3151) Southern Poverty Law Center Apologizes To Professor Guenter Lewy Over Armenian Genocide Charges

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WASHINGTON — The storied Southern Poverty Law Center has agreed to formally apologize to a scholar it accused of being a Turkish agent because of his views on the long-ago slaughter of Armenians.

The public apology by the civil rights group ends a multimillion-dollar libel lawsuit filed by historian Guenter Lewy, author of the book "The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide." The settlement does not, however, end a debate that still entangles lawmakers from regions with large Armenian-American populations. . .

"I think it was a long time coming," Lewy said of the lawsuit settlement in an interview Wednesday. "It not only clears me of these malicious charges, it's a victory for free inquiry."

The settlement of the 2-year-old lawsuit includes a confidential financial payment to Lewy as well as a three-paragraph apology and retraction that the Southern Poverty Law Center will be making public within a week.

Lewy initially asked for $8 million from the law center.

In its negotiated statement, the Alabama-based group said it "misunderstood" Lewy's scholarship and admitted it was "wrong to assume that any scholar who challenges the Armenian genocide narrative necessarily has been financially compromised by the government of Turkey."

The organization further stated that it was "wrong to assert" that Lewy was part of a genocide-denying network financed by Turkey.

"We're very pleased with this," David Saltzman, one of Lewy's attorneys, said in an interview Wednesday. "This shows it's possible for people like Guenter Lewy to research controversial topics and reach their conclusions."

Saltzman and his co-counsel, Bruce Fein, lead the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund, which took up Lewy's case. Saltzman said he believes the libel action was the first of its kind in the United States involving allegations about a scholar. Other lawsuits, though, have revolved around how textbooks characterize Ottoman Empire events.

A spokesperson for the Southern Poverty Law Center could not be reached to comment Wednesday.

An 87-year-old emeritus political science professor from the University of Massachusetts, Lewy concluded through his research that the murders and deportations of Armenians between 1915 and 1923 did not amount to a genocide. Lewy said in his extensively footnoted book that while many died, the Ottoman Empire's actions were not a premeditated effort to wipe out the Armenians.

Following 2005 publication of his book, Lewy was criticized sharply by Armenian-American activists. This was not unexpected. For years, questions of motivation and assertions of Turkish influence have shaped the Armenian genocide debate.

More than a decade ago, for instance, Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, secured House but not Senate approval of an amendment that cut U.S. aid to Turkey by the same amount the country spent on lobbying. Lawmakers complain that Turkey's political clout blocks Congress from approving resolutions that use the phrase "Armenian genocide."

"Turkey has an incredible lobbying effort and has historically spent millions of dollars a year keeping this resolution off the House floor," Radanovich declared in 2007.

Founded in 1971 and subsequently made famous by its work researching hate groups, the Southern Poverty Law Center entered the debate in 2008 with its Intelligence Report magazine. An article titled "State of Denial" enumerated Turkish lobbying and investment in academic think tanks, among other efforts.

"Lewy is one of the most active members of a network of American scholars, influence peddlers and website operators, financed by hundreds of thousands of dollars each year from the government of Turkey, who promote the denial of the Armenian genocide," the periodical stated.

Lewy said the assertions distressed him.

"A scholar doesn't have much more than his reputation," Lewy said Wednesday. "If that's questioned, you're in trouble."

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By Michael Doyle, McClatchy Newspapers, Sep. 29, 2010

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EXHIBIT A

Retraction and Apology

In the summer 2008 issue of its Intelligence Report, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported that Guenter Lewy, a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, was part of a network of persons, ?nanced by the Government of Turkey, who dispute that the tragic events of World War I constituted an Armenian genocide. We now realize that we misunderstood Professor Lewy's scholarship, were wrong to assert that he was part of a network ?nanced by the Turkish Government, and were wrong to assume that any scholar who challenges the Armenian genocide narrative necessarily has been ?nancially compromised by the Government of Turkey. We hereby retract the assertion that Professor Lewy was or is on the Government of Turkey's payroll.

To our knowledge, Professor Lewy has never sought to deny or minimize the deaths of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey; nor has he sought to minimize the Ottoman regime's grievous wartime miscalculations or indifference to human misery in a con?ict earmarked by widespread civilian suffering on all sides. What he has argued in his book, The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide, and elsewhere is that the present historical record does not substantiate a premeditated plan by the Ottoman regime to destroy because of ethnicity, religion ,or nationality, as opposed to deport for political-military reasons, the Armenian population. In this view, he is joined by such distinguished scholars as Professor Bernard Lewis of Princeton University. As additional troves of archival information come to light, Professor Lewy advocates greater study of this contentious subject. We deeply regret our errors and offer our sincerest apologies to Professor Lewy.

Professor Lewy adds the following comment:

The SPLC has made important contributions to the rule of law and the struggle against bigotry. Thus I took no pleasure in commencing legal action against it. But the stakes, both for my reputation as a scholar and for the free and unhindered discussion of controversial topics, were compelling.It must be possible to defend views that contradict conventional wisdom without being called the agent of a foreign government.

