DENYING ARMENIAN GENOCIDE, ANKARA CAN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT DEMOCRACY MEANS

PanARMENIAN.Net
02.05.2008 16:23 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Truth about the Armenian Genocide Is That It Is
True! The denial policy of Turkey and the corresponding justification
of the genocide sends the wrong message to the new generations of
Turkey; worse, it breeds the potential justification of mass murder
in the world as a whole, Edward Papelian writes in "Turkey’s Chronic
Inability to Face the Truth" article published in Global Politician
on April 29, 2008.

Indeed, as the former Israeli Minister of Education and a Member
of Knesset wrote in reference to the Armenian Genocide: "We cannot
accept victims without murderers, genocide without the responsible. An
orphaned genocide is the father of the next genocide."

The article continues:

"Co-existence Is an Obligation of the People of the World: generations
have had to deal with the genocide of the Armenians. And much time
and energy has been wasted – time and energy which could have been
constructively used for compensation and reconciliation. As long
as Ankara continues to carry out international diplomatic feuds and
to view the acknowledgment and condemnation of the genocide as only
provocation or national humiliation, it has not and cannot understand
what humanity, democracy, compensation, reconciliation civilized
society, Europe and the culture of remembrance means. As a result,
communication and interrelations with the free, democratic world
will naturally remain troubled and disturbed. That is why the time
has come for Turkey to look in the mirror.

"Turkey has to understand that the invented glorious history of Turkish
politicians/bureaucrats – the very ideology of the state itself –
is not only biased and based on racism, but that the corresponding
industry of genocide denial is outdated. Cosmetic "reforms" and
cosmetic "changes" to notorious penal codes are meaningless and change
nothing. It is the mentality of the Turkish politicians which has
to be changed, not the facts on Armenian Genocide. What was happened
was and remains genocide.

"Even in "modern" Turkey, independent historians and journalists do
not have an easy life, especially if they undertake any attempt to
question the official national dogma regarding the Armenian Genocide
and destruction of other Christian minorities. When they do so,
the Turkish Minister of Justice speaks of the "stabbing Turkey in
the back with a dagger" and of the betrayal of the fatherland. (In
Turkey, such utterances – especially when coming from a minister of
the government – can be the equivalent of a death sentence and are
reminiscent of the fatwa of the religious fanatics.) Among others,
the Noble Prize winner Orhan Pamuk was forced to go to exile due to
his questioning of the official stance, and the Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink – an outspoken voice of the tiny Armenian
community still in Turkey (foreigners in there historic home land!) –
was executed in cold blood in 2007 in front of his office after the
Turkish judiciary publicly persecuted him."