Commentary: Remember the Armenian Genocide
By Carolann S. Najarian/ Guest commentary
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Lincoln Journal, MA
April 20 2006
April 24, 1915 is the day the leaders of the Ottoman Turkish Empire
began what they hoped would be the complete eradication of their
largest minority, the Armenians. In Istanbul, on that day, they began
the round up of Armenians, starting with intellectuals, writers, poets,
musicians, professors, teachers – many of whom were never again heard
from. Before it was over, the entire Armenian population of Ottoman
Turkey, was uprooted from their historic lands. Those who were not
murdered in their homes were forcibly deported, village by village,
on foot or transported by railroad, to the deserts of Syria.
They suffered death by starvation or beastly slaying by those herding
them onward. More than 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives in what
was the first genocide of the 20th century.
Turkey to this day continues to deny and works very hard to prevent
the facts of the Armenian Genocide from being known.
According to their version, Armenians and Turks died in equal numbers
in a civil war. Supported by the Association of Turkish-American
Assemblies, a teacher and student at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional
High School have brought a lawsuit in the First District Court of
Massachusetts against the state Board of Education claiming First
Amendment rights under our Constitution for the Turkish version of
what happened to the Armenians to also be taught in Massachusetts
schools. For those of us living in Massachusetts who are the children
of genocide survivors, the long arm of Turkish denial has indeed
reached very close to home.
Scholars have carefully documented the details of what happened to
the Armenians using eye-witness accounts of foreign diplomats and
missionaries and of survivors, and most importantly, by systematic
research into the archives of the governments of Germany, the United
States, France, Armenia, and of Turkey. Based on the accumulated
evidence presented in countless books, journals, and at genocide
conferences, the Armenian Genocide is accepted as historical fact
by the following organizations: the International Association of
Genocide Scholars (the definitive group of scholars on the subject);
the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem; and the
Institute for the Study of Genocide.
Despite Armenians having lived in Eastern Turkey for more than 3,000
years, on land considered Historic Armenia, before the Ottomans
conquered them, traces of their having lived there are all but wiped
out – another indication of Genocide. Even at the approach to the
ruins of Armenia¡¯s ancient capital, Ani – the city of 1001 churches,
there is no mention that this was an Armenian city.
One has to ask, what happened to the Armenians who lived here for so
many centuries? How could they have disappeared in so short a period
of time leaving no trace of their existence? This is what genocide
does – it is the very aim of genocide.
Unable to answer these questions, the Turkish government prevents
the flow of information to its own citizens. Speaking of the Armenian
events as genocide is a crime in Turkey punishable by up to three years
in prison. Turkey also threatens other governments for recognition of
the Armenian Genocide – France with boycott of goods, and the United
States with expulsion of its airbases.
The judgment in this case, if for the plaintiffs, we embolden Turkish
efforts to rewrite history. In addition, questions about First
Amendment rights could be raised by deniers of the Jewish Holocaust,
or the creationists, or even to those who deny “global warming.” It
sounds absurd, but these days we have come to learn that the absurd
can easily become a new reality.
The Armenian Genocide went unnoticed by the world community.
Thus, in 1939, a confident Hitler had nothing to fear when planning
the Jewish Holocaust. He asked “Who, after all, speaks today of the
annihilation of the Armenians?”
If we allow genocide, past or present, to be forgotten or called
something else or to be debated long after the facts have been
established we will have little hope of eradicating the threat of
genocide against vulnerable peoples. University of Michigan Assistant
Professor of Sociology Fatma M?µ~D, a Turkish citizen and genocide
scholar, has filed a declaration signed by more than 50 genocide
scholars.
The genocide scholars write, “We think that the Armenian case, as well
as similar cases that precede and succeed it prove the destructive
force of prejudice and intolerance which should be taught as such
and not minimized or distorted by denials so that they do not keep
repeating themselves in history and are replaced instead by human
tolerance and understanding.” On April 24 we will again remember the
Armenian Genocide of 1915 with the hope that some day our vigilance
against denial will no longer be needed.
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