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FREE INQUIRY TRIUMPHS,
PROFESSOR GUENTER LEWY’S REPUTATION RESTORED:
Southern Poverty Law Center Retracts False Statements That Professor Lewy’s Scholarship Challenging the Armenian Thesis Was Compromised.

September 30, 2010, Washington, DC - In the summer 2008 issue of its Intelligence Report magazine and companion website, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), one of America’s most venerable civil rights organizations, accused Professor Guenter Lewy of being part of a network of academicians financed by the Turkish government to dispute the Armenian allegation of genocide. The magazine even attempted to draw a crude parallel between Professor Lewy and Neo-Nazis, even though Professor Lewy had been roughed up by Nazi thugs on Kristallnacht in 1938 and later fought against the Nazis in the British Army’s Jewish Brigade in World War II. Lewy, emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, was taken to task by SPLC also for concluding in his 2005 book, The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey, A Disputed Genocide, that the historic record as presently known does not substantiate the charge of genocide against the Ottoman government of 1915.

Represented by the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund (TALDF), Professor Lewy sued to restore his good name and freedom of inquiry. Yesterday SPLC published a retraction and apology admitting that they, "misunderstood Professor Lewy's scholarship, were wrong to assert that he was part of a network financed by the Turkish Government, and were wrong to assume that any scholar who challenges the Armenian genocide narrative necessarily has been financially compromised by the Government of Turkey.” Professor Lewy commented, "The SPLC has made important contributions to the rule of law and the struggle against bigotry. Thus I took no pleasure in commencing legal action against it. But the stakes, both for my reputation as a scholar and for the free and unhindered discussion of controversial topics, were compelling. It must be possible to defend views that contradict conventional wisdom without being called the agent of a foreign government.” David Saltzman, one of Lewy’s co-counsel from the TALDF added, "Academic freedom requires that scholars not work under a cloud of suspicion of their motives. Professor Lewy has been transparent and objective in his work.” "SPLC did the right thing,” said Bruce Fein, Lewy’s other co-counsel, "By admitting and correcting their errors they not only rescued Professor Lewy’s reputation, but advanced a common goal of free inquiry as the best method of discovering truths.”

The TALDF is generously supported by the Turkish Coalition of America. Lincoln McCurdy, the organization’s President, observed, "Reconciliation between the Turkish and Armenian peoples will require a full accounting of history. TCA supports an open dialogue and unfettered academic inquiry into this controversial period of Ottoman-Armenian history and tragedy. We are proud of TALDF’s hard work which hopefully will contribute to this open debate and offer our congratulations to Professor Lewy."

SPLC will also provide Professor Lewy, whose lawsuit had sought damages of $8 million, a monetary settlement.

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www.taldf.org/ProfessorLewysReputationRestored

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Civil Rights Center Apologizes To Scholar Over Armenian Genocide Charges

The storied Southern Poverty Law Center has agreed to apologize formally to a scholar it accused of being a Turkish agent because of his views on the long-ago slaughter of Armenians.

The public apology by the civil rights group ends a multimillion-dollar libel lawsuit filed by historian Guenter Lewy, author of the book "The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide." The settlement does not, however, end a debate that still entangles lawmakers from regions with large Armenian-American populations.

"I think it was a long time coming," Lewy said of the lawsuit settlement in an interview Wednesday. "It not only clears me of these malicious charges, it's a victory for free inquiry."

The settlement of the 2-year-old lawsuit includes a confidential financial payment to Lewy as well as a three-paragraph apology and retraction that the Southern Poverty Law Center will be making public within a week.

Lewy initially asked for $8 million from the law center.

In its negotiated statement, the Alabama-based group said it "misunderstood" Lewy's scholarship and admitted it was "wrong to assume that any scholar who challenges the Armenian genocide narrative necessarily has been financially compromised by the government of Turkey."

The organization further stated that it was "wrong to assert" that Lewy was part of a genocide-denying network financed by Turkey.

"We're very pleased with this," David Saltzman, one of Lewy's attorneys, said in an interview Wednesday. "This shows it's possible for people like Guenter Lewy to research controversial topics and reach their conclusions."

Saltzman and his co-counsel, Bruce Fein, lead the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund, which took up Lewy's case. Saltzman said he believes the libel action was the first of its kind in the United States involving allegations about a scholar. Other lawsuits, though, have revolved around how textbooks characterize Ottoman Empire events.

A representative for the Southern Poverty Law Center could not be reached to comment Wednesday.

An 87-year-old emeritus political science professor from the University of Massachusetts, Lewy concluded through his research that the murders and deportations of Armenians between 1915 and 1923 did not amount to a genocide. Lewy said in his extensively footnoted book that while many died, the Ottoman Empire's actions were not a premeditated effort to wipe out the Armenians.

After the 2005 publication of his book, Lewy was criticized sharply by Armenian-American activists. This was not unexpected. For years, questions of motivation and assertions of Turkish influence have shaped the Armenian genocide debate.

