Tuesday, March 10, 2009

ARTICLE: ANCC: American professor made racist and derogatory remarks about Armenians (panarmenian.net)

/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.

full article >>>

No comments: