Kings apologize for selling Turkish-made scarves on Armenian Night

[AvroArrow]

I think if you're in charge of this kind of thing then it needs to be something you regularly think about, and I find it hard to think that even one person on the chain here didn't know about this.

There's lots of ethnic groups that faced genocide at the hands of others. Every Islamic country in Asia for example, became Islamic through genocide and forced conversions largely at the hands of Turkey.

So are they going to ban all Turkish items when they do South Asian heritage nights as well ?

I understand exactly where the Armenian community is coming from. Being Sikh and having Indian descent, we faced the same genocide at the hands of the Turks, as the Armenians did. As did Afghanistan, Iraq, Persia (Now Iran), Pakistan, Bangladesh and lots of smaller countries in South Asia.

Hockey does "South Asian Heritage Nights" as well, the league is still using the same Turkish manufacturers for merchandise there. So what are we going to do ? Ban all things made in Turkey for those nights ?

The world has seen so many bloody wars/genocides in it's history, what is the path forward then ?

Again I fully understand the Armenian community, because my ancestors literally went through the same horrors at the hands of the same people. But we gotta be able to find a path forward. It's not the Turkish people of today who committed these atrocities. It's the old adage, you can't blame the son for the sins of the father.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

I think people are generally unaware of the history between Turkey and the Armenians… I wouldn’t be aware of it wasn’t for an Armenian coworker who’s family escaped genocide.


I think that’s the point… the general person wouldn’t think of the need to make sure of that…

I think most people who know how to read should at least have heard about the Armenian Genocide

 

[kicksavedave]

you mean Istanbul?

Whoa whoa whoa whoa. I honestly thought They Might Be Giants wrote this song, and I am now shocked and pleased to hear the original version. Ya learn something new every day and this was my thing today. Great song.

 

[Ratsreign]

I think most people who know how to read should at least have heard about the Armenian Genocide

Nobody reads anymore.

 

[OilersFanatics505]

I think most people who know how to read should at least have heard about the Armenian Genocide

It’s not taught in Canadian schools or American schools so if you don’t know, you don’t know…

 

[sufferer]

Egregious oversight my god.

 

[Summer Rose]

It’s not taught in Canadian schools or American schools so if you don’t know, you don’t know…

Very true. I learned about it on my own since I like reading about history. At no point in my public schooling did they ever teach us a thing about the Chinese civil war either. That one I least know quite a lot about because of my family history with it though. However, it’s both interesting and disappointing how much (or how little) history is taught in American schools in general. It’s a little fair for a curriculum to be a little centric to the country in which it’s taught, but I’ve learned way, way more history, and some of it I would consider pretty damn important to know about, just by reading about it myself after I got out of high school.

 

[Lt Dan]

Very true. I learned about it on my own since I like reading about history. At no point in my public schooling did they ever teach us a thing about the Chinese civil war either. That one I least know quite a lot about because of my family history with it though. However, it’s both interesting and disappointing how much (or how little) history is taught in American schools in general. It’s a little fair for a curriculum to be a little centric to the country in which it’s taught, but I’ve learned way, way more history, and some of it I would consider pretty damn important to know about, just by reading about it myself after I got out of high school.

American here

I did not learn about the Armenian genocide in school. I only knew about because I have a number of Armenian friends.
I did absolutely learn about the Chinese civil war especially because of the UN, Cold war, and communist ramifications. But , I am also Gen-x and things may have changed

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

Very true. I learned about it on my own since I like reading about history. At no point in my public schooling did they ever teach us a thing about the Chinese civil war either. That one I least know quite a lot about because of my family history with it though. However, it’s both interesting and disappointing how much (or how little) history is taught in American schools in general. It’s a little fair for a curriculum to be a little centric to the country in which it’s taught, but I’ve learned way, way more history, and some of it I would consider pretty damn important to know about, just by reading about it myself after I got out of high school.

They can’t teach you everything that ever happened. If you know how to read the info is out there and free to find.

However, I’m pretty sure the Armenian Genocide was at least briefly covered in my high school history class

 

[blankall]

There's lots of ethnic groups that faced genocide at the hands of others. Every Islamic country in Asia for example, became Islamic through genocide and forced conversions largely at the hands of Turkey.

So are they going to ban all Turkish items when they do South Asian heritage nights as well ?

I understand exactly where the Armenian community is coming from. Being Sikh and having Indian descent, we faced the same genocide at the hands of the Turks, as the Armenians did. As did Afghanistan, Iraq, Persia (Now Iran), Pakistan, Bangladesh and lots of smaller countries in South Asia.

Hockey does "South Asian Heritage Nights" as well, the league is still using the same Turkish manufacturers for merchandise there. So what are we going to do ? Ban all things made in Turkey for those nights ?

The world has seen so many bloody wars/genocides in it's history, what is the path forward then ?

Again I fully understand the Armenian community, because my ancestors literally went through the same horrors at the hands of the same people. But we gotta be able to find a path forward. It's not the Turkish people of today who committed these atrocities. It's the old adage, you can't blame the son for the sins of the father.

