Armenian
genocide debated by Senate
By
Gerry Wachovsky
Daily Forty-Niner
For
Shant Baboujian the Armenian genocide is
not an event that should be relegated to
the dust bin of history. Baboujian, with
tears welling in his eyes, urged A.S.I.
Senators last week to pass a genocide resolution
denouncing the systematic murder of Armenians
in the early 20th century.
After
deliberating for weeks, the Senate has not
come to an official conclusion regarding
the future of the resolution brought forth
by the Armenian Students Association. One
reason for the Senate's delay in passing
a resolution of this nature has stemmed
from several Senate members' beliefs that
it could possibly "open a can of worms."
Baboujian said he does not see it this way.
"Look
at this [genocide] as people who were massacred,
led on death walks, and raped; this is a
humanity issue, it is not only about Armenians,"
Baboujian said before the Senate. "I
seriously don't think this will open up
a can of worms."
Sen.
Morgan Wheeler was one of the first to voice
his hesitance in passing this resolution,
saying that he had a problem with singling
out the Armenian genocide because it would
label the Turks as perpetrators and possibly
anger the Turkish Student Association. He
voiced approval of a more generic resolution,
denouncing all genocide. Senator-at-large
Daniel Rukhman disagreed with Wheeler and
said "Going and denouncing all genocide
is beyond our scope."
Baboujian
clarified for Wheeler as well the rest of
the Senate that the passage of the resolution
would not single out the Turks, but rather
the "Young Turk" government during
the Ottoman Empire, the ruling body at the
time the genocide occurred.
Sen.-at-large
Erik Jolliff sided with Wheeler, saying
that he agreed with the prior understanding
that the Senate came to, that this resolution
was to cover "genocide in general."
Sen. Adam Sturgeon, on the other hand, agreed
with Baboujian, as well as the rest of the
Armenian students in attendance, and said,
"I personally see no problem with this
resolution; if other groups want to present
resolutions then we will deal with them
as well."
Sen.-at-large
Rebekah Smith agreed, saying, "What
matters to me most is that there are Armenian
students here today who support this."
Echoing these sentiments, Baboujian said
that he did not see what the Senate was
so "afraid of."
Ara
Aprahamian, an Armenian student and member
of the association, said that this is a
"human and intellectual issue"
and hoped that "this can act as a catalyst
for similar student associations to tackle
[similar] issues."
Wheeler,
however, still objected.
"I
cannot vote on something that will point
out another group [the Turks], and possibly
offend other students belonging to that
group." He concluded by saying, "I
truly do hate this atrocity and I am sorry
that this has to be so disputed in politics."
Wrapping
up the discussion, A.S.I. Vice President
Guido Piotti said "this group [the
Armenian Student Association] has been waiting
a long time for this, and have done their
homework and gone out of their way to [support
this resolution]." The Senate then
agreed to send the resolution back to Documents
and Bylaws so it can be reworded and tightened
up.
Before
the meeting concluded, however, Sen. Wheeler
voiced his disapproval of Vice President
Piotti taking an opinion on the issue, and
said that Piotti is simply supposed to serve
as a deciding vote in ties and may have
violated a bylaw by expressing his view.
Piotti
commented after the meeting, "I was
elected by almost 2,000 students to represent
them in the Senate and for me to stay quiet
on an issue that I feel is this important
would be a failure of my duty." He
also clarified that no bylaw had been violated.
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