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UCLA Press Release: Richard Hovannisian in International Forums

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  • UCLA Press Release: Richard Hovannisian in International Forums

    PRESS RELEASE
    UCLA AEF Chair in Armenian History
    Contact: Prof. Richard Hovannisian
    Tel: 310-825-3375
    Email: [email protected]

    Release: May 2, 2006

    Richard Hovannisian in International Forums on Genocide

    UCLA -- Professor Richard Hovannisian, Holder of the Armenian
    Educational Foundation Chair in Modern Armenian History at UCLA,
    has since late March and throughout the month of April continued his
    on-going activities related to raising awareness of the Armenian
    Genocide and its legacy. During this period, he traveled to Salt
    Lake City, Yerevan, Worcester, San Francisco, and Lyon, France, to
    deliver lectures work with teachers, and participate in international
    symposiums on human rights and genocide.

    Utah to Armenia

    At the invitation of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at
    the University of Utah, Dr. Hovannisian spoke on March 27 on "The
    Armenian Genocide: Premeditation or the Radicalization of War,"
    in which he assessed the somewhat conflicting historiography about
    the decision-making process and perpetration of the genocide. Because
    the University of Utah Press recently published a volume by Professor
    Guenther Lewy which is aimed at disqualifying the Armenian "tragedy"
    as genocide and which subtly utilizes and furthers the arguments of
    all previous deniers and the Turkish government, Hovannisian spent
    considerable time in the discussion period giving examples not only
    of the factual errors in the seemingly-balanced book but also of the
    author's selective cut-and-paste methods that take out of context
    entirely what is actually stated in the sources he cites. Although
    Lewy insists that he has "no ax to grind," he has in fact sharpened
    it with premeditation, just as he previously has done in volumes that
    discount the enormity of the Gypsy annihilation during World War II and
    the treatment of the American Indians during U.S. colonial expansion.

    To further research on and recognition of the Armenian Genocide, the
    Boghossian Brothers, originally from Lebanon and now with offices in
    Europe, have given a sizable grant to the All-Armenia Fund to reward
    the author or creator of the most effective work on the genocide.

    Richard Hovannisian was in Yerevan in late March and early April to
    serve as the co-chair of the international jury that reviewed and
    ranked the submissions for the first competition. Two presidential
    prizes, each carrying a monetary gift of $10,000, were awarded for
    the best submission from a resident of Armenia and one from abroad.

    The jury selected Verjine Svazlian of Armenia for her work in oral
    history and the collection of the woeful songs of exile that were
    sung in Turkish by Armenian women deportees (now also published in
    Turkey), and Edgar Hilsenrath of Germany for his Story of the Last
    Thought, a powerful novel about the genocide and memory which has
    been translated into several languages.

    Genocide Education

    Immediately after returning to Los Angeles, Hovannisian was the keynote
    speaker on April 5 for an in-service teachers' workshop of the Glendale
    Unified School District on why and how to teach about the Armenian
    Genocide. The teachers, according to Sara Cohan, Education Director of
    Genocide Education Project which coordinated the event, were deeply
    moved and impressed by the "smooth and thoughtful" presentation
    and "compelling overview" of the Armenian experience. Hovannisian
    previously participated in similar teacher workshops coordinated
    by Facing History and Ourselves, Inc., in Los Angeles, Montebello,
    Santa Barbara, Los Gatos, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Brookline,
    Worcester, New York City, Annandale-on-Hudson, Long Island, Memphis,
    and West Palm Beach.

    Professor and Dr. Vartiter Hovannisian traveled to Clark University in
    Worcester on April 19-20 at the invitation of President John Bassett
    to take part in the celebration of the successful completion of the
    fundraising campaign for the Kaloosdian-Mugar Chair of Armenian
    Genocide Studies and Modern Armenian History. This is the only
    position in Armenian Studies in the United States that carries the word
    "Genocide" in its title, with the first chair holder being Dr. Simon
    Payaslian, a graduate of UCLA's Armenian History program.

    During a dinner for major donors hosted by President and Mrs. Bassett
    at their residence, the Harrington House, Hovannisian delivered a
    congratulatory message and challenge to attract and support students
    to the program. Then, following an engaging public lecture by Professor
    Payaslian on his recent book, United States Policy toward the Armenian
    Question and Armenian Genocide, he reflected briefly on the issue of
    pragmatism versus humanitarianism in foreign policy.

    Richard Hovannisian was in San Francisco City Hall on April 25
    as the keynote speaker for the Bay Area's commemoration of the
    Armenian Genocide. Following the greetings of Mayor Gavin Newsom
    and other civic officials and remarks in Armenian by Dr. Antranig
    Kasbarian, Hovannisian addressed the large gathering on the theme
    of universalizing the Armenian experience as a way of integrating
    it into collective human memory. He noted the progress made toward
    that goal in recent years and the challenges that still have to be
    met in the long but unflagging struggle of the Armenian people for
    international recognition and condemnation of the crime and for acts
    of contrition and restitution by the perpetrator side.

    Lyon, France

    >From San Francisco, Dr. Hovannisian traveled to Lyon to participate
    in a international symposium on April 28-29 under the honorary
    presidency of Mary Robinson, former president of the Irish Republic
    and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The conference
    was organized by "Le Collectif Reconnaissance," an alliance of
    fifteen human rights groups, with support from a variety of French
    academic institutions, municipal and regional administrations, and
    the French Senate and Ministry of Culture. The primary themes of the
    conference were devoted to Genocides and Crimes against Humanity;
    The Consequences of Genocides; and The Prevention of Genocides:
    Obstacles and Dynamics for Action. Each of the three themes was
    further divided into particular topics. Opening addresses were made
    by Jules Mardirossian, president of "Le Collectif Reconnaissance,"
    and Jean-Jack Queyranne, former president of the Rhone-Alpes Region.

    For the session on the political consequences of genocide, Richard
    Hovannisian was asked to speak on a topic that appeared in the program
    with the lengthy French title, "The Crime and Its State Denial Are
    the Foundations of the Successor State That Oppresses the Survivors
    and Nourishes Antagonisms: The Example of the Armenian Genocide and
    Kemalist Turkey." In his presentation, Hovannisian traced the patterns
    of denial from the very beginning of the Genocide in 1915 through the
    forced exodus of the survivors and appropriations of Armenian goods
    and properties by the Kemalist regime in the 1920s.

    He analyzed the efforts of the Turkish state to deceive and to suppress
    memory of the crime, a campaign that has gone through several distinct
    phases and now continues into the twenty-first century. General and
    specific aspects of genocide and its prevention were addressed by
    the twenty-five conference participants, who included, among others,
    Roger Smith of the United States, Yair Auron of Israel, and Sevane
    Garibian, Janine Altounian, and Kevork Kepenekian of France. A powerful
    visual display, mounted under the direction of Daniel Meguerditchian,
    incorporated the crimes committed against the Armenians, Ukrainians,
    Jews, Gypsies, Cambodians, Tibetans, and Rwandans and other African
    peoples.

    While in Lyon, Professor Hovannisian visited the newly-dedicated
    Armenian memorial in the heart of the city at the Place Bellecour.

    Designed by architect Leonardo Basmadjian, the monument includes
    thirty-six aesthetically-placed columns and a ground-level,
    gold-lettered stonework with a trilingual commemorative inscription
    in French, English, and Armenian: "In the memory of the 1,500,000
    Armenians, who were exterminated by the 'Young Turk' government during
    the years 1915-1918, and of the victims of all genocides and crimes
    against humanity."

    END
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