Clarification needed on genocide conference
Thanks are in order to the Daily Bruin for covering the Armenian
Genocide conference at UCLA (“Armenian Genocide conference
draws scholars,” News, April 4).
The reporter’s description of the conference was
well-written, but there is one point that requires
clarification.
In reference to a talk given at UCLA in February by the U.S.
ambassador to Armenia, it is stated that Ambassador John Evans
reiterated the U.S. position that the events of 1915 should not be
called genocide.
In fact, what Evans said was that the consensus is that,
according to the U.N. Convention on Genocide, the Young Turk regime
of the Ottoman Empire did indeed commit genocide against the
Armenian people, but the question remains whether or not the U.N.
Convention of 1948 can be applied retroactively to previous cases
of premeditated mass killing such as the Armenian Genocide.
The ambassador never questioned the reality of the Armenian
Genocide.
Richard G. Hovannisian AEF Chair in modern Armenian
history