Along with the letter from the ambassador to Lifton, there was accidentally included in the envelope a letter from Heath Lowry to the ambassador. In it, Lowry informs the ambassador that "Per your request...I have located and read Lifton's _The Nazi Doctors_ with an eye to drafting a letter for your signature." After describing references to the Genocide found after "a careful perusal" of this "massive tome of XIII + 561 pages", Lowry conveys the disappointing news that "Lifton ... is simply using the existing literature on the Holocaust and Genocide." He goes on to say "These facts make it rather difficult to register our unhappiness with Lifton per se, as he will quite justifiably respond by giving us references to his sources." Although Lowry appears displeased that attacks haven't been made on Lifton's sources "though this point has been repeatedly stressed both in writing and verbally to IADA-Ankara," he is undetered by the lack of grounds for criticism: "On the chance that you still wish to respond in writing to Lifton, I have drafted the following letter..." Sure enough, there is a draft version of the letter Lifton received from the ambassador.
Interested alumni are invited to examine the article, which contains the full text, as well as analysis by Lifton and his co-authors. There is a copy on the following web site: http://www.ids.net/~gregan/lowry.html. We doubt that anyone reading the article can attach any credibility to Lowry's claims of independence from the Turkish government. Little wonder that the Boston Globe refers to Lowry as "a longtime lobbyist for the Turkish government," or that his appointment has prompted a petition signed by over 80 scholars and writers to "condemn fraudulent scholarship funded by the Turkish government and carried out in American universities."
If it were just an issue of Princeton being used to advance the political interests of a foreign government, it would be cause enough for concern. Unfortunately, the situation is even worse. The cause being furthered is particularly troubling; and the ramifications of its successful promotion are far reaching.
Such is the case with the denial of the Armenian Genocide. The facts of what happened are beyond dispute. A wealth of documentation exists from many sources, including the archives of the United States, Germany, and Austria, and from the Turkish War Crimes Trials of 1919. One particularly interesting description comes from a German official during World War I who was serving as vice-consul in Erzerum in Turkey. His name was Dr. Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter. Von Scheubner-Richter was present while his Turkish hosts were preparing, in his words, "the total annihilation of the Armenians of Turkey." His final report to the Chancellor was similar to reports of other officials, but gives a particularly succinct description of the events:
"I have conducted a series of conversations with competent and influential Turkish personages, and these are my impressions: A large segment of the Ittihadist [Young Turk] party maintains the viewpoint that the Turkish empire should be based only on the principle of Islam and Pan-Turkism. Its non-Muslim and non-Turkish inhabitants should either be forcibly islamized, or otherwise they ought to be destroyed. These gentlemen believe that the time is propitious for the realization of this plan. The first item on this agenda concerns the liquidation of the Armenians. Ittihad will dangle before the eyes of the allies the specter of an alleged revolution prepared by the Armenian Dashnak party. Moreover. local incidents of social unrest and acts of Armenian self-defense will deliberately be provoked and inflated and will be used as pretexts to effect the deportations. Once en route however, the convoys will be attacked and exterminated by Kurdish and Turkish brigands, and in part by gendarmes, who will be instigated for that purpose by Ittihad."Other German sources confirm that the Turkish government did indeed invent stories of rebellions to justify its actions. This despite the fact that the German officers on the scene, who were vitally concerned with the military situation of their ally, reported that in fact the area was quiet until after the Genocide was underway.
The reason we select von Scheubner-Richter's description from the others was that after the war, he became one of the early members of the Nazi party, and was highly regarded by its leader Adolf Hitler. Now, in fairness to von Scheubner-Richter, he himself was appalled by the conduct of the Turkish authorities. And he was killed during the Beer Hall putsch, before Hitler's criminal intentions were expounded in Mein Kampf. However, it is clear that Hitler was well informed by some means about the Armenians' fate. He remarked on two known occasions that the success of the Ottoman authorities contained lessons on the feasibility of the annihilation of races. The best known was on the eve of the invasion of Poland, when he told his army commanders "I have sent to the East only my `Death's Head units' with orders to kill without pity or mercy all men, women and children of the Polish race or language. Only in such a way will we win the vital space we need. Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?"
Furthermore, there are eerie similarities between the plans concerning the Armenians as described by von Scheubner- Richter, and Hitler's plans for the Jews, enough to further fuel speculation that von Scheubner-Richter's account may have made an impression, however unintended. The similarity that most concerns us in the present circumstances involves the "Dolchstosslegende", or "stab-in-the-back myth" whereby the Nazis asserted that Germany had been betrayed by the country's Jews in World War I. This mirrors von Scheubner-Richter's talk of "alleged revolution prepared by the Armenian Dashnak party." This parallel catches our attention because whereas the German government has since expressed remorse for it mistakes, the Turkish government continues to justify its actions, using the same falsehoods reported by von Scheubner-Richter. More to the point, it has enlisted American academics and institutions to collaborate in the dissemination of this disinformation. In his ghost-written attempt to discredit Jay Lifton's scholarship, Heath Lowry describes the Armenian Genocide as "a tragic civil war (perpetrated by misguided Armenian nationalists)."
And just as von Scheubner-Richter's observations may have unintentionally taught Adolf Hitler, Princeton, by providing a platform for Heath Lowry, has its educational mission perverted into unintentionally validating that teaching.
It is untenable for the University to tolerate this cloaking of Turkish foreign policy under the Princeton flag. Therefore, we urge alumni to join us in registering our displeasure and in seeking remedies by reading and signing the attached petition. Only by directly addressing the issue in this manner can Princeton remain true to its motto of being in the nation's and the world's service.