ISRAEL W.CHARNY: I HAVE BEEN ALWAYS STRUGGLING AGAINST POSITION OF ISRAELI GOVERNMENT IN ISSUE OF RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
May 18 2006
YEREVAN, MAY 18, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. “The Israeli society
knows about the Armenian Genocide, recognizes it, a different matter
is the attitude of the Israeli government to this fact. I consider its
position wrong, treat it critically and regret as a Jew. I have been
always struggling against such a position,” Israel W. Charny, Executive
Director of the Institute of Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem,
President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars,
declared to the journalists. According to him, there is “small success”
in the respect of recognition of the Armenian Genocide: two members
of the former Israeli government declared about the recognition
of the Armenian Genocide but this was immediately followed by an
answer from the government that these two ministers are speaking on
behalf of themselves. “The main reason of Israel’s not recognizing
the Armenian Genocide is that our government thinks just like my
father. My father was a Jew from Europe, he lost the most part of his
family during the Holocaust and he was saying that only Jews should
be taken care of. In my opinion, this attitude is understandable but
wrong,” I.Charny declared. According to him, the Israeli government
declares that Israel needs Turkey, Turkey is a mighty neighbor, with
which they should develop military cooperation, Israel needs Turkey
as an Islamic country, with which Israel is on good terms, which,
as the Israeli scholar mentioned, is a truth. In response to Noyan
Tapan correspondent’s question, whether the statement of the chief
rabbi about the recognition of the Armenian Genocide can be a step
towards progress in the issue of recognition of the Genocide in Israel,
I.Charny said: “Yes, the chief rabbi is an official person but he is
not a member of the government. If the President of Israel declared
this, it would be fine. I think the statement of the chief rabbi was
great and of cource, it is very important”. He regretted to say that
many Jews refuse to recognize the victims of Nazism who were not Jews:
“These were Gipsies, non-full-value children who were killed by Nazis
still before the Holocaust and Soviet war prisoners who were burnt
in the same crematoriums where Jews were burnt.
But the Armenians also demonstrate the same stinginess when they do
not want to mention Greeks and Assyrians among the victims of the
Genocide,” I.Charny declared. As for the position of the Turkish
society in the issue of recognition of the Genocide, I.Charny noted
that today the number of people daring to speak about the Genocide is
growing in Turkey. As he estimated, these are really brave people. In
its turn, the Turkish government is striving for showing the first
signs that it is able to hear such a position.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress