1983_04 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper Spring 1983

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Vol. 5, No. 1     o
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Spring, 1983    g
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Permit No. 262
o The newspaper of the California
O State University, Fresno, Armenian      ffiHflESHARZHOOM
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0 Students Organization
Stanford Shaw's revenge
Genocide  entangled  in campus politics at UCLA
In January of 1982, Armenian students
at UCLA marched, rallied and chanted to
dramatize their opposition to Professor
Stanford Shaw's denial of the Armenian
genocide.
Today, the shouts of protest and the
placards of January 1982 are gone, but
Stanford Shaw and the struggle against
historical revisionism remain. Long after
the spotlight of campus-wide attention
has dimmed, the UCLA Armenian Students Association now finds itself locked
in a behind-the-scenes dispute which may
drag on for years.
The present arena of conflict is the
UCLA Academic Senate. On February 8,
1983, the Legislative Body of the Academic
Senate came to the defense of the
principle of academic freedom and thus
implicitly criticized the actions of the
ASA. The Senate's vote affirmed a report
prepared by the Committee on Academic
Freedom. The future promises to involve
still more panels and committees: the
Executive Board of the UCLA Academic
Senate, the University of California
Academic Senate, and, possibly, even the
Board of Regents.
And yet, as former ASA President Jim
Amirkhan knows, the controversy
surrotindmg-Stanford Shaw is strikingly
simple.     #&**•
"We've lost part of our homeland and
now Shaw is trying to rob us even of our
memories," said Amirkhan in November
of 1981 as he began planning the
demonstrations.
Amirkhan and other Armenians at
UCLA were aroused by Shaw's blatant
distortions of Armenian history. In his
History of the Ottoman Empire and
Modern Turkey, 1808-1975 (1977), Shaw
reduces the 1915-1918 Armenian
genocide to no . more than a routine
misfortune of war, acknowledging only
200,000 Armenian deaths. At the same
time, he holds the Armenians responsible
for massacres which claimed thousands
of Muslirrilives. Moreover, Shaw's text is
required reading for his students of
modern Turkish history.
The ASA attempted to bring Shaw's
scholarship before the Academic Senate
on a number of occasions but were
consistently rebuffed. The administration's
inflexibility persuaded Amirkhan to make
the Shaw case public, and in January 1982
he set out to do just that.
"In my mind, the goal was to force the
administration into some visible stance,"
Amirkhan said.
And in fact, the administration did take
a stance in January 1982. After
expressing sympathy for the cause of
Amirkhan and other ASA spokespersons,
University Chancellor Charles Young
predictably declined to conduct an
investigation of Shaw.
"But now at least we have something to
react against," explained Amirkhan. "Now
we have a basis for pursuing our objectives."
Unfortunately, the ASA's effort has
become entangled in the assassination of
Turkish Consul Kemal Arikan, which
took place in Los Angeles on January 28,
1982. Although the students condemned
the violence, they nevertheless found
themselves implicated. Shaw temporarily
left his teaching post shortly after the
assassination, and charges of intimidation
were soon directed at the ASA. These
allegations eventually seeped into the
report of the Committee on Academic
Freedom.
In a curious turn of events, the
Armenians at UCLA have suddenly been
transformed from victims to victimizers.
The Committee linked the ASA to off-
campus violence and accused the group
of violating Shaw's right to freedom of
scholarly expression. More importantly,
the Committee systematically overlooked
information favorable to the ASA.
"Inherently, the structure has all the
devices that it needs to silence us,"
Amirkhan noted, pointing out that the
committee has access to University facilities
and resources, while the ASA must raise
money through bake sales to defend
itself.
Amirkhan is particularly unhappy with
the attitude of Dr. John Rosenfeld, who
chaired the subcommittee examining the
Shaw demonstrations. Rosenfeld, the vice-
president of the UCLA chapter of the
influential American Association of University Professors, entered the case with
the intent of "scapegoating" the ASA,
according to Amirkhan. What followed
was an investigation aimed at tarnishing
the .integrity of the Armenian students
organization.
