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Middle East Scholars Give Academic Freedom Award to Turkish-Armenian Workshop Efforts

Contact: Amy W. Newhall, MESA Executive Director
1-520-621-5850
To view the award information click here.


[Washington, November 21, 2005] – The Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) awarded its 2005 academic freedom prize to the Workshop for Armenian-Turkish Scholarship for its pioneering and successful efforts to address controversial issues raised by the destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during World War One.

MESA made the award on Sunday evening, November 20, at an awards ceremony during its 40th annual meeting, held in Washington, D.C. The group cited the work of Professors Fatma Muge Gocek, Ronald Suny, and other workshop members

“The enterprise of the Workshop of Armenian-Turkish Scholarship is an elegant example of academic freedom in operation,” said MESA president Ali Banuazizi, professor of sociology at Boston University, “These scholars reached out to one another, using the tools of history and the language of collegial discourse, to begin a process of reconciliation that will have positive repercussions within society and among political elites.”

Five years ago, in 2000, the members of the workshop initiated a series of conferences involving Armenian, Armenian-American, Turkish, and Turkish-American historians and other academics who had separately addressed issues raised by the massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War One. In September 2005, after some Turkish political leaders had sabotaged earlier efforts, Istanbul’s Bilgi University hosted workshop members at a conference on these issues, also organized by Bogazici and Sabanci universities, despite continued opposition from some Turkish political leaders.

MESA also gave an academic freedom award this year to Akbar Ganji, the courageous Iranian writer who remains in prison for his courageous critical writing about abusive policies and practices of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Orta Doğu Akademisyenleri Akademik Özgürlük Ödülünü Türk-Ermeni Atölyesi’ne verdi.

28 Kasım 2005

Kuzey Amerika Orta Doğu Araştırmaları Kurumu (Middle East Studies Association of North America - MESA) 2005 akademik özgürlük ödülünü, başarılı gayretlerinden ve bu konudaki öncülüklerinden dolayı Ermeni-Türk Araştırmaları Atölyesi üyelerine verdi. Atölye, Birinci Dünya Savaşı sırasında Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun Ermeni nüfusunun yok edilmesiyle ilgili konuları tartışmaya açtı.

MESA, ödülü 20 Kasım Pazar günü Washington, D.C.’de gerçekleşen 40. geleneksel yıllık yemeğinde verdi. Grup aralarında öğretim üyeleri Fatma Müge Göçek ve Ronald Grigor Suny’nin de bulunduğu atölye katılımcılarından bahsetti.

MESA Başkanı ve Boston Üniversitesinde sosyoloji profesörü olan Ali Banuazizi “Ermeni-Türk Araştırmaları Atölyesi girişimi, dayanışma içerisinde gerçekleşen akademik özgürlüğün mükemmel bir örneği” dedi. “Bu akademisyenler tarih disiplinini ve meslektaşları tarafindan paylaşılan ortak lisanı kullanarak birbirleriyle iletişim kurdular. Bu hem siyasi elitler hem de toplum arasında olumlu sonuçlar getirecek bir barışma sürecini başlattı” diyerek sözlerine devam etti.

Atölye üyeleri bundan beş sene önce 2000 yılında Osmanlı İmparatorluğunda Birinci Dünya Savaşı sırasında gerçekleştirilen Ermeni katliamları üzerine çalışan Ermeni, Ermeni-Amerikan, Türk ve Türk-Amerikan asıllı tarihçiler ve diğer akademisyenleri bir araya getiren bir atölyeler serisi başlatmışlardı. Bazı Türk politikacıların bu çabaları sabotaj etme çabalarına rağmen, akademisyenler Eylül 2005’de Bilgi Üniversitesi’nde bu konuyla ilgili konferansa da katıldılar.

MESA ayrıca cesur Iranlı yazar Akbar Ganji’ye de akademik özgürlük ödülü verdi. Ganji, Iran İslam Cumhuriyeti yönetiminin zorba politikaları ve uygulamalarına karşı yazdığı eleştirisel yazılardan dolayı halen hapishanede tutuluyor.


MESA ACADEMIC FREEDOM AWARDS 2005

At its 70th board meeting in November 2001, MESA’s board of directors established the MESA Academic Freedom Award, to be presented on appropriate occasions in recognition of sustained contributions to the promotion and defense of academic freedom in the Middle East and North Africa. In 2005 the Committee proposed making two awards, and the Board has agreed with this recommendation.

The first of our 2005 Academic Freedom Awards goes tonight to Fatma Muge Gocek of the University of Michigan and Ron Suny of the University of Chicago, and all the scholars associated with the Workshop for Armenian-Turkish Scholarship, in recognition of their successful collective effort, using the tools of history and the social sciences and relying on the language of collegial discourse, to initiate and implement a project that overcame political divisions in society and in the academy and has provided a model that others addressing other conflicted histories can use in the years ahead.

In the year 2000, these scholars initiated a series of conferences between Armenian, Armenian-American, Turkish and Turkish-American historians and specialists that addressed issues raised by the 1915 destruction of the Ottoman Empire’s Armenian population. In September 2005 they achieved a noteworthy milestone when Istanbul’s Bilgi University hosted some members at a conference on these issues, also organized by Bogazici and Sabanci universities, despite considerable opposition from a number of political leaders and groups in Turkey.

MESA celebrates their efforts as an elegant example of how academic freedom works and why it must be protected and promoted. We trust that their efforts will serve as a model to be emulated elsewhere.

Please join me in saluting the strong collective work of the Workshop on Armenian-Turkish Scholarship, recipients of a MESA Academic Freedom Award for 2005.