Leader
Forgotten Holocaust
Saturday April 23, 2005
The Guardian

It is not every day that there is a chance to ponder the significance
of events that happened in the distant past, so tomorrow’s 90th
anniversary of the start of what Armenians call their genocide at the
hands of the Turks should not pass unnoticed. This subject cannot be
tackled without negotiating a minefield of claim, counter-claim and
fury. Many historians believe that between 1915 and 1923 the Ottoman
Turkish authorities orchestrated the killing of 1.5 million Armenian
Christians. Turkish governments have always insisted that a few
hundred thousand died in “spontaneous” violence that constituted
neither extermination nor genocide, and that in any case began in
wartime, when the Armenians, seen as a fifth column, were fighting
alongside Russian forces.

Ohan Pamuk, Turkey’s most famous writer, was vilified recently for
referring to a million deaths, many of starvation on a long march into
exile in the Syrian desert. When France, home to the largest Armenian
diaspora community, planned to commemorate the killings, it received
threats from Turkey. Henry Morgenthau, then US ambassador to Istanbul,
reported “cold-blooded, calculating” slaughter. But American
governments speak only of “tragedy” to avoid offending their
ally. Armenians, marking the catastrophe in Yerevan and beyond, call
it the forgotten holocaust and say Turks should no more be allowed to
deny their responsibility than Germans for exterminating Europe’s
Jews. (Hitler, whose crimes areremembered, once scornfully asked who
remembered the Armenians).

With emotions still running so high, it is encouraging that Turkey has
asked Armenia to join a commission with unfettered access to the
records of both countries, including Turkey’s first world war military
archives. Armenia rejects this, saying the historical facts are
clear. Ankara fears the issue is being exploited by those, especially
in France, who oppose Turkish membership of the EU. To some extent,
the response is defensive. But whatever their motives, it will be
welcome if Turks are now ready to look at their past with a more open
mind.