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ANCA: Turkish Gov't Forces "Postponement" of Genocide Conference

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  • ANCA: Turkish Gov't Forces "Postponement" of Genocide Conference

    Armenian National Committee of America
    888 17th St., NW, Suite 904
    Washington, DC 20006
    Tel: (202) 775-1918
    Fax: (202) 775-5648
    E-mail: [email protected]
    Internet: www.anca.org

    PRESS RELEASE
    May 25, 2005
    Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
    Tel: (202) 775-1918


    TURKISH GOVERNMENT FORCES "POSTPONEMENT" OF GENOCIDE CONFERENCE

    -- Silences Discussion of Armenian Genocide

    WASHINGTON, DC - The Turkish Government compelled scholars from
    three universities in Turkey today to indefinitely postpone a
    conference which would have focused on the Armenian Genocide,
    reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). The
    move is another in a series of government actions in Turkey to
    quash freedom of speech and prevent open discussion regarding this
    crime against humanity.

    "The Turkish government's actions reflect a long-standing,
    profoundly troubling, and increasingly aggressive policy of seeking
    to silence any discussion of the Armenian Genocide - domestically,
    through coercion and threats of prosecution, and abroad through
    blackmail and intimidation," said Aram Hamparian, Executive
    Director of the ANCA. "In taking these steps, Turkey's leadership
    has made a mockery of its claims to seek a dialogue with Armenians,
    compounded international skepticism about its willingness to meet
    even minimal standards for freedom of expression, and underscored
    the need for our government and the international community to
    press Turkey - once and for all - to end its campaign to deny
    justice for this crime against humanity."

    The Conference, titled "Ottoman Armenians During the Decline of the
    Empire: Issues of Scientific Responsibility and Democracy," was
    jointly organized by the Comparative Literature Department of Bilgi
    University, the History Department of Bogazici University and the
    History Program at Sabanci University. Originally set to take
    place May 25th-27th at Bosphorus University, the schedule was to
    include over 30 papers by Turkish scholars from Turkey and abroad.

    In the days leading up to the conference, Turkish Government
    officials spoke stridently against the conference and its
    organizers. Turkish Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, in a speech
    before the Turkish Parliament on Tuesday, went so far as to accuse
    the academics of "treason." The Minister described the conference
    as a "a stab in the back to the Turkish nation." Cicek expressed
    regret that, as Justice Minister, he could not personally prosecute
    the organizers and participants.

    Opposition parliament members concurred with the government's
    views. According to the Agence France Presse, senior Republican
    People's Party Parliament member and former Turkish Ambassador to
    the U.S., Sukru Elekdag, referred to the conference as a
    "treacherous project."

    The government crackdown on the conference is the most recent
    chapter in the Turkish government's 90-year campaign of genocide
    denial. This effort has intensified in recent years. In 2003,
    Education Minister Hikmet Cetin issued a decree making student
    participation in a nation-wide essay contest denying the Armenian
    Genocide compulsory. The most recent revisions to the Turkish
    Penal Code criminalize references to the Armenian Genocide and the
    removal of troops from Turkish occupied northern Cyprus. World-
    renowned Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, is the latest to be charged
    with violation of the Turkish penal code for references to the
    Armenian Genocide. According to news reports, Pamuk stated,
    "30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in Turkey. Almost
    no one dares to speak out this but me, and the nationalists hate me
    for that."
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