Letters
to the editor
Turkey should admit to genocide
My
name is Garabet Kailajian and I am a student
at Cal State Long Beach in the biology department.
April 24 is when millions of Armenians all
around the world commemorate the Armenian
genocide, which was the first genocide of
the 20th century and still, to this date,
Turkey, who committed these inhuman acts,
denies it.
I wanted to express my feelings and some
facts in regard to it by writing an opinion
article.
The forgotten genocide is the Armenian genocide.
Everyone might be asking what I am talking
about. Well, this is the first genocide
of the 20th century that was organized by
the Ottoman Empire, now know as the country
of Turkey, on the Armenian people from 1915-1923.
During this genocide, 1.5 million Armenian
children, women and men were massacred.
But to this date Turkey denies this ever
happening.
How can you deny the facts that the Young
Turk party who was the leader of the government
at the time orderer for the annihilation
and killing of all Armenians because we
were the only Christian country within the
region?
How can Turkey deny what happened 88 years
ago when 31 states in the United States
of America have either past resolutions
or signed proclamations commemorating and
recognizing the Armenian genocide?
On Thursday, April 24, which is the day
that all Armenians commemorate the Armenian
genocide, Gov. Davis signed a proclamation
calling April 24 a Day of Remembrance for
the Armenian Genocide.
The Turkish government should be ashamed
at its unwillingness to admit to this inhuman
act. One of the main reasons that they are
not able to enter the European Union is
because they are not admitting to this atrocity.
Yes, it is true that it wasn’t this government
that committed these acts, but not admitting
that the Armenian genocide did occur means
they become an accessory to the crime.
As an Armenian student I believe it is my
duty and my responsibility to let the world
know what happened and to ask for recognition
of the Armenian genocide. And I ask, as
a human, how can anyone deny this act and
other acts of this type?
Garabet
Kailajian
student
biology department
Chomsky
supports neo-Nazis
I
would like to thank Dr. Jeffrey A. Cohlberg
for his letter to the editor, “Chomsky did
not deny holocaust,” which was printed on
Tuesday, April 22. In my April 8 article,
“Punk rock is ill-informed on war,” I falsely
(albeit unintentionally) accused Noam Chomsky
as having “publicly denied the Holocaust,”
an error I regret having made. Allow me
to set the record straight.
Noam Chomsky, while not having “publicly
denied the Holocaust,” has been affiliated
with certain neo-Nazi and Holocaust-deniers,
the most prominent being Robert Faurisson,
a French professor who has claimed, among
other things, that the Nazis did not attempt
to systematically eradicate the Jews and
that there were never any gas chambers.
After Faurisson’s book was published, Noam
Chomsky signed a petition stating his disgust
with the censorship of the book in France,
showing his support for speech of all forms,
hateful or not.
I do agree with Chomsky on this point: I
believe that any speech, whether it be hateful
or not, whether it agrees with my view or
not, should be supported by the First Amendment.
Chomsky, however, did much more than just
say that Faurisson has a right to print
what he wants.
Chomsky allowed Faurisson to print his essay,
“Some Elementary Comments on The Rights
of Freedom of Expression,” as a preface
to Faurisson’s book, “Memoire en Defense.”
Not only this, but Chomsky’s works have
also been printed in books by the Noontide
Press, one of the publishers for the Institute
for Historical Review, the world’s leading
historical revisionist organization.
Regarding the essay that Chomsky allowed
Robert Faurisson to use, Chomsky has said,
“I see no anti-Semitic implications in denial
of the existence of gas chambers or even
denial of the Holocaust...I see no hint
of anti-Semitic implications in Faurisson’s
work.”
The fact that Faurisson’s works have been
proven historically inaccurate and sponsored
by blatantly anti-Semitic organizations,
such as the Institute for Historical Review
and the Noontide Press, certainly shows
something about Chomsky’s lack of credibility,
not to mention raises an eyebrow about the
people Chomsky supports.
I regret my error in judgment and I hope
this letter has clarified what I had intended
to convey in the original article. Once
again, I would like to thank Dr. Jeffery
A. Cohlberg for bringing this to my attention,
as I always strive to be completely truthful
and up-front in my articles, something I
take much pride in.
—
Gerry Wachovsky,
senorbucho@aol.com
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