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| Armenian Genocide Heavily Debated By A.S. Senate | ||||||
| For Shant Baboujian the Armenian genocide is not an event that should be relegated to the dustbin of history.� Baboujian, tears welling in his eyes, urged ASI senators last week to pass a genocide resolution denouncing the systematic murder of Armenians in the early twentieth century. | ||||||
| After deliberating for weeks, the Senate still has not come to an official conclusion regarding the future of the resolution brought forth by the Armenian Students Association. �One reason for the Senate's delay in passing a resolution of this nature has stemmed from several Senate members' beliefs that it could possibly "open a can of worms."� Baboujian does not see it this way. | ||||||
| "Look at this [genocide] as people who were massacred, led on death walks, and raped; this is a humanity issue, it is not only about Armenians," Baboujian said before the Senate.� "I seriously don't think this will open up a can of worms." | ||||||
| Senator Morgan Wheeler was one of the first to voice his hesitance in passing this resolution, saying that he had a problem with singling out the Armenian genocide because it would label the Turks as perpetrators and possibly anger the Turkish Student Association.� He voiced approval of a more generic resolution, denouncing all genocide. Senator-at-large Daniel Rukhman disagreed with Sen. Wheeler and said "Going and denouncing all genocide is beyond our scope." | ||||||
| Baboujian clarified for Sen. Wheeler as well the rest of the Senate that the passage of the resolution would not single out the Turks, but rather the "Young Turk" government during the Ottoman Empire, the ruling body at the time the genocide occurred. | ||||||
| Senator-at-large Erik Jolliff sided with Wheeler, saying that he agreed with the prior understanding that the Senate came to, that this resolution was to cover "genocide in general."� Senator Adam Sturgeon, on the other hand, agreed with Baboujian, as well as the rest of the Armenian students in attendance, and said, "I personally see no problem with this resolution; if other groups want to present resolutions then we will deal with them as well."� Senator-at-large Rebekah Smith agreed, saying, "What matters to me most is that there are Armenian students here today who support this."� Echoing these sentiments, Baboujian said that he did not see what the Senate was so "afraid of." | ||||||
| Ara Aprahamian, an Armenian student and member of the association, said that this is a "human and intellectual issue" and hoped that "this can act as a catalyst for similar student associations to tackle [similar] issues." | ||||||
| Sen. Wheeler, however, still objected: "I cannot vote on something that will point out another group (the Turks), and possibly offend other students belonging to that group."� He concluded by saying, "I truly do hate this atrocity and I am sorry that this has to be so disputed in politics." | ||||||
| Wrapping up the discussion, ASI Vice President Guido Piotti said "this group (the Armenian Student Association) has been waiting a long time for this, and have done their homework and gone out of their way to [support this resolution]."� The Senate then agreed to send the resolution back to Documents & Bylaws so it can be reworded and tightened up. | ||||||
| Before the meeting concluded, however, Sen. Wheeler voiced his disapproval of Vice President Piotti taking an opinion on the issue, and said that Piotti is simply supposed to serve as a deciding vote in ties and may have violated a bylaw by expressing his view.� Piotti commented after the meeting, "I was elected by almost 2,000 students to represent them in the Senate and for me to stay quiet on an issue that I feel is this important would be a failure of my duty."� He also clarified that no bylaw had been violated. | ||||||
| Copyright Gerry Wachovsky, 2003, and Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. | ||||||
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