Over the past week, the Toronto District School Board’s decision to pull Barbara Coloroso’s Extraordinary Evil from a Grade 11 course has continued to draw criticism from the literary community. Yesterday, Coloroso’s publisher – Penguin Canada president David Davidar – joined in the condemnations.
Here is an open letter from Davidar, addressed to the Toronto District School Board’s director of education Gerry Connelly:
Dear Mr. Connelly,
As the publisher of Barbara Coloroso’s Extraordinary Evil: A Brief History of Genocide, we regret the Toronto District School Board’s decision to drop the book from its list of resources for a Grade 11 course called Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Board documents describe Ms. Coloroso as a “renowned educator” and the book’s inclusion in the reading list in the first place attests to its value as a legitimate contribution to the study of genocide. Dropping the book from the list is apparently based on vociferous objections by segments of the Turkish Canadian population who reject the “genocide” designation to describe the atrocities committed against Armenians in 1915, and who dispute Ms Coloroso’s credentials as an historian. In fact, Ms Coloroso has never claimed to be an historian and in the Introduction to her book, she emphasizes that she is writing “as an educator, a parent, and a former nun. All three of these influence and colour this text.”
We suggest that the Board follow the philosophy outlined in the April 29th Review Committee Report, which states “Grade 11 students can appreciate – and, more importantly, should appreciate – that history is a contested area without suggesting that everything is relative. … Genuine historical controversies do belong in a high school curriculum and can be beneficial in giving students an in-depth understanding of complex events and in teaching students critical thinking.” While we laud the Board’s decision to implement such a course, and to continue to include the Armenian genocide as part of that course, we urge you to reinstate Ms. Coloroso’s book onto the course reading list. Many voices have been recorded on the tragedies of various genocides, the voices of historians, eyewitnesses, novelists, human rights groups, social scientists, journalists and even Canadian generals. Ms Coloroso’s voice should be among them.
Sincerely,
David Davidar
President and Publisher
Penguin Group Canada
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I read the letter written by David Davidar, President of the Penguin Publisher, to Mr. Connelly, reprinted by Scott MacDonald as part of the criticism from the literary community. I have been following the controversy over the proposed new course on genocide studies. It is my understanding that the voice of Turkish Canadians was raised primarily because of the inclusion of the ethnic conflict and resulting tragedy within the Ottoman Empire as an example of past genocide, and not because of Ms. Colorosos book. Indeed, the tragic events of the era, which started with the Armenian revolt with land claims and the bloodshed it led to among the people in the region, Armenians and non-Armenians alike, has never been recognized as a genocide by any international court of law. Genocide is a word that describes a serious crime against humanity and hence should not be used loosely without the acknowledgment of an international legal tribunal. There was such an attempt at the end of WWI by the British to discredit the defeated Ottoman Government. The outcome was to dismiss the genocide claims in spite of full access to the Ottoman Archives. To date, the U.K. refuses to accept genocide claims even under tremendous pressures from the Armenian Diaspora to which the Harper Government has given in. This is a historical dispute to be left to historians. It should never be taught to our students as an established fact, until it is established as a fact. I do, however, agree with Mr. Davidar that these historical debates should be taught to our students as historical debates, but never as examples of established facts, which was the context in which it was proposed to be taught in the controversial course.
The response of Turkish Canadians stemmed from an innocent mistake that was made by the Board in yielding the pressures of the Armenian Diaspora in accepting to teach a historical dispute as an established fact. Upon hearing the concerns, the Board felt minor revisions to the course were in order, though definitely not sufficient to correct the mistake, and in due course eliminated Ms. Colorosos book as a resource material as the book content was no longer appropriate. I do not see the reason for the outcry, unless it is part of a well orchestrated publicity campaign by the strong Armenian political machinery once again. I am an academic. The sales representatives of publishers knock on my door regularly, anxiously trying to sell their books. Assigning a book to a course, results in massive purchases. I appreciate their help, examine the books and make a decision based on their scholarly merits. The Toronto District School Board did the same. They established a review committee on the subject, consisting of scholars, and their recommendation was not to include the book as a resource material. This is a normal process. In fact, pressuring scholarly bodies to assign a teaching material of their choice deserves much criticism.
Sincerely,
Dr. M. Saatcioglu, P.Eng.
Professor
University of Ottawa
Dear Madam or Sir:
The Armenian Genocide is an incontestable event in the history of the world. Yes, the Armenians were victims of the Ottoman Turks and thus those who survivied emigrated in what has become an Armenian diaspora. You don’t see any Turks who fled this catastrophe other than perpetrators who escaped from the trials held after World War I.
