Passage of France’s Armenian Genocide Denial Law is an Opportunity for Education

According to the organization Genocide Watch, the last stage of genocide is denial. Seen through the prism of any Southern Poverty Law Center newsletter, yesterday’s passage of the Armenian Genocide Denial law by France’s Senate is easier to understand. Holocaust denial and genocide denial laws are not a new concept. Similar laws to the one passed yesterday in France already exist in several European countries (including France) and Israel. 

As I was seeking answers to address the multitude of questions raised by France’s historic genocide denial vote, I came across this paper, ”Holocaust Denial Laws and Other Legislation Criminalizing Promotion of Nazism“, written by Michael J. Bazyler. Professor Bazyler is a von Oppenheim Research Fellow International Institute for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem, and Professor of Law, Whittier Law School. Jerusalem-based Yad Vashem is committed to four pillars of remembrance:

1. Commemoration
2. Documentation
3. Research
4. Education

Unfortunately, the Turkish Government is the primary perpetrator of Armenian Genocide denial. Its intense and emotional reaction to yesterday’s vote in France includes lashing out at France’s leaders with accusations of racism and being ‘anti-Islam’. Once again, Turkey’s elected leaders are inciting Turkish nationalist sentiment, rather than doing what is necessary as a nation to make amends for the crimes against humanity committed almost a century ago. This counterproductive behavior ensures that Turkey’s shameful Armenian Genocide history remains very much alive in the present and in our collective consciousness.

Within Turkey, a major obstacle to real solutions for moving forward is Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which is used to prosecute individuals who “insult Turkishness”. In Turkey, acknowledging and discussing the Armenian Genocide is grounds for imprisonment and large fines. Nobel Prize winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk was prosecuted for a statement he made in an interview, which referenced the Armenian Genocide.

While it remains a challenge for Turkey to acknowledge and apologize for the Armenian Genocide, the time must come. This is necessary for Turkey to take the place it aspires to have on the world stage, and as a member of the European Union. After reading about last week’s groundswell of Turkish outrage at the outcome of Hrant Dink murder trial in Istanbul, I do believe such a time is not far off. It is also not fanciful thinking to imagine the day when Turkey passes a law forbidding Armenian Genocide denial.

France, Germany, and Spain are among the countries that have apologized for their countries’ past atrocities. They are also setting an example for Turkey to follow regarding how to educate the world about the evils of genocide, hate speech, racism, and xenophobia. In a past blog post, Armenian Genocide denial doesn’t make it go away, I mentioned seeing the topic of slavery incorporated into the educational displays at the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall historical sites in Philadelphia, which are part of the U.S. National park service.

Sadly, I do not hold out hope that Holocaust or Genocide denial will be outlawed in the United States, because the right to free speech is a value which Americans cherish more than safeguarding the rights of victims of hate speech, as the US Supreme Court 8-1 decision in the matter of Snyder v. Phelps clarified.

 

France’s Senate Passes Armenian Genocide Denial Law!

Despite aggressive threats and protests from the Turkish Government, France’s Senate passed a bill outlawing Armenian Genocide denial. In Turkey it is against the law to speak about the Armenian Genocide. Ironically, Turkey’s leaders accused the French of trying to stifle free speech.

France and several other European countries already have laws against Holocaust denial. Webster’s dictionary defines Genocide as “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.”

Extensive records documenting the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey, which began on April 24, 1915 and claimed the lives of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians, exist in the archives of governments including the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Turkey. Many of the world’s countries officially recognize the mass atrocities committed upon Turkey’s minority Armenian Christian population by its then ruling Ottoman Turkish government as genocide.

The late Christopher Hitchens on Turkey’s Armenian Genocide denial

In December 2011, the world lost the brilliant voice of Christopher Hitchens. Earlier this evening I came across this article Hitchens wrote for Slate Magazine (Slate.com) in April 2010:

Shut Up About Armenians or We’ll Hurt Them Again
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s latest sinister threat.
Slate.com | April 5, 2010

Yes Turkey, it was Genocide — Vive la France!