The ASA, however, is not without allies
of its own. Besides benefiting from the
testimony of Dr. Richard Hovannisian
Jewish, and Latino students. (Amirkhan
reports,  though,  that  "a number of
Armenians resent our alliance with Jews,
Blacks, and others.")
Within the Armenian community, the
SUPPORT FOR UCLA ARMENIAN CLUB
Whereas, the Armenian Students Association, in their legitimate protest
against the teaching practices of Stanford Shaw, followed all regulations outlined by the University for demonstrations on this campus, and
Whereas, the Academic Freedom Committee of the Academic Senate
nevertheless condemned the Armenian Students Association for their protest
and recommended more restrictive guidelines concerning demonstration on this
campus,
Therefore, be it resolved, that the Undergraduate Students Association
Council endorses the rights of all students to free speech and assembly and
decries all attempts to restrict those rights or to condemn students exercising
those rights.
And be it further resolved that the Undergraduate Student Association
Council calls on the UCLA Academic Senate to review the facts of the report on
Academic Freedom with regards to Professor Stanford Shaw in order to insure
its objectivity and fairness to all campus organizations and individuals.
and Dr. Avedis Sanjian at the recent
Academic Senate hearing, the ASA has
also won the support of UCLA's two
leading student government bodies. On
March 8, for example, the Undergraduate
Student Association reaffirmed the
ASA's right to free speech and called on
the Academic Senate to reassess its own
resolution. At the same time, representatives of the Graduate Student
Association have vowed to take the case
up the academic ladder in order to gain a
fair judgement.
Among campus minority groups, the
ASA's cause has received strong support
from organizations representing Black,
Shaw controversy has cemented the unity
of Armenian student associations throughout Southern California and bolstered the
cohesion of the UCLA club as well.
As for Jim Amirkhan, the continued
development of the ASA's battle with
historical revisionism allows him to look
at the anger of January 1982 from a more
distant, but nonetheless determined,
perspective.
"For as long as it takes to discourage
Shaw or others from pushing this type of
racist propaganda, I hope there will be
Armenian students around to combat it."
Amirkhan is convinced there will be.
Suffering spans cultural gap on panel
Prof. Vahakn Dadrian in Fresno
FRESNO Separated by history,
culture and geography, Armenians, Jews
and American Indians found that they
share a common heritage of persecution
April 25 during a panel discussion on
genocide at California State University,
Fresno.
"A Look Back: Genocide and the
Armenian, Jewish and American Indian
Experiences" was the topic which
brought together Professor Vahakn
Dadrian, Dr. Joseph Melamed, rabbi, and
Frank Lee for an unprecedented dialogue
on mass suffering. And before the
afternoon was over, the trio had explored
the past and present reality of genocide,
with an eye toward the prevention of
future crimes against humanity.
"I don't speak in terms of my genocide
or your genocide," said Rabbi Melamed.
"We must instead speak in terms of all
mankind. Your genocide is my genocide."
With that, the three panelists went on
to compare notes on the circumstances
of the Armenian, Jewish and American
Indian tragedies. Providing a scholarly
context for the exchange was Professor
Dadrian, an internationally recognized
figure in the field of victimology. Dadrian
focused primarily on the Armenian
experience before moving on to briefly
examine the Jewish Holocaust and the
annihilation of the American Indians from
an academic perspective.
Lee, a member of the Mono tribe, also
included historical background in his
presentation, but, at the same time, he
spoke of genocide from the standpoint of
a present-day victim.
"You might say I came from a
concentration camp today, because
that's what Indian reservations were
intended to be," said Lee, the business
manager of the Cold Springs Rancheria.
He explained how relations between
American Indians and the United States
have been shaped by 381 broken treaties
and government control of American
Indian lands.
"Everyday we see a country that is no *
longer ours," he said.
Melamed offered no remedy for the
pain of dispossessed peoples, but he
called upon his audience to at least
understand the potential for human
barbarity and world indifference.
If the world was silent for one genocide,
it will be silent for the second genocide,
and the fourth, and the sixth, and the
tenth, and so on," he warned.
"How the atrocities were committed
and by whom is not important. The
question is how the rest of us allowed
these things to happen." ,
Melamed portrayed genocide as an
cont. on page 2