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editorial - Ahmadinejad in Armenia
With the Turkish and Azerbaijani blockade on Armenia, Iran
has become a lifeline for the landlocked republic. Bilateral
relations are good and the Islamic Republic hosts a vibrant
Armenian community that has lived there peacefully
centuries. All this has made high-ranking Iranian officials,
including present-day president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
welcomed guests in Armenia since 1991. Yerevan State
University has also been lavish, perhaps more than
necessary, in bestowing honorary doctorates on visiting
heads of state in the past.
The Iranian president received a warm welcome from the
political leadership of Armenia, and, like other visiting
heads of state, he also had the opportunity to speak to
university students in Yerevan—just as he spoke recently at
Columbia University in New York.
Yet, why did Yerevan State University bestow an honorary
doctorate and a gold medal on a politician who has shown
complete disregard to basic historical research and memory
by denying the Jewish Holocaust?
One of the manifestations of Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial
is calling for further “impartial” studies on WWII. We have
heard that same argument regarding the Armenian genocide
from Turkey and its allies.
The same day Ahmadinejad met with Armenian officials and
received the honorary doctorate, he decided to cut his visit
to Armenia short. The reason for this remains unclear.
According to several reports, he either wanted to avoid
visiting the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan fearing,
criticism from Turkey, or he was responding to political
problems at home.
It would not be surprising if visiting the memorial and
planting a sapling in memory of the victims—as was
planned—was viewed as potentially harmful to Turkish-Iranian
relations, and that Ahmadinejad left Armenia to escape that
visit. Trying to avoid hurting Turkey’s “feelings” seems to
be the norm these days, with Ahmadinejad, the Bush
Administration, many in Congress, and even some human rights
organizations on the same page when it comes to this issue.
The university’s decision to bestow an honorary doctorate is
simply unacceptable. We are surprised that university and
government officials of a nation that rose from the ashes of
a genocide did not take this fact into consideration before
deciding to award the honorary degree.
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