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Former IAGS President's Letter To Tate Gallery On Genocide Denial

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  • Former IAGS President's Letter To Tate Gallery On Genocide Denial

    FORMER IAGS PRESIDENT'S LETTER TO TATE GALLERY ON GENOCIDE DENIAL

    Armenian Weekly Staff
    Thu, Apr 22 2010

    Below is a letter the former president of the International Association
    of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) sent to the director and the curator of
    the Tate Gallery, noting that "is beneath the dignity of the Tate
    Gallery to succumb to the pressure of genocide deniers for any reason."

    ***

    Sir Nicholas Serota, Director, The Tate Gallery Mr. Matthew Gale,
    Curator, The Tate Gallery

    Dear Sir Nicholas Serota and Mr. Gale,

    It has come to my attention that the Tate Gallery has responded to
    massive pressure from the Turkish denialist lobby and has posted
    a disclaimer about the use of the term "genocide" in the materials
    accompanying the Tate's excellent Arshile Gorky exhibit.

    As the immediate past President of the International Association of
    Genocide Scholars (the major body of genocide scholars in the world),
    founding President of Genocide Watch, and Professor of Genocide Studies
    and Prevention at George Mason University, I must request that the
    disclaimer be immediately removed from the exhibit. It contains
    statements that are untrue. It is beneath the dignity of the Tate
    Gallery to succumb to the pressure of genocide deniers for any reason.

    The term genocide is not only "emotive," as you have noted, but
    more importantly, it is a scholarly and legal term and it applies
    fully to the Turkish mass killing of the Armenians. Britain's own
    internationally respected Queen's Council, Sir Geoffrey Robinson
    stated in a report of October 2009 that from an international legal
    perspective, "the treatment of the Armenians in 1915 answers to the
    description of genocide."

    Contrary to the statement in your disclaimer, the British government
    has never stated that it has "found no pre-meditation and that,
    therefore, the wartime events of 1915 do not constitute a 'genocide'
    in the legal definition." In fact the House of Lords in 1915, using
    evidence from a report written by Lord Bryce and the great historian
    Arnold Toynbee, accused the Ottoman Empire of "making government
    by massacre part of their political system," and of "systematically
    exterminating a whole race out of their domain."

    British Foreign Ministers Arthur Balfour and Lord Curzon, and Prime
    Minister David Lloyd George were instrumental in creating the tribunals
    that convicted the Young Turk triumvirate - Talaat, Enver, and Jemal
    - of "massacres of hundreds of thousands of their own subjects"
    " which reduced the Armenian population "by well over a million."

    The trials of these "crimes against humanity," as the British
    government called them, proved the key charge of "pre-meditated mass
    murder." The triumvirate was convicted and sentenced to death. Their
    crimes precisely fit the modern definition of genocide.

    So the statement in your disclaimer that "the British Government has
    found no pre-meditation and that, therefore, the wartime events of
    1915 do not constitute a 'genocide' in the legal definition" IS FALSE.

    The disclaimer must be removed from the exhibit.

    What strikes genocide scholars as most important to note is that the
    Polish legal scholar Raphael Lemkin coined the term genocide in large
    part on the basis of the Turkish mass killing of the Armenians in
    1915. Lemkin's determination to get the United Nations to adopt the
    Genocide Convention was first shaped by the Armenian Genocide, as he
    notes in his own memoir, and then was realized after the Holocaust.

    Lemkin, who invented the term "genocide" was the first legal scholar
    to use the term Armenian Genocide. Every scholarly book on genocide
    has a section on the Armenian Genocide. The International Association
    of Genocide Scholars has repeatedly and unanimously passed resolutions
    affirming that the massacres of Armenians constituted "genocide."

    I realize that the Tate Gallery has been put under pressure by
    the Turkish government to post its disclaimer, and I respect the
    difficulties this pressure presents for the Gallery. Nevertheless I
    suggest that if you must post a statement by the Gallery, that you
    revise your statement so it is in accord with the facts. Language
    such as the following might accomplish your purpose:

    "While the British government for various reasons has never officially
    used the term genocide in its description of the mass killings of
    Armenians in 1915, it is important to note that Raphael Lemkin, the
    legal scholar who coined the term genocide did so in large part on the
    basis of the Ottoman government's extermination of the Armenians in
    1915. The International Association of Genocide Scholars, the largest
    body of genocide scholars in the world, has repeatedly affirmed that
    the scholarly record and the legal and archival evidence prove that
    genocide is the accurate and necessary term to describe the mass
    killings of the Armenians. It is for these reasons that we have
    described the massacres as "widely held to be genocide."

    Thank you for your time and consideration. I hope to hear from you.

    I would be happy to discuss this issue with you. My phone number is
    1-703-448-0222, and my e-mail address is [email protected].

    Sincerely, Professor Gregory Stanton Immediate Past President,
    International Association of Genocide Scholars Founding President,
    Genocide Watch Professor of Genocide Studies and Prevention, George
    Mason University, USA
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