Glendale News Press, CA
Oct 27 2007
FROM THE MARGINS:
Recognition is the right thing to do
By PATRICK AZADIAN
A couple of weeks ago City Council members put their differences
aside and voted unanimously to pass a symbolic resolution to urge the
U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill to recognize the
Armenian Genocide.
Gloomy Gus may argue that with a large segment of the residents
tracing their roots to the Armenian highlands, the act was an
expedient move to avoid political isolation. I briefly chatted with a
couple of council members; I got a different vibe.
Council members genuinely believed this was the right thing to do.
Why? Let’s look beyond historic evidence to understand this
well-timed gesture. Living in a city with so many of the descendants
of the survivors of the genocide, it has become second nature for
some to realize this is the right thing to do.
Council members understood how much this meant to many of the
residents.
Yet, I am often asked why can’t Armenians just move on. After all,
it’s argued, Poles and Jews have suffered in Europe and have `gotten
over it.’ African-Americans are dealing with the tragic chapters of
their history. History has not dealt a much better hand to the Native
Americans. The Irish have certainly recovered from the Potato Famine.
And Darfur still bleeds today.
The assumption is that every one of these groups is now healed and
has recovered. I don’t think that’s the case.
Genocide has left a scar on the Armenian people. If Turkey does not
give acknowledgment, the offspring of the genocide generation will
not heal. If the scars do not heal, it is difficult to look to the
future. There seems to be no escape from this paradox but
acknowledgment. advertisement
Why is it important for Turkey to admit, I am asked.
The obvious answer is: It’s the right thing to do.
Fortunately, Turkey can’t just say `it wasn’t us’ and get away with
it. Actually it can say, it wasn’t modern Turkey, it was the
Ottomans, but we’re sorry. But by working so hard to deny the
genocide, Turkey has become the inheritor and an accomplice to the
crime.
Denial is not an easy task. For the denial to make mathematical
sense, Turkey has to argue that not too many Armenians actually
existed before the 1915. The disappearance of 1.5 million people is
not easy to cover up.
To put things into perspective, exterminating 1.5 million people is
the equivalent to filling the Rose Bowl to seating capacity with men,
women and children, murdering everyone, getting rid of the corpses,
and repeating it 16 1/2 times.
Let’s take a minute to have that sink in.
How do you deny such a crime? One could argue they all left the
stadium willingly. But then the question is, where are they now? One
could also argue that all the 1.5 million willingly converted to
Islam.
`Modern’ Turkey’s approach is to deny the existence of the Armenians
on those lands. To do this, Turkey needs to toy with history to show
that the Armenian civilization was not a major presence before World
War I. And to do this, monuments and churches need to be
re-categorized and history books need to be revised.
The denial of the genocide is a denial of the existence of a
civilization.
It may be a tough task for Turks to come to terms with their history,
but they also need to move forward and heal. The time will come when
the Turkish state has to put its denial policies aside and live with
the consequences of the crime.
This issue is not going away. Unless of course, Turkey executes yet
another scheme to eliminate what’s left of the Armenian civilization
to the east. As long as the world has not unanimously condemned the
first genocide of the 20th century, given the right opportunity and
Turkey’s history of aggression in Cyprus, such a possibility
shouldn’t be discounted.
It would have been the right thing for the U.S. House of
Representatives to pass the resolution reaffirming the Armenian
Genocide. Despite Turkey’s threats to turn its back on America, it
would not dare refuse our tax dollars. Besides, where is Turkey going
to go – into the bed of radical Islam or into the arms of the newly
refurbished Russian empire?
City Council members had the right spirit. Thank you, council
members, for acknowledging the pain of my grandparents. Thank you for
reaffirming that their sufferings were real.
Sometimes, even in politics, doing the right thing is the right
thing.
 PATRICK AZADIAN is a writer and the creative director of a
local marketing and graphic design studio living in Glendale. He may
be reached at respond@ fromthemargins.net.
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