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Dear SAS members,

On May 21, 2021, the Middle East Studies Association Board issued a Statement in Support of Palestinians. The statement condemned “the ongoing and intensified Israeli government assault on the Palestinians of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip and those who are Israeli citizens.” I along with the Executive Council of the Society for Armenian Studies (SAS) firmly believe in the Palestinian right to self- determination, education, and academic freedom. However, we found MESA’s statement problematic due to the reasons which I will discuss below. As members of the Society, I think all of you should be aware about MESA’s failure to take a stance during the Azeri invasion on Artsakh in September of 2020.

Last year when Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, invaded Artsakh targeting civilian institutions, including hospitals, churches, and cultural centers, I immediately contacted the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) to issue a statement. On October 9, I along with Prof. Mushegh Asatryan (University of Calgary) wrote a letter to the President of MESA, Prof. Dina Khoury, asking the Board of Directors to issue a letter condemning the Azeri invasion of Artsakh. Prof. Khoury’s responded on October 11, stating: “MESA’s Board of Directors does not issue statements on the politics of any conflict that do not pertain to issues of academic freedom or the preservation of cultural heritage.” I immediately answered her e-mail, this time in my capacity as SAS President, by bringing her attention to the destruction of Shushi’s Ghazanchetsots (Holy Savior) Cathedral, considered a cultural heritage site. I also mentioned the destruction of the largest cultural center in Shushi. I concluded my letter saying: “This is a very urgent issue. We would appreciate a statement by MESA’s CAF condemning the destruction of these cultural sites.”

On October 12, Prof. Miriam Lowe, Chair of the Middle East-North Africa wing of the Committee on Academic Freedom (CAF-MENA) of MESA, answered my e-mail stating: “I am very sorry to say that we are unable to intervene and issue a statement in this regard. With a focus on academic freedom, CAF’s interventions are confined to responding to violations of that right. To be sure, the destruction of libraries, research centers, university buildings constitute violations of the right to academic freedom. However, in the context of war-zones — as in Syria since 2012 and Iraq during the U.S. intervention in 2003 — the sheer extent of violations of human life overwhelms all.”

In the war that lasted 44 days, 144 Armenian civilians, and around 5,000 Armenian soldiers were killed defending their homeland. Education was disrupted, universities were closed, crimes against humanities were perpetrated, and a Professor of Theology, Dr. Vahram Lalayan, was brutally killed in his house. Today, the Armenian Cultural Heritage of occupied Artsakh is on the verge of extinction due to Azeri policies of destroying monuments, churches, and other cultural heritage sites.

As both the President of SAS and a member of MESA, I found the MESA Statement in Support of Palestinians “troubling” not because of its content (with which I totally agree) but because of MESA’s selective stance. MESA should have a standard policy and not one that favors one cause over another. Many members of the SAS wrote to me expressing their disappointment on MESA’s failure to take a stance during the Artsakh War.

Here you can find the initial letter of protest of the SAS Executive Council to MESA dated May 24, MESA’s response dated June 8, and SAS’s final response dated June 23.
SAS-MESA-ARTSAKH

Bedross Der Matossian
President, Society for Armenian Studies