Canadian Armenian Student Organizations Call for The Cancellation of Concordia’s Red-Carpet Invitation to Turkish Ambassador

The Armenian Student Associations of Canada inform you of an extreme case of a violation of academic integrity in Concordia. It has come to our attention that the following student organizations: the Strategic and Diplomatic Society and the International Relations Society, under the umbrella organization of the Political Science Student Association, are to host an event tomorrow, on March 19th, regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The organizations are scheduled to host the Turkish Ambassador to Canada to give a “unique perspective” on the Nagorno-Karabakh war.

We urge you to recognize that hosting Turkey’s representative unopposed and providing the Government of Turkey an academic platform to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh war is unethical, at best. During the entirety of the Nagorno-Karabakh war, systematic ethnic cleansing of Armenians was at the forefront of the Turkish and Azerbaijani governments’ objectives yet again. This event is extremely racist in nature. The Republics of Turkey and Azerbaijan have a campaign of Genocide denialism engraved in their foreign policy.

This event is not meant to be a dialogue between two nation-states and their perspectives, as these organizations have not reached out to all the concerned parties involved. This biased stage is a clear violation of academic integrity, and we believe this event will undermine Concordia University’s values and damage its image within the international academic sphere. This conference will offer the Turkish regime a platform for direct disinformation inside a University which hosts the largest Armenian student community in Canada.

After receiving comments on the event’s Facebook posts expressing the unconscionable decision to allow for a genocide-perpetrator government to provide their “perspective” on the conflict, the organizations mentioned above proceeded to delete any comments that questioned their decision to host a representative of an aggressor nation to speak about the ethnic conflict of a people against whom they have committed genocide.

We urge you to immediately cancel this extremely racist and disrespectful event which offers a free and uncontested platform to an official of Turkey to spread their Armenophobia and hate against the indigenous population of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Concordia Armenian Students’ Union | 

McGill Armenian Students’ Association | asa@ssmu.ca 

Association des Étudiants Arméniens de l’Université de Montréal | udem@asacanada.ca 

Armen Karo Student Organization | armenkaro@gmail.com