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International Forum Calls Upon Turkey To Recognize Genocide Against

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  • International Forum Calls Upon Turkey To Recognize Genocide Against

    INTERNATIONAL FORUM CALLS UPON TURKEY TO RECOGNIZE GENOCIDE AGAINST GREEKS

    Greek News
    http://www.greeknewsonline.com/modules.php?na me=News&file=article&sid=7853&mode=thr ead&order=0&thold=0
    Jan 7 2008
    New York

    A monumental decision by the New York based "International Association
    of Genocide Scholars"

    New York.- In a groundbreaking move, the International Association
    of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) has voted overwhelmingly to recognize the
    genocides inflicted on Assyrian and Greek populations of the Ottoman
    Empire between 1914 and 1923.The resolution passed with the support
    of fully 83 percent of IAGS members who voted.

    The resolution declares that "it is the conviction of the International
    Association of Genocide Scholars that the Ottoman campaign against
    Christian minorities of the Empire between1914 and 1923 constituted
    a genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian
    Greeks." It "calls upon the government of Turkey to acknowledge
    the genocides against these populations, to issue a formal apology,
    and to take prompt and meaningful steps toward restitution.

    "In 1997, the IAGS officially recognized the Armenian genocide. The
    current resolution notes that while activist and scholarly efforts
    have resulted in widespread acceptance of the Armenian genocide,
    there has been "little recognition of the qualitatively similar
    genocides against other Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire."

    Assyrians, along with Pontian and Anatolian Greeks, were killed on a
    scale equivalent in per capita terms to the catastrophe inflicted on
    the Armenian population of the empire -- and by much the same methods,
    including mass executions, death marches, and starvation.

    IAGS member Adam Jones drafted the resolution, and lobbied for it along
    with fellow member Thea Halo, whose mother Sano survived the Pontian
    Greek genocide. In an address to the membership at the IAGS conference
    in Sarajevo, Bosnia, in July 2007, Jones paid tribute to the efforts
    of "representatives of the Greek and Assyrian communities ... to
    publicize and call on the present Turkish government to acknowledge
    the genocides inflicted on their populations," which had made Asia
    Minor their home for millennia.

    The umbrella term "Assyrians" includes Chaldeans, Nestorians, Syriacs,
    Aramaens, Eastern Orthodox Syrians, and Jacobites.

    "The overwhelming backing given to this resolution by the world's
    leading genocide scholars organization will help to raise consciousness
    about the Assyrian and Greek genocides," Jones said on December
    15. "It will also act as a powerful counter to those, especially in
    present-day Turkey, who still ignore or deny outright the genocides
    of the Ottoman Christian minorities."

    The resolution stated that "the denial of genocide is widely
    recognized as the final stage of genocide, enshrining impunity
    for the perpetrators of genocide, and demonstrably paving the
    way for future genocides." The Assyrian population of Iraq, for
    example, remains highly vulnerable to genocidal attack. Since
    2003, Iraqi Assyrians have been exposed to severe persecution and
    "ethnic cleansing"; it is believed that up to half the Assyrian
    population has fled the country. Extensive supporting documentation
    for the Assyrian and Greek genocides was circulated to IAGS
    members in the months prior to the vote, and is available at
    www.genocidetext.net/iags_resolution_supporting _documentation.htm.

    FULL TEXT OF THE IAGS RESOLUTION

    WHEREAS the denial of genocide is widely recognized as the final stage
    of genocide, enshrining impunity for the perpetrators of genocide,
    and demonstrably paving the way for future genocides;

    WHEREAS the Ottoman genocide against minority populations during and
    following the First World War is usually depicted as a genocide against
    Armenians alone, with little recognition of the qualitatively similar
    genocides against other Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire;

    BE IT RESOLVED that it is the conviction of the International
    Association of Genocide Scholars that the Ottoman campaign against
    Christian minorities of the Empire between 1914 and 1923 constituted
    a genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian
    Greeks.

    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Association calls upon the government
    of Turkey to acknowledge the genocides against these populations,
    to issue a formal apology, and to take prompt and meaningful steps
    toward restitution.
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