Armenian students: There is no room in Canada for a genocide denier

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish university professor and prominent Armenian Genocide denier Turkkaya Atayov spoke to a packed, yet ideologically divided audience in McGill University in Quebec, Canada.



A large number of Armenian students attended the contentious lecture in protest, and questioned the McGill's decision to allow a genocide denier to speak on campus under the auspices of freedom of speech. Once question period opened up, the forum deteriorated into a shouting

match between the Turkish and Armenian students in attendance, The McGill Tribune reports.



Atayov rarely addressed the Armenian Genocide directly in the lecture, instead choosing to talk about the need to question mainstream accounts of history and the notion that an unfair standard of blame has been placed upon the Turkish people.



As it is mentioned in the Article, "Atayov claimed that "Armenian arguments" omit many facts, and made reference to the "slaughter" of Turkish people by Armenians in the past. He largely sidestepped the issue of genocide, however, instead asking those in attendance to read the books and essays he has published on the subject in the past in order to understand his argument that Armenian deaths in the early 20th century should not be classified as genocide."



Before the lecture started, and at various points throughout it, a group of about 10 students held up signs that said "There is no room in Canada for a genocide denier" and "Denial is the last step of genocide."



According to Mardig Taslakian, vice president external of the Armenian Students' Association, the ASA will file an equity complaint against the Turkish Students' Society of McGill University later this week. Equity complaints are reviewed by the Students' Society and could result in sanctions against the TSSMU.



"What would the university's reaction be if Neo-Nazis invited someone to come and preach that the Holocaust didn't happen?" Taslakian said. "The Armenian genocide, like the Holocaust, is a well-proven, indisputable fact. ... The Armenian community feels offended that a renowned institution like McGill would allow to say such hateful things."



"There should be discussion of how to deal with the results of the genocide, and not whether or not it happened," Taslakian said. "But [Atayov] blamed the mass deaths of Armenians on a pandemic, among other things, not on the genocide."



The Armenian Genocide is officially recognized by many organizations, including the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and over 20 countries, including Canada.