Page 4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, March 13, 1990
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EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
ARTS
NEWS
OPINION
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764 0552
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PHOTO
SPORTS
WEEKEND
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Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board. All other cartoons,
.. signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily.
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Public hears one side of Turkish-Armenian conflit
THIS THURSDAY IS THE FILING
deadline for candidates planning to run
in next month's Michigan Student
Assembly spring elections. Half of the
assembly's 48 positions, including
president and vice president, will be
selected by the student body. Students
who believe they can help revitalize a
dysfunctional organization like MSA
should consider filing for candidacy;
funning for student government is an
excellent opportunity to affect change
on campus.
In the past, MSA has been hindered
by the political infighting between rep-
resentatives and executive officers.
MSA has an annual budget of half a
million dollars; such financial respon-
'sibility necessitates that decisions be
made professionally and maturely.
A year ago, a significant number of
Conservative Coalition party members
won seats on the assembly, including
the offices of president and vice presi-
dent. The CC vowed to "make MSA
more responsible," and to "put an end
to political bickering"; unfortunately,
little has changed in the past year. In
fact, looking at the fiasco of the fall
60.ACEV AS 61VEN u?
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elections (for which current President
Aaron Williams refused to shoulder re-
sponsibility), one could say that MSA
has gotten worse - the circus-like at-
mosphere is no longer confined to
chambers, but has expanded all over
campus via petty attacks in the Daily.
The history of pastineptitudenaside,
MSA is the only central representation
students have at the University. It is a
vital link between the administration
and the student body, and it functions
as an important network for the vast
number of student organizations on
campus which require student funding.
MSA needs people who will concen-
trate on issues facing students, not on
internal bickering.
The upcoming election provides an
excellent opportunity for interested Itu-
dents - with or without a history of
involvement at MSA - to make a
change. Whether running with a party
or as an independent, candidates have
the opportunity to become leaders at
this University by representing stu-
dents and putting an end to the infight-
ing that has plagued MSA for years.
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By Tayfun Akin
The American public in general and the
Daily readership in particular have been
exposed to only one side of the Turkish-
Armenian conflict: the Armenian side. We
believe that this one-sidedness, which is
perhaps the result of misinformation or
lack of information, has been the cause of
a great deal of misunderstanding between
Armenians and Turks, and within the
American public.
The Armenian allegation, that the Ot-
toman Empire instituted a systematic,
state-run program to exterminate the Ar-
menian people, is dubious. Much of the
evidence supporting this allegation is
drawn from reports by Christian mission-
aries, whose religious biases against the
Moslem peoples of Eastern Anatolia
should be obvious. Other evidence comes
from reports by the U.S. Ambassador to
the Sublime Porte; he remained in Istan-
bul throughout the conflict .
No one denies that events in Eastern
Anatolia, 1915-1917, were horrifying.
However, these were the result of an inva-
sion by the Czarist Russian army. Arme-
nians joined the Czarist troops, an act of
rebellion against the Ottoman Govern-
ment. The ensuring civil war and subse-
quent relocation of civilian population of
Eastern Anatolia had tragic consequences.
Hundreds of thousands of people, Armeni-
ans, Kurds and Turks, Christian and
Moslem, died in inter-communal warfare
or because of disease and famine.
Akin is president of the Turkish Student
Association. This letter reflects the opin-
ions of the Executive Committee of the
TSA.
These events cannot possibly be termed
"genocide" on the part of the Ottoman
Empire, which, at any event, was over-
thrown by the Turkish Revolution in
1923. Ottoman responsibility can only lie
in the Empire's inability to protect its
civilian population (both Moslem and
Christian) from wide-scale civil war,
famine and disease, all while fighting a
world war on five fronts.
Official government documents pertain-
ing to the tragic events of 1915-1917 are
now being uncovered. As of May, 1989,
scholars are being granted easy access to
the Ottoman archives and the tens of thou-
sands of documents therein. According to
Dr. Heath Lowry, editor of the Journal of
Ottoman Studies, "Among the newly-
available documents are several dozen
bound handwritten registers containing the
record of the deliberations and decisions of
the Ottoman Council of Ministers for the
years 1914-1922. These registers include
each and every decree pertaining to the de-
cision to relocate the Ottoman Armenians
away from the war zones during the first
World War period. Even to the uninitiated,
the importance of these materials to de-
termining the validity or lack thereof of
the genocide charge should be apparent."
