HISTORIANS WEIGH IN ON THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
by The Stiletto
Blogger News Network
Oct 22 2007
One of the especially specious arguments against the Armenian Genocide
Resolution was that Congressmen are not historians, and are unqualified
to determine whether the systematic slaughter of Armenians by the
Ottoman Turks constitutes ¡°genocide.¡±
For the sake of discussion, let¡¯s accept this sophistry and agree
that Congress should take its cue from historians whose job it is
to know these things. Earlier this month, scholars and academics of
genocide studies gathered at McGill University (Montreal) for the
Global Conference on Genocide Prevention signed a petition urging
Congress to recognize the Armenian Genocide by approving floor votes
on HR/SR 106. In his opening remarks, symposium chair Payam Akhavan,
S.J.D. noted, ¡°The 20th century has been described as the Century
of Genocide. It opened in 1915 with the mass killing of almost 1.5
million Armenians in Eastern Anatolia by the Ottoman Empire.¡± Among
those who signed the petition: Rom¨¦o Dallaire, former commander of UN
peacekeeping forces in Rwanda; Yehuda Bauer, Holocaust historian and
scholar, Yad Vashem and Hebrew University; and Dr. Gregory Stanton,
President of Genocide Watch.
Not content to publish not one, not two, but three editorials
against HR/SR 106 in the space of two weeks (perhaps more than one
of the genocide deniers on its staff wanted his own crack at it),
The Wall Street Journal also sacrificed G-d knows how many trees to
allow Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan a platform to spew
anti-Armenian propaganda and genocide denial:
Efforts to rewrite the history of the events of 1915 through
legislative fiat and vilify Turks are not new to the U.S. Congress.
But past attempts were always contained through support in Congress
and from successive presidential administrations. This time, it seems
that the House of Representatives may be forced to take sides and pass
unilateral judgment on a historic controversy that is as contentious
as it is complex.
The truth is that the Armenian allegations of genocide pertaining to
the events of 1915 have not been historically or legally substantiated.
Erdogan asks, ¡°why the Republic of Armenia is obstinately evading
Turkey¡¯s offer to establish a Joint History Commission to examine
together the events of 1915 through bilateral dialogue – all the
while openly supporting efforts to defame Turkey.¡±
The truth is, Erdogan can¡¯t handle the truth. Like all Turks, he has
been brainwashed from childhood to believe that ¡°many Turks lost their
lives during the mutual killings.¡± It goes without saying that the
word ¡°genocide¡± never appears in Turkish schoolbooks ¨C but then,
there are no references whatsoever to the mass murders.
Instead, schoolchildren are taught that the ¡°events of 1915¡å ¨C a
code term used only by Armenian genocide deniers ¨C were attributable
to ¡°treacherous¡± Armenians who had joined the Russian Imperial army
in attacks on the Empire.
Conservative pundits who know as little about Turkish culture as
they do about Ottoman Turkish history marveled that Turks would
be ¡°insulted¡± by a symbolic resolution passed by the government
of a country a world away ¨C even as they scrambled to scotch the
resolution so that the bratty tot would get what he wanted and shut
up. The Stiletto can explain: Every morning in school, Turkish children
recite an oath that inculcates them with the idea they are a superior
breed of human:
I am a Turk, I am honest. I am a hard worker. My rule is to protect
those younger and to respect my elders, and to love my country and my
nation more than myself. My goal is to enhance and to get higher. May
my life be a present to the Turkish people. Honorable, unreachable
Ataturk! I give my oath to continue towards reaching the targets
you showed, to walk on the road you have opened, in the country you
created. How happy I am to say I am a Turk.
Hard as it may be for right-thinking people to believe, it is entirely
within the realm of possibility that Erdogan sincerely believes that
Ottoman Turks did not ¨C and are too decent and honorable to – commit
genocide. Unfortunately for Turkey, the governments of 22 nations
worldwide and 40 states here in the U.S. know different because their
schoolbooks and newspapers aren¡¯t censored, and their writers and
journalists aren¡¯t prosecuted (or murdered) for telling the truth.
It is Turkey that needs to constitute historical commissions to undo
decades of lying to and brainwashing its citizens. Armenians know
all too well the truth of the matter. They need a stinkin¡¯ ¡°Joint
Commission¡± like Jews need Mahmoud Ahmadinejad telling them whether
there was a Holocaust.
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