For The Day Of Remembrance - April 24th

15levels · April 21, 2004

For The Day of Remembrance - April 24th

By Audrey Selian

April 24th is an important day of remembrance. It marks a moment in history of a devastating human tragedy: the anniversary of the Genocide of 1.5 million Armenian people (~70% of total population at the time), a political 'strategy' inflicted by the "Young Turk" government of the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

Genocide has been used repeatedly as the tool of states bent on political and social transformation, the de-humanization of victims seen as the first step toward successful implementation. This first Genocide of the 20th century, for many reasons, has been neither accepted by all nations, nor recalled as a lesson about the darker side of collective denial.

That said, however, a growing number of countries and multinational organizations, including the European Parliament and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, have recognized and reaffirmed the Armenian Genocide as historical fact. In the last several years alone, parliaments of Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland have passed resolutions officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide. In 2000 and 2001, Pope John Paul II issued statements condemning the Armenian Genocide as a "prologue to horrors" that would follow in the 20th century, and the European Parliament renewed its calls on Turkey to publicly recognize the Genocide.

The United States, home to over one million Armenians today - many of whom fled the Genocide, treats this subject with selective memory - plainly speaking - as a result of the strategic considerations of its longstanding relationship with Turkey. Interestingly, the U.S. has allegedly used the recognition of this tragic event as a 'bargaining chip' with Turkey (as reported last year this time in Turkish daily newspaper C umhuriyet), in the face of Turkish recalcitrance to join the coalition forces prior to last year's invasion of Iraq. (And if even half of this is true, it's already disturbing). Looking to the massacre of over 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994, we ask - "how did this happen in our day and age?" Other examples abound - Cambodia, Bosnia. Genocide happens because it can. It happens because there are people willing to participate in it, stand by and watch it, and in some cases - to deny it ever happened.

For those who are generally familiar with the historical background of the Armenian Genocide, it will be obvious why it elicits considerable tension between Turkish and Armenian people. In the past, I have found myself defending that which I believe to be historical truth. I've since realized that 'defending truth' to those who do not have the capacity to see it can be a circuitous and so metimes fruitless effort. Truth can admittedly have many faces, although I firmly believe that there is a line beyond which systematic extermination of over a million people can simply not be rationally denied. The realm beyond that line includes attempts to characterize this case as the byproduct of a 'civil war'. As far as I know from my past 10 years of exposure to international relations study in various institutions, civil war is usually something that occurs when both (if not more) embroiled sides are armed and fighting. Ample, objective (non-Armenian) historical references and news sources exist to prove that this was not what was happening in 1915. Certainly, anyone with a little time and inclination to utilize their access to the New York Times Online Archives can type in the word "Armenian", select a search criteria of 01/01/1915 through 12/01/1915, and just read for themselves what the overwhelming majority of articles say in that year. (Note: the word "Genocide", coined by Lemkin, did not exist before 1943.) Nevertheless, I have largely ceased to defend "my" version of history vs. "other" versions of history. Although I will add that it is curious that some of these "other" versions of history are referred to in mainstream literature as part of a category of "historical revisionism". Basically, I can only try to raise awareness.

In a way, it ceases to matter whose 'story' one wants to accept. In the grand scheme of things, it is not the version of history or the number of lives lost that is any longer at issue on days like April 24th - I think it is more how such memorials can speak to that which is a lesson for all humanity. Acknowledged or not, there is a price to pay for those who perpetrate such crimes. And Turkey continues to pay that price, in part because it has a reputation vis-a-vis its human rights record that speaks for itself. If specific events are not acknowledged, then somewhere - patterns of behavior are. Though this may not translate to Genocide recognition as a matter of policy for all governments, I take comfort in the idea that simple acknowledgement need not necessarily start from the top-down. In an age of knowledge networks, knowledge creation, and dissemination - the realm of public opinion continues to grow in significance. It is perhaps less important whether one prefers one 'version' of an event to another, than to realize the problem of there being a dispute around the virtual annihiliation of an ethnically homogeneous population from specific geographical areas during a specific period of time.

