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The Armenian Weekly; Volume 74, No. 12; March 29, 2008
News:
1. Tarsy Sets the Record Straight
Calls on U.S. Congress and President Bush to Recognize Armenian Genocide
By Khatchig Mouradian
2. ‘We Owe Our Present to Her Generation’
3. Anonymous Donor Pledges Up to $10,000
***
1. Tarsy Sets the Record Straight
Calls on U.S. Congress and President Bush to Recognize Armenian Genocide
By Khatchig Mouradian
BOSTON, Mass. (A.W.)-On March 19, former New England director of the
Anti-Defamation league (ADL) Andrew Tarsy, who resigned last fall during the
uproar over his organization’s position on the Armenian genocide, delivered
the Robert Salomon Morton Memorial Lecture at Northeastern University in
Boston.
Titled "The Power of Words: Why the Term Genocide Matters so Much 60 Years
After it Became a Crime under International Law," the public lecture was
Tarsy’s first after his resignation, and was-with its content and message,
with the lines and what was implied between the lines-a groundbreaking one.
Although he avoided directly criticizing the ADL for its denial of the
Armenian genocide and its opposition to congressional resolutions affirming
it, Tarsy’s lecture served as a powerful call against political expediency
and for the unambiguous recognition of the genocide.
"In the past, the Morton Lecture has brought scholars and authors, war
crimes prosecutors, and Holocaust survivors before this academic community
>From all over the world," Tarsy said. "I am none of these things. But last
year I wound up in the center of a storm over genocide right here in Boston,
Massachusetts. You have heard the story by now. And it is not my intention
to relive it with you today." He went on to explain that his lecture is
based on personal experience, recent intense learning, and reflection.
Tarsy discussed in detail how and under what circumstances jurist Raphael
Lemkin coined the term genocide. He said, "The creation of the term genocide
is inextricably linked to the deliberate annihilation of the Armenians by
the Ottoman Turks in the early part of the 20th century and to the Holocaust
itself."
He mentioned the impact Soghomon Tehlirian’s assassination in Berlin of
Talaat Pasha, the genocide mastermind, had on Lemkin, who embarked on a
lifelong quest to make crimes against ethnic groups punishable by
international law.
Tarsy provided an overview of the Armenian genocide. "The first stage was
the murder of Armenian political leaders, priests and intellectuals. Then
Armenian men were driven out of their communities and either executed or
sent to death camps. Next the remaining women and children were taken out of
their homes. Many of the women and girls were raped and murdered in scenes
that are far more obscene than I could convey," Tarsy said.
"The rest, hundreds of thousands, were sent on death marches across their
country, without significant food, water, clothing or shelter. Special units
were organized and given orders by the government to attack the marchers on
their way. Most of those who managed somehow to survive the rape and
beatings died of starvation and thirst. Many surviving women were forced
into the harems of Turkish men and Islamized with their children. Other
groups of Armenians were loaded onto boats, taken offshore and thrown into
the sea to drown."
Tarsy concluded his account of the genocide by saying, "In all, well over a
million Armenians were murdered and left to starve to death by their own
government and by their own countrymen. Hundreds of thousands more were
permanently displaced. And their property personal, religious and historical
artifacts, along with their homes, churches, schools and businesses were
taken, defiled and destroyed."
Tarsy went on to explain Lemkin’s effort to find a name for the crime of
killing an entire group of people, and to lobby to make it an international
crime. He explained, "Lemkin failed to win over the delegates at the 1933
League of Nations conference. Too political, some said. These kinds of
crimes occur too seldom to legislate, said others. … Six years later, in
1939, the Nazis invaded Poland. Lemkin escaped but could not convince his
family to go with him in spite of the danger. He would not know until after
the war, but 49 of his family members, including both of his parents, were
killed in the Holocaust. The painful irony is overwhelming."
Lemkin coined the word genocide in the mid-1940s and his tireless lobbying
culminated in the adoption of the UN Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948, although it would take decades
until mass murderers would be tried for committing genocide.
Why the Word Matters
Tarsy explained that the word genocide matters so much today for four
reasons: validation, justice, reconciliation and prevention. "All four
contain the ultimate reason for the importance of the term and that is our
moral obligation to discern, to the best of our ability, the truth," he
said.
Talking about validation, Tarsy said, "The simple designation of genocide
can be a source of meaningful validation for its victim class. ‘At least the
world understands what happened to us,’ a survivor might say."
