The Turkish Coalition of America (TCA) has been on a rampage
in recent years, filing lawsuits against scholars, public officials, and civic
groups who support the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Last week, a federal appeals court put an end to TCA’s legal
tirade against the University of Minnesota by unanimously upholding a federal
court’s decision dismissing TCA’s baseless allegations.
The Turkish advocacy group had filed a lawsuit against Prof.
Bruno Chaouat, Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the
University of Minnesota, for labeling TCA’s website and others as “unreliable.”
The university’s webpage had posted the following stern admonition to students:
“We do not recommend these sites. Warnings should be given to students writing
papers that they should not use these sites because of denial, support by an
unknown organization, or contents that are a strange mix of fact and opinion.”
Initially, TCA had complained that the inclusion of TCA’s
website on the university’s list of “Unreliable Websites” violated the Turkish
group’s freedom of speech. The university rejected TCA’s allegation, although,
the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies revised its website on Nov. 18,
2010, removing the “Unreliable Websites” and recommending new resources for
genocide research. The university asserted that the revision was not prompted
by TCA’s complaint and denied any wrongdoing. On Nov. 24, 2010, Prof. Chaouat
posted a statement on the Center’s website explaining that the list of
“Unreliable Websites” was removed because he did not want to “promote, even
negatively, sources of illegitimate information.”
TCA then filed a lawsuit against the university, its
president, and Prof. Chaouat, claiming that including its website on the same
list as websites denying the Jewish Holocaust, stigmatized the Turkish
organization. The court dismissed the lawsuit.
A three-judge panel of the 8th circuit federal appeals court
upheld the lower court’s decision on May 3, 2012, ruling that the university
did not violate TCA’s First Amendment rights, since it neither blocked nor
restricted access to the Turkish website.
The judges also rejected the Turkish group’s second claim
that it was defamed when the university stated that TCA’s website is
“unreliable,” engages in “denial,” presents “a strange mix of fact and
opinion,” and is an “illegitimate source of information.” In a sinister attempt
to win the lawsuit, TCA claimed that its website did not deny certain
underlying historical facts, affirming that “certainly hundreds of thousands of
Armenians died.” However, since the Turkish website had alleged that it is
“highly unlikely that a genocide charge could be sustained against the Ottoman
government or its successor,” the judges ruled in favor of the university
asserting that TCA had in fact engaged in “denial.”
TCA’s malicious lawsuit disturbed many US scholars who were
worried that this case would set a dangerous precedent and have a chilling
effect on academic freedom. The gravity of these concerns had prompted the
Middle East Studies Association to demand TCA to withdraw its lawsuit.
Although TCA failed in its bullying tactics against the
University of Minnesota, there is no guarantee that this Turkish group will
stop suing other academic or civic organizations for refusing to cave in to
Turkey’s denialist campaign. It should be noted that TCA spent $630,000 on
legal fees out of its 2010 budget of $3.6 million. Significantly, no mention
was made in its annual report of the sources of TCA’s funding, except a passing
remark that it is “supported entirely by private donations.” The Boston
Business Journal reported that Turkish-American Yalcin Ayasli, founder of
Hittite Microwave Corp., contributed $30 million to TCA in 2007.
TCA engaged in the following wide ranging activities and
political objectives with its $3.6 million budget in 2010:
– Delivered 75 position papers to members of Congress and US
opinion leaders;
– Monitored the American media;
– Took a Native American business delegation to Turkey;
– Lobbied the Congress against the Armenian Genocide
resolution;
– Advertised in Roll Call and Washington Quarterly;
– Organized Summer internships in Washington for Turkish
students;
– Provided scholarships to African-American,
Armenian-American, Hispanic American, Native American, and Turkish-American
students to study in Turkish universities;
– Awarded grants for academic conferences;
– Offered research fellowships to professors Michael Gunter,
Justin McCarthy, HakanYavuz, and others;
– Contributed $100,000 grants to each of the Assembly of
Turkish American Associations and Federation of Turkish American Associations,
and a smaller amount to the Azerbaijan Society of America;
– Spent $630,000 on lawsuits against various entities that
support the Armenian Genocide issue;
– Funded congressional trips to Turkey, and
– Filed a report with the US government accusing the
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) of being a “hate group.”
Given TCA’s tax-exempt charitable status, the Internal
Revenue Service should investigate the legality of this Turkish group’s
involvement in such extensive political and lobbying activities.
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