Yesterday, we received the news from around the world that France’s lower house of Parliament voted to criminalize denial of the Armenian Genocide. Of course, Turkey’s Prime Minister went ballistic. In his tirade against France, Erdogan accused the French of stifling free speech. Ironically (of course), as the New York Times correctly noted, “Turkey’s own penal code makes affirming the genocide a crime on the grounds that it is an insult to Turkish identity. In March, Orhan Pamuk, a Nobel Prize winner, was fined 7,000 lira, about $3,700, for his statement in a Swiss newspaper that ‘we have killed 30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians’.”

As new information concerning the Armenian Genocide occurs, I do my best to report it in this blog in a timely manner. However, yesterday, I was increasingly frustrated as I read articles published in the world’s leading newspapers, most using language which obfuscate the truth about the history of the first genocide occuring in the 20th century. There are official volumes (archives full) of the facts of Turkey’s systematic killing of between 1 and 1.5 million Armenians under the cover of World War I.

Turkish historian Taner Akcam has documented the motivation for this genocide in his master work, “A Shameful Act“. Basically, in addition to racial hatred of the non-Turkish, non-Muslim Armenian Christian minority, Turkey coveted the land the Armenians occupied for thousands of years. The Turkish government also saw an opportunity to create an instant Muslim, middleclass by taking all of the Armenians’ properties and belongings and redistributing the ‘bootie’ (including houses) to its Muslim population.

During the genocide, the United States Ambassador to Turkey was Henry Morgenthau. In his first-person account of the Armenian Genocide, he recalls a conversation with one of the masterminds of the genocide, Talaat Pasha:

One day Talaat made what was perhaps the most astonishing request I had ever heard.  The New York Life Insurance Company and the Equitable Life of New York had for years done considerable business among the Armenians.  The extent to which this people insured their lives was merely another indication of their thrifty habits.  “I wish,” Talaat now said, “that you would get the American Life insurance companies to send us a complete list of their Armenian policy holders.  They are practically dead now and have left no heirs to collect the money.  If … all escheats to the State, the Government is the beneficiary now. Will you do so?”

This was almost too much, and I lost my temper.  “You will get no such list from me,” I said, and I got up and left him.

Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story, p. 339. [Source]

In addition to the records in government archives in the U.S., France, Germany, and Great Britain, there was an unprecedented humanitarian relief effort spearheaded by Evangelical and Catholic missionaries, who went to heroic lengths to save the Armenians. Many relief workers documented what they witnessed in Turkey, in brutal detail. There are thousands of eyewitness accounts and so much scholarly work on this subject, that the veracity of the facts cannot be disputed.

However, the Turkish government spends millions of dollars each year to lobby lawmakers in the United States and countries all over the world to vote against recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Turkey has also infiltrated some of the world’s leading universities, ensuring books about the Armenian Genocide are not available in their libraries and endowing chairs. The effort and amount of disinformation Turkey continues to manufacture about the Armenian Genocide is astonishing.

We owe a great debt of gratitude to the French government for standing up and saying no to Turkey. It is unlikely the United States and Israel will suddenly become enlightened with moral clarity, but one can always hope.

The truth about the Armenian Genocide in Talaat Pasha’s Black Book

I found this news item from my Twitter feed today:

Talaat Pasha’s Report on the Armenian Genocide Launches in Istanbul
ArmenianDiaspora.com | September 28, 2011

 

Turks killed 30,000 Armenians in Adana before the Armenian Genocide

Robert Fisk: New light on an old horror – and still there is no justice
Independent | September 10, 2011

Related Commentary:

Use Google News to search Erdogan and follow what is unfolding in Turkey and the Middle East today. The Islamist leader of Turkey is pursuing a neo-Ottoman path to quench his thirsty ego. 

Although Turkey is currently a democracy, much of Erdogan’s behavior and policies are reminescent of Turkey’s Ottoman rulers, as well as those seen from up-and-coming dictators. Here are just a few red flags which have gone up since Erdogan’s reelection:

• Turkey’s senior military resigned en masse
• Turkey is imposing stricter censoring of the press and the Internet
• The Turkish military has killed large numbers of Kurds in Iraq

Now, Erdogan is using the pretext of the Palestinian cause and the Arab Spring as a platform to stir up anti-Israel/anti-Semitic sentiments, to position himself as a democratic visionary for the Middle East. Since Turkey’s poor human rights record within its borders remains an obstacle to its acceptance into the European Union, the Turkish Prime Minister’s credibility as a benevolent leader is more than questionable.

