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RWANDA EXHIBIT OPENS AFTER WORDS ON ARMENIANS REVISED
Today's Zaman, Turkey
May 2 2007
An exhibition on the lessons of the genocide in Rwanda opened on
Monday, after three weeks' delay due to Turkey's objections to a
reference to the killings of Anatolian Armenians during World War I
as genocide.
The language on the Armenians was changed to say "Ottoman Empire"
instead of "Turkey" and does not include the number of people killed
on panels in the exhibit that include photos, statements and video
testimonies.
The exhibition, originally set to open at the UN headquarters in New
York on April 9, was postponed after Ambassador Baki Ýlkin, Turkey's
permanent representative to the UN, complained about the mention of
"an Armenian genocide." The section now uses the term "mass killings"
instead of "murders."
Armenia's UN Ambassador Armen Martirosyan said the reference still
reflects the truth, "to some extent. This is a Turkish version
of history which is not acceptable for us, but to avoid further
postponement of the exhibition, we compromised."
The UN confirmed the Turkish complaint when the exhibit was postponed,
and said the delay was mainly because the regular review process
for exhibits, which takes all positions into account, was not
followed. UN associate spokesman Farhan Haq said on Monday that the
Turkish objection to the exhibit was not the only one, and that other
concerns had to be addressed before opening the exhibit. He declined
to elaborate. "The past three weeks have been spent making sure that
all the text in the exhibit was historically accurate," Haq said.
Originally the lettering on a panel said: "Following World War I,
during which 1 million Armenians were murdered in Turkey, Polish
lawyer Raphael Lemkin urged the League of Nations to recognize
crimes of barbarity as international crimes." The new wording says:
"In 1933, the lawyer Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew, urged the League
of Nations to recognize mass atrocities against a particular group
as an international crime. He cited the mass killings of Armenians
in the Ottoman Empire in World War I, and other mass killings in
history. He was ignored."
Ankara vehemently denies claims by Armenia and its supporters that
the Ottoman Empire committed a systematic genocide against Armenians
during World War I.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the exhibit in commemoration
of the 13th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide, in which 800,000
people, mainly Tutsis and Hutus, were massacred by militant Hutus in
April 1994. He recalled how he visited Rwanda last year and spoke to
"those who had endured one of humankind's darkest chapters."
But Ban, in a gesture to Turkey, said the exhibition did not "attempt
to make historical judgments on other issues." He also announced
his intention to upgrade the level of the UN special adviser on the
prevention of genocide, created in 2004, to a permanent position.
--Boundary_(ID_TxrzHGWx9zpl7c0xboaGAQ)- -
Today's Zaman, Turkey
May 2 2007
An exhibition on the lessons of the genocide in Rwanda opened on
Monday, after three weeks' delay due to Turkey's objections to a
reference to the killings of Anatolian Armenians during World War I
as genocide.
The language on the Armenians was changed to say "Ottoman Empire"
instead of "Turkey" and does not include the number of people killed
on panels in the exhibit that include photos, statements and video
testimonies.
The exhibition, originally set to open at the UN headquarters in New
York on April 9, was postponed after Ambassador Baki Ýlkin, Turkey's
permanent representative to the UN, complained about the mention of
"an Armenian genocide." The section now uses the term "mass killings"
instead of "murders."
Armenia's UN Ambassador Armen Martirosyan said the reference still
reflects the truth, "to some extent. This is a Turkish version
of history which is not acceptable for us, but to avoid further
postponement of the exhibition, we compromised."
The UN confirmed the Turkish complaint when the exhibit was postponed,
and said the delay was mainly because the regular review process
for exhibits, which takes all positions into account, was not
followed. UN associate spokesman Farhan Haq said on Monday that the
Turkish objection to the exhibit was not the only one, and that other
concerns had to be addressed before opening the exhibit. He declined
to elaborate. "The past three weeks have been spent making sure that
all the text in the exhibit was historically accurate," Haq said.
Originally the lettering on a panel said: "Following World War I,
during which 1 million Armenians were murdered in Turkey, Polish
lawyer Raphael Lemkin urged the League of Nations to recognize
crimes of barbarity as international crimes." The new wording says:
"In 1933, the lawyer Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jew, urged the League
of Nations to recognize mass atrocities against a particular group
as an international crime. He cited the mass killings of Armenians
in the Ottoman Empire in World War I, and other mass killings in
history. He was ignored."
Ankara vehemently denies claims by Armenia and its supporters that
the Ottoman Empire committed a systematic genocide against Armenians
during World War I.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the exhibit in commemoration
of the 13th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide, in which 800,000
people, mainly Tutsis and Hutus, were massacred by militant Hutus in
April 1994. He recalled how he visited Rwanda last year and spoke to
"those who had endured one of humankind's darkest chapters."
But Ban, in a gesture to Turkey, said the exhibition did not "attempt
to make historical judgments on other issues." He also announced
his intention to upgrade the level of the UN special adviser on the
prevention of genocide, created in 2004, to a permanent position.
--Boundary_(ID_TxrzHGWx9zpl7c0xboaGAQ)- -