Thursday, February 4, 1999
Book tour focuses on Turkey, Armenia
GENOCIDE: Author promotes his work detailing disputed killings,
atrocities
By Timothy Kudo
Daily Bruin Contributor
Vahakan N. Dadrian, a world-renowned genocide scholar, spoke at
a meeting of the Armenian Students Association in Ackerman Union on
Wednesday.
Dadrian, whose research is sponsored by the H. F. Guggenheim
foundation, spoke to a group of around 40 people, both young and
old, about the Armenian genocide.
Dadrian is currently on a tour promoting his third book,
"Warrant for Genocide: Key Elements of Turko-Armenian
Conflict."
"I thought it was a good opportunity to hear a great man speak,"
said Rozheh Babaan, a fourth-year psychobiology student.
The one-and-a-half hour lecture outlined the conditions that
allowed for the Armenian genocide.
Dadrian pointed out the political situation in Turkey using
quotations and factual evidence obtained through his research about
atrocities committed by Turkey from 1915-1916.
He also described the brutal nature of the genocide.
Many Armenians were killed with "blunt instruments" while others
"succumbed to the hardships of deportation," Dadrian said.
"Ninety percent of the Armenian population was burned alive in
houses and barns," Dadrian said about one town in Turkey.
A major conflict has been the refusal by the Turkish government
and some scholars to admit that the genocide occurred.
"It’s essentially a rebellion against injustice," Dadrian said.
"When a crime of such gigantic proportions is committed and the
perpetrators escape unpunished, it’s a terrible thing."
Dadrian will speak today with history Professor Stanford Shaw in
Rolfe 1200 at 8 a.m.
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