R.G. Hovannisian - EXTRAORDINARY CONFERENCE IN IRELAND ON GENOCIDE
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EXTRAORDINARY CONFERENCE IN IRELAND ON GENOCIDE
Vartiter Kotcholosian Hovannisian, M.D.
Los Angeles—I recently returned from an extraordinary conference of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), held at the Irish National University in Galway under the auspices of the Irish Centre for Human Rights. The conference, held June 7-10, was extraordinary both in its scope and in the number of scholars making presentations on the Armenian Genocide. The focus was on genocide in a comparative context, an approach that was welcoming to integration of the Armenian Genocide in many panels. Moreover, among the conference organizers and executive of the IAGS were persons whose strong position on affirmation of the Armenian Genocide is well known. These included IAGS president Joyce Apsel of New York University, president-elect Robert Melson of Purdue University, Roger Smith of William and Mary College, and Colin Tatz of Macquarie University in Australia
Among non-Armenian participants who have championed the cause of truth and stood against denial of the Armenian Genocide were Yair Auron and Israel Charny from Israel; Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn from Canada; Yves Ternon and Philippe Huneman from France; Mark Levene from Great Britain; Joyce Apsel, Helen Fein, Stephen Feinstein, Henry Huttenbach, Steven Jacobs, Ben Kiernan, Eric Markusen, Robert Melson, Donald Miller, Roger Smith, and Eric Weitz from the United States.
I previously have had the opportunity to become acquainted with many of these scholars through conferences at UCLA organized by the AEF Chair in Modern Armenian History as well as at various universities in the United States and abroad. These scholars have figured among those who have persevered in upholding the historical truth against the relentless forces of denial and revisionism. It is no wonder, therefore, that unlike the frequent interference of the Turkish government and its agencies in attempts to disrupt such conferences or to demand the inclusion of deniers and rationalizers on the program, the organizers of this conference stood up to the pressure brought to bear by the Turkish embassy and one consulate in the United States. The conference proceeded without incident, marking perhaps a turning point in uncompromising defense of the historical record, significantly in ever-green Ireland, a republic that is reclaiming its own history even as it goes forward as a member of the European Union.
Both senior and newly-beginning Armenian scholars were also in attendance. They were Meher Grigorian from Australia; Aram Adjemian and Myrna Karamanoukian from Canada; Rupen Boyadjian from Switzerland; and Vahakn Dadrian, Marjorie Housepian Dobkin, Richard Hovannisian, Anie Kalayjian, Isabel Kaprielian, Rubina Peroomian, Lorna Touryan Miller, and Henry Theriault from the United States. From the welcoming remarks on the first day until the concluding session, the Armenian Genocide was a steady and visible component of the conference. Panels dealing directly with the Armenian case were as follows:
Panel 5: Problems of Reparations and Reconciliation: Henry Theriault, Chair
Henry Theriault, “Justice or Peace? The Meanings, Potentials, and Pitfalls of Armenian-Turkish Dialogue”
Thomas Brudholm, “Reconciliation after Genocide: Voices of Resistance and Reluctance”
Meher Grigorian, “Seeking Retributive Justice: Impediments to Criminal Accountability for Perpetrators of Genocide”
Panel 10: Survivor Testimony, Richard Hovannisian, Chair
Richard Hovannisian, “Rewards and Pitfalls of Armenian Oral History: The UCLA Collection”
Rubina Peroomian, “To Build a Normal Life beyond a Traumatic Past: The Case of Survivors of the Smyrna Tragedy”
Donald E. Miller and Lorna T. Miller, “The Armenian and Rwandan Genocides: Comparisons of Two Oral History Projects with Survivors”
Panel 13: Trauma and Memory: The Effects of Genocide on Survivors, Suzanne Kaplan, Chair
Suzanne Kaplan, “Children in the Holocaust and in Rwanda: Dealing with Affects and memory Images in Trauma and Generational Linking”
Myrna Karamanoukian, “The Ottoman Turkish Genocide of the Armenians and Issues of Memory”
Anie Kalayjian, “Generational Impact of Mass Trauma: The Post-Ottoman Turkish Genocide and the Armenians”
Panel 18: Children and Genocide, Vahakn Dadrian, Chair
Vahakan Dadrian, “Children of Victims of Genocide: The Armenian Case”
Isabel Kaprielian, “Children and Genocide: Armenian Orphans in Canada”
Theo Halo, “The Case of Greek Children”
Panel 24: Historical Perspectives on Genocide, Roger Smith, Chair
Theophanis Malkidis, “Aspects of Genocide of Pontian Greeks, 1916-1923”
Eric Weitz, “Versailles-Sevres-Lausanne: The Post-World War I Settlements and Twentieth-Century Genocides”
Panel 33: Cultural Destruction and the denial of Genocide, Roger Smith, Chair
Yair Auron, “The Banality of Denial: Israel and the Armenian Genocide”
Marjorie Housepian Dobkin, “Varieties of Denial, 1916-2003: Turkey and the Armenian Genocide”
Aram Adjemian (paper prepared with Vartkes Dolabjian), “The Portrayal of the Armenian Genocide in Major Encyclopedias”
In addition to these organized panels, individual papers relating to the Armenian Genocide were included in other topical and thematic panels. Among these were the following:
Rubina Peroomian, “Why Teach and How to Teach the Armenian Genocide: Problems, Challenges and Accomplishments”
Stacey Gibson, “Warning Signs of Genocide in the Ottoman Empire and Post-Colonial Rwanda”
Lorna Tourian Miller “Life after Death: Rebuilding Genocide Survivors’ Lives”
Yves Ternon, “The First Step in Comparison: The Shoah and the Armenian Genocide”
Philippe Huneman, “Denials of Genocides”
Steven L. Jacobs, “Raphael Lemkin and the Armenian Genocide”
Israel Charny, “Making Constructive Use of the High Recognition of Lemkin’s Term, ‘Genocide’ in a Comparative Classification of Multiple Types of Genocide”
James F. Moore, “The Accountability of Religion in Genocide”
Much attention was also given to the contemporary cases of mass killing, especially the genocidal massacres in Rwanda, the tenth anniversary of which will be marked next year. Aspects of international law, international tribunals, and the prevention and punishment of genocide were addressed by legal specialists.
Outside the conference, Richard Hovannisian was interviewed for a television documentary, Journeys into Genocide, produced by Concordia Productions of Dublin and intended for international distribution.
The conference in Galway, Ireland, demonstrated that the years of patient and persistent labor have not been in vain and have produced strong results. Most mainstream scholars and specialists concerned with human rights and the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide now take the Armenian Genocide as a given. Scholarship is being liberated from the consuming necessity to prove over and over again that the genocide actually occurred and that its denial continues to traumatize the victims and their descendants. I feel privileged to have taken part in this extraordinary conference and wish to express sentiments of heartfelt appreciation to the scholar participants, to the steadfast organizers, and to all who share in the humanitarian objectives of the International Association of Genocide Scholars.
Photograph of Panelists in Session on “Armenian Oral History”—
Rubina Peroomian, UCLA
Richard Hovannisian, UCLA
Lorna Touryan Miller, All Saints Church, Pasadena
Donald Miller, University of Southern California
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