Scholarly research continues. However,
in the past 15 years, Armenian terrorists
have claimed scores of innocent lives at-
tempting compel the international com-
munity to accept their version of history
as fact. In 250 separate incidents, perpe-
trated by Armenian terrorist groups in
more than 20 countries, 73 innocent peo-
ple have been killed and 467 were
wounded.
Armenian terrorist groups have not re-
stricted their violence to Turkish targets,
but have victimized those who did not re-
spond favorably to their claims. Ameri-
cans, Portuguese, Swiss, Canadians,
French, Australian, and others have been
victims of Armenian terrorism.
This terrorist campaign does not re-
spect even academic freedom in American
universities. In 1985, an earlier resolution
to commemorate the alleged "Armenian
Genocide" was brought before Congress.
Some 70 professors of Ottoman history
united and published their protest against
the commemoration in the New York
Times. Those who signed the protest did
not back down in the face of complaints,
threats and even attacks.
The Turkish Student Association calls
for unbiased, unrestricted scholarship to
further our understanding of the events in
Eastern Anatolia during World War I. Ar-
menian emotions about this tragic time
have been fired by the tales told by parents
and grandparents. We too have heard sto-
ries, stories of atrocities committed on our
Turkish parents and grandparents at that
time.
We rely on and respect the memories of
our ancestors as the Armenians do theirs.
However, we do not consider emotions to
be the equivalent of historical proof. Con-
tinued allegations of genocide only serve ,.
to spread the seeds of animosity, bigotry,
and hatred between Turks and Armenians.
We ask that Turks and Armenians alike
acknowledge the human tragedy which be-
fell all the peoples of Eastern Anatolia
during WWI and strive to promote under-
standing and friendship, instead of hatred.
Finally, it is our hope that the American
community will take a more objective
stance in viewing this complex issue.
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Cokely editorial does
not go far enough
To the Daily:
In response to the editorial about Steve
Cokely (2/26/90), I would like to offer my
congratulations to the Daily for bringing
such anti-Semitic comments out in the
open. But the editorial didn't go far
enough.
For Cokely to make such statements
against and about Jews, although totally
unfounded and outrageous, is nonetheless
his constitutional right. For the BSU to
bring a man with his views to this cam-
pus and then support his views with
statements like "He was just giving out
facts" is abhorrent.
Additionally, the editorial in the Issues
Forum (2/26/90) supporting the Diag
shanties' existence on the Diag made no
mention of the Tagar bus which serves to
remind people of Palestinian terrorism
against Israelis. The authors, some of
whom are member of UCAR, mentioned
the two South African and the Palestinian
shanties but conveniently forgot the Israeli
one. Also, they mention the purpose of
each shanty and describe that the Pales-
timan shanty "was built to symbolize Is-
raeli state apartheid policies against Pales-
tinians," but omit the idea of Palestinian
terrorism against Israelis.
BSU and UCAR are always advocating
a dialogue between racial groups on cam-
pus. By bringing and supporting speakers
such as Cokely and forgetting Palestinian
attacks on Israelis, they really just demon-
strate that they wish to be the soul defin-
ers of what is and is not racism.
Instead of working to iron out different
perceptions and feelings about each group,
BSU and UCAR have sought to separate
themselves even further from other groups
that disagree with them.
Randy Lehner
first-year LSA student
SLS can help students
To the Daily:
We wish to commend the Daily, and
reporter Amy Harmon, for her excellent ar-
ticle, "The Dangers of Student Housing"
(Weekend Magazine, 2/23/90). As advo-
cates for better housing and tenants'
rights, we are confident that the feature
article will raise student consciousness
concerning their options and legal rights.
Our organizations are always available
for assistance. Student Legal Services
(SLS) provides free legal help to students,
and we specialize in landlord-tenant mat-
ters. The Housing Law Reform Project is
SLS's advocacy branch, concentrating on
education and community networking to
improve housing conditions and laws. The
Ann Arbor Tenants Union provides phone
counseling and organizing assistance to all
local tenants - not just students.
