Kuwaiti writer on Armenian Genocide
Azad-Hye, Dubai
May 4 2005
Kuwaiti writer Ahmad Al Rabe’e has published an interesting article
in the 25th April 2005 issue of the well-known Saudi international
daily “Asharq Alawsat”. Below is a translation of the article from
Arabic:
Commemorating the Armenian Genocide
It is already the 90th anniversary of one of the most brutal mass
annihilations in the history of mankind: the Armenian Genocide, a
chain in a series of crimes against humanity, involving many peoples:
massacres against Jews, Kurds, Palestinians and Armenians.
A short while ago was the anniversary of the Holocaust, the crime
that Hitler committed against the Jews. Newspapers, radio and TV
stations conducted many interviews and discussions on the subject of
Holocaust. It is true that our human duty is to express solidarity
with the Jewish victims of Nazism, but it is pity that human beings
are still selective, even when it comes to the past: for example the
killings of the Jews have become an international event,
commemorative monuments are erected and museums for the victims are
built, acts that are required indeed. But what about the Armenian
Genocide? Why this appalling silence every year? Why the Turkish
insistence on not publicly apologizing to the Armenian people,
although the current Turkish generation is not guilty and the apology
would be for a historical crime, all of whose victims and
perpetrators have passed away by now.
I am used to write on the occasion of the Armenian Genocide. I am
also used to receive every time a letter from the Turkish Embassy in
Kuwait, in which an attempt is made to explain the Turkish point of
view, running away from self-confrontation and telling the truth.
There are other tragic events in the history of mankind, dealt also
with a selective method: The anniversary of the Kurdish Halabja
passes silently, although a crime with chemical weapons have been
committed there against innocent families. The day of Sabra and
Shatila and before that Deir Yassin: people were killed brutally like
sheep. The anniversary of Saddam Hussein’s invasion to Kuwait: the
killing of people, the destruction of a country and the burning of
more than five hundred oil wells, one of the greatest crimes against
the environment.
I hope that we all read the message of the Prime Minister of Japan,
in which he is apologizing to all the nations who were victims of the
Japanese colonial period. He apologized in frank, clear and
comprehensive way, with pride. It is a great human merit to act so,
especially all we are asking is a mere apology … the least a
faithful can do.
for Arabic version, go to
;file=article&sid=183