The Conservative Voice, North Carolina
Feb 16 2008
The Enemy of My Friend is My Enemy?
by by Edward Papelian
February 16, 2008 12:00 PM EST
With all due respect to the numerous Jewish-born humanists,
historians, writers, individual personalities, Chief Rabbi, Yona
Metzger and many other that have had the courage to take a stand for
the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and justice for this crime,
it is none the less obvious that the official representatives of
Judaism and above all Jewish/Israeli politicians still have a lot to
catch up on.
Turkish Prime Minster, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, called upon Turkish
migrant workers in a very controversial and emotional speech, on Feb
10 in Germany city of Cologne, to resist assimilation and remain
Turkish. Erdogan confused in his above mentioned speech "integration"
with "assimilation". According to Turkish Prime Minister:
`Assimilation is a crime against humanity’! Erdogan´s nationalistic
views on needed intergration of Turks in German society cuased an
outcry in Germany. One should just bring to the attention of Turkish
authorities that the Australian government apologized Wednesday (Feb
13) for years of "mistreatment" and decades of racist policies that
inflicted "profound grief, suffering and loss" on the country’s
Aboriginal people. When is Turkey – an `allay and friend’ of Israel
and Us – going to end its racist policies and apologize for the
systematic destruction of Armenians as other Christian folks and
forced turcifications in Turkey? According to Turkish palace
historians all Non Turks living in Ottoman Turkey were `foreign spies
and infidels…"
Even though the internationally recognized and respected Jewish
jurist and human rights activist Rafael Lemkin already concerned
himself with and recognized the systematic destruction of the
Armenians as a "murder of race" at the start of the 1930s, the fact
remains that justice for the Armenian Genocide is still being
aggressively denied by influential organizations of the Jewish
Diaspora as well as by the State of Israel itself.
Genocide – extermination of a race – is a political crime. Genocides
are not committed by private individuals, but by the state itself.
The reference to historians and historical science in regard to the
Armenian Genocide is a tactical and spurious argument to relieve the
world governments from the responsibility to act while simultaneously
giving the perpetrators carte blanche. The proper reaction to
political crimes is therefore only possible through political
response – from the parliamentary houses, the politicians and the
governments.
Now more than ever the denial of genocide must be responded to, for
denial is intrinsic to the methodology of genocide. Genocide is
denied even as it is practiced.
>From the beginning, the perpetrator seeks pretexts and justifications
to conceal the real intentions. Thus, the extermination is referred
to as "transporting," as "deportation" or "resettlement" – "moving to
secure places" or even as the "final solution." A verbal code is used
to camouflage and thus deny the annihilation, even as it is being
committed. No wonder after the `deportation (i.e. Annihilation) of
Armenians in Turkey everything become ?Turkish’.
Genocide without simultaneous denial is unthinkable – yes, even
impossible. The first thing that must be done is to consider what the
perpetrators want to attain through denial. Denial is not just the
simple negation of an act; it is much more the consequent
continuation of the very act itself. Genocide should not only
physically destroy a community; it should likewise dictate the
prerogative of interpretation in regard to history, culture,
territory and memory. As the victims- Armenians – "never exists".
The Turkish have not only murdered humans , destroyed an ancient
culture/civilization and rewritten history, but they continue to
legitimize the act as well as the racist ideology that led to the
act. This includes the legitimization of any and all stereotyping of
the Armenian people as a dangerous enemy, as a deadly bogeyman in the
closet.
Denial is the final step in the completion of a mass extermination –
and the first step towards the next genocide. If genocide is
committed in Ruanda or Sudan, it is done with the knowledge that the
rest of the world will only watch and then forget.
They look to Turkey and think themselves safe in the assumption that
their actions will likewise remain unpunished! Whether in Sudan or
Ruanda or any other potential hotspot of mass murder the accountable
powers-that-be rhetorically ask – as Hitler supposedly did just
before invading Poland – "Who, after all, speaks today of the
annihilation of the Armenians?"
The Republic of Turkey has denied the Armenian Genocide for the past
84 years, and politicians in Israel and a vast majority of officials
of Jewish Diaspora are aboard their boat now. In the USA, for
example, the Jewish Anti-Defamation League (ADL) not only denied the
Armenian Genocide in the past but also actively fought against the
Congressional Resolution for the Recognition of the Armenian
Genocide. At the end of August 2007, the ADL finally recognized the
Armenian Genocide through gritted teeth. The acknowledgment given,
however, was qualified to such an extent that one could have done
without it. A similar statement of recognition was also
simultaneously supplied by the American Jewish Committee.
Presently, the AIPAC totally denies to have ever fought against the
official recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the US government
and now presents itself as being neutral in regard to the subject.
(And apparently "neutral" is just what they are.)
Pierre Besnainou, the acting president of the European Jewish
Congress (EJC) until early 2007, stated in 2006 that the Armenian
people should stop making fools of themselves: there has been only
one genocide in modern times and as everyone knows it was that of the
Jews – an Armenian Genocide never happened. (We have yet to see what
the attitude of Moshe Kantor, the current president of the EJC, is in
this regard.)
In 2001, while he was the Israeli Foreign Minister, Nobel Prize
winner and current President of Israel Shimon Peres described the
Armenians as "meaningless" ("Armenian allegations") Moreover, this
year President Shimon Peres and the current Israeli Foreign Minister
Tzipi Livni did a heroic act that in no way pales to the statements
regarding the Holocaust expressed by the President Ahmadinejad: Peres
affirmed Israel’s attitude to the "Armenian Question" and promised
the Turkish Prime Minster Erdogan to lobby against the Armenians,
while Minster Livni prevented the Knesset from officially recognizing
the Armenian Genocide.
The statement given: "Genocide never happened. There was a "tragedy"
with victims on both sides. Please reconcile yourselves now and start
a dialog." Once again, a replay of the Turkish argument of shameless
denial by a Israeli official: "There were mutual killings and No mass
Killings."
Just recently Israeli President Shimon Peres let himself be vocally
celebrated by hundreds of Genocide deniers in the Turkish Parliament,
including numerous Turkish fascists, racists, ultra-nationalists and
fundamentalists In Ankara, President Shimon Peres reiterated his
support for the denial of the Armenian Genocide and conveyed his full
acceptance of the Turkish politics of lies and denial. But it cannot
escape the notice of an experienced politician like President Shimon
Peres that the Genocide deniers in Ankara are no longer simply
satisfied with the repudiation of the Armenian Genocide.
Turkish Prime Minster Erdogan and the other Turkish nationalists have
long since joined forces to create Pan Turanic – "Pan Turkish"-
institutions with the specific aim of try(ing) to prove the
‘illegality’ of the existence of the Armenian people to the world.
When the French Ambassador to Great Britain, Daniel Bernard, referred
to Israel as "this shitty little country" in 2001, there was a storm
of protest and he was quickly labeled an Anti-Semite. But what should
an Armenian call someone that denies the Armenian Genocide and refers
to Armenians as "meaningless"? If that were even just all that is
being done: Above and beyond this, Turkey has demanded that Israel
instruct the "Jewish Lobby" to agitate against the Armenians. Of
course the reference to the "Jewish Lobby" is an allusion to the
Jewish Diaspora and – as is the case when talking of Diasporas –
carries a whiff of world conspiracy and global domination.
Thus, the "Jewish Conspiracy" should follow Ankara’s tune and
eliminate, obliterate, purge (whatever you choose to call it) the
"Armenian Conspiracy." Under normal circumstances the concept would
be laughable, but laughter is not advisable as it could result in
asphyxiation.
Why Do Jewish Organizations and their Functionaries Deny the Armenian
Genocide as Turkey Does Deny recognition and Justice for this Crime?
How can this act of denial be harmonious with the Jewish moral
concepts and identity in light of the xenophobia, racism,
Anti-Semitism, hostility and intolerance that the sorely tested
Jewish People are themselves confronted with on a daily basis?
Genocide is racism: it is the most paramount and aggressive form of
racial discrimination, and is aimed at the obliteration of the
existence and life of a people only because they belong to a specific
community or collective – a community that is defined by the
aggressors as "the others," as "the alien."
Two reasons are commonly given for the "placating" activities of the
international Jewish community in regard to Turkey’s denial policies:
Israel needs Turkey, and the Holocaust is unique. On occasion a third
reason is also offered: to do otherwise would result in repercussions
against the Jewish community in Istanbul. (Although if this were
true, the US Congress and Senate could never pass any resolutions
against Iran: as is well known, numerous Jewish people also live in
Tehran, Yazd, and Isfahan for centuries!) Statements such as those
are, in the end, nothing but hollow attempts to justify denial.
The attitude of Jewish Organizations and their functionaries in
regard to the Armenian Genocide not only results in their involvement
in the guilt of the perpetrators but also produces a culpability of
their own as well.
An attitude such as theirs supports and perpetuates the bogeyman
image of the Armenians that has long been cherished by the Turkish
while simultaneously strengthening the Turkish nationalistic
self-image. Above and beyond this, when Jewish functionaries describe
the Ottoman Turkey as a paradise of earth, they both distort history
and negate the inhumanities experienced by the Armenian as other Non
Turkish People; instead, an unmerited image of a heroic and
pro-Judaic Turkey is propagated throughout Jewish communities and
private homes.
Thus, in turn, within the sphere of the Jewish Diaspora and even
Israel itself, a new generation grows that is spoon-fed the
misconceptions of the valiant Turk and perfidious Armenian. In regard
to this current situation, is oddly ironic that the modern usage of
the word "Holocaust" – used so often by international communities to
describe the Shoah – was first introduced to describe the Turkish
bloodbath suffered by the Armenians in Adana in 1909. (Ferriman,
Z.D.: The Young Turks and the Truth about the Holocaust at Adana in
Asia Minor during April 1909; London, 1913.)
The Enemy of My Friend is also My Enemy. Is the demonization of the
Armenian Community within the Jewish Diaspora done with this concept
in mind? Some examples among others: In July 2007 an article was
published in the "Juedische Zeitung" ("Jewish Newspaper") in Germany
which totally supported and serviced the policies of genocide denial
and victim-perpetrator-reversal as practiced alla Turca.
The "Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs" published in November this
year in its webpage an article written by Ms. Aydan Kodaloglu, an
advisor to the former Turkish President Turgut Özal; in her article,
Kodaoglu attempted to make the denial of the Armenian Genocide (even
more) palatable for the Jewish and Israeli population. (Ironically
enough, according to Nüzhet Kandemir, the former Turkish ambassador
to the USA, President Turgut Ozal was himself on the brink of
recognizing the Armenian Genocide.)
In turn, in the Jerusalem Post Joel J. Sprayregen (the former
National Vice-Chair of the ADL and a member of the Executive
Committee of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
(JINSA)) took the Armenian resistance during the Genocide to justify
denial alla Turca – "There was no genocide" – he was referring to
history fakers – despite the fact that he must be fully aware that
one could easily reinterpret reality and deny the Jewish Holocaust
through the misrepresentation of the Warsaw Uprising, the
Theresienstadt- deportation camp, the "sale" and departure of the
Jews to Switzerland during the Holocaust , existence of Jewish units
in the British Army (traditional foe of Germany during WW) ,struggle
of Jewish for a "Jewish State", and survival of millions of Jews
people …
And in the US, one could easily come to assume that Washington Times
– which often reads as a copy of the Turkish press – aims at leading
a war against the Armenian Genocide Resolution (HR 106) in the US
Congress.
Holocaust-denier, David Irving, is serving more and more as example
as a paradigm for the denial of Armenian Genocide. Mr. Lenny
Ben-David, former undersecretary at the Israeli Embassy in the US and
A adviser for five years to the Turkish embassy in Washington, until
earlier this summer, In his article published in the Oct. 5 issue of
the Jerusalem Post, titled "Turkey and Armenia: What Jews should do,"
Not only denied the Armenian Genocide and creates hysteria and
Armenophobe but in his article he gives a lot of credit to the
fabrication of Turkish and Azeri nationalists and fascists. This is
again not a hidden fact even for this politician that the aim of
Turkish fabrications against Armenians in the next step includes:
suggesting removing Armenia from the maps, as a people and country
which doesn’t exist…
If you assume A Armenian student from Jerusalem will be allow in an
official ceremony in Israel to refer to the Armenian Genocide, you
are mistaken. This shouldn’t come to you as a surprise either; in
Istanbul the remaining Armenian children from "Western Armenia"
(After Genocide renamed to "Eastern Anatolia") are forced to write
essays how their ancestors committed "genocide against Turks" (This
is just distressful, nauseating, sadistic and perverse.)
