Dear
Friends of the Zoryan Institute: We
take pleasure in sharing with you a recent article by Raffi Bedrosyan, which
appeared in the Armenian Weekly and other papers, entitled, “Thoughts on
threshold of centennial.” It recommends, in essence, taking Armenian history in
Turkish to Turks.It
is gratifying to see him articulate so well Zoryan’s long-term approach to
enlightening Turkish and Armenian civil societies about the Armenian Genocide,
through education and scholarship, as part of their shared history.
Bedrosyan
explains “…the objective of conveying to them [Turks] the historical truth of
1915 and its consequences, which are still felt today. This truth is best
served when delivered to the people of Turkey in Turkish, based on archival
material and historic facts—from the 1880s to 1922—directly from Turkish
sources and their allies, including the factual consequences of the ongoing
cover-up and denial by the state.”
As
Bedrosyan has written, “Dialogue between two conflicting parties can be
meaningful only after both are aware of the truth and the facts. Even though
the Turkish state has not allowed the truth to come out until recently, there
are now clear signs that the taboos about 1915 are finally being broken and
that there is an emerging ‘common body of knowledge’ among Turkish citizens
and, more importantly, among the opinion makers.”
The
Zoryan Institute adopted the “Common Body of Knowledge” Project in 2001 with a
view to providing indisputable information about the Armenian Genocide in
English, Turkish, and Armenian, and making it available to scholars and Turkish
and Armenian civil societies, with the hope that this knowledge would
facilitate dialogue between these two peoples.
In
this regard, Zoryan’s efforts have included such publications in Turkish as
Hitler and the Armenian Genocide, the Ottoman Military Tribunals, as well as
the documents from the German Foreign Office Archives. Similarly, as part of
the educational program, some fifteen students from Turkey have been sponsored
with full travel, boarding and tuition scholarships over the years to
participate in Zoryan’s annual Genocide and Human Rights University Program.
Some of these students have gone on to publish articles and books, further
contributing to this “Common Body of Knowledge” in their own right.
We
hope you also are pleased with Bedrosyan's article and ask you to disseminate
it to your friends, as the author has expressed some critical thoughts, as we
approach the eve of the centennial of the Armenian Genocide.
Happy
New Year,
George
Shirinian, Executive Director Zoryan Institute
255
Duncan Mill Rd., Suite 310 Toronto, ON Canada M3B 3H9
Tel:
416-250-9807 Fax: 416-512-1736
Thoughts
on Threshold of Centennial
By
Raffi Bedrosyan
As
we approach 2015, the 100th anniversary of the annihilation of the Armenian
presence from their homeland of 4,000 years, we see major activities being
planned by both Turkey and Armenians.
When
Turkish acquaintances ask me what Armenians, especially the “evil diaspora,”
are planning to do in 2015, I say they are planning programs to assert the
historical facts about the vanishing of Armenians from Anatolia in 1915. Then I
turn around with a question of my own: “What are the Turks doing?” Their short
answer is that the Turks will continue to dismiss the “misinformation’’ that
the Armenians are disseminating.
Thus,
the Armenians in Armenia and the diaspora are redoubling their efforts to have
the genocide recognized worldwide, while the Turks are continuing to pour more
money and resources into their official denialist policy both within and
outside Turkey. In an attempt to divert global attention from the genocide
commemoration, Turkey has decided to promote the 100th anniversary of the World
War I Gallipoli campaign, to be showcased as an historic event through
government-supported activities worldwide and hailed as the “heroic resistance
of the Turkish forces against the onslaught of the imperialistic powers at the
Dardanelles Strait.”
One
can easily deduce from these opposing strategies and efforts that the main
stumbling block for Turkey and Armenia, as neighbors, in normalizing their
relationship and the reconciliation of their respective civil societies is the
divergence of both the interpretation and understanding of their shared
history. The result is an impasse. By this time next year, I doubt there will
be much change and the impasse will go on. The issue will continue to be
treated as a political match, with points scored for Turkey if Obama continues
saying “Medz Yeghern,” and points for Armenia if he says “Genocide.”
There
are geopolitical, military, and economic reasons for the status quo to
continue. Armenia may not be influential enough to overcome any of these
reasons at present. Be that as it may, I believe Armenians can be more
effective if they re-channel their resources, which are extremely limited in
comparison to Turkey, in this struggle.
I
see two main areas when Armenians can make some headway on this issue. In my
humble opinion, neither one is addressed properly by Armenia and Armenians.
