The Zoryan Institute, with the participation of the Armenian National Committee of Toronto, organized a public lecture for Prof. Richard Hovannisian on August 8, 2003, to discuss the issues addressed in the new book he has edited, entitled Looking Backward, Moving Forward: Confronting the Armenian Genocide.

"It was just too good an opportunity to pass up," said George Shirinian, Director of the Institute, referring to the dozen specialists gathered in Toronto for the two-week Genocide and Human Rights University Program run by Zoryan. "With all of these renowned authors on genocide available in one place, we wanted to share with the community some of the latest genocide research being conducted and taught by these scholars."

Prof. Hovannisian opened the lecture with his observations on the Zoryan course. "I was very moved today in that this is the first time that I am seeing such a large number of young students of various backgrounds-from Europe, from Turkey, from various parts of the United States and Canada-joined together in a very serious and thoughtful communion and exchange, trying to understand the phenomenon of genocide, the place of the Armenian Genocide in world history, and its impact in our own lives."

"The story of Armenian history," he continued, "in and of itself, will have no resonance and no echo in future history, unless those whom it concerns the most are able to integrate the Armenian experience into the experience of humankind. Without the Armenian Genocide becoming a part of collective human history, it did not occur. This is the challenge for the youth that are gathered here today, for you who are activists in the community, and for us who are scholars or students of this phenomenon."

"It is important to study genocide as a part of world history," Hovannisian asserted, "as well as the impact of it both on victim and perpetrator societies, because we are all victims; victims are victims, and perpetrators are victims as well, because as time goes on, there is no winner. Even those who continue to deny are victims. They feel they are stereotyped, that the world doesn't understand them. They have to continuously recreate the mythology of what took place, and this takes a toll on them. The Armenian people, for nearly 100 years, have not been able to use their great talents to their full potential because they've had to look backward so much that the forward motion has been slowed."

Discussing further the relevance of the Armenian Genocide, he stated, "One may wonder why this is such an issue for the Turkish government. The phenomenon of genocide has such far-reaching consequences, that both perpetrators and victims can not shake it from their consciousness….The government in Ankara are aware of the progress being made by this diverse, divided community of Armenians around the world. But they are unable to go beyond and look forward properly until the picture of the past is clear."

After describing the contextualizing of the Genocide as a critical challenge, Prof. Hovannisian added that, "A second challenge is to learn far more than we think we know about the Armenian Genocide. Many of us have grown up with the stories and the stereotypes we have heard about the 'terrible Turk.' But few of us have had the opportunity to examine in depth what occurred. Compared to the Holocaust, the study of the Armenian Genocide is still in its infancy. All the evidence for the Armenian Genocide has not been made available. We have an uncooperative Turkish government that perpetuates denial of this crime."

"I am angry," Hovannisian remarked, "that much of my life has to be spent on useless argument and demonstrating what should be unnecessary to prove to the world, what everyone already knows, what all governments condemned in 1915. But then also I look around me and I see the increasing number of volumes written by non-Armenians on genocide and human rights. I see the word Armenian is more and more prevalent, and we should be pleased."

Regarding the issue of Turkish-Armenian dialogue, Prof. Hovannisian felt there has been progress over the last thirty years. "I am appreciative of the fact that in the past few decades, lonely Turkish voices are beginning to be heard from Turkey and Europe, which say we need to confront this issue for our own sake….I have met with some Turkish scholars who have had access to memoirs of Turkish leaders at the time of the Genocide, which have revealed the development of hard-line Turkish nationalism before World War I, before the defense of Van. But we still do not have the triggers that caused the implementation of the Genocide."

Turning to the Armenian image of the Turk, he commented, "Perhaps 90% of the Armenians who survived did so because of the intervention of a non-Armenian. In most cases, those who saved Armenians did not know them personally. Sometimes they just felt it was the right thing to do. We need to give up the stereotype of the 'terrible Turk' and realize there were many people who said this was wrong. I am thankful to those people, and I acknowledge those people, and I regret that I do not know them. I regret I do not know the Kurds of Dersim, who rescued on the underground railway by paying a piece of gold for all the Armenians from Kharpert, my father's home province, to get out of Kharpert, across through Erzincan and to Erzurum and to join Antranik and eventually to the Caucasus."

In describing some of the essays in his new book, Prof. Hovannisian stated, "This volume covers international law, but international law may not address the issues of the Armenian Genocide. However, the court of international public opinion is another powerful force for resolving international disputes. The Swiss banks repaying the accounts of Holocaust victims is an instructive case. The story of Raphael Lemkin shows that he was very influenced by the Armenian Genocide and the United States' decision to not interfere in the Ottoman Empire's internal affairs. He felt the issue of national sovereignty, a country's 'right' to kill its own people, was wrong. A Turkish author analyzing the development of denial in Turkish historiography of the Armenian Genocide in a critical manner offers the hope that we are on the verge of a new phase, where the advances in democratic civil society in Turkey may open the door for putting aside the Republican myth created around Mustapha Kemal."

"One of the main reasons that Turkish authorities and the establishment can not acknowledge the Armenian Genocide," he explained, "even if they want to, is that it would repudiate the very foundations of the Turkish Republic today. The vast majority of leaders and officials of Republican Turkey were nothing more than a carry over from the Young Turk regime. Thousands of petty criminals responsible for the Genocide remained in their positions, were elected to the Turkish parliament, and therefore to expose those people would also mean to expose the fact that the Republic of Turkey was built right on the foundations of the Young Turk regime. And that myth that Mustapha Kemal and Republican Turkey represented total repudiation of the past, the creation of a secular society, etc., would be exposed. So I am thankful for these authors."

"My field is not genocide," the professor asserted. "My field is modern Armenian history, and primarily the first Armenian Republic, about which I have written five large volumes. And still, the reality is that I am called upon to speak on this subject ten or twenty times more frequently than my own field of expertise, because it remains a live issue. We need to find the means…ultimately for finding a conciliation with the Turkish people, and also with the Turkish government. Reconciliation may be difficult, but conciliation means finding a way to work together to have normal relations-if friendly or not-but normal relations for the benefit of the Armenian people, and especially for the benefit of the new Armenian Republic."

In closing, Prof. Hovannisian remarked, "I want to thank particularly the students who have come to the Zoryan Institute, to become enriched with one another; bright young people who are willing to do graduate degrees, to write dissertations on the subject of the Armenian Genocide and human rights, which gives us hope for the future. And I thank the Turkish students, who are here in the symposium, open, willing and wanting to learn more, to face their history, in order that we can all face ourselves."

Gariné Vartanian of the Armenian National Committee Toronto concluded the evening with the statement that through the joint efforts of organizations, such as the Zoryan Institute and the Armenian National Committee, the involvement of scholars and students like those present, as well as the support of the community, we strive to promote human rights and international justice.

The Zoryan Institute is a non-profit, international center devoted to the research and documentation of contemporary issues related to the history, politics, society, and culture of Armenia and Armenians around the world. The University Program is run through the International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, which is a division of the Zoryan Institute.