Denial is known as a second killing (a "bloodless-killing"). There is
an aggressive denial of Armenian Genocide on going by Turkey.
Unfortunately, a big part of officials of Jewish Diaspora and Israel
are involved in the denial of Armenian Genocide and this act – their
involvement in denial – doesn’t differ much from the involvement of
German military officer in Armenian Genocide in 1915 (This reference
should make clearer – to help to reach a better understanding- what
really the denial of Armenian Genocide by Jewish politicians means
for Armenian people and other Christian people who were subject of
genocide by Turkish!)
If politically allies do it, it’s not genocide but "Tragedy". `Only
the Turkish Nation has the right to put an ethnically and racial
claim on this land (e.g. "Anatolia" including ears where Armenians
were deported and killed en mass by Turkish).’ Ismet Inonu 1939,
President and successor of Ataturk. Presdient Isemt Inonu was one of
the chief architects of Turkish denial and justification of Armenian
Genocide. Today, there are Turkish "palace historians" that aim to
erase all references to "Armenia" and "Armenian people" in the
libraries of the world. This is a fact that is easily documented.
Professor Dr. Yusuf Halacoglu, the racially motivated President of
the Turkish Historical Society with the assistance of Turkish
fascists, extends great effort on proving the non-existence of the
Armenian People and, in turn, the state of "Armenia." The statements
of many Jewish Diaspora and Israeli officials that "there was no
Armenian Genocide" play directly into the hands of the official
policy Turkey and the Turkish Nationalists and fascists.
Justification of Armenian Genocide and a narrow-minded ethnic foreign
politics of Turkey in the region leads us to the conclusion that
Turkey has no problems with the fact of Armenian Genocide. Turkish
problem seems to be the existence of Armenian State and the struggle
of Armenian Diaspora for justice. Denial of Armenian Genocide by
Turkey, Turkish hostile attitudes regarding Armenian State and the
statement of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2004 that `Even if the Kurds
establish a Kurdish State in Argentina Turkey would fight this’, are
the policies of a failed State rather than the policy of a civilized
and democratic country!
A nation that has been the victim of genocide should not be forced to
prove the fact of genocide. For a nation to support the perpetrators
of genocide by placating the world with official statements
supporting the Turkish government’s shameless policies of denial is
disgraceful and appalling; for a nation that itself has likewise
suffered an attempted obliteration to do so is incomprehensible. The
"placating" efforts by Jewish officials and functionaries are doomed
to backfire: the denial of the Armenian Genocide in no way helps to
make Israel stronger or to increase the security of the Jewish
People.
Turkey and Turkish nationalists have always used other people for the
implementation of their inhuman policies against "non-Turks" in order
to achieve their own final goals, if not their own "final solution"
Words such as dialogue, reconciliation, and rapprochement are terms
that awaken fundamentally positive associations, but they are being
used without any reflection upon or reference to historical fact or
fairness, let alone justice. It is beyond understanding that the
newspapers of the Jewish Diaspora present the Armenians as the
"irreconcilable" or "troublemaker", as the "true" disruptor in
international relations, when it is the Turkish that continually
attempt to illegalize or negate the discussion. (What dialogue would
the Jewish Nation have with Germany had Germany demanded and been
permitted to forbid the acknowledgment of the holocaust and justice?)
Is the Jewish community the "troublemaker" when the Iranian President
Ahmadinejad denies the Shoah? A crime that happened 60 years ago and
that he himself did not participate in?
The statement that the genocide happened 90 years ago or the
insinuation that the Armenian Diaspora – the "Armenian Conspiracy" –
are endangering world peace because they are motivated by
self-swerving interests serve again nothing else than to protect the
perpetrator. But is it not the purpose and duty of international
criminal law to protect the victim? Should criminal law protect the
rapist or killer because the victim supposedly "asked for it"? Is
international law only a "law for the stronger" and thus only there
to protect the state and not the individual?
