Armenian Genocide but it is hundreds of independent scholars, who have no affiliations with governments, and whose work spans many countries and nationalities and the course of decades. The scholarly evidence reveals the following:

On April 24, 1915, under cover of World War I, the Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire began a systematic genocide of its Armenian citizens – an unarmed Christian minority population. More than a million Armenians were exterminated through direct killing, starvation, torture, and forced death marches. Another million fled into permanent exile. Thus an ancient civilization was expunged from its homeland of 2,500 years.

The Armenian Genocide was the most well-known human rights issue of its time and was reported regularly in newspapers across the United States and Europe. The Armenian Genocide is abundantly documented by thousands of official records of the United States and nations around the world including Turkey’s wartime allies Germany, Austria and Hungary, by Ottoman court-martial records, by eyewitness accounts of missionaries and diplomats, by the testimony of survivors, and by decades of historical scholarship.

The Armenian Genocide is corroborated by the international scholarly, legal, and human rights community:

1) Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin, when he coined the term genocide in 1944, cited the Turkish extermination of the Armenians and the Nazi extermination of the Jews as defining examples of what he meant by genocide.

2) The killings of the Armenians is genocide as defined by the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

3) In 1997 the International Association of Genocide Scholars, an organization of the world’s foremost experts on genocide, unanimously passed a formal resolution affirming the Armenian Genocide.

4) 126 leading scholars of the Holocaust including Elie Wiesel and Yehuda Bauer placed a statement in the New York Times in June 2000 declaring the “incontestable fact of the Armenian Genocide” and urging western democracies to acknowledge it.

5) The Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide (Jerusalem), the Institute for the Study of Genocide (NYC) have affirmed the historical fact of the Armenian Genocide.

6) Leading texts in the international law of genocide such as William A. Schabas’s Genocide in International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2000) cite the Armenian Genocide as a precursor to the Holocaust and as a precedent for the law on crimes against humanity.

We note that there may be differing interpretations of genocide - how and why the Armenian Genocide happened, but to deny its factual and moral reality as genocide is not to engage in scholarship but in propaganda and efforts to absolve the perpetrator, blame the victims, and erase the ethical meaning of this history.

We would also note that scholars who advise your government and who are affiliated in other ways with your state-controlled institutions are not impartial. Such so-called “scholars” work to serve the agenda of historical and moral obfuscation when they advise you and the Turkish Parliament on how to deny the Armenian Genocide.

We believe that it is clearly in the interest of the Turkish people and their future as a proud and equal participant in international, democratic discourse to acknowledge the responsibility of a previous government for the genocide of the Armenian people, just as the German government and people have done in the case of the Holocaust.

Sincerely,

[signed]
Robert Melson
Professor of Political Science
President, International Association of Genocide Scholars

[signed]
Israel Charny
Vice President, International Association of Genocide Scholars
Editor in Chief, Encyclopedia of Genocide

[signed]
Peter Balakian
Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities
Colgate University

[Murtaza]

Turks don't go to Armenian to study the archieves because they have no desire to see the truth. Armenian archieves have always been open. Many international used the archieves. The problem is that your government is bs-ing you . Your schools are brainwashing you with the help of your government. . Other than turkish sourses you try to look to third party sourses and you will gradually realise how much your government lied to you.

Just as I said, Accept the Erdogan proposal. without It all talking become pointless.We wont accept a genocide, because we gain some money or because we are under political pressure.
You have to prove it too us. Not USA not France or any country. Us!
And erdogan gived you a chance to prove it.
Accept proposal and prove to genocide. Than we will accept it.
By the way, Russian Armenian and English archives about this topic is closed.I didnt ever they deny this. No ermenia no russia no england. and Erdogan say it in public. And If everyone take their historical land where we would be live? In cosmos?
Nope can breath. So you should accept us in anatolia.

[YeReVaN]

By the way Erdogan and Kocharian were supposed to meet in Warshaw. Why did Erdogan refuse to meet when the got there? THE ONLY REASON ERDOGAN PROPOSED IN THE FIRST PLASE SO HE COULD LOOK GOOD TO EUROPEANS. WE KNOW WHAT KIND OF GAMES YOU ARE PLAYING.

[YeReVaN]

TALKING TO YOU IS POINTLESS. IT'S LIKE TALKING TO THE WALL. IT'S CLEAR THAT YOU ARE BRAINWASHED. YOU STICK TO ONE STORY WHEATHER IT MAKES SENSE OR NOT. NO MATTER IF THERE IS EVIDENCE OR NOT, YOU JUST STICK TO YOUR STORY AND REFUSE TO OPEN YOUR EYES. THINK FOR YOURSELF FOR ONES. DON'T LET YOUR GOVERNMENT TELL YOU WHAT YOU SHOULD BELIEVE OR NOT.

[YeReVaN]

THE IMPORTANT THING IS WE KNOW THE TRUTH. THE WHOLE WORLD KNOWS THE TRUTH. AND IF YOUR COUNTRY WANTS TO LEAVE IN DENIAL, THAT'S UP TO YOU.

[Murtaza]

THE IMPORTANT THING IS WE KNOW THE TRUTH. THE WHOLE WORLD KNOWS THE TRUTH. AND IF YOUR COUNTRY WANTS TO LEAVE IN DENIAL, THAT'S UP TO YOU.

Thanks just as I said, Just accept his proposal.
If you accept he cant say "I changed my mind"
Accept it,
In both way There is a genocide or not, we would learn. Than maybe we can have peace.

For border, It is not related with genocide.