DECLARATION
We the undersigned scholars of the world academic community object to the lawsuit filed by the Turkish American organizations against the State of Massachusetts. The lawsuit claims that the curricular advice of the Massachusetts Board of Education to not include material denying that what happened to the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 was a genocide is an infringement of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution. We do not agree with this claim and object to the lawsuit on two grounds.
First, we affirm that there is widespread consensus and recognition within the world academic community as to what occurred to the Armenians in 1915 in the Ottoman Empire was, in accordance with the 1948 United Nations definition of the term, a genocide. The only parties that currently deny this are the state of the Republic of Turkey, the Turkish diaspora organizations like the Assembly of American Turkish Associations (ATAA) that reflect the views of the state, and a few scholars who are sympathetic to this view.
Second, we think that the pedagogical aim of teaching about genocides and human rights is not the provision of a full-scale survey of all possible views and beliefs including ones that deny the occurrence of such human violence, but rather instilling through education of the value of human rights and understanding in order to establish a better, more tolerant society in the future.
We think that the Armenian case, as well as many similar cases that precede and succeed it prove the destructive force of prejudice and intolerance which should be taught as such, and not minimized or distorted by denials, so that they do not keep repeating themselves in history and are replaced instead by human tolerance and understanding.
LIST OF NAMES:
Dikran J. Abrahamian BA, MD
Ontario
CANADA
Vanessa Agnew
Assistant Professor
Department of German
Museum Studies
University of Michigan
USA
Edward Alexander
Diplomat and Author
USA
Harry Altunyuzuk
Toronto, Ontario
CANADA
François Antounian, MD
San Francisco, California
USA
Sima Aprahamian, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Sociology-Anthropology &
Fellow, Simone de Beauvoir Institute
Concordia University
Montreal, Quebec
CANADA
Aram Arkun
Historian
Zohrab Center
New York, NY
USA
Tateos Arslan
Manager
Information Technologies
Toronto
CANADA
Aris Babikian
Journalist, Lecturer,
Human Rights Activist.
Toronto
CANADA
Peter Balakian
Rebar Professor of the Humanities
Colgate University
Hamilton New York
USA
David Barsamian
Director
Alternative Radio
Boulder, Colorado
USA
Omer Bartov
John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor
Department of History
Brown University
USA
Yehuda Bauer, Ph.D.
Professor of Holocaust Studies
Jerusalem
ISRAEL
Donald Bloxham
Lecturer in
Twentieth Century History
University of Edinburgh
UK
Artin Boghossian, Ph.D.
Retired Mathematician
Toronto
CANADA
Nélida Boulgourdjian-Toufeksian
CEIL-PIETTE-CONICET
University of Buenos Aires
ARGENTINA
Professor Israel W. Charny
President,
International Association of Genocide Scholars
Editor-in-Chief, Encyclopedia of Genocide
Executive Director,
Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide
Prof. of Psychology & Family Therapy
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
ISRAEL
Dr. Mihai Chioveanu
Lecturer
Faculty of Political Science
University of Bucharest
ROMANIA
Dr. Monica Ciobanu
Assistant Professor
Plattsburgh State University of New York
USA
Adina Dabu
Doctoral Student
Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
USA
Harout DerSimonian, Ph.D.