Are terms such as "crimes against humanity," "genocide," "war crimes"
and "war of aggression" only there to protect the aggressors and not
the victims? The Armenian Diaspora – the masses of people forced to
disperse throughout the world – is a result of the genocide executed
by the Turkish; the Diaspora Armenians are not pursuing an arbitrary
and unfounded interest, they have a justified demand for justice and
recognition. At the same time, this demand is also a concern of the
international community of states which created and approved the
legislation known as "public international law" or "international
criminal law."
It is not just a matter of morality to condemn genocide; it is a
premise for peaceful coexistence. It is a cornerstone of
international peace, and the looming threat of this very crime is a
principal reason behind military intervention and self-defense.
A question that might arise when reading this text is why do I only
write about the Jewish Community and Israeli politicians? Well, this
is due to the following fact: aside from the Turkish themselves,
Israeli politicians and the Jewish Diaspora are the only ones that go
beyond the "simple" denial of the Armenian Genocide (and denial of
Turkish genocides against other Christian people, e.g. The Assyrian
Genocide) to both aggressively practice a virulent policy of denial
and likewise try to inspire others to do the same. For example, the
unprecedented dedication with which Shimon Peres supported the
"fight" against the Armenian Resolution in the US Congress while Bill
Clinton was still president.
The relationship between the Jewish People and the Turkish is based
on lies and the denial of the Armenian Genocide – the denial of the
1.5 million Armenians that died by the hands of the Ottoman Turkey
from 1915-1923. It is a relationship that is based on criminal
complicity in hushing up a horrific transgression against humanity
and that totally disregards all concepts of moral and justice.
Namik Tan, the Turkish Ambassador to Israel, described this
relationship in September 2007: "The Turkish People make no
differentiation between Israel and the Jews of the world. To us, you
are all one. We have no pact with Israel, but rather with the whole
Jewish world. If the Jewish lobby disappears, Israel loses its
importance to us. Therefore, Israel takes the responsibility when a
Jewish organization speaks of Genocide." (Jerusalem Post, 2007)
The truth shall set Turkish and Jewish officials free. Implementation
of international agreed reforms for "Western Armenia/ Turkish
Armenian" and eliminating – "getting rid" – of a nation/people by
Turkey are not the same. Only the fact of genocide can keep alive
disinformation policy, the genocide denial industry and the
nationally authorized and aggressive Turkish politics of denial.
Israeli/Jewish officials should advice their "friends/allies" in
Ankara to stop making fools of themselves. Armenian Genocide was
proved as Armenian Genocide was happening.
The whole world was witness of this genocide. Besides this: Armenian
Genocide is well documented above all by Turkish war time ally
Germany (even though a part of this documents being destroyed in1919
and 1940s.) According to Taner Akcam, a nonconformist Turkish
historian, "The denial of the Armenian Genocide is the basis of
Turkey’s existence." At the latest, Amb. Namik Tan’s statements above
and the aggressive denial of Armenian Genocide by President Shimon
Peres also reveal and proves that the relationship between Israel and
Turkey is also based the denial of the Armenian Genocide (raison
d’État instead of right to truth and justice.)
One cannot help but wonder how long a relationship built on boundless
dishonesty, immorality, denial and lies is capable or destined to
last… Indeed, it is truly incomprehensible that the Jewish Diaspora
denies the Armenian Genocide for the "good" of Israel. What lasting
"good" has ever come from the denial of genocide, from the denial of
truth, from the denial of the justice?
Author’s Note: I am aware of the fact that my essay on Jewish/Israeli
Denial of Armenian Genocide may upset some so please feel free to
write comments on it . And, in the meantime, the author likes to let
you know: who ever denies one genocide he/she denies all genocides.
Jewish denial of Armenian Genocide kills not only the Armenian
Genocide but in the end this denial kills The Jewish Holocaust too…
E-mail: noahsark2008@yahoo.com">noahsark2008@yahoo .com
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