Memorial: Armenians walk by a structure marking the massacre and deportation
of more than 1 million Armenians during WWI.
By Nicole Itano

The Christian Science Monitor
from the April 23, 2007 edition

-woeu.html

Why Armenia pays high price for ‘genocide’ campaign

A diaspora-led push to recognize as ‘genocide’ the 1915-17 mass
killing, which is commemorated on April 24, has soured relations
with Turkey.

Gevork Melikyan, aged 94, stares off into the distance with cloudy
eyes. His daughter-in-law says he has trouble remembering what
happened last week, but he remembers with startling clarity the day
when his family fled Turkey – right down to the name of the dog they
left behind.

He was called "Challo," the old man recalls, dentures clacking. "I
remember my mother telling me, ‘Lock the door and throw the key
over the gate.’ " When they fled, they left the dog behind to guard
the house.

Mr. Melikyan is one of the last remaining survivors of the mass killing
and expulsion of ethnic Armenians from Turkey that took place between
1915 and 1917, which is widely recognized as the first genocide of
the 20th century.

Turkey disputes that characterization, however, saying there was no
organized campaign to kill Armenians and that the deportations took
place in the context of war. As the last witnesses reach the twilight
of their lives, the question of how to judge what happened in those
years remains center stage in the region’s complex politics.

The international campaign for universal recognition of the massacres
as a genocide has been generally led by the Armenian diaspora, many
of whom are descendants of families scattered from 1915-17. While
the Armenian government and most Armenians support the campaign,
there is also a growing recognition within the country that Armenia
pays a heavy price for continued tensions with Turkey.

Currently there are no diplomatic relations between the two countries,
and Turkey has closed all land borders to Armenia, in part because of
the genocide recognition issue. All trade between the two countries
must pass through neighboring Georgia, which levies heavy taxes
on goods.

"I think our position is that we are open and we are ready for
cooperation," says Ashot Tovmasyan, a young gas company employee who
was out on an afternoon stroll with his family. "I don’t think that
most people have hatred for Turks." But, he added, recognizing the
genocide is "a matter of historical truth."

A resolution to recognize the events of 1915-17 as genocide was
introduced in the US House of Representatives early this year, with
supporters pushing for its passage around April 24, Armenian Genocide
Remembrance Day.

The Bush administration – like previous administrations – opposes the
resolution, saying it will compromise national security by harming
relations with Muslim ally Turkey, which has lobbied hard against
it. But new House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s longtime support of such a
resolution, together with the broadest House support such a resolution
has seen in 20 years, has led to expectations that the resolution
has the first realistic chance of passing in many years.

At Armenia’s genocide memorial and museum, which sits on a hill
overlooking the country’s capital Yerevan, 12 gray granite blocks
extend into the air, protecting an eternal flame, in front of which
visitors have placed flowers.

A long wall records the names of cities in Turkey where Armenians
were evicted and killed. In front of it, a large poster depicts the
face of Hrant Dink, the Armenian-Turkish journalist assassinated in
Istanbul, Turkey, in January.

"This is not only an Armenian issue," says Hayl Demoyan, the museum
and monument’s young new director. "What do we see now? We seen
endless genocides and denials of those genocides."

Mr. Demoyan, whose family left the city of Kars in eastern Turkey,
is charged with protecting and researching the event’s history.

But he is also anxious that the museum not demonize Turks and is
considering an exhibit about Turkish people who saved Armenians. He
believes coming to terms with the past will help Turkey embrace a new
future and prevent future genocides from occurring. "Turkey is at a
crossroads," he says. "One road leads to democratization. The other
is destructive and leads to nationalism."

For many survivors and their families, though, animosity and distrust
still run deep. Melikyan’s son, Karen Melikyan, was raised on tales
of the family’s lost lands in Turkey, which many Armenians still
call "Western Armenia." As a child, he heard endless stories about
their beautiful two-story house in Igdir, the Russian gold coins –
the family’s life savings – traded for meager handfuls of flour when
the family arrived in Armenia, and the old dog Challo who miraculously
followed them to Yerevan a year later.

Many here hoped that the assassination of Mr. Dink, which led to a
massive outpouring of support within Turkey, would help mend relations
between the two countries, although most now feel that that opportunity
has passed.

"The genocide, the massacres, are rooted so deeply in the Armenian
psyche," says Karen. "I don’t see that we can live together again. I’m
not saying they are good or bad, but they are cruel. That is the way
they are, and we have to be smart."

But others suggest that while the past cannot be forgotten, more
effort needs to be made to build bridges with Turkey. "Of course
the genocide is one of the most tragic chapters of our history and
we need to make every effort to prevent this in the future," says
Artur Baghdasaryan, an opposition politician and former speaker of
parliament. "But we think our future relations with Turkey cannot be
defined only by genocide."