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Orange County Weekly
Dec 29 2011
The Hilarious Haters
Ergun Kirlikovali, Coto de Caza Armenian Genocide Denier Supreme,
Threatening Legal Action Against UC Davis Professor
By Gustavo Arellano Wed., Dec. 28 2011 at 2:00 PM
Earlier this year, for some bizarre (or telling?) reason, the Assembly
of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) allowed Ergun Kirlikovali to
become its president. You remember Ergun--the whackjob Coto de Caza
resident who's perhaps this country's most notorious denier of the
Armenian genocide, a historical fact accepted by any sane human but
rejected as propaganda by Turkish nationalists like Kirlikovali.
Anyhoo, Kirlikovali and his gang of outraged Ottomans are messing with
a UC Davis professor because the profe stated the truth: that people
like Kirlikovali and groups like ATAA are useful idiots in Turkey's
campaign to discredit the Armenian genocide.
The controversy started with an article that Keith David Watenpaugh,
director of the UC Davis Human Rights Initiative, penned for the
university's magazine in February about how the Armenian genocide was
a linchpin for the modern humanitarian movement. The article drew a
response in the fall issue from one Gunay Evinch, a past president of
ATAA who just happens to do legal work for the Turkish embassy in the
United States. He repeated the same tired line that the Turkish
government instills in its citizens--that there was no Armenian
genocide, that Turks suffered as much as Armenians during the
post-World War I period, and that any suffering that Armenians had to
bear was their fault.
Watenpaugh responded to Evinch in the same issue, destroying his
arguments and adding this barbed paragraph:
"What is most important to understand is that the Assembly of Turkish
American Associations has been at the forefront of a Turkish
government-sponsored effort in the United States to deny that what
happened to the Armenians was genocide. The attack on my work in Mr.
Evinch's letter is part of that project and should be understood in
this light. At UC Davis, we teach our students that history is more
than just a collection of facts, but rather is the starting point for
an ethical relationship with the past."
BURN! But that's when Kirlikovali and his ilk butted in, crying foul.
In October, he wrote a letter to the magazine claiming Watenpaugh had
defamed ATAA by insinuating that they take money from the Turkish
government for spreading their vile Armenian-genocide denying--no,
see, they do it for FREE! The implication that ATAA was ready to get
sue-y with Watenpaugh, in turn, drew a November response from the
Middle Eastern Studies Association to back off.
"We do not believe that legal action is the proper way to resolve
disputes about historical interpretation, and we fear that legal
action of this kind, or the threat thereof, may undermine the ability
of scholars and academic institutions to carry out their work freely
and to have their work assessed on its merits, in conformity with
standards and procedures long established in the world of
scholarship," they wrote.
Kirlikovali, for his part, isn't backing down, telling Inside Higher
Ed, "freedom of speech does not include defamation. Defamation is an
important exception to freedom of speech." But his move has now drawn
the attention of the Armenian-American press, who started reporting on
the controversy this month, which means this issue will be far from
over.
All we know is that in our dealings with Kirlikovali--to paraphrase
the famous Western aphorism--he's all fez and no carpet. And earlier
this year, another organization with which Kirlikovali has associated
and which has OC ties, the Turkish Coalition of America (TCA), sued
the University of Minnesota because the school's Center for Holocaust
and Genocide Studies deemed TCA's website as "unreliable" due to their
Armenian genocide-denying. A federal judge tossed out that lawsuit.
Stand strong, UC Davis...
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2011/12/ergun_kirlikoval_watenpaugh_uc_davis.php
Dec 29 2011
The Hilarious Haters
Ergun Kirlikovali, Coto de Caza Armenian Genocide Denier Supreme,
Threatening Legal Action Against UC Davis Professor
By Gustavo Arellano Wed., Dec. 28 2011 at 2:00 PM
Earlier this year, for some bizarre (or telling?) reason, the Assembly
of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) allowed Ergun Kirlikovali to
become its president. You remember Ergun--the whackjob Coto de Caza
resident who's perhaps this country's most notorious denier of the
Armenian genocide, a historical fact accepted by any sane human but
rejected as propaganda by Turkish nationalists like Kirlikovali.
Anyhoo, Kirlikovali and his gang of outraged Ottomans are messing with
a UC Davis professor because the profe stated the truth: that people
like Kirlikovali and groups like ATAA are useful idiots in Turkey's
campaign to discredit the Armenian genocide.
The controversy started with an article that Keith David Watenpaugh,
director of the UC Davis Human Rights Initiative, penned for the
university's magazine in February about how the Armenian genocide was
a linchpin for the modern humanitarian movement. The article drew a
response in the fall issue from one Gunay Evinch, a past president of
ATAA who just happens to do legal work for the Turkish embassy in the
United States. He repeated the same tired line that the Turkish
government instills in its citizens--that there was no Armenian
genocide, that Turks suffered as much as Armenians during the
post-World War I period, and that any suffering that Armenians had to
bear was their fault.
Watenpaugh responded to Evinch in the same issue, destroying his
arguments and adding this barbed paragraph:
"What is most important to understand is that the Assembly of Turkish
American Associations has been at the forefront of a Turkish
government-sponsored effort in the United States to deny that what
happened to the Armenians was genocide. The attack on my work in Mr.
Evinch's letter is part of that project and should be understood in
this light. At UC Davis, we teach our students that history is more
than just a collection of facts, but rather is the starting point for
an ethical relationship with the past."
BURN! But that's when Kirlikovali and his ilk butted in, crying foul.
In October, he wrote a letter to the magazine claiming Watenpaugh had
defamed ATAA by insinuating that they take money from the Turkish
government for spreading their vile Armenian-genocide denying--no,
see, they do it for FREE! The implication that ATAA was ready to get
sue-y with Watenpaugh, in turn, drew a November response from the
Middle Eastern Studies Association to back off.
"We do not believe that legal action is the proper way to resolve
disputes about historical interpretation, and we fear that legal
action of this kind, or the threat thereof, may undermine the ability
of scholars and academic institutions to carry out their work freely
and to have their work assessed on its merits, in conformity with
standards and procedures long established in the world of
scholarship," they wrote.
Kirlikovali, for his part, isn't backing down, telling Inside Higher
Ed, "freedom of speech does not include defamation. Defamation is an
important exception to freedom of speech." But his move has now drawn
the attention of the Armenian-American press, who started reporting on
the controversy this month, which means this issue will be far from
over.
All we know is that in our dealings with Kirlikovali--to paraphrase
the famous Western aphorism--he's all fez and no carpet. And earlier
this year, another organization with which Kirlikovali has associated
and which has OC ties, the Turkish Coalition of America (TCA), sued
the University of Minnesota because the school's Center for Holocaust
and Genocide Studies deemed TCA's website as "unreliable" due to their
Armenian genocide-denying. A federal judge tossed out that lawsuit.
Stand strong, UC Davis...
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2011/12/ergun_kirlikoval_watenpaugh_uc_davis.php