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Professor Criticized For Genocide Views

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  • Professor Criticized For Genocide Views

    PROFESSOR CRITICIZED FOR GENOCIDE VIEWS
    Rosaura Figueroa and Erin McKenzie

    Daily 49er
    http://media.www.daily49er.com/media/storage/ paper1042/news/2008/02/13/News/Professor.Criticize d.For.Genocide.Views-3206284.shtml
    Feb 13 2008
    CA

    Professor Ali Igmen was the focus of defamatory remarks, sent possibly
    to him by a CSULB faculty member, for his insistence on the existence
    of an Armenian genocide.

    The Scholars in Conversation on the Armenian Genocide forum on
    Tuesday proved to be controversial on the most personal of terms
    for Ali Igmen, director of the oral history program at the Cal State
    Long Beach History Department. Igmen was targeted during the forum's
    discussion and debate on allegations of propagandizing his views on
    the hotly debated existence of an Armenian genocide.

    According to Igmen, the allegations came from a tenured professor
    from another college at CSULB who attacked Igmen's credibility for
    supporting definition of the events as genocide.

    The tensions surrounding the controversial subject may have led to
    an increased police and security presence at the presentation.

    Protesters were told to stand in the back room before the disputed
    Armenian genocide forum took center stage.

    The panel discussion included experts Richard Hovannisian from UCLA
    and Taner Akcam from the University of Minnesota, who discussed their
    investigative findings with a full audience of students, professors
    and guests.

    Both Hovannisian and Akcam emphasized the Turkish rejection of any such
    genocide taking place between 1915 and 1918. The Turkish government
    claims the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians was a result of a civil war
    and the targeting of Turks by Armenian rebels, rather than genocide.

    "It is important for a society to face its own history," Akcam said.

    Few Turkish scholars are willing to discuss the topic openly and are
    apprehensive about using the word genocide, according to Akcam. He
    also said that avoiding the term allows for the liberty of denial.

    The panel did not include any scholars who supported the Turkish's
    government stance on the issue.

    "Some students approached me and said that both sides were not
    represented," said Igmen after the forum. "But they were civil and
    polite, and I was not upset by them."

    About a dozen supporters clapped as an open question-and-comment
    session highlighted the absence of any opposing viewpoint.

    "[It's] not possible to consider a denialist point of view," said
    Akcam.

    Hovannisian added that to invite a scholar who supported the Turkish
    government's official stance was equivalent to inviting a Holocaust
    denier to a forum on the genocide of the Jewish population and others
    during the times of Nazi Germany.

    According to Akcam, the Turkish government has done a cleansing of
    national archives in order to destroy proof pertaining to an Armenian
    genocide. He referred to the absence of any such incident in Turkish
    textbooks as a case of social amnesia and denial.

    However, Akcam said that not all proof could be destroyed because
    the Armenian genocide was a massive state effort that left trails.

    Hovannisian said the 800 accounts he has gathered from survivors of
    the genocide were proof that could not be ignored. He also compared
    the Armenian genocide to background music - it's there all the time,
    but we never listen to it.

    Akcam called for a need of more Turkish scholars who are willing to
    recognize and discuss the Armenian genocide as a crime.

    "Turkey must change their language," said Akcam.

    Currently, the word genocide is considered a national threat to the
    Turkish government, according to Akcam.

    Hovannisian pointed to fear of financial repercussions as one reason
    for the Turkish government's unwillingness to acknowledge an Armenian
    genocide, which he described as unique because it fulfills all five
    aspects of the United Nations' definition of genocide.
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