Letters to Artvoice

GENOCIDE,

BY ANY OTHER NAME

In response to Matthew Ismet Takim’s letter (“Letters to AV,” Artvoice v6n47)claiming his list of scholars disputing the genocide were of the highest repute, it was interesting to see that the list of names he gives can be found published in the same exact order all over the internet by many sources. It may be suggested that Mr. Takim did not compile this list of names himself, and therefore I wonder if he’s read the historians he lists as authorities.

I would divide his list into several categories for the sake of expediency. First group: professors working at Turkish universities, in which country you can be thrown in jail for acknowledging the genocide—Stone, Shaw, Gurun. Second group: Andrew Mango who, Mr. Takim claims, is a scholar of the highest repute, is among those who work in Turkey in a non-academic capacity; their work has not gone through peer review (i.e. checked by peers for accuracy).

Finally, number three: The most interesting group includes the scholars who have done at least some research into the genocide. These include Gunther Lewy and Justin McCarthy. One can view McCarthy’s debate performances on this issue on YouTube. (Please draw your own conclusions about the caliber of the research. No background necessary.)

As for Lewy, he is indeed a prominent historian. But not on this issue. Lewy’s research involved looking through the German archives of the Turkish trials of the Young Turk commanders who engineered the genocide. Lewy’s intervention critiques Vahakn Dadrian’s research in the Austrian and German archives. But Lewy himself does not know Turkish or Armenian, nor has he studied the Turkish archives, as have genocide scholars such as Taner Akcam. Furthermore, Lewy’s book on the matter was rejected 11 times from peer-reviewed university presses, and deemed a work of “genocide denial” by those presses. Lewy’s past works include a revisionist account of the behavior of American soldiers in Vietnam (behavior which he regards as proper and moral). Lewy does argue, however, that although he personally does not believe the Armenian massacre was a genocide, it may be proper to hold that opinion out of moral opprobrium (neglecting the fact, of course, that the term genocide was created as a form of moral opprobrium). In addition, he believes the Turkish reprisals were wildly disproportionate to the “treason” of some Armenians.

As for Mr. Takim’s argument that the Armenian massacre was not nearly as brutal as the Holocaust, I’ll leave that alone as I don’t believe this is really a question of deciding which massacre/annihilation was worse.

Dimitri Anastasopoulos

Buffalo

Editor’s note: Anastasopoulos is the author of the article (“Armenian Genocide Denial: An American Problem,” Artvoice v6n44) to which Matthew Ismet Takim’s two letters in last week’s issue were a response.

FREE RANGE TURKEY

Here are the top 10 reasons to skip the turkey this Thanksgiving:

10. You will pardon a turkey—just like President Bush, but for the right reasons.

9. You’ll celebrate life and good fortune, rather than death and misfortune.

8. You won’t suffer nightmares about how the turkey lived and died.

7. You won’t have to call the Poultry Hotline to keep your family alive.

6. You won’t have to sweat the saturated fat and cholesterol.

5. Your vegetarian friends will adore you.

4. Your kids will tell their friends about their cool “tofurky.”

3. You won’t fall asleep during the football game.

2. You are what you eat. Who wants to be a “butterball”?

1. Commercial turkeys are too fat to have sex. Could happen to you.

This Thanksgiving, let’s give thanks for our good fortune, health and happiness with a life-affirming, cruelty-free feast of vegetables, fruits and grains. My family’s Thanksgiving dinner menu will include a “tofurky,” lentil roast, mashed potatoes, corn stuffing, stuffed squash, chestnut soup, candied yams, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and perhaps even carrot cake. An internet search on “vegetarian Thanksgiving” got us more recipes and other useful information than we could use.

Bob Lovejoy

Buffalo