More than a decade ago, for instance, Rep. George Radanovich, R-Calif., secured House but not Senate approval of an amendment that cut U.S. aid to Turkey by the same amount the country spent on lobbying. Lawmakers complain that Turkey's political clout blocks Congress from approving resolutions that use the phrase "Armenian genocide."

"Turkey has an incredible lobbying effort and has historically spent millions of dollars a year keeping this resolution off the House floor," Radanovich declared in 2007.

Founded in 1971 and subsequently made famous by its work researching hate groups, the Southern Poverty Law Center entered the debate in 2008 with its Intelligence Report magazine. An article titled "State of Denial" enumerated Turkish lobbying and investment in academic think tanks, among other efforts.

"Lewy is one of the most active members of a network of American scholars, influence peddlers and website operators, financed by hundreds of thousands of dollars each year from the government of Turkey, who promote the denial of the Armenian genocide," the periodical stated.

Lewy said the assertions distressed him.

"A scholar doesn't have much more than his reputation," Lewy said Wednesday. "If that's questioned, you're in trouble."


By Michael Doyle, McClatchy Newspapers / www.kansascity.com

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An Apology for Guenter Lewy
September 29, 2010, firstthings.com
Joseph Bottum

Back in 2005, the now-emeritus scholar Guenter Lewy published The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide, a book that argued that there wasn’t much evidence that the massacre of Armenians during World War I was caused by a deliberate Turkish plan to destroy the Armenian people—and, thus, that the Armenian deaths didn’t qualify as a genocide.

Whereupon the Southern Poverty Law Center declared that “Lewy is one of the most active members of a network of American scholars, influence peddlers and website operators, financed by hundreds of thousands of dollars each year from the government of Turkey, who promote the denial of the Armenian genocide.”

Lewy sued, and it has now been announced that the Southern Poverty Law Center will, in settlement, entirely retract their claims, publishing the retraction is several prominent places.

This is an important event to note. The bullying of scholars by political engines—the insistence that immediate and vicious attacks follow any deviation from a political useful account of science or history—has reached brutal proportions. Look at environmentalism, World War II, the Middle Ages, and much more.

Guenter Lewy is no friend to this magazine’s projects, but he deserves real praise for standing up to the pack and forcing this retraction.
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21 Comments

inch gitem
September 29th, 2010 | 2:26 pm

yeah, finally it is ok to deny the Armenian Genocide! Finally! Whew! Good on you First Things. So what about bullying of scholars by political smear machines that you are awfully quiet about.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/04/AR2008070402408.html

Take a read here and post your response if you dare.
Kirlikovali
September 29th, 2010 | 5:43 pm

I am delighted that opinion thugs were given a simple lesson in law: stop slandering, intimidating and terrorizing dissenters.

Together with 9th Circuit court’s ruling in August of 2009 that genocide resolutions have no basis and they seek to contravene executive and federal authority, therefore, illegal, gives a strong message to all those Armenian falsifiers, fanatic Turk-haters, and their allies that bullying and/or political pressure will no longer be accepted as replacements for scholarly research, debate, and review.
Mary
September 29th, 2010 | 8:21 pm

Eh, the term “genocide” is insane in itself. Mass murder is a bad thing in itself.
Phantom
September 29th, 2010 | 11:49 pm

It took the Southern Poverty Law Center a year to apologize for an accusation. Meanwhile, 95 years later the Armenian people are still waiting for an apology for the deliberate murder of their ancestors.
M.Yakut
September 30th, 2010 | 12:05 am

I am glad to hear that the Southern Poverty Law Center retracted their political comments on Guenter Lewy’s views on the so-called Armenian genocide claims.

No doubt and undeniable that Armenians were relocated, massacred and suffered greatly in Ottoman Empire in the events of 1915. It would be inhumane not to accept the Armenian’s sufferings without forgetting the other’s suffering as well.

The so-called Armenian genocide claims were mainly built and maintained by major political, economical, social, territorial concerns.

The so-called Armenian genocide claims miss the humanitarian aspect of the events and want to push the Armenian’s political, economical, social, territorial agenda for the dream of Greater Armenia.

To accomplish this goal the Armenians want to shield their agenda behind the word of Genocide with which gain sympathy by exploiting human feeling.

I am glad o hear that the Southern Poverty Law Center retracted their political comments on Guenter Lewy’s views.

Now we are one step closer to the truth.
Random Armenian
September 30th, 2010 | 3:03 am

Despite Yakut’s descriptions, what happened to the Armenian population went beyond consequences of war. The Armenian population, the vast majority of whom were unarmed and represented no threat, was deliberately targeted by the Ottoman government, regardless of how far away they were from any front lines of war. Marching 100s of thousands of people through 100s of miles into the Syrian desert will result in deaths. And that is what happened. And yet the orders for marches kept coming for months on end. This is in addition to the outright massacres by Turkish troops and some Kurdish tribes.

Why were the Armenian’s being relocated from the lands they had lived on long before any Turks existed in Anatolia? There is characterization of the result of the marches and tragic and unfortunate, but why were there orders for deporting civilians to begin with?

