Filed under: Armenian Genocide, Armenian Genocide Denial, Genocide and Holocaust Denial, Hate Monitoring
Toronto,
Ontario; On February 18, 2009, The Department of Sociology at Ryerson
University, and the Federation of Canadian Turkish Associations
organized an evening lecture on campus titled “Elaborations on Turkish
strategies to dealing with issues around Armenian Allegations and
beyond”. The lecture was delivered by Professor Turkkaya Ataov, a
leading denier of the Armenian Genocide. The lecture was equivalent to
Neo-Nazi propaganda presented to deny the Jewish Holocaust. Prof. Ataov
trivialized the reality of the Armenian Genocide and presented the
usual Turkish Government’s views.
Ryerson University’s
student body was outraged by the fact that such an event had been
cosponsored by a department of their university and raised concerns
through letters and by signing petitions which included names of
approximately 300 Ryerson students.
After several meetings
with department heads and administration, Dr. Sheldon Levy, the
president of Ryerson University, in a letter to Sally Sahagian, the
president of the Armenian Students’ Association at Ryerson University,
apologized to the Ryerson community by stating, “On behalf of Ryerson
University, I would like to apologize for the pain and suffering
experienced in particular by the members of the Armenian Community
as a result of this event” He then assured the student body that the
university’s views were in line with that of the Canadian Government,
the International Association of Genocide Scholars and the hundreds of
historians and experts researching the topic internationally. Dr. Levy
stated, “Ryerson University supports Prime Minster Harper’s statement
on behalf of all Canadians that the Armenian Genocide is a historical
fact, unquestionably part of the historical record with tremendous
suffering.” LINK
Filed under: Armenian Genocide, Armenian Genocide Denial, Current News | Tags: Caucasus
Guenter Lewy, notorious denier of the Armenian Genocide and other instances of genocide over the years, is reportedly suing the Southern Poverty Law Center over an article on the mechanism of the Armenian Genocide denial in the United States, aided and abetted by woe scholars suspected on being on the payroll of their Turkish paymasters from the Ankara/Istanbul axis. From the website of the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund, i guess a front for such types of lawsuits in the future:
SCHOLAR SUES SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER
FOR FALSELY ACCUSING HIM OF BEING A FOREIGN AGENTWashington , DC- December 1, 2008: On November 17, 2008 Professor Guenter Lewy filed a defamation suit against the Southern Poverty Law Center, Inc., and writer-editor David Holthouse in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia . The suit is being supported by the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund, which seeks to preserve and promote open discourse about issues significant for Turkish Americans, including the characterization of the events bearing on the World War I deaths of Ottoman Muslims and Armenians. Among other works, Professor Lewy is author of The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide ( University of Utah Press , 2005), which concludes that the evidence to support the popular allegation of genocide in the Armenian case is inconclusive.
The defamation claims pivot on twin false assertions made by Defendant Holthouse in an article published in the Summer 2008 issue of Intelligence Report entitled, “State of Denial: Turkey Entices U.S. Scholars, Law Makers to Cover Up Armenian Genocide.” The first was the false statement that Professor Lewy was on the payroll of the Government of Turkey in exchange for compromising his scholastic integrity in disputing the Armenian allegation of genocide. The second was that Professor Lewy deceived his readers or audiences by failing to disclose the money he had received from the Government of Turkey to shape his view of the Armenian claim. The false statements also insinuated that Professor Lewy had violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act by failing to register with the Department of Justice as a mouthpiece for the Government of Turkey. Professor Lewy is seeking damages to clear his good name and to send a message that sham accusations of being on the take is not an acceptable substitute for reasoned and civil debate over genuine historical controversies. The climate of intimidation, coercion and worse that confronts anyone who quarrels with the Armenian view of the events of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire must end.
Professor Lewy is being represented by attorneys Bruce Fein and David Saltzman on behalf of the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund.
The PDF containing the complaint can be downloaded from here. Proceed at your own risk of being tracked by the cookies from the Turkish intelligence.
Filed under: Armenian Genocide, Armenian Genocide Denial, Jewish Americans, Turkey, Turkish Lobby
