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Turkish Scholars Protest Postponement Of Armenian Genocide Conferenc

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  • Turkish Scholars Protest Postponement Of Armenian Genocide Conferenc

    TURKISH SCHOLARS PROTEST POSTPONEMENT OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CONFERENCE

    YEREVAN, JUNE 2. ARMINFO. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
    will meet with President Bush on June 8 in Washington to again brand
    his country as a mature and democratic nation ready for EU membership,
    reports the Armenian Assembly of America.

    In the last week, however, Turkey has again shown that its actions
    run contrary to the rosy image it tries to portray. The forced
    postponement of an unprecedented Armenian Genocide conference at
    Bosphrous University had led hundreds of Turkish academics to protest
    the government's latest assault on free speech.

    Below are the latest news release by the International Association of
    Genocide Scholars and a letter from a representative of the Middle
    East Studies Association to Prime Minister Erdogan condemning the
    Turkish government's interference with academic freedom.

    The Association particularly says: We who serve as the Executive
    Committee of the International Association of Genocide Scholars
    protest and condemn the cancellation of the historians conference on
    the Armenian question in Turkey by the Turkish government as a major
    violation of basic standards of academic freedom in the free world.

    At long last, Turkish academics and intellectuals, sponsored by
    three honorable universities, were scheduled to conduct a conference
    in which the historical reality of the Armenian genocide was to be
    examined by many of the participating lecturers.

    The government of Turkey is understandably struggling to win its
    possible acceptance as a member of the European Union, and it is in
    this climate that many Turkish intellectuals have moved courageously
    to address the Armenian genocide, a truth which is still punishable
    by Turkish law.

    For the Turkish government to cancel the conference is a shameful
    step and a setback to Turkey joining the free world in its growing
    standards of historical truth and responsibility.

    The Executive Committee of the International Association of Genocide
    Scholars calls on the Republic of Turkey to allow full and free debate
    and academic scholarship on the fate of the Armenian people in Ottoman
    Turkey in 1915-1923.
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