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Lincoln Journal, MA

Commentary: Remember the Armenian Genocide

By Carolann S. Najarian/ Guest commentary
Thursday, 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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