Turkish
Student Association denounces Senate resolution
By
Gerry Wachovsky
On-line Forty-Niner
Members
of the Turkish Student Association appealed
to the Academic Senate Wednesday, asking
for them to overturn a resolution that was
passed last semester.
The resolution, which denounces the Armenian
genocide by members of the "young Turk"
government during the early 20th century,
was brought before the Senate almost five
months ago with virtually no opposition
from the Turkish Student Association. The
Turkish students have now taken issue with
the resolution.
Turkish
Student Association President Isil Rahmanian,
accompanied by several other students and
supporters, appealed to the Senate that
the resolution passed last semester was
not only "falsified" but "an
insult" to her people. Rahmanian, citing
numerous sources, went into a detailed explanation
of the events surrounding and leading up
to the event in question and asserted that
there was "no direct evidence"
saying a genocide of the Armenians ever
took place.
Rahmanian
also requested that the Senate not support
the Armenian Student Association's "Human
Rights Day," which is to take place
on April 22, because "different views
[will not be] presented." According
to Rahmanian, the Turkish Student Association
was "rejected by the Armenians to speak
[at the event]."
Rahmanian's
presentation was met with different reactions
from the Senate. Sen. Morgan Wheeler asked
if Rahmanian was trying to allege that "the
Armenian genocide was actually a relocation
of 7,000 people due to terrorism, and that
the genocide never occurred," which
she affirmed. The Senate also assured Rahmanian
that the resolution that was passed was
"the same" as the resolution that
the California legislature approved. Senator
Kerry Reid asked Rahmanian if she was actually
given a reason as to why the Turkish Student
Association will not be allowed to speak
at the Armenian Student Association's "Human
Rights Day," to which Rahmanian said
she was told the "speakers were already
set."
Ara
Aprahamian, a graduate student and member
of the Armenian Student Association, followed
Rahmanian's presentation with an emotional
request to not overturn the resolution that
he, and others, worked so hard to pass last
semester. According to Aprahamian, "the
last step of genocide is denial," and
the event "was not just a random act
of dislocating [a people, as Rahmanian claimed],
but an attempt to extinguish a people off
the face of the earth." Aprahamian
also said that the resolution was responsible
and should not be overturned as a matter
of principle. "You should rest assured
that passing this resolution was the right
thing to do," Aprahamian said, and
reiterated that it is a human rights issue.
Voskan
Elbakyan, a member of the Armenian Student
Association, and Dilara Sezgin, a Turkish
student, both shared similar ideas for resolving
the situation by saying that the two parties
should put aside their differences and "get
together and talk," in the hopes of
coming to some sort of middle ground
A.S.I.
Vice President Guido Piotti continued to
remind the parties that the situation would
be looked at objectively and from both sides.
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