The
first target in dealing with the genocide issue is the academic field, which is
supposed to arrive at indisputable historic facts after thorough and objective research
of a multitude of state archives, documents, communication records, and oral
history findings. The struggle in this field regarding the Armenian Genocide
can best be summarized as forces of truth versus money and power. On one side
there is truth, defended by almost all of the international academia; on the
other side, there is the falsification of truth by a handful of scholars
generously rewarded with funds provided by the Turkish state.
The
second target in dealing with the genocide issue is the general population of
Turkey, with the objective of conveying to them the historical truth of 1915
and its consequences, which are still felt today. This truth is best served
when delivered to the people of Turkey in Turkish, based on archival material and
historic facts—from the 1880′s to 1922—directly from Turkish sources and their
allies, including the factual consequences of the ongoing cover-up and denial
by the state.
Academically,
the only organization that spearheads and organizes objective research by
independent scholars on this topic is the Zoryan Institute with its subsidiary,
the International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies. For the past
30-plus years, it has provided the highest standards of scholarship and
objectivity in undertaking multi-disciplinary research and analysis. This
includes documentation, lectures, conferences, and publications in seven
languages related to human rights and genocide studies. The publications
include more than 40 books, some of which are in several languages, and 2 major
periodicals, with one dealing with genocide studies and the other the diaspora.
In
addition, the Zoryan Institute provides research assistance to scholars,
writers, journalists, filmmakers, government agencies, and other organizations.
When Zoryan published Wolfgang Gust’s The Armenian Genocide 1915/16: Documents
from the Diplomatic Archives of the German Office in German, English, and
Turkish, prominent Turkish journalist Mehmet Ali Birand could only reflect:
“When you read and study these documents, even if this is your first venture
into this subject, there is no way you will deny the genocide and disagree with
the Armenians.”
Even
though the Turkish state defines Zoryan as a “propaganda center,” several
scholars from Turkey have attended the Genocide and Human Rights University
Program run by the Zoryan Institute at the University of Toronto, and many of
them have become outspoken advocates of historic truth within Turkey and the
rest of the world.
To
best describe Zoryan’s contribution to scholarship is to quote from the “plea”
made by the International Scholars of Genocide and Human Rights Studies last
year in support of Zoryan’s fundraising activities: “For the past 30 years, the
Institute has maintained an ambitious program to collect archival
documentation, conduct original research, and publish books and periodicals. It
also conducts university-level educational programs in the field of genocide
and human rights studies, taking a comparative and interdisciplinary approach
in its examination of the Jewish Holocaust, the Cambodian Genocide, and the
Rwandan Genocide, among others, using the Armenian Genocide as a point of
reference. In the process, using the highest academic standards, the Institute
has strived to understand the phenomenon of genocide, establish the
incontestable, historical truth of the Armenian Genocide, and raise awareness
of it among academics and opinion-makers. In the face of the continuing problem
of genocide in the 21stcentury, the Institute is to be commended for its
service to the academic community and is recognized by scholars for providing
leadership and a support structure in promoting the cause of universal human
rights and the prevention of genocide.”
Despite
its herculean efforts and outstanding results, the Zoryan Institute receives no
appreciable financial support or acknowledgment from major Armenian
organizations or the state. The institute is supported entirely by private
donations. Against it, there exists the full power and unlimited funds of the
Turkish state, and more recently the Azerbaijan state, which attempts to lure
scholars to rewrite history. As a result, the Turkish State Historic Society
reduces the number of 1915 Armenian victims with every new publication; at last
count, a few thousand Armenians died of illness and hunger, while the number of
Turkish victims of “genocide” perpetrated by the Armenians increases every year
and is now more than two million. By the same strategy, the number of Azeri
dead in the Khojalu “genocide” keeps increasing with every publication.
Dialogue
between two conflicting parties can be meaningful only after both are aware of
the truth and the facts. Even though the Turkish state has not allowed the
truth to come out until recently, there are now clear signs that the taboos
about 1915 are finally being broken and that there is an emerging “common body
of knowledge” among Turkish citizens and, more importantly, among the opinion
makers. Zoryan contributed immensely to the development of this “common body of
knowledge” through conferences, seminars, and the books it helped publish by
such authors as Yair Auron, Taner Akcam, Wolfgang Gust, Roger Smith, Vahakn
Dadrian, and Rifat Bali.
Given
all this, I strongly urge Armenians to support the Zoryan Institute so that it
can continue to develop the common body of knowledge to be shared by Armenians
and Turks. Hopefully, shared history will help these neighboring peoples
reconcile with their pasts, and such reconciliation will help secure a future for
generations to come.
I
will elaborate on the second target—the population of Turkey—and its challenges
in a separate article.
http://www.armenianweekly.com/2013/12/21/thoughts-on-the-threshold-of-the-centennial/
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