ANKARA (Armenian Weekly)—A symposium on the Armenian Genocide titled “1915 Within Its Pre- and Post-Historical Periods: Denial and Confrontation,” which was to be held in Ankara, was canceled on April 21 after facing political and bureaucratic hurdles.
Organized by the Ankara Freedom to Thought Initiative (AFTI), the symposium was not only going to address history, but explore issues like the confiscation of Armenian property and reparations.
Confirmed participants included Ragip Zarakolu (publisher), Recep Marasli (author of The Armenian National Democratic Movement and 1915 Genocide), Sait Cetinoglu (activist and writer), David Gaunt (genocide scholar, author of Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia During World War I), Henry Theriault (professor of philosophy, Worcester State University), Baskin Oran (author, professor of political science at Ankara University; one of the initiators of the apology campaign of Turkish intellectuals), and Khatchig Mouradian (doctoral student in Holocaust and genocide studies, Clark University; editor, the Armenian Weekly).
Theriault and Mouradian were scheduled to speak about genocide recognition and reparations.
It's too bad Mouradian will not be going. This would have been good for the ones in Turkey that want to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.
While such conferences are organized and intended to fight general ignorance beside fight against Denial, Repudiation & Falsification of the historic fact of Armenian Genocide by Turkish governments since 1923…. How could be tolerated by atmosphere of fear & the perpetrator itself?