FACTS OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IGNORED FOR TOO LONG
Armen Rostami

Daily Sundial, CA
California State University, Northridge
April 26 2007

PrintEmail Article Tools Page 1 of 2 next > On a hot bloody day in
April, when the sun was causing red oasis in the sandy deserts of
Turkey and Syria, many Armenian intellectuals disappeared and never
came back. As it turned out later, they were among the one and a
half million that were slaughtered in the first genocide of the
20th century, "The Armenian Genocide." Although this massacre was
preplanned and derived by predetermined motives, it was not referred
to as genocide until the Turks started denying this clear historical
fact. Armenian genocide should be recognized because denying it
ignores the historical reality and outweighs the benefits for the
Turkish government.

Genocide is a misanthropic act that is intended to accomplish certain
incentives of a group of people through mass killing and extermination
of a race. The word itself stems from two Latin words, "gens" meaning
race or people and "cid" meaning "to destroy."

Genocides are generally composed of eight stages, and the last stage
is typically Denial. The eight stages of genocides are classification,
symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation,
extermination, and denial. Armenian Genocide of 1915 was preplanned
by the Nationalist Ottoman Empire and organized by Talaat Pasha. The
major incentive of the Armenian Genocide was to create a uniform
Turkish speaking Muslim territory by cleansing all the non-Turkish
minorities and conquering their lands and possessions. Such a
utopian territory was neither Turkey nor Turkistan. It was called
"Turan." Mehemd Ziya, the most influential thinker of the Turkish
government, who from 1909 to 1918 was a member of the secretive party
that ruled the Ottoman Empire for most of the period, the Central
Committee of the Union and Progress, said, "The land of the enemy
shall be devastated, Turkey shall be enlarged and become Turan." The
only way the Turkish Government could create their desired dreamland
"Turan" was by exterminating all the Armenians who were the Christian
minority in that region and deporting them to foreign lands. Today,
this sad reality has become incredibly hard and disrespectful for
the Turkish government to accept. After all, who would want to admit
a mass murder of two thirds of a nation?

Despite the Turkish Government’s constant crusade to destroy evidence
of the Genocide, there is still tons of evidence remaining to prove
it. When I physically went down to Ani, a holy Armenian city which
Turkey devastated and killed all its Armenian inhabitants during the
genocide, I observed how a government can kill history. All the burnt
churches that were evidence of the Genocide were being torn down,
or they were reconstructed and represented as Turkish mosques. If a
country is not ashamed of her past why would it change her history? A
simple answer to this question is that it is always easier to say
something did not exist rather than denying an actual fact. There is
also unbiased evidence compiled by world famous historians such as
Arnold Toynbee and James Bryce. In February 1916, these historians
began compiling information and evidence for a publication about
recent events in Armenia.

Resistance itself is the most valuable psychological evidence that can
lead to the unraveling of the untold and denied truth. If Turkey is
confident that the Armenian genocide did not happen and keeps denying
this historical fact, then why do they resist those who attempt to
produce documents about this fact? "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh"
(Mount of Moses), is literature that narrates the story of Armenians
inhabiting villages around Mount Moses during World War I.

Although, this story is mainly an artwork, it is yet based on true
facts, evidence, personal experiences and observations of the author
from the genocide. When MGM was trying to produce a movie based on
this book, Turkish government called the American authorities to
forbid MGM from producing such a movie. This clear resistance shows
the fear of the Turks from the popularity and fast transmittance of
the truth. If the world finds out about such an inhumane reality in
history, it will be a lot harder for Turkey to deny the genocide.

Like all the other genocides, racism is an inevitable factor of the
Armenian genocide. The Turks could not stand the Armenians advancements
in economy, and their involvement in the political system. Looking back
at history we find out that every murder has a murderer, especially
if the murders happen in a large amount and at a specific time
period. Armenians have been deprived of any meaningful and official
recognition of this bloody series of murders. Indeed, the world has
not taken the time to listen to the survivors, but this has not kept
them from speaking up and narrating bitter stories about the genocide.

Although the Turkish Government has been denying the Armenian
Genocide for 92 years, the world is getting more informed about this
genocide. Clearly, Turkey will be the last nation to acknowledge the
Armenian Genocide, because denying this historical reality outweighs
the benefits for the Turkish Government. Naturally, Armenians all
around the world will not sit silently. They will protest and fight
until they get the genocide recognized by the whole world. It is
definitely a possible thing to do, because similar cases such as the
Jewish Holocaust have been already tested and have successfully passed
this bloody test of recognition. His eminence, Ignatius Peter XVI
Batanian once said: "A million and a half Armenian victims horribly
massacred, all the Armenian people, shaken but not discouraged,
await an answer."