(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)October 14, 2009

MAHWAH –
Dr. Dennis Papazian, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Michigan (Dearborn) and a member of the New Jersey State Commission on Holocaust Education, spoke at Ramapo College of New Jersey Wednesday, October 14 under the auspices of the Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

In his talk, “An Abundance of Proof: Archival Evidence and the Armenian Genocide,” Dr. Papazian discussed how the increasing availability of primary sources from archives around the world has made it virtually impossible to deny the 1915-1916 genocide perpetrated against the Armenian population of Ottoman Turkey.

He pointed to the incontrovertible evidence of the genocide not only in the voluminous reports of U.S. officials stationed in Turkey, much of which has appeared in book form, but also in the accounts of German and Austrian diplomatic and military officials stationed in the Ottoman Empire that has more recently been translated into English. Additionally, Dr. Papazian showed how some Turkish historians have played a key role in the process by researching and publishing the records of the financial authorities and other bodies that lay to rest the official contention that Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire were not forcibly stripped of their property and expelled from their ancestral homes.

Changing tack, Professor Papazian also briefed the audience on the recent protocols signed in Switzerland that will guide the establishment and development of relations between Turkey and Armenia. Citing the presence of the U.S. and Russian foreign secretaries and their last minute prodding to bring the parties to the table, he emphasized that Armenia was not exactly a willing partner to the agreement. Especially irksome, he pointed out, was the establishment under the agreement of a joint Turkish-Armenian commission to review the events of 1915-23 and which represented yet another ploy to question the historical truth of the Armenian Genocide.

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