Press Release
INTERNATIONAL GENOCIDE SCHOLARS ASSOCIATION OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZES ASSYRIAN, GREEK GENOCIDES
Issuing Organization: International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS)
Date: December 16, 2007
The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) has voted overwhelmingly to
recognize the genocides inflicted on Assyrian and Greek populations of the Ottoman Empire
between 1914 and 1923.
The
resolution passed with the support of over eighty percent of IAGS
members who voted. The resolution (full text below) declares that "it
is the conviction of the International Association of Genocide Scholars
that the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire
between 1914 and 1923 constituted a genocide against Armenians,
Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian Greeks." It "calls upon the
government of Turkey to acknowledge the genocides against these
populations, to issue a formal apology, and to take prompt and
meaningful steps toward restitution."
"This resolution," stated IAGS President Gregory Stanton. "is one more repudiation by the
world's
leading genocide scholars of the Turkish government's ninety year
denial of the Ottoman Empire's genocides against its Christian
populations, including Assyrians, Greeks, and Armenians. The history of
these genocides is clear, and there is no more excuse for the current
Turkish government, which did not itself commit the crimes, to deny the
facts. The current German government has forthrightly ackowledged the
facts of the Holocaust. The Turkish government should learn from the
German government's exemplary acknowledgment of Germany's past, so that
Turkey can move forward to reconciliation with its neighbors."
The resolution noted that while activist and scholarly efforts have resulted in widespread
acceptance of the Armenian genocide, there has been "little recognition of the qualitatively
similar
genocides against other Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire."
Assyrians, along with Pontian and Anatolian Greeks, were killed on a
scale equivalent in per capita terms to the catastrophe inflicted on
the Armenian population of the empire -- and by much the same methods,
including mass executions, death marches, and starvation. In 1997, the
IAGS officially recognized the Armenian genocide.
IAGS
member Adam Jones drafted the resolution, and lobbied for it along with
fellow member Thea Halo, whose mother Sano survived the Pontian Greek
genocide. In an address to the membership at the IAGS conference in
Sarajevo, Bosnia, in July 2007, Jones paid tribute to the efforts of
"representatives of the Greek and Assyrian communities ... to publicize
and call on the present Turkish government to acknowledge the genocides
inflicted on their populations."
"The
overwhelming backing given to this resolution by the world's leading
genocide scholars organization will help to raise consciousness about
the Assyrian and Greek genocides," Jones said on December 10. "It will
also act as a powerful counter to those, especially in present-day
Turkey, who still ignore or deny the genocides of the Ottoman Christian
minorities."
The resolution stated that "the denial of genocide is widely recognized as the final stage of
genocide,
enshrining impunity for the perpetrators of genocide, and demonstrably
paving the way for future genocides." The Assyrian population of Iraq,
for example, remains highly vulnerable to genocidal attack. Since 2003,
Iraqi Assyrians have been exposed to severe persecution and "ethnic
cleansing"; it is believed that up to half the Assyrian population has
fled the country.
Extensive supporting documentation for the Assyrian and Greek genocides was circulated to
IAGS members ahead of the vote, and is available at
http://www.genocidetext.net/iags_resolution_supporting_documentation.htm.
FULL TEXT OF THE IAGS RESOLUTION:
WHEREAS the denial of genocide is widely recognized as the final stage of genocide,
enshrining impunity for the perpetrators of genocide, and demonstrably paving the way for future genocides;
WHEREAS
the Ottoman genocide against minority populations during and following
the First World War is usually depicted as a genocide against Armenians
alone, with little recognition of the qualitatively similar genocides
against other Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire;
BE IT RESOLVED that it is the conviction of the International Association of Genocide
Scholars
that the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire
between 1914 and 1923 constituted a genocide against Armenians,
Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian Greeks.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Association calls upon the government of Turkey to acknowledge the genocides against these populations, to issue a formal apology, and to take prompt and meaningful steps toward restitution.