Armenian genocide speaker draws large crowd at Logan

Hilmar Kaiser told an audience member to sit down and be quiet when the spectator grew outraged over a comment concerning the annihilation of his ancestors -- Armenians from the Ottoman Empire. Kaiser's discussion on Armenian genocide drew a few angry responses in Logan Hall on Tuesday night. Over 100 community members and students from several universities -- including Penn, Temple, Drexel and Rutgers -- attended the event. James Kzirian, a College sophomore and active member of the Armenian Club, brought Kaiser to lecture on the slaughter of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians during World War I. According to Kaiser, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the Turkish government continues to deny the genocide. Kaiser, a doctoral candidate from the European University Institute in Florence, studies the social and economic history of the Ottoman empire, which includes the Armenian genocide. He said the Turkish government tries its hardest to deny the charges of genocide, adding that when he tried to access archives in Turkey containing orders from World War I, Turkish officials gave him a hard time. In 1995, he was banned from them altogether. Kzirian said that he brought Kaiser to Penn because he is saddened by how few people have even heard of this systematic killing of his ancestors, noting that neither the Turkish government nor the U.S. government acknowledges the genocide. According to both men, U.S. foreign policy refuses to label the deaths as genocide, fearing that Turkey may threaten U.S. economic interests there. Sara Vartanian, a University post-baccalaureate student who brought her parents, said she was impressed with the Armenian Club's choice for a speaker. "[The Armenian genocide] is something [I] don't hear about as much as I would like," Vartanian said. "Anytime they do have something, I tune into it." Nesrin Ozoren, a graduate student and a member of the Turkish Student Association, said that most young Turkish people just want to put this behind them. "When these facts are discussed over and over again, it brings a charged atmosphere," Nesrin said.