April 24th is an important day because it gives us an example of what we should not accept - an unacknowledged traged y and a historical failure of international cooperation. There have been and continue to be many such failures since the Genocide of the Armenians. And sadly, even Armenians are not inured to bloodshed along ethnic lines. This can be noted in the events (albeit noting the very clear distinctions between ethnic conflict and Genocide) that transpired in Khojaly in 1992, a conflict during which hundreds of Azeri civilians were reportedly killed by Karabagh Armenian forces. It can be noted also historically in some provinces of Anatolia as the Genocide unfolded, as Armenians fought in self-defense with the support of Russia. When the conditions are ripe, victims have the potential to become perpetrators - and cycles of violence are re-born. We see this phenomenon in so many contexts (other than in the manifestation of Genocide), that it becomes almost unnecessary to mention the most obvious one s.

There is something that unites Turks, Armenians and the rest. Indeed, 'truth' may not lie necessarily for all people in the exact number, the exact locations, and the exact means of horrifying execution exercised in a process of ethnic extermination (though in and of themselves these details can never truly be compromised). Rather, I believe that days like April 24th should be a memorial to the catastrophic failures of Humanity. These failures unite all of us: whether we are related to the perpetrators, whether we are victims of the perpetrators, whether we bear witness, or whether we simply deny. In the case of the Armenian Genocide, April 24th makes reference to one of those failures: The actions of a Turkish government hell-bent on land and power in the early part of the 20th century as its 'millet' system for governance of minorities deteriorates, and the subsequent failur e of the international community to prevent what actually became the precedent for the successful extermination strategies of Adolf Hitler himself. Was it not Hitler, reassured by the un-learned lessons of history, who said, "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

Failures continue today to be manifested in different forms, morphing in and out of various institutions, political agendas, and international personalities. They are characterized by systematic denial and a lack of acknowledgment of what is a sad reality. Again and again, the political and the economic supersedes the human. History, it would seem, is intellectualized and academicized at a rather large cost. When one denies another their story of tragedy, particularly in the context of inextricably linked histories, hatred and fear thrive, and cooperation is destroyed before it can be born. It is no wo nder that some wounds never heal and are passed down from generation to generation. I am removed two full generations from the deserts of Der Zor, but the stories of the immense suffering and torture of my great-grandparents remain in me. The living memory of the survivors who are with us is an even more powerful force than the desire to preserve cultural cohesion. All of us can learn something from this.

Why does this matter today? Turkey still stands in a position of power and has been regarded with considerable suspicion vis-à-vis her intentions toward the Kurdish populations living within Turkish borders. Turkey also stands on the verge of EU membership - and assuming one takes the most positive de facto facets of European identity - the question remains: should a state like Turkey with this unacknowledged blood on its hands be considered a part of Europe? A Europe in which o thers have been largely held accountable and paid penance for their deeds? If history is any indicator of the justification of suspicions about Turkey's eligibility and standing, then the story of the Armenian Genocide is vital.

Can Armenians and Turks (as collective entities) ever get along? If perhaps we were to applaud together the efforts of those brave Turkish people who stood against ethnic lines to protect innocent human beings from being led to slaughter, common ground can be found. Many Turks helped to hide and save entire families before they could be marched off and slaughtered. These were heroes. Some, today, still stand up to the injustice of denial, to the reality of their history. If it were possible to celebrate the strength and humanity of those unique individuals who resisted violence, then we can encourage others - perhaps - to do the same. The political matur ity upon which this can be built is contingent first upon an acceptance of ownership and accountability. Then, there may be hope for disentangling ethnic violence and political agendas. And in separating the two, suffering can be looked at for what it was, what it has been, and what it should never be again. - Audrey Selian

NOTES:

The Turkish government today denies that there was an Armenian Genocide and claims that Armenians were only removed from an eastern "war zone", which consisted mainly of Erzerum, Bitlis and Van. The Genocide, however, occurred all over and across Anatolia (present-day Turkey). Deportations and killings occurred in the west, in and around Ismid (Izmit) and Broussa (Bursa); in the center, in and around Angora (Ankara); in the south-west, in and around Konia (Konya) and Adana (which is near the Mediterranean Sea); in the central portion of Anatolia, in and around Diyarbekir (Diyarbakir), Harpout (Harput), Marash, Sivas (Sepastia), Shabin Kara-Hissar (þebin Karahisar), and Ourfa (Urfa); and on the Black Sea coast, in and around Trebizond (Trabzon). (Source: Univ. of Michigan-Dearborn)

