PanARMENIAN.Net
ANCC: American professor made racist and derogatory remarks about Armenians
10.03.2009 00:11 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ At a lecture sponsored by the Assembly of
Azerbaijani-Canadian Organizations, with "kind assistance from the
Azerbaijani Embassy in Ottawa", American journalist and professor of
political science Thomas Goltz made racist and derogatory remarks
about Armenians in Ottawa last week. Goltz’ remarks were in response a
question from the audience on how to convince Armenians of
Nagorno-Karabagh to stay within the "current boundaries of
Azerbaijan." Goltz, who teaches at the Montana State University,
replied: "By building a forward-looking democracy you will be able to
let the garlic-growing Armenians beg to join you (Azerbaijan)."
Goltz was in Ottawa as a speaker, invited by the Azeri embassy and the
Assembly of Azerbaijani-Canadian Organizations, to talk about the
events of February 26, 1992 in the town of Khojaly in
Nagorno-Karabagh. Goltz delivered his speech "Khojaly Massacre: Crime
and No Punishment", at the National Archives of Canada. Some 60 people
(mostly Azeris and Turks) attended. Next day Goltz delivered a
variation of the same lecture at the National Press Club’s Newsmaker
Breakfast series, hosted by the Azeri embassy. About 20 people
attended that gathering.
Goltz accused Armenians of perpetrating "ethnic cleansing" in Khojaly
and said the Armenia argument that the Khojaly operation was a
necessary pre-emptive and defensive measure to relieve
Nagorno-Karabagh’s capital Stepanakerd from relentless shelling from
Khojaly was "nonsense".
The most dramatic moment of the lectures occurred when Aris Babikian
from the Armenian National Committee of Canada (ANCC) successfully
refuted two controversial statements by Goltz.
At the Newsmaker Breakfast lecture, Aris Babikian, executive director
of the ANCC, confronted Goltz and mocked him for his "command
performance of misrepresentation and revisionism." Babikian exposed
Goltz’ hypocrisy by pointing out that the American journalist had
"conveniently forgotten to mention the Sumgait, Baku and Maragh
massacres of Armenians by Azeris… and that had it not been for the
Russian Navy 230,000 Armenian inhabitants of Baku would have not
survived."
Regarding the Khojaly killings, Babikian said: "Armenians did not
claim that Azeris had perpetrated the massacres of their own
people. It was the Azeri president, Ayaz Mutalibov, who made such a
statement in an April 2, 2004 interview published in Nezavisimaya
Gazeta. In the interview with Czech journalist Yana Mazalova,
Mutalibov said that his opposition, the National Front of Azerbaijan,
were behind the killings to undermine his authority and to topple him.
In further questioning, Babikian asked Goltz to explain why the bodies
of Azeri victims were found 11 km from Khojaly and 2 km from the most
heavily fortified Azeri military town of Aghdam. "Is it logical for
Armenians to follow Azeri 11 km, risking their own lives to eliminate
the enemy around Aghdam, instead of killing them in Khojaly?" Babikian
asked.
Babikian challenged Goltz to explain why so "many Azeri journalists
who had questioned Azeri government’s version of Khojaly events were
jailed or killed. Babikian cited the case of jailed Azeri journalist
Eynulla Fatullayev whose jailing was investigated by the European
Court for Human Rights.
Babikian asked Goltz to be honest and impartial when employing quotes
and to do so "without misrepresentation and misquotation so that they
can fit and augment his narrative of the events."
The ANCC executive said that he found it strange that Goltz praised
his "old friend" the late "great" Aliyev as an "extraordinary guy"
when everyone in Azerbaijan knows that he was a despot and a man who
stifled democracy while his son, the current president, follows in his
father’s infamous steps. Babikian said it was obvious that for Goltz
"the lure of the petro-dollar is much stronger than the lure of truth
and impartiality."
Goltz did not answer any of Babikian’s questions and skirted around
them.
Dr. Girair Basmadjian, president of ANCC, said: "We condemn such
racist and hate-disseminating lectures spewed by the mouthpiece of a
foreign government on Canadian podiums. It is unfortunate that some
Canadian Parliamentarians, Senators, and journalists had to hear such
vile statements without even raising an objection or questioning the
organizers and the speaker about the validity of their words and
action."
The ANCC leader added that "The Canadian government and police should
investigate the grave and far-reaching consequences of such hateful
speeches. We also would like to ask Canadian Parliamentarians to
disassociate themselves from this lecture and the anxiety it has
caused to the Canadian-Armenian community," ANCC reports.