Also, consider the hypocrisy and manipulation of the Erdogan flotilla circus. It is a fact that Turkey has sustained an illegal and crippling blockade of Armenia for nearly two decades. For Erdogan, it is okay for Turkey to blockade the Republic of Armenia (which is not threatening Turkey’s safety), but it is not okay for Israel to blockade Gaza (to prevent trafficking of arms used for terror attacks against Israel).

Furthermore, recent news reports tell of the Turkish government’s plan to return the properties it appropriated from its country’s religious minorities. Yet, despite appeals to the government to return these properties (since these news reports), all ill-begotten lands remain in the hands of the Turkish government.

For Erdogan’s record and Turkey’s responses regarding the Turkish government’s shameful denial of the facts of the Armenian Genocide, search Google. This blog also offers extensive information about the Armenian Genocide and Turkey. (A word of caution: beware of sites hosted by genocide denial groups purporting to provide facts—you can spot one wherever you read the words ‘so-called genocide’).

Erdogan is a genocide denier with an Ottoman-inspired world view. He is exacerbating and exploiting the Middle East’s instability for his own gain. The citizens of the world and our leaders must be vigilant if we are dedicated to peace and a better life for all peoples in the Middle East. It is the responsibility of each and every individual to know our collective history. If we fail to understand the lessons of the past, we will no doubt repeat the pain and suffering of the generations who came before us. Education is empowerment. And, with knowledge we can speak truth to power.

News reports Turkey will return seized religious properties to Armenian, Jewish, and Greek minorities

Turkey to Return Seized Religious Properties in Effort to Join EU
Voice of America (VOAnews.com) | August 29, 2011

U.S. Ambassador’s wrongful response to Senate’s inquiry re Turkey’s Armenian churches

ANCA Calls for Apology from Ambassador Ricciardone
—Demands Retraction, Correction, and Apology for Statement Covering-Up Ottoman and Republican Turkey’s Systematic Destruction of Thousands of Christian Churches
Armenian Weekly | August 15, 2010

[Take Action: See the letter included in the body of the article and send the right answer to the Senate and U.S. Ambassador Ricciardone]

Hidden Armenians in Turkey

I found this article about Kemal Yalcin and his book, You Rejoice My Heart while searching on Google for something else:

Author chronicles the hidden story of Turkey’s Armenian remnants
Armenian Reporter | March 22, 2008

(Google Crypto Armenians to learn more.)

 

Does it matter whether Turkey admits it was genocide?

Yesterday, I attended a talk by a well-known reporter who has covered the Armenian community and the United Nations throughout her career. At the end of the talk, the question of whether it matters if Turkey admits to the Armenian Genocide came up. I chose to listen to the opinions shared, not offering mine despite being among Armenians in the familiar surroundings of the Eastern Dioceses of the Armenian Church complex. It is interesting to note that Armenians do not share one mind when it comes to the topic of the Armenian Genocide.

Dr. Richard Hovannisian at 2011 Times Square Commemoration of Armenian Genocide

While there is no doubt in any Armenian’s mind about the veracity of the facts concerning the Armenian Genocide, we do not all agree on what to do with this knowledge.

Many Armenians (like a significant percentage of those attending the commemoration of the 96th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in Times Square) want reparations and land. Many only want an official acknowledgment and apology from the government of Turkey.

Opinions also tend to be colored by whether or not an Armenian individual’s family was a victim of the Genocide or not. Present-day Armenians living in Turkey frequently disparage Armenians in the diaspora for our politics, which is something not altogether surprising, because the Turkish government considers the vocal diaspora (especially in the United States) to be a thorn in its side. 

As I’ve come to learn, Armenians from the former Soviet Republic of Armenia and the Middle East have varying degrees of knowledge about the Armenian Genocide. Generally speaking, Armenians living in Europe and the United States have historically had far greater access to the wealth of knowledge about the history of the Armenian Genocide. This, too, informs the opinions Armenians have about the Turkish question.