Genocide scholars and including Turkish scholars know why. Read their work.

Kirlikovali, you should look into history of the Turkish Republic itself and see what bullying is.
M.Yakut
September 30th, 2010 | 8:09 am

@Random Armenian

“Why were the Armenian’s being relocated from the lands they had lived on long before any Turks existed in Anatolia?”

Relocation was one of the official policies of the Ottoman Empire. Many people were relocated in Ottoman Empire as a result of this policy, and this can be seen in the centuries old lyrics of Anatolian Turks and Turkmen tribes of Anatolia.

While Turks considered 3rd class citizen, suffered greatly by Ottoman policies and other ethnicities were relocated for centuries, the Armenians did do nothing to raise concerns. Why?

The point is the relocation was nothing different than those done during the past.

In Ottoman’s eyes, and the Ottoman parliament, with six Armenian members who also approved the relocation of Armenians was no different than previous ones.

Technically, Syria was an Ottoman territory and again technically Ottomans’s were relocation the Armenians in the Ottoman territory, not out of the Ottoman Empire.

Now, what went wrong during the relocation must be condemned collectively and inclusively for other races without labeling the events with a legal term Genocide to shield he Armenian’s political, economical, social, territorial agenda for the dream of Greater Armenia.

Sincerity will bring sincerity, and understanding!
john1915
September 30th, 2010 | 1:40 pm

What part of what the Southern Poverty Law Center said was not true? It is all true. 20 countries including 44 US States, all credible historians including the 126 members of the International Assoc of Genocide Scholars and even Rafael Lemkin, who invented the word “GENOCIDE”, already acknowledge the Armenian Genocide as fact.

It should be equally noted that besides the 1.5 million Armenians that were systematically murdered by the Turks, there were 500k Pontiff Greeks and nearly 1 million Christians Assyrians who were also liquidated at the same campaign of race extermination. None belonged to any army and most all were women and children and the elderly.

In fact The United States National Archives and
Record Administration holds extensive and thorough documentation on the Armenian Genocide, especially in its holdings under Record Group 59 of the United States Department of State, files 867.00 and
867.40, which are open and widely available to the public and interested institutions.

The Armenian Genocide is not in doubt. The main reason for the Armenian Genocide was theft. Turks wanted the money and property of their victims. Turks need to come to terms with their genocidal past.
john1915
September 30th, 2010 | 2:07 pm

One more thing, Turks want to invoke their “freedom of speech” whenever they peddle their historical revisionist stance about their genocidal past however they themselves have laws in Turkey, article, #301, that jails anyone and sometimes kills anyone who dares tell the truth. Apparently they have much to hide.
Dike
September 30th, 2010 | 5:40 pm

it is a late apoligy..but at least some people will know they cannot just say anything about anyone they dont like! if you want to know what really happened in 1915 you can just read first armenian pm s confession about it. that confessions itself shows there wasnt a genocide took place.
‘… The war with us was inevitable… We had not done all that was necessary for us to have done to evade war. We ought to have used peaceful language with the Turks…We had no information about the real strength of the Turks and relied on ours. This was the fundamental error. We were not afraid of war because we thought we could win… Our army was well fed and well armed and [clothed] but it did not fight. The troops were constantly retreating and deserting their positions ; they threw away their arms and dispersed in the villages. …In spite of the fact that the Armenians had better material and better support, their armies lost. ….. the advancing Turks fought only against the regular soldiers ; they did not carry the battle to the civilian sector. ….the Turkish soldiers were well-disciplined and that there had not been any massacres…’

Source: The 1923 Bucharest Manifesto of Hovhannes Katchaznouni, the first PM of the Independent Armenian Republic, published by the Armenian Information Service Suite 7D, 471 Park Ave., New York 22 – 1955.
Dike
September 30th, 2010 | 5:42 pm

There was an Armenian problem for the Turks created by the advance of the Russians, and also there was a population with an anti-Turkish sentiment in the Ottoman Empire who sought independence, and they overtly sympathized with the Russians advancing from the Caucasus. Also, there were Armenian bands, the Armenians bragged about their heroic exploits in resistance, and the Turks had trouble to maintain order under the prevailing war conditions. For the Turks it was necessary to take the punitive and preventive measure against a hostile population in a region threatened by foreign invasion. For the Armenians it was liberating their land. However, both parties agree that the repression was geographically limited; for example, those measures did not affect the Armenians who lived in the other parts of the Ottoman Empire.http://www.armeniangenocidedebate.com/faq
John1915
September 30th, 2010 | 8:54 pm

Sorry DIKE: The Turks were horrible occupiers and by WW1 most other races had been free from hundreds of years of Turkish misrule. The Armenians were not as fortunate as their ancient homeland was in Anatolia itself so in 1915 the Turks decided upon Genocide and carried it out. Also,there were many eye witnesses to the Genocide including our own U.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau who wrote extensively on “the Armenian race extermination”. He wrote specifically “And in my direct contact with Talaat he made no attempt to hide that fact”. The purpose of the deportations WAS THEFT BY DEATH and it came directly from the top of the government. It was state planned.. Henry Morgenthau knew what was happening. Talaat’s own memoirs, the Turkish genocidal mastermind, recently published by Turkish writer Murat Bardacki, accounts for accurate Armenian death tolls were Talaat wrote that between 1915-1916, one short year, 972,000 Armenians simply vanished from Ottoman records. The New York times published an article in 2009 on the memoirs. Also, just go to any official archival record of most modern countries and you will find the same actors, same circumstances and the same results all written in real time. Armenian Genocide is not in doubt. There is no question mark here. Only the Turks seem to hide from the Truth. Neither is the Pontiff Greek or the Christian Assyrian genocide in doubt either. Turks need and come to terms with their genocidal past. This will not go away.

