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Society for Armenian Studies Statement on `Historical Sub-Commission

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  • Society for Armenian Studies Statement on `Historical Sub-Commission

    http://www.armenianweekly.com/2010/02/17/society-f or-armenian-studies-issues-statement-on-%e2%80%98h istorical-sub-commission%e2%80%99/
    By Weekly Staff - on February 17, 2010

    Following a vote at the Nov. 21, 2009, meeting of the Society for
    Armenian Studies (SAS), which called on the SAS Executive Council to
    prepare a statement concerning the `historical sub-commission' in the
    Armenian-Turkish protocols, and following a vote of the SAS membership
    in support of the statement, the SAS Executive Council, on behalf of
    the entire SAS membership, hereby issues the following statement
    regarding the proposed historical sub-commission:

    The recently signed protocols between the Republic of Armenia and the
    Republic of Turkey call for a sub-commission with the vaguely defined
    task of looking into existing historical problems for an impartial
    examination of historical records and archives. The stated purpose is
    to restore mutual confidence between the two nations. Although no
    express reference is made in the protocols, there is an almost
    universal agreement that the Turkish side would use the sub-commission
    as a vehicle for perpetuating its denial of the Armenian Genocide and
    casting doubt on the validity of the massive body of evidence
    establishing it as genocide.

    While the Turkish government, in keeping with a long-standing state
    policy, continues to make every effort to question and deny the
    veracity of the Armenian Genocide, President Serge Sarkisian has on a
    number of occasions asserted that the genocide and loss of Armenian
    patrimony cannot be questioned; that the genocide is a known truth and
    must be recognized and condemned; and that the reality of the genocide
    can in no way become a subject of discussion as part of the agenda of
    the sub-commission.

    The Society for Armenian Studies hereby firmly states that the
    Armenian Genocide is an undeniable fact, established through
    dispassionate, meticulous, and multilingual archival research by a
    great number of experts, most of whom belong to respectable scholarly
    bodies of renowned authorities such as the International Association
    of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) and our own Society for Armenian Studies.
    The veracity of the Armenian Genocide cannot and must not be subject
    to discussion or to political give and take.

    The Society for Armenian Studies was founded in 1974 by a group of
    scholars from the universities of California, Columbia, and Harvard on
    the initiative of Richard G. Hovannisian, Dickran Kouymjian, Nina
    Garsoian, Avedis Sanjian, and Robert Thomson. It is dedicated to the
    development of Armenian studies as an academic discipline.

    The SAS Secretariat is located at the Armenian Studies Program of
    California State University, Fresno. For more information, visit
    http://armenianstudies.csufresno.edu/sas/ind ex.htm, email
    [email protected], or write to Armenian Studies Program,
    California State University, Fresno, 5245 N Backer Ave. PB4, Fresno,
    CA 93740-8001.
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