Tweet
UN REMOVES GENOCIDE EXHIBIT AFTER TURKEY COMPLAINS
by Warren Hoge - The New York Times Media Group
The International Herald Tribune, France
April 11, 2007 Wednesday
The United Nations dismantled an exhibit on the Rwandan genocide
and postponed its scheduled opening by the UN secretary general,
Ban Ki Moon, after the Turkish mission objected to references to the
Armenian genocide in Turkey at the time of World War I.
The panels of graphics, photos and statements had been installed
in the visitors' lobby Thursday by the Aegis Trust, of Britain. The
trust campaigns for the prevention of genocide and runs a center in
Kigali, the Rwandan capital, memorializing the 500,000 victims of
the massacres there 13 years ago.
Hours after the show was assembled, however, a Turkish diplomat raised
objections to words in a section titled "What is genocide?"
The passage said that "following World War I, during which one million
Armenians were murdered in Turkey," Raphael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer
credited with coining the word genocide, "urged the League of Nations
to recognize crimes of barbarity as international crimes."
James Smith, the chief executive of Aegis, said he was told by
the United Nations on Saturday that the sentence would have to be
eliminated or the exhibition would be struck.
Armen Martirosyan, the Armenian ambassador to the UN, said he had
sought out Kiyotaka Akasaka, the UN under secretary general for public
information, and thought he had reached an agreement to let the show
go forward by omitting the words "in Turkey."
But Akasaka said, "That was his suggestion, and I agreed only to take
it into account in finding the final wording."
Baki Ilkin, the Turkish ambassador to the UN, said, "We just expressed
our discomfort over the text's making references to the Armenian
issue and drawing parallels with the genocide in Rwanda."
There were widespread killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, beginning
in 1915, in which an estimated 1.5 million died, but Turkey has always
vehemently rejected claims of genocide.
Smith said he was "very disappointed because this was supposed to
talk about the lessons drawn from Rwanda and point up that what is
happening in Darfur is the cost of inaction."
by Warren Hoge - The New York Times Media Group
The International Herald Tribune, France
April 11, 2007 Wednesday
The United Nations dismantled an exhibit on the Rwandan genocide
and postponed its scheduled opening by the UN secretary general,
Ban Ki Moon, after the Turkish mission objected to references to the
Armenian genocide in Turkey at the time of World War I.
The panels of graphics, photos and statements had been installed
in the visitors' lobby Thursday by the Aegis Trust, of Britain. The
trust campaigns for the prevention of genocide and runs a center in
Kigali, the Rwandan capital, memorializing the 500,000 victims of
the massacres there 13 years ago.
Hours after the show was assembled, however, a Turkish diplomat raised
objections to words in a section titled "What is genocide?"
The passage said that "following World War I, during which one million
Armenians were murdered in Turkey," Raphael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer
credited with coining the word genocide, "urged the League of Nations
to recognize crimes of barbarity as international crimes."
James Smith, the chief executive of Aegis, said he was told by
the United Nations on Saturday that the sentence would have to be
eliminated or the exhibition would be struck.
Armen Martirosyan, the Armenian ambassador to the UN, said he had
sought out Kiyotaka Akasaka, the UN under secretary general for public
information, and thought he had reached an agreement to let the show
go forward by omitting the words "in Turkey."
But Akasaka said, "That was his suggestion, and I agreed only to take
it into account in finding the final wording."
Baki Ilkin, the Turkish ambassador to the UN, said, "We just expressed
our discomfort over the text's making references to the Armenian
issue and drawing parallels with the genocide in Rwanda."
There were widespread killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, beginning
in 1915, in which an estimated 1.5 million died, but Turkey has always
vehemently rejected claims of genocide.
Smith said he was "very disappointed because this was supposed to
talk about the lessons drawn from Rwanda and point up that what is
happening in Darfur is the cost of inaction."