It's still an open wound for Armenians as the Turkish government has refused to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. It's also the direct reason so many Armenians live in the USA.

Pretty bad move by the Kings IMO.

 

[Summer Rose]

American here

I did not learn about the Armenian genocide in school. I only knew about because I have a number of Armenian friends.
I did absolutely learn about the Chinese civil war especially because of the UN, Cold war, and communist ramifications. But , I am also Gen-x and things may have changed

My high school’s history department sucked in general. My sophomore year, we spent over a month on World War 2 and one of our assignments was to give a presentation to the class about a topic of our choosing as it related to it. I predictably chose the topic of what was going on in China at the time (the civil war and the second Sino-Japanese war) starting from the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. I even brought in some personal effects and written accounts of some of my ancestors who got to go through having to flee China during the civil war and then still having to endure Japanese occupation where they ended up (the Philippines). I may be a little biased but my presentation got one of the worst reactions from the class and teacher in terms of zoning out. The teacher even gave me a crappy grade on the project and used “well you didn’t cite anything from the textbook” as an excuse. Well you idiot, the textbook said nothing about it.

Anyway, sorry for the digression and mini-rant.

 

[super6646]

Very true. I learned about it on my own since I like reading about history. At no point in my public schooling did they ever teach us a thing about the Chinese civil war either. That one I least know quite a lot about because of my family history with it though. However, it’s both interesting and disappointing how much (or how little) history is taught in American schools in general. It’s a little fair for a curriculum to be a little centric to the country in which it’s taught, but I’ve learned way, way more history, and some of it I would consider pretty damn important to know about, just by reading about it myself after I got out of high school.

Which one? Lots of them to talk about lol.

Slightly veering the convo, I had no idea what the Taiping Rebellion was until college. I remember my prof saying “when China does something, they do it big.” Everyone knows about the American Civil War which killed about half a million ppl, yet you’d be hard pressed to find somebody in NA who could talk about the rebellion I mentioned. Happened at the same time as the US civil war and killed 20m people. For China that’s just a Sunday.

 

[Summer Rose]

Which one? Lots of them to talk about lol.

Slightly veering the convo, I had no idea what the Taiping Rebellion was until college. I remember my prof saying “when China does something, they do it big.” Everyone knows about the American Civil War which killed about half a million ppl, yet you’d be hard pressed to find somebody who could talk about the rebellion I mentioned. Happened at the same time as the US civil war and killed 20m people.

The one between the CCP and KMT which ended with the latter retreating to Taiwan in 1949.

 

[super6646]

The one between the CCP and KMT which ended with the latter retreating to Taiwan in 1949.

Yeah I know. First part of the post was being a little tongue in cheek (didn’t do the best job showing it) there since I wanted an excuse to bring something up that most people wouldn’t know about.

 

[AvroArrow]

It's still an open wound for Armenians as the Turkish government has refused to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. It's also the direct reason so many Armenians live in the USA.

Pretty bad move by the Kings IMO.

They also denied the other genocides as well. They all pre-dated the Aremenian, but the claim was that it wasn't a genocide but rather enforcing law and order. And law and order = religion, back then.

My question is just this, there's been lots of horrific wars/atrocities/genocides commit against several different ethnic groups throughout history. Are we going to boycott certain nations product on special nights, because those countries had conflicts?

Are we going to start avoiding everything German made during veterans month or veterans day games ? Or say South Asian heritage nights. South Asia faced genocide for centuries at the hands of the Turks/Arabs, are we going to make sure there's no Turkish manufactured products there as well ?

It's not super ancient history either, my grandfathers, grandfather fought in war against them.

 

[Coaches Coroner]

Very true. I learned about it on my own since I like reading about history. At no point in my public schooling did they ever teach us a thing about the Chinese civil war either. That one I least know quite a lot about because of my family history with it though. However, it’s both interesting and disappointing how much (or how little) history is taught in American schools in general. It’s a little fair for a curriculum to be a little centric to the country in which it’s taught, but I’ve learned way, way more history, and some of it I would consider pretty damn important to know about, just by reading about it myself after I got out of high school.

Another problem is when any of that kind of history IS taught in American schools (and some bleed over in Canadian schools for sure), the way it is taught is in a very specific type of framing. There is a lot of things about North America, and the rest of the world, that is either completely not taught, or taught very poorly.

University taught more of that kind of history and is where I first heard more about the Armenian genocide; although I think from that kind of schooling you are more gaining a stronger ability to research, take in information, vet sources etc. It's always interesting to also see how many wikipedia educated 'experts' there are; I was kind of shocked how shoddily so many articles are sourced (often with cited sources leading thru links that end up at 'error' pages). Granted it's a decent starting point for most topics.

 

[Summer Rose]

They also denied the other genocides as well. They all pre-dated the Aremenian, but the claim was that it wasn't a genocide but rather enforcing law and order. And law and order = religion, back then.

My question is just this, there's been lots of horrific wars/atrocities/genocides commit against several different ethnic groups throughout history. Are we going to boycott certain nations product on special nights, because those countries had conflicts?

