A Collective Conscience?
Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta

HindustanTimes.com UK edition, India
April 22 2005

On April 24th, the living Armenians will gather to pay their respects
to the million plus Armenians who were killed during WWI. Who cares
about a century old genocide event other than the afflicted party,
eh? Nobody much, I am afraid. Nobody cared about the genocide in
Bangladesh 30 years ago with those genocidal maniacs now freely
enjoying their lives, visiting the west and even having political
power. Heck, nobody really cares about a genocide, which is going on as
we speak, in Darfur. Each and every person who raises their voice about
Palestine and Iraq and who talks about freedom and democracy in the
Middle East while ignoring Darfur, they are all culpable hypocrites and
mealy mouthed. It is easier to talk about the Americans and ignore the
Sudanese, isn’t it? However, we are getting away from the Armenians.

Genocide throws a very long shadow over human history. People remember
genocide and massacres way after the proponents and opponents have
died and turned to dust. Further crimes are committed because of
that memory and frequently these memories transmogrify into tribal,
racial, or national memory and live on and on. It is indeed very
simple to say that to stop this from happening, no genocide should
be done from now on, but as we have seen, it is easier said than
done. The only time that genocide is forgotten is when the genocide
is total and complete. For example, the Carthaginians were completely
defeated, their fields sown with salt and the entire population sold
into slavery. It does not arouse any major passions any more now,
does it? There is nobody left to raise the issue.

In addition, time unfortunately does not heal these wounds either.
Genocides and massacres carried out in the mists of antiquity
are still remembered. The Assyrian invasion and massacres of the
Israelites and the so-called Aryan Invasion of India thousands of
years ago have passed into national history and still, in many ways,
drive the national character in various ways. If we fast-forward to
the last century, April has been noted for massacres and genocides,
which cast a long shadow, even if we discard all the major and minor
wars. Deir Yassin in Palestine, Jalianwalla Bagh in India, Columbine
School in the USA, Tiananmen Square in China, the Holocaust, Rwanda,
Katyn Forest Massacre in Poland, Gardelegen Massacre in Germany are
just some of the massacres that come to mind.

Each and every one of these massacres still affects the world. Deir
Yassin is remembered by the Palestinians, the Jalianwalla Bagh massacre
by the Indians and Pakistani’s, Columbine by so many parents who keep
on facing the issue of guns in school children’s hands, Tiananmen
Square by hundreds of millions of Chinese, the Holocaust and Rwanda
by the entire world, Katyn by the Poles, Gardelegen by the Jews and
other nations whose citizens were burnt alive.

It is difficult not to feel sorry for the Armenians and at the same
time, feel quite amazed at their persistence, tenacity and courage.
For a nation, which is reputed to have descended from Noah and be
the first nation to embrace Christianity, God has unfortunately taken
His eye off these benighted people.

Armenian people had their own kingdom and were ruled by Armenians
until 66 BC, when it was then taken over by the Roman Empire. Since
then Romans, Persians, Byzantines, Arabs, Mongols, Turks and Russians
ruled. For a short while in the beginning of the 20th century, it
again became independent. That was not for long, as the Russian Bear
again gathered poor old Armenia into its paws until 1991, when it
became independent again.

So what happened to the Armenians? There is no dispute that very
large numbers of Armenians died in the second decade of the 20th
century (to be precise between 1915 and 1917). The range of casualties
ranges from 0.2 to 1.8 million Armenians. Turkish Armenians, who were
mostly Armenian Orthodox or Roman Catholic, clustered mostly around
the eastern side of what is current Turkey. Please do remember that
Turkey was facing civil war, rebellion, as well as being caught up in
the greater tragedy of WWI at that time. Turkey went into the World
War on the side of the Germans and in return Imperial Russia started
poking its nose into the eastern side to raise Armenian nationalism. On
the other hand, because of Turkish Sultan Abdul Hameed’s policies,
many western cosmopolitan Turkish Armenians threw their lot in with
the Young Turks, who overthrew the Sultan. Nevertheless, the Young
Turks were thoroughly upset with the Armenians in the east and decided
to relocate them forcibly to Iraq (then Mesopotamia) and Syria. This
forced migration is what lead to the killing of the Armenians.

The Turkish authorities set up about 25 concentration camps, some
of which were death camps. There are reports of gassing chambers,
poisoning or simple starvation techniques being applied to the
inmates. The Turkish government created specific organisations
to execute the genocidal policies. Prisoners were selected on a
homicidal basis and populated these organisations. In its defence,
the Turkish government set up court-marital proceedings to try most
of the senior members of the organisations later. Unfortunately,
most of these trials were in absentia, since after 1918, most of the
perpetrators had flown the coop. So what happened to the remainder
of the Armenians after this genocide? Well, as their ancestral homes
and farms had been razed, a lot of them emigrated. Many went to the
newly formed Republic of Armenia, but with the Russian Bear breathing
down their necks, a very large number emigrated to the west, forming
one of the smaller but very vocal diaspora groups in the world.