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Winnipeg Free Press, Canada
April 8 2013
CMHR won't flip on Armenian genocide
Will stick with designation despite Turkish objections
By: Carol Sanders
Calling the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a genocide may hurt
lucrative trade between Canada and Turkey but the Canadian Museum for
Human Rights is not about to call the slaughter of an estimated 1.5
million people anything other than genocide.
When the museum opens in Winnipeg next year, information about the
Armenian genocide will be included in its galleries, and it will be
called "genocide," the museum's head of stakeholder relations said
Sunday.
Clint Curle was responding to reports that Turkish Ambassador Tuncay
Babali said the Harper government's decision to brand the First World
War-era killing of Armenians as genocide may be hindering a
potentially lucrative trading relationship with Turkey.
"I'm a true believer in the potential of our two nations," Babali told
The Canadian Press. "Canada has a lot to offer Turkey and Turkey in
return has a lot to offer Canada," said Babali in the interview,
noting Canada's internal Foreign Policy Plan has identified Turkey as
a key country of focus.
"It cannot be business as usual while accusing a nation of genocide.
It's a serious allegation. It needs to be substantiated legally,
historically."
Babali said he suspects Canada is not engaging as quickly as Turkey
would like because the genocide issue is still hanging over relations.
The $2.5 billion in two-way trade between the countries "is far from
the potential" of what Turkey predicts would result from deeper
economic ties: $10 billion to $15 billion within five years, he said.
On the genocide question, Babali said Turkey would like to see a
gesture from Canada that the government is "trying to leave this
behind us."
The Armenian genocide will not be left behind when the Canadian Museum
for Human Rights opens, Curle said by email when reached out of town
Sunday.
"Human rights lessons from the Armenian genocide will be explored in a
number of ways in the CMHR, including in an exhibit exploring Raphael
Lemkim's work (he coined the term genocide), an exhibit examining the
1948 Genocide Convention, and in a gallery that will explore a
cross-section of global mass atrocities, including the five atrocities
that the Canadian Parliament has recognized as genocides," said Curle.
"This gallery will include survivor testimony, primary-source evidence
and an exhibit that explores the diaspora community struggles that led
to the Parliamentary recognition of the Armenian genocide."
In April 2004, Parliament passed a resolution acknowledging the
Armenian genocide of 1915 and condemning it as a crime against
humanity.
In a museum blog posted last week, Curle said it's a timely human rights issue.
"Ongoing denial of this historic atrocity, waged in the name of ethnic
homogeneity, makes it a contemporary human rights concern." He
recently visited Yerevan in Armenia to see the genocide museum there
and will be working to develop links between it and the human rights
museum in Winnipeg.
On Sunday, he said the museum doesn't take a position on issues
surrounding trade and diplomacy.
"Our role is to promote and advance education about the importance of
human rights, and to encourage and facilitate dialogue and reflection
about human rights."
-- with files from The Canadian Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 8, 2013 A6
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/cmhr-wont-flip-on-armenian-genocide-201884641.html
April 8 2013
CMHR won't flip on Armenian genocide
Will stick with designation despite Turkish objections
By: Carol Sanders
Calling the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a genocide may hurt
lucrative trade between Canada and Turkey but the Canadian Museum for
Human Rights is not about to call the slaughter of an estimated 1.5
million people anything other than genocide.
When the museum opens in Winnipeg next year, information about the
Armenian genocide will be included in its galleries, and it will be
called "genocide," the museum's head of stakeholder relations said
Sunday.
Clint Curle was responding to reports that Turkish Ambassador Tuncay
Babali said the Harper government's decision to brand the First World
War-era killing of Armenians as genocide may be hindering a
potentially lucrative trading relationship with Turkey.
"I'm a true believer in the potential of our two nations," Babali told
The Canadian Press. "Canada has a lot to offer Turkey and Turkey in
return has a lot to offer Canada," said Babali in the interview,
noting Canada's internal Foreign Policy Plan has identified Turkey as
a key country of focus.
"It cannot be business as usual while accusing a nation of genocide.
It's a serious allegation. It needs to be substantiated legally,
historically."
Babali said he suspects Canada is not engaging as quickly as Turkey
would like because the genocide issue is still hanging over relations.
The $2.5 billion in two-way trade between the countries "is far from
the potential" of what Turkey predicts would result from deeper
economic ties: $10 billion to $15 billion within five years, he said.
On the genocide question, Babali said Turkey would like to see a
gesture from Canada that the government is "trying to leave this
behind us."
The Armenian genocide will not be left behind when the Canadian Museum
for Human Rights opens, Curle said by email when reached out of town
Sunday.
"Human rights lessons from the Armenian genocide will be explored in a
number of ways in the CMHR, including in an exhibit exploring Raphael
Lemkim's work (he coined the term genocide), an exhibit examining the
1948 Genocide Convention, and in a gallery that will explore a
cross-section of global mass atrocities, including the five atrocities
that the Canadian Parliament has recognized as genocides," said Curle.
"This gallery will include survivor testimony, primary-source evidence
and an exhibit that explores the diaspora community struggles that led
to the Parliamentary recognition of the Armenian genocide."
In April 2004, Parliament passed a resolution acknowledging the
Armenian genocide of 1915 and condemning it as a crime against
humanity.
In a museum blog posted last week, Curle said it's a timely human rights issue.
"Ongoing denial of this historic atrocity, waged in the name of ethnic
homogeneity, makes it a contemporary human rights concern." He
recently visited Yerevan in Armenia to see the genocide museum there
and will be working to develop links between it and the human rights
museum in Winnipeg.
On Sunday, he said the museum doesn't take a position on issues
surrounding trade and diplomacy.
"Our role is to promote and advance education about the importance of
human rights, and to encourage and facilitate dialogue and reflection
about human rights."
-- with files from The Canadian Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 8, 2013 A6
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/cmhr-wont-flip-on-armenian-genocide-201884641.html