Israel Hasbara Committee , NY
April 26 2005
24 April Marks Armenian Genocide
Hebrew University to Commemorate Event on 2 May
By Mayaan Jaffe
Sunday 24 April marked the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the
massacre of about 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks. The
Armenian government held an international conference in the capital
of Yerevan dedicated to the day.
Although the Armenians suffered the first genocide of the twentieth
century and although their situation is closely connected to that of
the Jews, who were systematically tortured and killed during the Nazi
Holocaust, the State of Israel has yet to recognize the Armenian
massacre. According to Professor Israel Charney, Executive Director
of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem, this is
solely due to political considerations. However, he says, Jews
denying the Armenian Genocide is the same as Christians (or anyone
else) denying the Jewish Holocaust.
`Jews run around legitimately angry about denials of the Holocaust,’
he says. `We therefore have an absolute moral responsibility to
recognize the Armenian Genocide.’
Charney, a certified psychiatrist originally from the U.S., has
dedicated his life in Israel to studying the how and why of genocide,
sparked by confusion about the cause of the Holocaust and the ability
of human beings to carry out such atrocities.
At the university level, there are plenty of academics who would
place their vote with Charney’s; those professors are led by
Professor Michael E. Stone, director of the Hebrew University
Armenian Studies Program. His department will host a memorial event
on 2 May at Beit Belgia on the Givat Ram University Campus. Though
the event will center on memorializing the massacre, it will also be
about building bridges between Israelis and Armenians, many living in
Jerusalem. Prominent leaders from both parties will attend, including
His Beatitude Patriarch Torkom Manoogian and His Excellency Mr.
Tsolag Momjian, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Armenia.
The event will feature an insightful lecture by Charney, as well as a
celebration of Armenian culture, highlighted by the tunes of Armenian
music.
With only around 100,000 survivors of the Armenian Genocide alive
today, Mr. Momjian expressed hopes that such an evening would `open
the minds of young people’ to the concept of the Armenian Genocide.
This is not the first year Stone has planned such an event. In past
years he has brought such intellectuals as Senior Lecturer at the
Open University of Israel and the Kibbutzim College of Education,
Professor Yair Auron. Like Charney, Auron has dedicated himself to
bringing to light the connection between Armenians and Jews, their
trials and tribulations. His book, The Banality of Indifference:
Zionism and the Armenian Genocide (Transaction Books, 2000), will be
published in Hebrew this month. It is an eye-opening book, whose
English edition has already been highly praised.
Former Minster of Education Yossi Sarid has been one of few
government officials to encourage the State to recognize the Armenian
Genocide. In a speech marking the 85th anniversary of the genocide at
the Armenian Church in the Old City of Jerusalem, Sarid said, `We
Jews, the main victims of murderous hatred, must be doubly sensitive
and identify with other victims. Those who stand aside, turn away,
cast a blind eye, make their calculations of gains and losses and are
silent always help the murderers and never those who are being
murdered…’
Sarid encourages teaching Israeli students about the atrocity as part
of the general history curriculum, if not for the educational value,
then for the humanistic one.
As Mr. Momjian put it, `For 90 years the Armenians have been living
with the tragic memory of the family they lost. To deny the genocide
is to deny a very important part of Armenian culture, history and
life.’
Charney and Momjian made their comments in exclusive interviews with
the Israel Hasbara Committee.