New Jersey Turkish Americans successfully defended freedom of speech at the Springfield Library to show Marty Callaghan's "The Armenian Revolt" documentary and to host a lecture by Holocaust Expert and Ottoman Historian Guenther Lewy, regarding the Armenian Independence Movement and Revolt of 1885-1919, and the Ottoman security-based relocation of Armenians from the eastern war zones in May - November 1915.

The Springfield Library Board of Directors rejected the Armenian lobby's demand to censor the documentary and lecture, expressing that it is a public forum for the market place of ideas to be heard and debated, particularly on legitimate historical controversies such as the Armenian allegation of genocide.

Last fall New Jersey Turkish Americans donated Callaghan's documentary, Lewy's book, "The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide", and Justin McCarthy's new release, "The Armenian Rebellion at Van" to the Springfield Library. The Springfield Library expressed a desire to show the documentary and have Lewy speak. Lewy accepted invitations to speak from the Springfield Library, Columbia University, and Stevens Institute of Technology.

Needless to say, the multi-million dollar Armenian lobby was furious and attended the regularly scheduled meeting of the Library Board of Directors, just three days before the Callaghan/Lewy event. They sent lawyers from Chicago and representatives from the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), the foreign agent of the ultra-right Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnak) political party. ANCA was formerly lead by Mourad Topalian who in 2001 was convicted and imprisoned for weapons and explosives violations authorities connected to at least four terror attacks by the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide (JCAG), the militant wing of Dashnak. The lawyers contested that it was illegal to hold the Callaghan/Lewy program at a public library, arguing that it constituted the use of public assets for the benefit of a narrow special interest.

In response, the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund (TALDF) submitted a legal memorandum to the Springfield Library and dispatched a Constitutional Law expert to make oral arguments at the Board meeting. TALDF cited dozens of Supreme Court cases defending freedom of speech, and argued that that the library was a public forum in which perspectives can be openly and objectively debated and discussed. TALDF further agued, that even if the library was not considered a public forum, Lewy did not constitute a special interest, because the vast majority of historians who are experts on the Ottoman Empire disagree with the Armenian allegation of genocide and constitute the dominant expert opinion on the matter.

The Board of Directors decided in favor of holding the Callaghan/Lewy event, to the dismay of ANCA. The Armenian lobby was invited to provide its point of view on Ottoman history as well.

Local Turkish American leader, Omer, Kitaplioglu expressed, "At the end of the day, freedom of speech won, thanks to the engagement of the local Turkish American community and the guidance of our national associations, ATAA, TCA, and TALDF."