In fact and not Turkish paid propaganda just wikipedia@

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide
Random Armenian
October 1st, 2010 | 1:35 am

M.Yakut,

Your last post is nothing whitewashing of what happened. You did not answer why there was deportation to begin with. What happened starting in 1915 went beyond a deportation. Often the men were killed before the marches began, leaving mostly women, kids and old men in the caravans. Kurds and Turks were allowed to attack the caravans while under the guard Ottoman soldiers. In the north those rounded up were thrown into the Black Sea. These we know because of non-Armenian diplomatic sources as well survivor accounts. This was not a deportation but death marches. And we haven’t even talked about the outright in-situ massacres.

In all sincerity, if you had the power and saw that the deportations were causing such horrible destruction on a people, would you have not stopped it rather than have it continue for 2 years or more?

Of course the deportations did not go outside of the Ottoman boundaries because that would mean Ottoman soldiers marching into another country. Crossing the border is irrelevant, they were marched through desert conditions with no regard for safety, food or water.

“While Turks considered 3rd class citizen, suffered greatly by Ottoman policies and other ethnicities were relocated for centuries, the Armenians did do nothing to raise concerns. Why?”

This sentence is not clear and makes no sense. Please elaborate.
Random Armenian
October 1st, 2010 | 9:15 am

john1915,

I believe the issue regarding this lawsuit and judgment has to do with the SPLC accusing Lewy of being financed by the Turkish side for publishing his book but not being able to back it up with evidence. There is an active and financed effort by Turkey and Turkish groups against genocide recognition, but SPLC probably did not have the evidence to make that connection with Lewy. It’s a very strong accusation to make and SPLC should have left that to Armenians to make ;)

This decision and the 9th circuit ruling from 2009 don’t have anything to do with the scholarly and historical merits of the Armenian genocide. The 2009 decision had to do with California doing something what the court saw as going against the current foreign policy of the US government.

Here’s another recent court case:

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/08/201081234955257668.html
Mark
October 1st, 2010 | 9:33 am

Bernard Lewis Speaking on Armenian Allegations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG70UWESfu4
Ctan
October 1st, 2010 | 10:01 am

This discussion should not be open to opinion, but knowledge. This below link is the diary of a Russian Lieutenant that was stationed in the eastern Ottoman Empire during the Russian invasion. It is in Turkish, English, and French. It also has the scanned version of the actual diary in Russian at the end.

http://www.tsk.tr/eng/ermeni_sorunu_salonu/arsiv_belgeleriyle_ermeni_faaliyetleri/pdf/yarbay_tverdohlebov.pdf
john1915
October 1st, 2010 | 12:06 pm

Why were the Assyrians and the Pontiff Greeks liquidated? Did they have armies? Did they side with the enemy? Hardly. They were Ottoman occupied citizens as well and should have been protected but instead were singled out en mass for their land and wealth and most were either murdered, raped, burned, drowned, sufficated, bludgeoned, beaten, thrown off cliffs, anything that the Turks could think of..

Lets be Clear: Only the Turks and a hand full of “paid scholars” disagree on the facts of the Armenian genocide. That is not opinion but fact. Also, one day the US State Department is not going to be able to purposely go counter to our well documented US archives in order to help the Turks distort the truth here in the US anymore. Those day are slowly coming to an end. The big 95 years Turkish amnesia is there to avoid an apology, compensation and return of land stolen. The theft after all was the whole purpose of the genocide and the Turks are not about to give it back. That is why the Turks have laws in Turkey banning anyone from speaking the truth of the Armenian Greek and Assyrian Genocide. They have much to hide.
vildan
October 1st, 2010 | 1:42 pm

someone asks, why the armenians population relocated? the reason is simple, there were uprising during WW1 and some Armenians sided with the Russians, and attacked Ottomans, No one, not even armenians can deny this, just google it. If mexicans sides with Germany, what would USA do during ww2? look at Japanese americans, even though they have not even sided or used any violence!!
google dashnak, tasnak, etc…

“In early 1915, a number of Armenian nationalist groups, such as the Armenakan, Dashnak and Hunchak organizations, joined the Russian forces”

“The army corps of Armenian volunteer units realigned under the command of General Tovmas Nazarbekian, with Dro as a civilian commissioner of the Administration for Western Armenia. The front line had three main divisions commanded by Movses Silikyan, Andranik, and Mikhail Areshian. Another regular unit was under Colonel Korganian. More than 40,000 men in Armenian partisan guerrilla detachments accompanied the main units.[66?
vildan
October 1st, 2010 | 1:49 pm

well John1915 asks why Greeks were deported, Turks of Greece were also deported, why not mention them?? dont be one sided, be objective. have empathy even towards your enemies. Who attacked and occupied who? Greece attacked and occupied Turkey in 1919!! and stayed there till 1922 and killed thousands of civilians, and burned villages! just google and find a objective historian. It is so unbelievable, that people who attack your country then turn the tables and say, they were killed, or deported!! simple question, who started the war in 1919? Greece!

