Armenian Genocide must not be denied
One hopes that those given the opportunity to attend UCLA
through exchange programs will take the chance to expand their
horizons, to look beyond what they may have blindly learned at
school in their home countries. I am therefore saddened at reading
“Armenian propaganda against Turkey untrue, divisive”
in Thursday’s Daily Bruin (Feb. 10).
In the column, Ms. Velieceoglu speaks of hatred and implores
pity for herself and the Turkish people, who are the objects of
hatred by Armenian Americans. She implores that in the name of
peace and prevention of future wars, we should all forget.
I am an Armenian-American, and I do not hate the Turkish people.
What I do hate, and passionately so, are thinly veiled attempts to
cast doubt on a proven historical fact, the Armenian Genocide. I
hate to have to, once again, on the eve of the 90th anniversary of
the Armenian Genocide, list the names of the hundreds of prominent
historians of all nationalities (including Turks) and governments
(including the State of California) that accept the Genocide as a
proven fact.
By quoting Bernard Lewis and Stanford Shaw, Ms. Velieceoglu has
not only added her name to the list of genocide deniers, but
dredged up memories of a former UCLA professor accused of
plagiarism and wholesale lies on behalf of his benefactors, the
Turkish government. Perhaps Ms. Velieceoglu needs to be reminded of
her government’s attempt to buy a chair of Turkish studies at
UCLA in 1997, and the university’s refusal to accept this
“gift,” since the professor appointed to this chair had
to “maintain close and cordial relations with academic
circles in Turkey.” Because of Turkey’s efforts at
buying academic chairs, it is now illegal for a foreign government
to endow a chair at a public university in the State of California
and place restrictions on the use of the funds.
I suggest that Ms. Velieceoglu use the opportunity afforded to
her by the exchange program to take off the blinders imposed on her
by her government. It is important to remember that the actions of
the government of Turkey are yet another stone for the Sudanese
government to stand on when carrying out genocide in the Darfur
region. This is what forgetting does.
Dr. Vahe Peroomian Researcher, Institute of Geophysics
and Planetary Physics