Israel, Turkey and the politics of genocide

GERALD CAPLAN

Globe and Mail online

January 23, 2009 at 1:34 PM EST

President Obama – I love saying those words – has momentarily united the
world. Almost. Among the exceptions, though barely noticed by the
mainstream media, is the estrangement of Turkey and Israel, previously
staunch allies in the turbulent Middle East.

At first blush, this alliance may seem counterintuitive, but in fact it
makes good strategic sense for both countries. Israel gets a warm
working relationship with one of the largest Muslim countries in the
world, while enriching Israel’s all-important industrial-military
complex. Less than two months ago, for instance, came the news of a deal
worth $140-million to Israeli firms to upgrade Turkey’s air force. In
the hard-boiled, realpolitik terms that determine Israel’s strategies,
it’s a no-brainer. Almost.

In return, Turkey gets military, economic and diplomatic benefits. But
it also gets something less tangible, something that matters deeply for
reasons hard for outsiders to grasp. As part of the Faustian bargain
between the two countries, a succession of Israeli governments of all
stripes has adamantly refused to recognize that in 1915 the Turkish
government was responsible for launching a genocide against its Armenian
minority. Some 1.5-million Armenian women, men and children were
successfully killed.

I should make clear that this Israeli position is not held casually. On
the contrary. Over the years Israelis, with a few notably courageous
exceptions, have actually worked against attempts to safeguard the
memory of the Armenian genocide. (The bible on this issue is the
excellent book by an Israeli, Yair Auron, called The Banality of Denial:
Israel and the Armenian Genocide, 2003.)

For many, this may well be a pretty esoteric sidebar to the world’s many
crises. But readers need to understand that every Turkish government for
almost a century now has passionately denied that a genocide took place
at all. Yet the vast majority of disinterested scholars of genocide have
publicly affirmed that it was indeed a genocide, one of the small number
in the 20th century (with the Holocaust and Rwanda) that have
incontestably met the definition set down in the UN’s 1948 Genocide
Convention.

For Armenians in the Western world, even after 94 years, nothing is more
important than persuading other governments to recognize this. For
Turkish authorities, even after 94 years, nothing is more important than
preventing that recognition. In that pursuit, Israel has been perhaps
Turkey’s most powerful ally. After all, if the keepers of the memory of
the Holocaust don’t acknowledge 1915, why should anyone else?

But the Israeli-Turkish bargain goes well beyond Israel. Not only is
Israel, of all the unlikely states in the world, a genocide denier, but
also many established Jewish organizations in other countries,
especially the United States, have followed suit. In the United States,
those who argue that denying the Holocaust is psychologically tantamount
to a second holocaust have taken the lead in pressuring presidents and
Congress against recognizing the reality of 1915. Resolutions calling
for recognition are regularly pushed by American-Armenians and their
many supporters. Jewish groups regularly lead the opposition. Some
believe that members of these groups in fact understand perfectly well
the rights and wrongs of the case. But a mindset that backs any and all
Israeli government initiatives trumps all else. And successfully.
Repeated attempts in Congress to pass this resolution has failed, even
though the list of nations that now recognizes the Armenian genocide has
grown steadily and, thanks to Stephen Harper, now includes Canada.

It is this rather unseemly, if not unholy, Israeli-Turkish deal that has
been among the many victims of the latest Israeli attack on Gaza.
Whether the Israelis anticipated it or not, the Turkish government
turned against its erstwhile ally with a vengeance, pulling few punches.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan accused Israel of "perpetrating
inhuman actions which would bring it to self-destruction. Allah will
sooner or later punish those who transgress the rights of innocents."
Mr. Erdogan described Israel’s attack on Gaza as "savagery" and a "crime
against humanity."

Israel formally described this language as "unacceptable" and certain
Israeli media outlets have raised the stakes. The Jerusalem Post
editorialized that given Turkey’s record of killing tens of thousands of
Kurds in northern Iraq, "we’re not convinced that Turkey has earned the
right to lecture Israelis about human rights." Israel’s deputy foreign
minister was even more pointed: "Erdogan says that genocide is taking
place in Gaza. We [Israel] will then recognize the Armenian-related
events as genocide." Suddenly, genocide turns into a geopolitical pawn.

It isn’t easy to choose a winner in the cynicism stakes here. Here’s
what one Turkish columnist, Barcin Yinanc, shrewdly wrote: "When April
comes, I can imagine the [Turkish] government instructing its Ambassador
to Israel to mobilize the Israeli government to stop the Armenian
initiatives in the U.S. Congress. I can hear some Israelis telling the
Turkish Ambassador to go talk to Hamas to lobby the Congress."

I’m guessing some readers work on the naïve assumption that an event
is deemed genocidal based on the facts of the case. Silly you. In the
real world, you call it genocide if it bolsters your interests. If it
doesn’t, it’s not. It’s actually the same story as with preventing
genocide.

What happens now? Candidate Obama twice pledged that he would recognize
the Armenian claim of genocide. But so had candidate George W. Bush
eight years earlier, until he was elected and faced the Turkish/Jewish
lobby. Armenian-Americans and their backers are already pressing Mr.
Obama to fulfill his pledge. With the Turkish-Israeli alliance deeply
strained, the position of the leading Jewish organizations is very much
in question this time. Whatever the outcome, be sure that politics, not
genocide, will be the decisive factor.

Gerald Caplan, author of The Betrayal of Africa, writes frequently on
issues related to genocide.

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress