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Santa Barbara Independent, CA
Feb 2 2014
Armenian Genocide Not Legally Founded
Sunday, February 2, 2014
By Vedat Alemdar, Omer Komili, and Artemis Ozten, Goleta
We join the Turkish-American citizens of California, members of the
Pax Turcica Institute, to oppose Assembly Bill 659. Introduced by
Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian, AB 659 seeks to impose the one-sided
and legally unfounded "Armenian genocide" narrative in the
history-social science curricula of our public schools.
As acts of crime, all genocides, including the Holocaust, Srebrenica,
and Rwanda, have been determined through relevant court tribunals and
verdicts. In contrast, the atrocities in the Ottoman Empire were never
tried in any court. No legal ground to charge the crime of genocide
was ever established. Last month, in the landmark Perincek vs.
Switzerland decision, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that
genocide is "a very narrowly defined legal notion which is difficult
to prove" in the Armenian case. ECHR also doubted that there could be
a general consensus on the alleged "Armenian genocide" as it remains a
matter of historical debate. In 2012, then Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton expressed the same position.
Reputable American scholars, including Bernard Lewis, Stanford Shaw,
Guenter Lewy, Justin McCarthy, Edward J. Erickson, and Michael Gunter,
have rejected the characterization of the Ottoman Armenian tragedy as
genocide.
Furthermore, during World War I, over half a million Turks, Kurds, and
other Muslims were massacred by the Armenian armed groups, fighting
alongside the Russian, Greek, and French armies, with an aim to carve
an ethnic Armenian state. While we share the pain of innocent
Armenians who perished in World War I, memories of the non-Armenian
victims are insulted by this bill.
AB 659's advocacy of an unfounded allegation of a crime constitutes an
educational malpractice. Therefore, we urge a vote against this bill
when it comes to the floor. The young generations should have a choice
not to be indoctrinated using a single disputed viewpoint.
http://www.independent.com/news/2014/feb/02/armenian-genocide-not-legally-founded/?on
From: Baghdasarian
Feb 2 2014
Armenian Genocide Not Legally Founded
Sunday, February 2, 2014
By Vedat Alemdar, Omer Komili, and Artemis Ozten, Goleta
We join the Turkish-American citizens of California, members of the
Pax Turcica Institute, to oppose Assembly Bill 659. Introduced by
Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian, AB 659 seeks to impose the one-sided
and legally unfounded "Armenian genocide" narrative in the
history-social science curricula of our public schools.
As acts of crime, all genocides, including the Holocaust, Srebrenica,
and Rwanda, have been determined through relevant court tribunals and
verdicts. In contrast, the atrocities in the Ottoman Empire were never
tried in any court. No legal ground to charge the crime of genocide
was ever established. Last month, in the landmark Perincek vs.
Switzerland decision, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that
genocide is "a very narrowly defined legal notion which is difficult
to prove" in the Armenian case. ECHR also doubted that there could be
a general consensus on the alleged "Armenian genocide" as it remains a
matter of historical debate. In 2012, then Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton expressed the same position.
Reputable American scholars, including Bernard Lewis, Stanford Shaw,
Guenter Lewy, Justin McCarthy, Edward J. Erickson, and Michael Gunter,
have rejected the characterization of the Ottoman Armenian tragedy as
genocide.
Furthermore, during World War I, over half a million Turks, Kurds, and
other Muslims were massacred by the Armenian armed groups, fighting
alongside the Russian, Greek, and French armies, with an aim to carve
an ethnic Armenian state. While we share the pain of innocent
Armenians who perished in World War I, memories of the non-Armenian
victims are insulted by this bill.
AB 659's advocacy of an unfounded allegation of a crime constitutes an
educational malpractice. Therefore, we urge a vote against this bill
when it comes to the floor. The young generations should have a choice
not to be indoctrinated using a single disputed viewpoint.
http://www.independent.com/news/2014/feb/02/armenian-genocide-not-legally-founded/?on
From: Baghdasarian