Ms.Coloroso’s book should be adopted by the Toronto School Board although there are many others also that can authenticate the Armenian Genocide along with the Archives of the United States and Great Britain.
Furthermore, an International Trial did not follow the first World War does not suggest that the crime perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks did not exist.
For ninety-three years, the state of Turkey has black-balled and black-mailed international organizations and the U.N. including inviduals states against their use of the words “Armenian Genocide.” TheTurkish state tribunals/trials at the end of World War I were a fiasco leaving the perpetrators and its successive governments without proper adjudication of their crimes against humanity. The Turkish state and its Ottoman predecessors have gained impunity for their actions. Turkey has led most nations in human rights violations and continues its charade of history and the facts were documented in the archives of its collaborators Germany and Austria-Hunagary in World War I.
Sincerely,
Gary A. Kulhanjian, Former Member New Jersey Holocaust Commission
The evidence for the Turks’ deliberately causing the deaths of tens of thousands of Armenians is well known, though not as well knonwn as it should be.
Efforts by Turks to conceal the truth should not be allowed to succeed by Western nations devoted to free speech and free inquiry.
As an American, I note that free speech and free inquiry are on the decline in Canada. Given my own country’s troubled experiences over the past few years, I would have hoped that our northern neighbor would be an example for us to follow, but the reverse is the case.
“The Armenian Genocide is an incontestable event in the history of the world.”
Gary, the only ones who believe that are Armenians, those who didn’t do any research, and / or those influenced by Armenians. Those who actually do objective research can very well come to different conclusions; even many objective historians who say that they believe that what happened constitutes genocide don’t pretend that it’s an “incontestable event.”
You are trying to play word games, trying to repeat a lie 1000 times, hoping that others will finally believe it, but saying something doesn’t make it true.
Same goes for Andy Lowry (the ‘American’) of course. It is not well known, simply because there’s still much debate about what happened, when it happened, whether things were ordered or not, what the role of the Armenian nationalists themselves was, what they did to the Turks, and so on and so further.
Anyway, as for the letter; it’s a sad letter, really. The author of the book isn’t a historian, she acknowledges that and the publisher acknowledges that… why then complain that her book is taken off the reading list? If she was a historian there would be some validity to her rubbish, but as it is, she’s simply an uneducated (in this respect) person trying to influence how children think. That’s not what historians should do, and that’s not how one should teach one’s children. Thus, it was the correct decision of the board to take the book off the list (low quality).
Of course, I could have also pointed out that what happened wasn’t genocide, but the truth is that the first commenter did quite a swell job at that and this comment is long enough as it is.
The fact that Ms. Coloroso is not a historian those not mean the book she writes has no historical value. There are a lot of actual historians defending the Turkish thesis that have been successfully challenged for their gross inaccuracies and even manipulations. Bernard Lewis, the venerated historian, tried that and was caught and discredited.
Your assertion that only Armenians think it was a genocide has no bearing with reality. The politicization of this issue by Turkey has found numerous allies in its campaign for denial, mostly NATO allies that want to keep their relationship strong.
Which is fine, but the flip side of it is that Turks think having a strong alliance with powerful NATO countries gives them a card blanche to unlimited freedom to rewrite history.
The crux of the issue is that the Turks are worried about genocide recognition will eventually lead to territorial compromise. Therefore, they have to do everything in their power to deny the reality of the genocide with the confidence that powerful NATO allies and their natural Islamic allies will back them up.
So those who insist on saying “no Armenian genocide” despite a huge amount of evidence, from American to German, from British to Swedish and even from Turkish archives they belong to an entity that wants to appease Turkey, pure and simple.
What gets lost here is the Armenian experience itself, Turks and their allies summarily dismiss the Armenian voice as invalid. As if the victim has no say in this and I as a son of a survivor every time I say “Armenian genocide” am branded as a Turk hater. This kind of Turkish bullying is exactly the reason why Ms Coloroso’s book can be so invaluable and I hope Toronto School Board commission revises its decision.
To Clear the Record:
Michael van der Galien should do a little historical research himself about the Armenian Genocide since he is not a historian. No one is pretending that there was a genocide in 1915, it is too well documented around the world. Only charlatans like van der Galien is denying the truth, it must be easier to side with the state historians Turkey has hired to cover-up the truth that the Armenian Genocide is contestable. Only fools like Michael get away with the rhetoric, he too can be added to the list of deniers. Furthermore, Michael you should know that regardless of your support of the Toronto Board banning Coloroso’s book, Canada recognizes the Armenian Genocide.