Only one Turkish government, that of Damad Ferit ***** (after March 1919), has ever recognized the Armenia n Genocide. In fact, that Turkish government held war crimes trials and condemned to death the major leaders responsible, including Ismail Enver *****, Ahmed Cemal *****, Mehmed Talât Bey, and a host of others who were convicted by the Turkish court and condemned to death for "the extermination and destruction of the Armenians". It is interesting that the 'justice' doled out by those in the process of governmental reform in 1919 could not have served as a starting point from which Turkey could have constructively come to terms with the darker chapters of her history. As it is, a simple historical recognition may have cost far less than the accusations against Turkey's human rights record cost today - at least in the realm of public diplomacy and opinion.

RECENT NEWS: New York Times Changes Policy on Armenian Genocide:

The New York Times has recently revised its guidelines for editors regarding < BR>the Armenian genocide. The new policy notes, "After careful study of scholarly definitions of `genocide,' we have decided to accept the term in references to the Turks' mass destruction of Armenians in and around 1915." The guidelines continue, "The expression `Armenian genocide' may be used freely and should not be qualified with phrasing like `what Armenians call,' etc." The Times' new guidelines state that: "By most historical accounts, the Ottoman empire killed more than one million Armenians in a campaign of death and mass deportation aimed at eliminating the Armenian population throughout what is now Turkey."

The memo notes, "While we may of course report Turkish denials on those occasions when they are relevant, we should not couple them with the historians' findings, as if they had equal weight."

For more information contact: Peter Balakian, pbalakian@mail.colgate.edu; Robert Melson, me lson@polsci.purdue.edu; or Samantha Power, Samantha_Power@ ksg.harvard.edu.

For More Information, a few links... : "The Accounts of Henry Morgenthau, American Ambassador to Turkey 1913-16", Link: http://www.cilicia.com/morgenthau/MorgenTC.htm "The Turkish Military Tribunal's Prosecution of the Authors of the Armenian Genocide: Four Major Court-Martial Series" by Vahakn N. Dadrian, Link: http://www.Genocide.am/ dadrian/content.htm "Remembering and Understanding the Armenian Genocide", by Rouben Paul Adalian, Link: http://www.Genocide.am/adalian/content.htm Khojaly: "Genocide Debate Complicates Search for Artsax Peace" by Clare Doyle, Link: http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insi...av030602a.shtml

Commemoration in the New York Times - those who have recognized the Genocide: http://www.learntoquestion.com/data/sw1.gif, http://www.learntoquestion.com/data/swarmenian.gif "Critics Accuse Turkish Government of Manipulating Scholarship", Chronicle of Higher Education, by Amy Magaro Rubin, Link: http://www.learntoquestion.com/data/turk_s...gen_denial.html

"Armenians say US Failed Them", by Fergal Keane, Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/corr...ent/2572667.stm

"Bitter History of Armenian Genocide Row", by Chris Morris, Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1132336.stm

"Turkey angry at US Armenian Genocide move",

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/monitorin...orts/939138.stm

"The Psychological Satisfaction of Denials of the Holocaust or Other Genocides by Non-Extremists or Bigots, and Even by Known Scholars" by Israel W. Charny, Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Genocide; Executive Director of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide, Jerusalem; Professor of Psychology & Family Therapy, and Founder and Former Direc tor of the Program for Advanced Studies in Integrative Psychotherapy at the Dept. of Psychology & Martin Buber Center, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Link: http://www.ideajournal.com/articles.php?id=27

http://www.armeniangenocideposters.org/images/absolutdenial0.jpg

Edited April 21, 2004 by 15levels

Sip · April 21, 2004

Wow I like this poster Rouben. Very clever and definitely catchy. :thumbup:

15levels · April 21, 2004

Thanks a lot I am trying to get the essay published in Haaretz here in Israel. I hope they go for it. Audrey Selian did a great job on writting it.

Unfortunately I havent got power to lobby in Israel, but it would be a good thing to push for something to be shown on TV the same days.... well, we wait and see.

Edited April 21, 2004 by 15levels