Montreal Meeting of the Winnipeg Museum of Humanrights

Organizers of the Winnipeg Museum of Humanrights have been conducting and moderating roundtable discussions in various cities of Canada. Their objective is to gather humanrights related stories, ideas, pictures and suggestions for the museum, which will open its doors to visitors in 2010.

One of these roundtable discussions took place on January 14, 2010 in Montreal. A group of Turkish Canadians, including Osman Aydin, Emin Battika, Hayrullah Demirtas, Omer Ozen, Kerem Saltuk and I sat at different tables in order to participate in these well organized activities. Mesud Aliev, president of the Azeri Association of Montreal joined us.

During the exchange of ideas and suggestions, we focused on freedom of expression, protection of and respect for unconditional justice and universally accepted rights. We made mention of the McDougal report, which has criticized Canada on various issues such as acts of segregation, racial profiling, religious discrimination and problems in the judicial system. On this occasion, we expressed our dismay over the escalation of invective, which targets Islam. We voiced our objection to distortions of historical facts in relation to the sad and regrettable events of World War One in Anatolia, which culminated in the deaths of large numbers of Turks and Armenians alike, not to mention the tragic exile and the brutal massacres of Muslims before, during and after the war. We asked the organizers to make sure that the museum will not cave into preponderance when it exhibits documents, archives, pictures and resolutions. We maintained no nation should be wrongly accused of having committed "genocide" unless such a crime against humanity is proven by historians and legal experts under the light of international law, as stipulated by the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. We also expressed our opposition to politically motivated and discriminatory "resolutions and declarations" on such a sensitive issue.

A few weeks after the roundtable discussions, we received thank you cards from the organizers who asked us to write them our comments and new stories. I sent them a copy of the booklet titled "Armenian Documents and Comments" along with a letter, a copy of which I am submitting to the attention of Bizim Anadolu readers.

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Attention: Lindsay Weedon February 20, 2010
Communications Advisor
Canadian Museum for Human Rights
269 Main Street, Winnipeg, MB
R3C 1B3

Dear Lindsay,

Thank you for your quick response to my request for the postal address of your organization. I appreciate your willingness to gather stories and documents aimed at shedding some light on issues concerning human rights, equality and universal principles in our beautiful country.

I am sending you this letter along with a copy of the booklet titled 'ARMENIAN DOCUMENTS AND COMMENTS', which was published for free distribution in 2006 by the Turkish Canadian Action Committee of Montreal, Quebec. I hope it will be of some use for the Winnipeg Museum.

As you know, I was one of the participants at the roundtable discussions held in Montreal on January 14,2010. At the termination of these fruitful exchange of ideas and suggestions, moderators made interesting summaries of what had been presented by the participants. They focused on topics that were of significance to Canadian citizens. Special emphasis was put on the quality of everything to be displayed at the Winnipeg Museum for Human Rights.

I feel confident that the museum will exhibit facts without censorship and political influence. It will scrutinize and assess events of historic proportions by upholding ethical values and by living up to the name of the museum. It will avoid prejudice, bias and one-sided tales.

Thank you.

Aydin Yurtcu, M.D.
Montreal

March 2010