[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 155 (Friday, November 7, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H10324-H10325]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




WE MUST LOOK A GIFT HORSE IN THE MOUTH WITH REGARD TO TURKEY'S FUNDING 
                            OF CHAIR AT UCLA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Sherman] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to focus on a generous gift to 
my alma mater, but looking at the history of Troy, I have learned that 
sometimes one must look a gift horse in the mouth.
  The Government of Turkey has offered over $1 million to fund a chair 
at my alma mater, UCLA, in the study of Ottoman and Turkish history. 
While the generosity of such an offer should be noted, I note the 
concern in the academic community and concern among those of us 
concerned with international relations for the academic integrity and 
historical accuracy of the academic work that will be done by the 
occupant of this chair.
  Our concern for history is based on history. The Turkish Government 
has endowed other chairs at other American universities, and the 
occupants of those chairs have sought not to report and analyze 
history, but to rewrite it and cover it up.
  Mr. Speaker, as a Jewish American, I am very concerned with those who 
would want to cover up the history of

[[Page H10325]]

genocide, or claim that the Holocaust against the Jewish people did not 
occur or did not occur on a massive scale. But as an American and as a 
citizen of the world, I am equally concerned about attempts to cover up 
and deny other genocides.
  I am certainly concerned that the occupant of this chair at UCLA may 
feel or may be pushed toward trying to deny the great massacres at 
Smyrna, or the genocide of the Armenian people that occurred in the 
first two or three decades of this century.

                              {time}  2000

  Those of us concerned with history must remember that those who 
forget history are doomed to repeat it, and those of us concerned with 
avoiding genocide must remember, never forget and never again. Indeed, 
the history of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey are two 
subjects of academic study. But that study should be unbiased and 
uninfluenced.
  I would suggest that UCLA look at a number of academics who have 
studied the history of Anatolia, the history of the Caucasus, who have 
established their academic freedom and their academic independence. For 
example, Marjorie Housepian Dolkin or Speros Vrionis would make 
excellent occupants of this new chair in Turkish and Ottoman history, 
and their academic independence would be beyond question. Whoever 
occupies any chair looking at the modern history of Turkey should look 
not only at the promise of this nation, but also some of its misdeeds 
as well.
  Last week, I had a chance to talk to Kathyrn Cameron Porter and to 
talk also with several others who, along with her, are fasting to 
protest the Turkish Government's imprisonment of Leyla Zana, a duly 
elected member of the Turkish Parliament who has been arrested for 
addressing a committee of this House of Representatives.
  As an American, I am offended that someone would be imprisoned for 
giving us their views. And as a graduate of UCLA, I want to make sure 
that any review of modern Turkish history is complete and full and 
focuses on some of the human rights abuses, including the imprisonment 
of Ms. Zana.
  I look forward to UCLA expanding upon its reputation as one of 
America's and one of the world's great universities and look forward to 
UCLA doing so by looking at all aspects of Turkish history and the 
history of the Ottoman Empire.

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