Associate Professor (adjunct)
Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition
University of New England
Kittery, Maine
USA
Denis Donikian
Writer, author
FRANCE
Helen Fein
Director of the Institute for the Study of Genocide
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts
USA
Dr. Stephen Feinstein, Director
Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis
USA
Marcello Flores
Professor of History
University of Siena
ITALY
Dr. Keith Garebian
Mississauga, Ontario
CANADA
David Gaunt
Professor of History
Södentörn University College
SWEDEN
Hervé Georgelin, PhD
Membre scientifique
École française d’Athènes
Athens
GREECE
Charlene Gilbert
Associate Professor
American University
School of Communication
Film and Media Arts
Washington, DC
USA
Fatma Müge Göçek
Associate Professor of Sociology
and Women’s Studies
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
USA
Ayþe Günaysu
Human Rights Activist
Ýstanbul
TURKEY
Dalita Roger-Hacyan,
Maître de conférences
Université Paris 1
FRANCE
Joumana Haddad
Poet and journalist
Beirut
LEBANON
Nicolai Romashuk Hairabedian
A victim of the Armenian Genocide
HOLLAND
Thea Halo
Author
USA
Jerry Hanimyan
Armenian World Alliance
Toronto
CANADA
Roger Heacock
Professor of History
Birzeit University
PALESTINE
Richard Kloian, Director
Armenian Genocide Resource Center
Richmond, California
USA
Kader Konuk
Assistant Professor
Department of German
Program in Comparative Literature
University of Michigan
USA
Dr. Dickran Kouymjian
Haig & Isabel Berberian
Professor of Armenian Studies
Director, Armenian Studies Program
California State University, Fresno
USA
Armen Kurkjian
Armenian World Alliance
Board of Directors
CANADA
Prof. Dr. Michael Job
Center for Interdisciplinary
Language Research
University of Goettingen
GERMANY
Professor Gerard Libaridian
Department of History
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
USA
Professor Ann Lousin
The John Marshall Law School
Chicago Illinois
USA
Levon Marashlian
Professor of History
Glendale Community College
USA
Rania Masri
Professor
University of Balamand
LEBANON
Bedross Der Matossian
Doctoral Student
Department of Middle East
Columbia University
USA
Dr. Leona Mirza
Director of International Programs
North Park University
USA
Raffi Momjian
Executive Director
The Genocide Education Project
San Francisco California
USA
Moorad Mooradian, Ph.D.
Conflict Analysis and Resolution
Visiting Professor
Yerevan State University
ARMENIA
Khatchig Mouradian
Journalist
Beirut
LEBANON
Stephan Moushian
Commander
Alishan Lodge
Knights of Vartan
USA
Taline Moushian
Professor
School of English & Liberal Studies
Seneca College
USA
Siobhan Nash-Marshall
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
University of Saint Thomas
USA
Georgeta Pana
Faculty of Philosophy
University of Bucharest
ROMANIA
Dennis R. Papazian
Professor of History
The University of Michigan-Dearborn
USA
Simon Payaslian
Kaloosdian/Mugar Chair
Armenian Genocide Studies
& Modern Armenian History
Clark University
Worcester, MA
USA
Dan A. Petre
Assistant Professor
International Relations
Dept. of Political Sciences
Bucharest University
ROMANIA
George Ross
University of London
UK
Professor Rubina Peroomian Ph.D.
UCLA
Los Angeles, California
USA
Rudy Rummel
Professor
University of Hawaii
USA
Hagop Sarkissian
Doctoral Student
Department of Philosophy
Duke University
USA
Professor Elyse Semerdjian
Islamic World/Middle East History
History Department
Whitman College
Walla Walla, Washington
USA
Michael Shafir
Professor
Faculty of European Studies
Babes-Bolyai University
Cluj-Napoca
ROMANIA
Christopher Simpson
Professor
American University
Washington DC
USA
Roger W. Smith
Professor emeritus of Government
College of William and Mary, and
Past President of the International
Association of Genocide Scholars
USA
Oana-Valentina Suciu (Ovaghimian)
Lecturer
Faculty of Political Sciences
University of Bucharest
ROMANIA
Dr. Marius Turda
Lecturer
Oxford Brookes University
UK
Felicia Waldman
Lecturer, The Goldstein Goren Center
for Hebrew Studies
Department of Letters
University of Bucharest
ROMANIA
Eric D. Weitz
Professor of History
Arsham and Charlotte Ohanessian Chair
in the College of Liberal Arts
Director, Center for German and
European Studies
University of Minnesota
USA
Carole Zamroutian
Secretary, Office of Student Services
University of Toronto Schools
University of Toronto
CANADA
Alfred de Zayas
Professor of International Law
Geneva School of Diplomacy
SWITZERLAND
Boghos Levon Zekiyan
Ca’ Foscari Venice
Pontifical Institute of
Oriental Studies
Rome
ITALY
