Clara Barton would have cried at today’s stance on genocide

April 18. 2008 12:16AM
Telegram & Gazette

Clara Barton would have cried at today’s stance on genocide
AS I SEE IT

By Harry N. Mazadoorian

One of the greatest ironies involving the Armenian Genocide almost a
century ago is the radically different reaction it brought forth from
the United States then and now.

April 24 marks the 93rd anniversary of what would be the first
genocide perpetrated in the 20th century: the death of more than 1.5
million Armenians by murder, starvation and deportation at the hands
of the Ottoman Empire. This barbarity served as the blueprint for
expanded atrocities toward the middle of the century and emboldened
Adolph Hitler to conclude that such horrors could be conducted in full
view of the world community with impunity. Continuing programs by the
Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark
University and, on Tuesday, a program there by Professor Richard
Hovannisian of UCLA highlights the importance of never forgetting such
inhumanity.

At the time of the Armenian Genocide, and its preceding massacres of
the 1890s, a seemingly endless torrent of American humanitarian
efforts poured across the oceans to assist those Armenians who had
miraculously survived the savagery and brutality. American newspapers
carried report after report of the brutality and sparked a previously
unheard-of generosity and concern.

Peter Balakian’s best-selling book, `The Burning Tigris,’ reports that
America’s and Massachusetts’ own angel of mercy, Clara Barton,
personally went to Constantinople in 1896 to oversee the humanitarian
efforts. Professor Balakian, of Colgate University, chronicles
numerous other pro-Armenian relief initiatives from America at that
time and then again after the unprecedented Genocide of 1915. Indeed,
he reports that one of the earliest efforts began at a rally by
indignant Boston luminaries, including the governor of Massachusetts,
at Faneuil Hall.

Herculean efforts such as those of the Near East Relief organization
provided food and shelter for thousands of helpless children, my late
mother being one of them. Comments of congressional leaders and
elected officials – including Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson –
as well as almost daily headlines in the leading American newspapers
left no doubt as to what was going on – and that the United States was
meeting its moral obligation to not only protest but to provide
assistance.

Regrettably, today the zealous passion of the greatest country in the
history of civilization has cooled, and successive administrations and
congresses find excuse after excuse to keep from passing a mere
resolution recognizing and deploring the genocide.

Despite a mountain of uncontroverted evidence documenting the
Genocide, the government of Turkey continues a charade of denial and
stands essentially alone challenging the findings of eyewitnesses,
statesmen and legitimate scholars of genocide. In addition, it expends
massive funds to lobby the government of the United States to prevent
recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Recently, Congress finally seemed poised to enact the commemorating
resolution, but a last-minute bullying effort by Turkey derailed the
effort – at least temporarily. Turkey pulled out all the stops,
frantically threatening that the United States would lose its best
Muslim ally in the Middle East with a litany of speculative
ramifications.

Turkey refers to the Armenian Genocide as an `internal, civil or
political matter,’ as though the countless unarmed children who were
slaughtered were even capable of having a single `political’ thought
in their starving bodies.

Many congressmen privately recognize the atrocities but refuse to act
because of an expressed fear of `offending’ the current Turkish
government – a government not even in place at the time of the
killings – and losing them as an ally in the volatile Middle
East. Some, wishing to avoid taking a stand, claim it is something to
be left to historians and not governments to judge.

While it is, of course, essential that our country be ever mindful of
its national interests, history has demonstrated time and time again
that placating and ignoring injustice can lead to no other consequence
than greater future injustice. Cambodia, Rwanda, the list goes on and
on.

If Clara Barton were still here, she’d be truly saddened. First, for
the indelible memories of the atrocities which she saw. Saddened even
more that after 93 years, American leaders forget their moral
obligation and delude themselves into thinking that some good could
possibly come by placating an ally and avoiding the recognition of a
well-documented historical atrocity.

If Clara Barton were here today, she’d be weeping.

Harry N. Mazadoorian, a lawyer in Kensington, Conn., is Distinguished
Senior Fellow at Quinnipiac University Law School’s Center on Dispute
Resolution. His parents were survivors of the Armenian Genocide.