A Massachusetts Federal Appeals Court has ruled out on August 12 that Massachusetts public schools directions for teaching modern history can exclude views that question the events of 1915 that Armenians call genocide.
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided that the state did not violate the rights on free speech in 1999 by excluding sources that questioned the 1915 events. “The case challenged the ability of Massachusetts state officials to censor a curriculum guide solely on behalf of Armenian American activist groups. Among the materials censored from the guide was ATAA's website,” wrote Gunay Evinch, the President of Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA), which has been a party in the case.
“The lower court controversially ruled that the only remedy for Turkish Americans was to increase their political influence to the point where they could manipulate state officials in their favor. Taking a different tack, the Court of Appeals ruled that the censorship was appropriate because the guide was a part of the state curriculum. Traditionally, it is difficult to challenge state curriculum decisions,” Evinch said.
A number of Armenians and Turkish Diaspora representatives gathered near the court building waiting for the decision. Jevdet Yiloglu, a representative of Turkish Diaspora told APA that the Diaspora met this news with disappointment, but: “We don’t give up; we will go further in defeating our beliefs. The world must know about Armenian lies”.
The Turkish Diaspora told that they are going to file another appeal. “We disagree with the court's analysis because the voluntary curriculum guide was much more like a school library than a recommended course of study. We, of course, strongly oppose that the court has in effect let stand the controversial ruling of the lower court,” Evinch wrote evaluating the decision of the court of appeals, “The ATAA seeks reconciliation between the Turkish and Armenian peoples on the basis of an open and honest accounting of history. We therefore will continue to oppose in all states efforts to enforce biased and one-sided historical accounts that foment anti-Turkish hatred.”
Turkish Diaspora organizations filed the suit in 2005 as a First Amendment case to thwart the teaching of the 1915 events as genocide in public schools by insisting on the inclusion of denialist literature in the commonwealth’s mandated curriculum.
APA, TurkishNY.com
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