“During the past nine months parties of regular Greek soldiers with
officers marched at intervals into villages in the neighbourhood of
Bozalfat (Eser Koy) near Aghva. The Greek brigand Katsaros had been a
visitor and behaved badly. Both Greek regular officers and men had
raped women and committed robberies and acts of violence.
Greek soldiers took everything of value such as money, cattle and
effects, having tortured the people. There were cases of murder and
rape. Some villages were totally or partly destroyed. The villages of
Mehter Koy, Lazlar Koyu, Armak Koy, Omer Aga Koyu and Aga Koy were
totally destroyed.
Everywhere the Greek soldiers behaved savagely, killing men and raping
women. They hung some peopler by their feet over straw fires. In the
Beykoz area many massacres took place at Cubuklu and bodies were
exhumed. They were buried fully clothed and shod, thrown together.
The historian Arnold J. Toynbee and his wife personally witnessed
these atrocities.29
Meanwhile, the Greek authorities, who were embarrassed (!) by these
excesses, were trying to turn the tables against the Turks by accusing
them of counter-atrocities. “
john1915
October 1st, 2010 | 6:24 pm

Vildan you have a million and one excuses anything but the truth. The truth is Turkey wanted the lands and the wealth of their victims including over one million Assyrians murdered. Who did they side with?Turkey also occupied other races for hundreds of years. By ww1 most all broke free of the horrible Turkish occupation however the GREEKS, Assyrians and the Armenians were not so lucky. Their lands were right in ANATOLIA SO IN 1915 THE TURKS DECIDED UPON GENOCIDE AND CARRIED IT OUT. It was a planned liquidation. ALL CALL IT GENOCIDE.

Also ALL those lands were either Greek or Armenian that you call Turkey today. All was stolen through murder. PS Why is it against the law to to confirm the Armenian genocide in Turkey today? You have much to hide?
Hagop Hagopian
October 1st, 2010 | 11:32 pm

I am hopeful that one day everyone will recognize the ASALA murders of Turkish Diplomats who were killed during their duties as Genocide. We did not forget it and we will never forget it.

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Apology for Vilifying One Man, Yet no Apology for Killing 1.5 Million By Harut Sassounian

In 2008, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an Alabama-based non-profit civil rights organization, published an article titled, “State of Denial: Turkey Spends Millions to Cover Up Armenian Genocide.” It was a hard-hitting exposé of the Turkish government’s elaborate and sinister efforts to pressure U.S. politicians and entice academics to deny the facts of the Armenian Genocide.

According to the SPLC article, “Turkey exerts political leverage and spends millions of dollars in the United States to obfuscate the Armenian genocide…. Revisionist historians who conjure doubt about the Armenian genocide…are paid by the Turkish government.”

Going beyond such general statements, SPLC specifically referred to Guenter Lewy as “one of the most active members of a network of American scholars, influence peddlers and website operators, financed by hundreds of thousands of dollars each year from the government of Turkey, who promote the denial of the Armenian genocide….”

Lewy, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts, had qualified the Armenian Genocide in his lectures and writings as a “bungling misrule” rather than a deliberately planned and executed mass murder. He had made similar claims in his controversial book published by the University of Utah Press in 2005: “The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide.”

Shortly after publication of SPLC’s article, an $8 million defamation lawsuit was filed against the civil rights group on behalf of Prof. Lewy by attorneys David Saltzman and Bruce Fein from the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund (TALDF), which is “generously supported by the Turkish Coalition of America,” according to TALDF’s website.

Before a jury could judge the merits of the charges in court, however, SPLC agreed to settle the case by issuing “a retraction and apology” and promising to pay an undisclosed sum to Prof. Lewy. Had SPLC not settled the case, TALDF would have had a difficult task proving in court that Prof. Lewy was actually libeled. In order to win the lawsuit, TALDF had to prove that SPLC had made those accusations “with malicious intent” and “reckless disregard for the truth.” Furthermore, TALDF lawyers would have to show that the long-retired 87-year-old professor had suffered actual financial loss, such as getting fired from his job or having a contract canceled as a direct result of the article.

Some SPLC supporters have wondered why it chose to settle the lawsuit when its chances of losing in court were minimal. A knowledgeable source told this writer that SPLC may have settled the case in order to reduce its exposure to mounting attorney fees, combined with the likelihood that Prof. Lewy may have agreed to settle for far less than the $8 million he had originally demanded. With the lawsuit behind it, SPLC could once again dedicate itself to its actual mission of defending civil rights.

