Balance to Genocide Curriculum in Ohio Schools
Ohio Department of Education Leadership
To the Ohio Department of Education:
We, concerned residents and members of the Turkish-American community, respectfully call on you to adopt a more inclusive and balanced approach to genocide education in Ohio schools.
While we support the teaching of difficult historical events, current curriculum often presents the 1915 Ottoman-era tragedies solely as the “Armenian Genocide,” omitting other relevant facts, such as the civil war conditions, mutual suffering, and mass deaths of Ottoman Muslims.
This one-sided narrative deeply impacts Turkish-American students, who are often made to feel blamed or ashamed for history that is still debated by scholars and unrecognized by many governments, including the U.S. federal government.
We urge you to:
Include scholarly Turkish perspectives in any curriculum on the events of 1915.
Consult with Turkish-American educators and historians.
Ensure all lessons promote critical thinking, not political indoctrination.
Students deserve truth, context, and the opportunity to engage with all sides of history — not just the politically popular one.
Thank you for your commitment to educational fairness and integrity.
Sponsored by
To:
Ohio Department of Education Leadership
From:
[Your Name]
We want the Ohio Department of Education to review and revise any curriculum or teaching materials related to the 1915 events—currently labeled as the Armenian Genocide—to include balanced historical perspectives, including Turkish viewpoints, and to consult with Turkish-American community leaders and historians before approving such materials.