We wish to reiterate our strong support
of tenant privacy rights, which the land-
lords quoted in your article did not seem to
take seriously. One landlord thought that
tenants without answering machines de-
served minimal respect for privacy. An-
other stated that tenants moving into a
unit "... of course feel that it's their
home... (!)" Tenants: your rental housing
is your home, according to the law, and
our organizations are here to help you.
You can reach Student Legal Services
at 763-9920, the Housing Law Reform
Project at 936-0836 and the Ann Arbor
Tenants Union at 763-6876. We look for-
ward to hearing from you.
Nicholas Roumel, Attorney
Student Legal Services
Michael Appel
Housing Law Reform Project
Claudia Green
Housing Law Reform Project
Ex-Opinion editors
- i.. a -... 0L -2- -
the Board for Student Publications. During
my membership, it was chaired at first by
Prof. Eisendrath and then by Prof. Rosen-
thal. The Board was fully aware that its re-
sponsibilities and authority were limited
to financial matters; we did not even need
to be reminded by those editors who at-
tended our meetings that editorial policy
was none of our concern. I did not even
dare to suggest that the Daily's most cry-
ing need was a good copy editor.
Only once, and then on the initiative of
the editor in chief, did we discuss a policy
question, and on that occasion our recom-
mendation was disregarded. At no time
was even the shadow of a threat to the
Daily introduced, although of course some
staffers may have considered it threatening
when the Board attempted, so far unsuc-
cessfully, to make staffers end the practice
of making hundreds of dollars of personal
long-distance calls at the paper's expense.
At no time during my service on the
Board, whether in our meetings or in con-
versations outside them, did Professor
Rosenthal suggest or even hint at any in-
terference in the editorial independence of
the Daily.
Now, of course, anything is possible
in a paranoid world. It may be that Presi-
dent Duderstadt, Regent Power and Profes-
sor Rosenthal spend late-night hours plan-
ning to do in the Daily so that it may be
converted into a mouthpiece for Ariel
Sharon. It is, I suppose, possible that
Nancy McGlothlin, the Manager of Stu-
dent Publications, harbors secret ambi-
tions to take over the paper, to become the
Rupert Murdoch of Ann Arbor. If so, they
Baker defends letter,
criticizes Rep. Pursell
To the Daily:
I have been recently informed that Carl
Pursell, a man slow to thought but quick
to anger, is foaming once again, and that I
am partly responsible. Apparently, the
Daily reprinted a satirical piece, attacking
Pursell's support for the military death
squads in El Salvador, which I had co-au-
thored. Pursell claimed outrage that the
piece had been reprinted and that the Daily
had failed to mention that the origins of
the satire was being investigated by the
FBI. Pursell's outrage is well-placed.
If it is, in fact, the case that the FBI is
again spying on Pursell's political oppo-
nents, then the Daily certainly should be
investigating this matter thoroughly. The
FBI has a long history of spying on those
who are opposed to government policies.
Just last spring when William Sessions
was visiting the University to give the
Law School's commencement address, it
was revealed that the FBI had been spying
on Ann Arbor's Central America solidarity
activists, and that the FBI was still lying ;
in an effort to conceal this spying.
If the FBI is still acting as a secret po-
lice force available to investigate Pursell's
political opponents any time he is of-
fended, it would be an incredible-
although unsurprising - violation of ba-
sic democratic principles.
It has been well-documented how the
mainstream media in this country repeat
government pronouncements as fact and
work to censor any substantive discussion
of IT C nlntjiP n njr'iuftitnr 1,Pttu r
Writer accuses Daily of plagiarism
To the Daily:
I found it interesting to note that it
stook a riot in the Fishbowl to get the
Daily to write an editorial condemning the
infamous anti-Semitic bigot Steve
:'nkreiu whn nnnrd nn amnuiQ T ftnnd
part, the first half of the editorial was the
writing of Jonathan Brent, not the Daily.
Brent is given no credit for his excel-
lent work. Were this editorial an essay
written for any course at the University of
Michigan, it would be called "plagiarism"