Are we going to start avoiding everything German made during veterans month or veterans day games ? Or say South Asian heritage nights. South Asia faced genocide for centuries at the hands of the Turks/Arabs, are we going to make sure there's no Turkish manufactured products there as well ?

It's not super ancient history either, my grandfathers, grandfather fought in war against them.

That's up for each person or community to decide for themselves. It's nobody's place to tell someone else how to feel about something. If the Armenian community considers it a big deal, then it is.

 

[OilersFanatics505]

Very true. I learned about it on my own since I like reading about history. At no point in my public schooling did they ever teach us a thing about the Chinese civil war either. That one I least know quite a lot about because of my family history with it though. However, it’s both interesting and disappointing how much (or how little) history is taught in American schools in general. It’s a little fair for a curriculum to be a little centric to the country in which it’s taught, but I’ve learned way, way more history, and some of it I would consider pretty damn important to know about, just by reading about it myself after I got out of high school.

Like I said in another comment, I didn’t learn about it until an Armenian coworker explained it to me. If I hadn’t worked with that person, I would have probably never known until this post

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Even for things that "everyone knows", about 10,000 people have to learn it every single day.

It's not embarrassing to learn things. Even things that "everyone knows".

 

[Summer Rose]

Even for things that "everyone knows", about 10,000 people have to learn it every single day.

View attachment 987148

It's not embarrassing to learn things. Even things that "everyone knows".

Admitting you don't know something is often the first step to learning something new. Other times, it's admitting you're wrong about something. Either one works. We should do it more often.

 

[OilersFanatics505]

Admitting you don't know something is often the first step to learning something new. Other times, it's admitting you're wrong about something. Either one works. We should do it more often.

Nah it’s more fun to be an asshole on the internet for some people apparently.

 

[Ghost of Murph]

Obviously an innocent yet bad blunder by the Kings. They acknowledged it publicly at least.

I'm taken more aback by some of the comments than the blunder itself. My gosh, many people's knowledge base of large impactful events in history must be abysmal.

 

[OilersFanatics505]

Obviously an innocent yet bad blunder by the Kings. They acknowledged it publicly at least.

I'm taken more aback by some of the comments than the blunder itself. My gosh, many people's knowledge base of large impactful events in history must be abysmal.

Not to diminish the impact on the communities it involves but its impactful to a very small percentage of the worlds population and discussed on a much smaller scale worldwide.

Again, people don’t know what they aren’t exposed to.

 

[AvroArrow]

That's up for each person or community to decide for themselves. It's nobody's place to tell someone else how to feel about something. If the Armenian community considers it a big deal, then it is.

Of course genocide is a big deal. I'm not suggesting anyone tell another how they should feel about it.

Now there's people who feel much more deeply about events like say WW2 than others because of what their family/ancestors had gone through. Should we make sure we're not selling German product on veterans nights ? Like I'm not trying to be difficult here, that's just a genuine question,

Or is it up to the community to decide if German manufacturers should be allowed to make/sell product for that particular night ?

Like what are we going to do here ? Tell this Turkish company that the Kings have a deal with "Sorry we're going back on our deal because of an atrocity your government committed about 100 years ago that you had no part in"

Because that quite literally is what many people are suggesting.

I sympathize completely with the Armenians, especially because my own ancestors dealt with the same injustice at the hands of the Turks. I just don't think this is the right path forward.

Put yourself in the shoes of that manufacturer for example. You have your company and strike a deal with an NHL club, then get told you can't sell your product or for that particular night because of something your country did a century ago ? That's not right.

 

[Summer Rose]

Of course genocide is a big deal. I'm not suggesting anyone tell another how they should feel about it.

Now there's people who feel much more deeply about events like say WW2 than others because of what their family/ancestors had gone through. Should we make sure we're not selling German product on veterans nights ? Like I'm not trying to be difficult here, that's just a genuine question,

Or is it up to the community to decide if German manufacturers should be allowed to make/sell product for that particular night ?

Like what are we going to do here ? Tell this Turkish company that the Kings have a deal with "Sorry we're going back on our deal because of an atrocity your government committed about 100 years ago that you had no part in"

Because that quite literally is what many people are suggesting.

I sympathize completely with the Armenians, especially because my own ancestors dealt with the same injustice at the hands of the Turks. I just don't think this is the right path forward.

Put yourself in the shoes of that manufacturer for example. You have your company and strike a deal with an NHL club, then get told you can't sell your product or for that particular night because of something your country did a century ago ? That's not right.

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't trying to say your point was invalid. I also don't have a real answer to your genuine question. There's more to this situation than I fully understand, so I was just saying that we should take the Armenian community's word for it if they consider it a big deal.

I don't really have a personal parallel to it either. The closest I have is what I was hinting at earlier with the Chinese civil war (my ancestors fought on the side of the KMT, for the record). I don't boycott goods that are made on the mainland over it, though I wouldn't blame someone in a similar situation as me if they did. All I really do over it is root against sports teams that represent the People's Republic of China, and for teams that represent the Republic of China (going by the name of "Taiwan" or "Chinese Taipei" in most cases), such as being happy when Chinese Taipei qualified for the 2026 World Baseball Classic and the PRC failing to qualify.