THE BETRAYAL OF SOULS AND THE DENIAL OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

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March 8th 2010

In the book The Guilt of Nations, Elazar Barkan wrote, "For a ‘new’
history to become more than a partisan ‘extremist’ story, the narrative
often has to persuade not only the members of the group that will
‘benefit’ from the new interpretation but also their ‘others,’ those
whose own history will presumably be ‘diminished,’ or tainted by
the new stories." Clearly Turkey’s reaction to the vote by the House
Foreign Affairs Committee on the Armenian Genocide resolution shows
that Turkey remains unpersuaded by its own guilt. This is painful to
continue to witness.

Nearly a hundred years after the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians
by Turkish forces during World War One, Turkey, an otherwise moderate
country, continues to deny what eyewitness accounts prove to be an
undeniable fact. Turkey’s reaction in recalling its Ambassador to
the United States is both heavy-handed and a touch of "thou protesth
too much."

In recent efforts to defeat similar resolutions, Turkey has enlisted
the help of high-paid Washington lobbyists to cajole, persuade, and
arm twist individual Members of Congress to make it impossible to pass
the resolution recognizing this genocide. Threats of dire consequences
to US-Turkish relations ensued, with cynical accusations of damaging
the relationship over a resolution recognizing what the world already
knew to be true. March 4th’s Turkish reaction is no different.

During the Senate Banking Committee’s three-year investigation into
the actions of the Swiss banks withholding of the assets of Holocaust
victims, Swiss banks tried the same trick of buying their way out
of trouble. Perhaps in the end, their settlement with the survivors
and claimants of $1.25 billion was tantamount to the same, but it was
nevertheless accompanied with a quasi-admission of guilt. For Turkey,
there is plenty of money being spent to fight the campaign against
them, but certainly no admission of responsibility or wrongdoing is
forthcoming, only simple, stubborn, unremitting denial.

Turkey’s denial of its forefathers’ actions would be laughable were it
not so deadly serious for its historical precedent. As it has often
been said, Turkey’s genocide of the Armenians opened the door to
further genocides in the twentieth century: the Holocaust, Cambodia,
Biafra, Bosnia, Rwanda, Sudan, and the long list goes on. Official
Turkey is overwhelmed with denial.

During meetings with Turkish diplomats years ago in Ankara to discuss
Turkey’s role on the ill-fated United Nations Oil-for-Food program,
instead of addressing the topic I was serenaded by complaints about
the "propaganda" spewed from Armenian summer camps in California about
the "supposed genocide." Even Turks who promote the idea within their
own country, including Nobel Laureates, are prosecuted. This is sad.

While this denial is awful in its construction, it is harmful
no less to Turks than it is to Armenians. For Turkey to continue
this irresponsible attitude is to tar their country with an almost
snickering response to its protestations. Far better for Turkey
would be to confess its wrongdoings in a responsible, humble way and
to move forward. Germany, the obvious poster child for historical
guilt and genocidal successor to the Turks-as Hans Frank, the former
Governor-General of Poland was to have stated, "A thousand years will
pass and the guilt of Germany will not be erased."-has long dealt
with the responsibility for its crimes.

Some will say that now is not the right time. They will say Turkey
and Armenia are in delicate negotiations. They say it will damage
Israel’s relations with this important Muslim country. While not
discounting the threats Turkey will bring out, surely, the souls of
those marched out into the Anatolian desert and slaughtered cry out
for more. They cry out for recognition.

About the Holocaust, Alan Dershowitz argues, all Jews are victims. For
the Armenians, the same is true. Jews are so clearly pained when idiots
who deny the Holocaust do so with a straight face, defiant in their
ignorance. When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the Holocaust is a lie, Jews
cringe. How must Armenians feel when Turkey denies its responsibility
for the same type of crime? As long as Turkey refuses responsibility
for its sins, then all Armenians are in fact victims: the souls of the
Armenian dead wander and their descendants are betrayed. The time for
denial is over and the time for recognition is overdue. When this crime
is finally recognized, memory, history, and truth will be restored.

Cutting Edge contgribuitor Gregg J. Rickman served as the first U.S.

Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism from 2006-2009. He
is a Senior Fellow for the Study and Combat of Anti-Semitism at the
Institute on Religion and Policy in Washington, DC; a Visiting Fellow
at The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism
at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut; and a Research Scholar
at the Initiative on Anti-Semitism and Anti-Israelism of the Institute
for Jewish & Community Research in San Francisco.