GENOCIDE BELIEF SEEN AS ‘INSULT’ BY TURKEY
Jennifer Campbell, [email protected]
The Ottawa Citizen
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
The fact that the Canadian government has recognized Armenian claims
of genocide by the Turks in 1915 still casts a shadow over relations
between Canada and Turkey, the incoming ambassador says.
Rafet Akgunay noted in an interview yesterday that Canada is one of the
only governments in the world to recognize Armenian claims and said
his government finds it particularly strange coming from a country
that is known internationally as a peace-loving and peace-making
nation. (In 2004, Canada’s Parliament reversed the country’s previous
policy when it voted for a private member’s bill that recognized as
genocide the killing of Armenians during the First World War.)
"It’s taken as an insult in Turkey and it’s an insult from a country
which is known around the world as a country that loves peace and
security and stability. This is just the other way around because
you recognize something which is not established as fact.
"Writing history is not the task of parliamentarians or officials of
government," he said.
Given that, Turkey has asked foreign governments to encourage both
sides to study the archives and decide exactly what happened. Turkey
has proposed a joint committee of historians from Turkey and Armenia,
with the possibility of third-party historians joining in to come up
with a decisive analysis of the history.
That said, Mr. Akgunay said the Armenian issue is not the only one on
his agenda — indeed, it’s just one facet of the political side. He’s
also going to work toward air agreements where Turkish Airlines could
fly into Canada. "One of the first things I did in Canada was to
attend a meeting of the Turkey-Canada Business Council and all the
business people asked me to try my best to start flights from Turkey.
Turkish Airlines is ready but there are still agreements to be made
in Canada."
He plans to develop the trade relationship. Two-way trade between
Canada and Turkey now stands at $1.3 billion, which is "peanuts"
for both countries.
By comparison, Turkey’s two-way trade with Russia is $25 billion.
He will also work with Turkish-Canadians, who number about 50,000,
many of whom contribute greatly to the economy, he said.
Canadians Honoured
Canadian biochemist Joseph H. Hulse was honoured by the Indian
government with the Padma Shri Award at a ceremony at Rashtrapati
Bhawan, the president’s palace, last Monday.
Mr. Hulse is a world expert in biotechnology, a former vice-president
of Canada’s International Development Research Centre and a one-time
scientific adviser to the United Nations secretary general. The
announcement said he’s "devoted his life to research on food, nutrition
and food security".
The scientist first visited India in 1962 to represent Canada in
the establishment of the International Food Technology Training and
Research Centre. For the following 40 years, he travelled to India
some 60 times to help with various food-related projects, specifically
on efforts to alleviate chronic malnutrition among poor children in
rural areas.
Mr. Hulse is now a visiting professor at the Central Food Technological
Research Institute in Mysore, India, and at the M.S.
Swaminathan Research Foundation in Tamil Nadu. He’s also the honorary
fellow of the University of Manchester’s Institute of Science and
Technology and the Australian, British and New Zealand Institutes of
Food Science Technology.
A few days before Mr. Hulse received his award from India, a Canadian
veteran received an award from Russia. Canadian Second World War
veteran Jack Hendrie was one of the first Allied soldiers to cross
the Elb River at Wismar to link up with Soviet forces in May 1945.
A stretcher-bearer with the 224 Para Field Ambulance, Mr. Hendrie
helped many injured Soviets in the field. For his work, all those
years ago, he recently received a commemorative medal from the
Russian government.
MP Peter Stoffer delivered the medal to Mr. Hendrie, who lives near
Maxville, Ont. Mr. Stoffer, who is the NDP’s Veterans Affairs critic,
got involved because one of his constituents in Nova Scotia worked
for more than 20 years to get his friend the medal and Mr. Stoffer
joined the effort.
The MP conveyed a letter of congratulations from Russian Ambassador
Georgiy Mamedov, who called Mr. Hendrie’s sacrifice "priceless and
unquestionable."
EU Awards
At Europe Day celebrations last night, EU Ambassador Dorian Prince
recognized the winners of the 2008 Children’s EU Drawing Competition
where school children drew EU-themed pictures.
The winners of the drawing contest are Queenswood Public School
students Niana Lavallee, 10, Jack Vandermeer, 11, and Heather Barr,
10; Lakeview Public School students Claire Fortin, 10, Samantha Adeli,
10, Erica Jessen, 11, Nicole Kern, 10, Caitlin Cassidy Roe, 10, Gen
Klein, 10, and Patrick Stone, 10; and Thomas D’Arcy McGee Catholic
School students Sonya Bellefeuille, 12, and Shaima Gbeke, 10.
Today, Mr. Prince is to award the EU-Canada Young Journalist Award
for 2008. The winning journalists, who will travel to Brussels for
a one-week study tour, are Gaetan Pouliot (Universite de Montreal),
and Anna Olejarczyk and Trevor D’Arcy (University of British Columbia).