Syrian President finally recognizes the Armenian Genocide
April 6, 2015 By administrator Leave a Comment
17:20, 29 Jan 2014
Siranush Ghazanchyan
Pres. Bashar al-Assad
In a lengthy interview last week with Agence France Presse (AFP) on
the tragic situation in Syria, Pres. Bashar al-Assad made an
unexpected reference to the massacres of 1.5 million Armenians. This
is the first time that any Syrian head of state has acknowledged the
Armenian mass murders and identified the perpetrator as Ottoman
Turkey. Report armradio.am
During the interview, Pres. Assad compared the Armenian Genocide of
1915 to the brutal killings of civilians by foreign fighters nowadays
in Syria: “The degree of savagery and inhumanity that the terrorists
have reached reminds us of what happened in the Middle Ages in Europe
over 500 years ago. In more recent modern times, it reminds us of the
massacres perpetrated by the Ottomans against the Armenians when they
killed a million and a half Armenians and half a million Orthodox
Syriacs in Syria and in Turkish territory.”
Not surprisingly, two days later, Bashar Jaafari, Syria’s Ambassador
to the United Nations in Geneva, made a similar remark: “How about the
Armenian Genocide where 1.5 million people were killed?”
The only other high ranking Syrian official who has acknowledged the
Armenian Genocide was Abd al-Qader Qaddura, Speaker of the Syrian
Parliament, when he inscribed a poignant statement in the Book of
Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide Monument and Museum in Yerevan on
July 16, 2001: “As we visit the Memorial and Museum of the Genocide
that the Armenian nation suffered in 1915, we stand in full admiration
and respect in front of those heroes that faced death with courage and
heroism. Their children and grandchildren continued after them to
immortalize their courage and struggle…. With great respect we bow our
heads in memory of the martyrs of the Armenian nation — our friends —
and hail their ability for resoluteness and triumph. We will work
together to liberate every human being from aggression and
oppression.”
While the Parliament Speaker’s 2001 statement was a candid and
heartfelt message with no political overtones, the same cannot be said
about Pres. Assad’s words on the Armenian Genocide as he clearly
intended to lash back at the Turkish government’s hostile actions
against the Syrian regime. It is well known that Turkey has played a
major role in the concerted international effort to topple Pres.
Assad, by dispatching heavy weapons and arranging the infiltration of
foreign radical Islamist fighters into Syria.
Relations between Syria and Turkey were not always hostile. Before the
start of the Syrian crisis in 2011, the two countries were such close
political and economic allies that the Assad regime banned the sale of
books on the Armenian Genocide, and did not permit foreign film crews
to visit Der Zor, the killing fields of thousands of Armenians during
the Genocide. Mindful of possible Turkish backlash, Pres. Assad’s
staff cancelled my courtesy meeting with the President in 2009 after
they discovered on the internet my countless critical articles on
Turkey. Moreover, during the honeymoon period between the Syrian and
Turkish governments, Pres. Assad advised the visiting Catholicos Aram
I that Armenians should maintain good relations with Turkey and not
dwell on the past!
In his recent interview with AFP, Pres. Assad also complained about
the failure of Western leaders to comprehend developments in the
Middle East: “They are always very late in realizing things, sometimes
even after the situation has been overtaken by a new reality that is
completely different.” Frankly, one could make the same criticism
about Pres. Assad for realizing at his own detriment only too late the
dishonesty and duplicity of Turkey’s leadership.
Regrettably, the Syrian President is not the only head of state who
has failed to decipher the scheming mindset of Turkey’s rulers.
Countless Middle Eastern, European, and American leaders have made the
same mistake, trusting Turkey’s feigned friendship, only to be let
down when the time came for Turkey to keep its end of the bargain.
In recent months, with the increasing dissatisfaction of the
international community with Prime Minister Erdogan’s autocratic
policies and belligerent statements, it has become crystal clear that
no one knows the true face of Turkey better than Armenians, Assyrians,
Greeks and Kurds, who have suffered countless brutalities, massacres
and even genocide under despotic Turkish rule.
Despite Pres. Assad’s political motivations, Armenians should welcome
his belated statement on the Armenian Genocide. After refraining from
acknowledging the Genocide for all the wrong reasons for so long, at
least now the Syrian President is on record telling the truth about
past and present Turkish atrocities!