In its retraction, SPLC stated: “We now realize that we misunderstood Prof. Lewy’s scholarship, were wrong to assert that he was part of a network financed by the Turkish Government, and were wrong to assume that any scholar who challenges the Armenian genocide narrative necessarily has been financially compromised by the Government of Turkey. We hereby retract the assertion that Prof. Lewy was or is on the Government of Turkey’s payroll…. We deeply regret our errors and offer our sincerest apologies to Professor Lewy.”

In response to complaints from SPLC supporters opposing the settlement, however, Penny Weaver, a public affairs spokesman, stated: “Our settlement of this matter does not mean we are endorsing Mr. Lewy’s views or taking his side. But we are acknowledging that we mischaracterized his views and wrongly said that he was taking money from the Turkish government. It was an error, and we apologize for that.” The original article which precipitated the lawsuit is still posted on the SPLC’s website.

Needless to say, no one should be defamed because of his or her views on the Armenian Genocide, no matter how wrong or offensive they are. Unless one possesses evidence to the contrary, one cannot simply assume that those making distorted statements on the Armenian Genocide are motivated by greed or are paid agents of the Turkish government.

It is both commendable and ironic that lawyers for a Turkish interest group are eager to file a multi-million dollar lawsuit in the United States ostensibly to defend the civil rights of a client. In Turkey, however, anyone who dares to talk about the Armenian Genocide risks being charged for telling the truth and thrown into prison for years under the infamous Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code which bans “insulting Turkishness!”

If TALDF were truly interested in protecting civil rights, it would allocate its considerable resources to abolish Article 301, which would considerably lessen financial support from generous donors and bring its operations to an end.

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ANOTHER LEGAL VICTORY FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH

by Ergun KIRLIKOVALI

ergun at turkla dot com

The tables are slowly but surely turning and Armenians are in visible panic. All this because of a recent legal defeat. Prof. Guenter Lewy is cleared of all defamations dished out by Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), perhaps a hapless tool in the Armenian propaganda. If this intrigues you, then fasten your seatbelt for what follows.

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), one of America’s revered civil rights organizations, accused in 2008 Professor Guenter Lewy of being part of a network of academicians financed by the Turkish government, based on input from SPLC, we now understand that an Armenian employee misled SPLC with falsified information (what else is new?)

SPLC even compared Prof. Lewy and Neo-Nazis, even though Prof. Lewy had been harassed by Nazi thugs on Kristallnacht in 1938 and later joined the British Army’s Jewish Brigade in World War II to fight Nazis. Armenian fanaticism, deception, and misrepresentations know no ends, in the true tradition of the master falsifier Aram Andonian of fake Tallat telegrams, and the above article is no exception.

The court battle forced the SPLC to publish an embarrassing apology and retraction, perhaps a first in their history, as a small price for trusting Armenian falsifiers and Turk haters in matters relating to the Turkish Armenian conflict. Reportedly, SPLC will also provide Prof. Lewy a monetary settlement.

Prof. Lewy was still kind when he commented, "The SPLC has made important contributions to the rule of law and the struggle against bigotry. Thus I took no pleasure in commencing legal action against it. But the stakes, both for my reputation as a scholar and for the free and unhindered discussion of controversial topics, were compelling. It must be possible to defend views that contradict conventional wisdom without being called the agent of a foreign government.”

David Saltzman, one of Lewy’s co-counsel from the TALDF was more to the point when he said, "Academic freedom requires that scholars not work under a cloud of suspicion of their motives. Professor Lewy has been transparent and objective in his work.”

Bruce Fein, Lewy’s other co-counsel reinforced this by stating, “SPLC did the right thing by admitting and correcting their errors” whereby they rescued Professor Lewy’s reputation and “… advanced a common goal of free inquiry as the best method of discovering truths.”

Lincoln McCurdy, president of Turkish Coalition of America, perhaps put it best when he observed, "Reconciliation between the Turkish and Armenian peoples will require a full accounting of history. TCA supports an open dialogue and unfettered academic inquiry into this controversial period of Ottoman-Armenian history and tragedy. We are proud of TALDF’s hard work which hopefully will contribute to this open debate and offer our congratulations to Professor Lewy."

THE FACTS ARE CLEAR FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO KNOW THE TRUTH

Jewish Holocaust is supported by due process and a court verdict by a competent tribunal (Nuremberg, 1945.) What due process and court verdict support Armenian claims of genocide? The answer might surprise you: none!

Armenian claims are based on a racist and dishonest version of history, not law or the truth. They are racist because they ignore the Turkish victims at the hands of Armenian revolutionaries (120,000 in the year 1914 alone, according to the dictionary of World War One, by Stephen Pope and Elizabeth-Anne Wheal, 2003, page 34.) And they are dishonest because they simply dismiss the six T’s of the Turkish-Armenian conflict. The “poor, starving Armenians myth” needs to be reconciled with these photos of the Armenian ultra-nationalists armed to the teeth (www.ethocide.com .)

Whereas the picture is crystal clear: Armenians took up arms against their own government. After a millennium of harmonious cohabitation, Armenians, thus chose to resort to revolts, terrorism, supreme treason, and territorial demands, causing countless Muslim/Turkish casualties, all of which triggered the TERESET (temporary resettlement of 1915). These are the plain facts.

Armenians must face up to their own unspeakable crimes against humanity before any closure can occur. If you are still in doubt, let me refer you to an Armenian source to see photos of Armenian murderers, gun-toting Armenian clergy, their Muslim, mostly Turkish, victims: Houshamatyan of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Centennial, Album-Atlas, Volume I, Epic Battles, 1890-1914 (The Next Day Color Printing, Inc., Glendale, CA, U.S.A., 2006)

These facts contradict with the embellished and falsified Armenian narrative, which in turn, creates "cognitive dissonance" in Armenian people. Modern psychology informs us that this trauma can be resolved in two ways:

1) accept the new facts and change your attitude accordingly, or

2) ignore/dismiss the new facts and demonize all dissenters.

Most Armenians, unfortunately, seem to still choose the latter, hence no closure after a century.

12/10/10

www.Turkla.com

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A continuing war of words
Nearly a century on, the Armenian genocide still provokes controversy, tempers — and lawsuits By Alex Beam
Globe Columnist / January 4, 2011

I have a prurient interest in libel law, because defamation suits are an occasional — and unpleasant — cost of doing business in the newspaper industry. So I was quite astonished to see the monster retraction-cum-apology issued by the Southern Poverty Law Center a few weeks ago in response to a defamation suit filed by Guenter Lewy, 87, a professor emeritus from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

In the course of a lengthy philippic titled “Turkey Spends Millions to Cover Up Armenian Genocide,’’ SPLC author David Holthouse stated, inaccurately:

“[Guenter] Lewy is one of the most active members of a network of American scholars, influence peddlers and website operators, financed by hundreds of thousands of dollars each year from the government of Turkey, who promote the denial of the Armenian genocide.’’

Lewy sued the SPLC, and after some back and forth in Alabama and District of Columbia courts, he forced the center to publish an embarrassing climb-down, in its own publication and also as advertisements in the Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Review of Books. In its retraction, the Center acknowledged:

“[We] were wrong to assert that [Lewy] was part of a network financed by the Turkish Government, and were wrong to assume that any scholar who challenges the Armenian genocide narrative necessarily has been financially compromised by the Government of Turkey . . .

“To our knowledge, Professor Lewy has never sought to deny or minimize the deaths of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey; nor has he sought to minimize the Ottoman regime’s grievous wartime miscalculations or indifference to human misery in a conflict earmarked by widespread civilian suffering on all sides.’’

Reached at home, Lewy said, “I was not happy about bringing the lawsuit, because the SPLC has done some very good work. But their article attacked my personal reputation and at the same time raised the larger issue of free inquiry. Armenians have engaged in this kind of name-calling to intimidate people, and it frequently works, especially with younger scholars.’’

“I think we would have won the case on summary judgment,’’ center president Richard Cohen said. “We had a defense: Lewy is a public figure and we didn’t act with actual malice. On the other hand, it was clear to me that we had made a mistake. He is a proper guy, he has a sense of honor, and he felt we had defamed him. My main goal was to end litigation without further expense.’’

Although it might be a stretch to call Lewy and Cohen friends, the center president did bring a copy of Lewy’s 2005 book, “The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide,’’ to the final settlement meeting. There, Lewy inscribed the book, “For Richard Cohen, a memorable day.’’

The story doesn’t end there. The center’s retraction prompted a quick retort from past presidents of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, including Helen Fein of Harvard’s Kennedy School. The genocide scholars accused Cohen of striking a legal deal “congruent with the Turkish government’s tactics of denying the Armenian genocide in order to falsify history for the purpose of its nationalist agenda.’’

“We understand that the weight of the historical evidence is in favor of characterizing the World War I-era slaughter of Armenians as genocide,’’ Cohen told me. “We haven’t changed our opinion about that. But we were still wrong to imply that Lewy was on the payroll of the Turkish government, which he wasn’t. The better part of valor was to settle the dispute.’’

Lewy’s work is cited in another piece of litigation, Harvey Silverglate’s long-running lawsuit against the state’s Department of Education. Silverglate’s clients, who include public school students and teachers, accuse Massachusetts of deleting “contra-genocide’’ views, i.e., views aligned with the Turkish account of the mass slaughter, from an advisory curriculum guide in 1999. Silverglate lost in Mark Wolf’s court, and more recently a panel of three appeals court judges, including retired Supreme Court justice David Souter, ruled against him.

To be fair, Silverglate has an interesting argument. He insists that the online curriculum materials are like a school library, which the Supreme Court ruled should be protected from political meddling in a famous 1982 decision.

Silverglate has asked for a hearing before the Supreme Court and expects his case to be accepted or rejected within the next few weeks.

Alex Beam is a Globe columnist. His e-dress is beam@globe.com

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