For decades the Armenian Genocide has been swept under the rug of history. Geo-politics is largely to blame. The Turks don't want to admit complicity in this act of carnage that took place in a period of 1915 to 1923. There is a recognizable amount of embarrassment, especially since this happened as the Ottoman Empire was collapsing and a new Turkish Republic was being born. To acknowledge this is to cast a shadow on Kemal Ataturk, the founding father of what is a fairly democratic pro-western nation.
What makes all of this difficult is that a strategic alliance between Israel and Turkey has kept the Jewish community mute and the American government mute. Today in the
LA Times an op-ed piece appears, written by Daniel Sokatch and David Meyers, both from within the Jewish community that calls for this silence to end. It is stated here and elsewhere that Hitler took comfort in his own genocidal plans from the realization that no one had spoken up about the Armenian genocide. With genocides continuing to this date, this first of the 20th Century's genocides needs to be acknowledged and it appears that for this to happen the Jewish community in America must push Israel to exercise some leverage on Turkey.
The authors write, and I concur:
Turkey, a trusted ally and friend of the Jews and the United States, must come to terms with its past for its own sake. It is that battle that leading Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and martyred Armenian activist Hrant Dink, have been waging so nobly. We should do all in our power to strengthen the hands of these figures and avoid the abyss of historical revisionism.
Sixty years (and millions of historical documents) later, the world still has to contend with those who deny the Holocaust. We need only recall the shocking words and deeds of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on this score.
In response to such denials, all decent-minded people, and Jews in particular, must continue to declare loudly "never again" — not only to future genocides but also to the attempted denial of past genocides, regardless of who the perpetrators or victims are.
Comments