He added, "Many of those who avoid using the word genocide in the Armenian
case are simply caught in a political no-win situation and are choosing
politics over truth." He expressed hope that the next president of the
United States would acknowledge the Armenian genocide.
Responding to the argument made by some that the validation conferred by
using the term genocide gives the impression that all genocides are the
same, Tarsy said, "I have seen no evidence of this problem during my
immersion in the issue. To the contrary, the common ground Jews and
Armenians find as victims of genocide seems to make them even more
interested in understanding the particular and unique aspects of each other’s
stories. Their mutual empathy can be a source of healing, and their mutual
efforts can produce wisdom."
He added, "Perhaps it can even strengthen our resolve to intervene the next
time we see the precursors to genocide."
Talking about the second component of his argument, namely, justice, Tarsy
said that mass murder and genocide are not one and the same. "If we don’t
charge people with the crimes they have actually committed, we can never
provide a full accounting of the damage done. This has obvious implications
for redress including reparations for the victim community. But it is much
deeper than reparations. Holding people accountable for precisely the crimes
they commit is fundamental to the administration of justice."
Addressing the issue of reconciliation, Tarsy again underscored the
importance of using the term genocide. He said, "Being specific about what
happened in these catastrophic instances is also a prerequisite to the
possibility of reconciliation and progress. The existence of the term
genocide itself has helped diverse people talk about history with candor and
precision, and turn terrible tragedies into new possibilities."
To drive home his argument, he asked, "How can Tutsi survivors in Rwanda be
expected to go back and live peacefully with their Hutu neighbors in
reconciliation if there is no way to describe the entirety of what was done
to them?" He also argued, "The rebirth of a Jewish community in Berlin is
another example. I will not oversimplify the matter. But can you imagine
this taking place without Germany’s acceptance of what happened in the
Holocaust?"
Finally, Tarsy underscored the importance of the term genocide in the
context of prevention. He noted that when we see the precursors to genocide,
we must effectively petition our leaders to act.
Tarsy called the packed audience, consisting mainly of students, to
contribute to the recognition of past genocides, and the prevention of
future ones. He concluded the speech poignantly, saying, "When the term
genocide applies, as it does for example in the case of the Armenians, it is
imperative that we be unhesitating and unambiguous in applying it,
regardless of the political consequences. Anything less facilitates the
obfuscation of truth. Anything less dishonors the memory of the dead. And
anything less ultimately imperils the safety of the living. This is why
words matter, and this is why the term genocide means so much 60 years after
it became an internationally recognized crime."
Q&A
During the question and answer session following the lecture, Tarsy was
asked what he thought about the congressional resolution on the Armenian
genocide. He responded, "Congress should recognize it as a genocide because
it was a genocide, and our president should recognize it, and maybe our next
president will. The politics are always going to be fierce. We are going to
have troops in Iraq. Turkey is a very important ally that should be handled
with the most care out of strategic reasons and out of care for the people
there, but it was a genocide. So that’s where we’re left."
Asked about justice for the Armenian genocide 92 years after it happened,
when all the perpetrators have long died, almost all the survivors are now
gone and the successor government, the Turkish government, still denies it,
Tarsy said, "You’ve identified a really big problem. The number one rule in
response to it should be, ‘the burden of getting us out of that predicament
should not fall on the victims’ because that is where it is stuck at this
point. For all the Armenian people living in Boston, in the U.S., in France,
or wherever, it’s a really bona fide intellectual dilemma, but somebody took
their houses, somebody took their bank accounts, somebody took their family
Bible."
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2. ‘We Owe Our Present to Her Generation’
BETHESDA, Md. (A.W.)-On March 25, ARF Eastern Region Central Committee
chairman Hayg Oshagan attended the funeral services of Alice Sachaklian, an
ardent supporter of Armenian organizations, at the Soorp Khatch Armenian
Apostolic Church in Bethesda. Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan officiated over
National Funeral Services. Also present were ARF Bureau member Garo Armenian
and Central Committee member Onnig Bedrossian.
Speaking about the legacy of Alice Sachaklian, Hayg Oshagan said, "It was
the generation of Alice and [her late husband] Unger Harry [A. Sachaklian]
that believed in the mission of diasporan organizations and dedicated
themselves to the cause of nation-building. They provided financial and
moral support to Armenian-American communities and laid the foundations to
our churches and community centers." He added, "What we have today, we owe
to that generation."
Oshagan also commended Sachaklian for the $250,000 endowment fund she
established for the Armenian Review a few years before her passing. He
expressed the condolences on behalf of the ARF-ER to her family and friends.
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