The Gazette (Montreal)
April 10, 2005 Sunday
Final Edition
‘Beyond human redress’: This month marks the 90th anniversary of the
slaughter and exile of Turkey’s Armenian population, a human tragedy
that still haunts both the persecuted and the persecutors
by TARO ALEPIAN, Freelance
The year 2005 marks the 90th anniversary of the Armenian genocide. It
will be commemorated by the 60,000 Canadians of Armenian descent,
sons and daughters of the 1.5 million Armenians who were tortured and
massacred in this crime against humanity. Millions of Armenians
around the world will do the same.
On the evening of April 23, a multi-denominational ecumenical service
will be held in St. Joseph Oratory to mark the occasion. Cardinal
Jean-Claude Turcotte will lead the prayers.
The events that took place 90 years ago in Turkey are considered the
first ethnically motivated genocide in a century filled with
holocaust, genocide and ethnic cleansing. They were not random
events, but a government-sponsored and led program of ethnic
annihilation including torture, rape, starvation and the killing of
innocent men, women and children.
Many governments and parliaments around the world, including
Canada’s, now recognize the genocide. Although it was a catastrophe
of epic proportions, its denial by Turkey and the apathy of the
civilized world in the decades that followed set the tone for what is
arguably the most murderous century in history.
Adolf Hitler, in persuading his army commanders on the eve of the
Second World War that the merciless persecution and killing of Jews
would bring no retribution, declared: “Who, after all, speaks today
of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
These infamous words speak volumes. They clearly demonstrate that
denial was not just a betrayal of the Armenian people, but of
humanity, and that the apathy of the West was not only unfair, but
precedent setting.
With the eyes of the world on Turkey as it campaigns to join the
European Union, human-rights issues and the Armenian genocide are now
being discussed worldwide and, perhaps more importantly, are being
put on the negotiating table by the leaders of the European Union.
Canada, as a world leader and a respected voice of reason, must join
the nations of Europe in calling on Turkey to recognize this genocide
and to grow into the respectable and honourable member of the
community of nations that it strives to become. After all, Canada is
the nation that taught the world to use military force as a
peacekeeping tool and that set the benchmark for a just society based
on human rights, individual freedoms and democratic principles. That
is why we, as Canadians, expect more than a House of Commons
resolution. We expect action.
That genocide took place is no longer a debate. It is an accepted
fact, based on a mountain of factual evidence.
The United States ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the time, Henry
Morgenthau, Sr., wrote: “I am confident that the whole history of the
human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great
massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when
compared to the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915. The killing
of the Armenian people was accompanied by the systematic destruction
of churches, schools, libraries, treasures of art, and cultural
monuments in an attempt to eliminate all traces of a noble
civilization with a history of more than 3,000 years.”
Winston Churchill wrote: “As for Turkish atrocities – massacring
uncounted thousands of helpless Armenians, men, women, and children
together, whole districts blotted out in one administrative holocaust
– these were beyond human redress.”
There are numerous writings by American, German, Swiss and Italian
missionaries, diplomats and newspaper reporters who witnessed the
genocide, documenting the facts. The volume of evidence speaks
clearly for itself.
What remains, however, is to transform this fact, this genocide, from
calamity to lesson – from grievance to a collective “turning of the
page.”
Turkey today is a country trying hard to modernize itself. It is
addressing its human-rights issues, working to improve its financial
situation and campaigning to join the European Union. It has a rich
history and its people are justly proud of their recent achievements
as they look forward to a brighter future.
It takes leadership and courage to right past wrongs. The time is
right for the Turkish government to recognize that genocide was
perpetrated by a predecessor regime in a past generation.
Modern Turks can then disassociate themselves from the sins of their
ancestors, and finally bury this unfortunate event in the pages of
history where it rightly belongs. The world will respect them for
doing so, and it will remove one of the thorny issues hindering their
acceptance into the family of European nations.
Turkey can certainly benefit from some courageous leadership right
now. Perhaps Canada can help those courageous leaders who surely
exist in Turkey to stand up and take action.
Taro Alepian is president of the Congress of Canadian Armenians.