The Brockville Recorder and Times (Ontario)
April 22, 2006 Saturday
FINAL EDITION
REMEMBERING 20TH CENTURY’S FIRST GENOCIDE
BY SALIM MANSUR
In the spring of 1915 with Europe at war, the Turkish rulers of the
Ottoman Empire ordered the deportation and killing of the Armenian
population within their territory.
Between April 1915 and the end of the war in November 1918, the
organized destruction of a people identified by ethnicity and
religion was conducted by a government that ruled an empire in the
name of Islam.
The nationalist Turks who succeeded the defeated power-holders in
Istanbul continued the massacres of Armenians in eastern Anatolia and
into the Caucasus. Some 1.5 million Armenians perished during this
period between 1915 and 1923.
This destruction of the Armenian people was the first genocide of the
20th century, a prelude to what would come later under Hitler’s Third
Reich as the “final solution” for the Jews.
It took nearly 90 years for the Canadian parliament – by a vote of
153 (yeas) to 68 (nays) on April 21, 2004 – to pass a resolution
acknowledging the Armenian genocide and condemning it as a crime
against humanity.
Neither the passage of time required for such an acknowledgment nor
the number of parliamentarians voting on record against it came as a
surprise, since the mass murderers of our age well understand that
the human capacity to deny evil is far greater than our inclination
to oppose it.
A mere 24 countries around the world have acknowledged the facts of
the Armenian genocide, and with the exception of Lebanon – possessing
a sizable Christian population – there is a wall of silence on this
subject from the Muslim-majority member states of the United Nations.
On April 24 every year, Armenians remember their dead. It was on this
night in 1915 the Turkish government ordered arrests of Armenian
community leaders in Istanbul, marking the start of the genocide.
Turkey continues to dispute what occurred. It is a sensitive issue,
and Turks willing to critically examine the events relating to the
Armenian genocide face persecution from authorities for “insulting
Turkishness.”
Orhan Pamuk, the widely translated and respected Turkish writer, was
charged last year with the crime of insulting Turks when he told a
Swiss newspaper that “30,000 Kurds and one million Armenians were
killed in these lands, and nobody but me dares talk about it.” The
case was dropped in January this year under heavy pressure from the
European Union.
That the world is a cynical place is not news, however, nor is the
fact that human nature is flawed.
Even as I write this column, the systematic depredation of the
wretchedly poor in Darfur remains unabated – while the United Nations
and its grandees, led by Kofi Annan, quibble over the meaning of
“genocide.”
Historians and philosophers struggle to find lessons from the tales
of human wickedness, and teach future generations to do better.
It is in vain, for the collective ears of humanity remain stuffed
with wax. Prophets have admonished, as Amos of the Old Testament did:
“They drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest
oils; but they are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph.”
The lesson of history is that, to paraphrase Santayana, there is no
lesson.
Each generation gets tested by the evil of its time and, in learning
nothing from the past, fashions its denial of crimes witnessed.
The present generation, not to be outdone in ingenuity, incessantly
speaks of being history’s victim and denies bearing any
responsibility or accountability for the ruin of Joseph.
Salim Mansur is a columnist with the Toronto Sun.
The lesson of history is that, to paraphrase Santayana, there is no
lesson. Each generation gets tested by the evil of its time and, in
learning nothing from the past, fashions its denial of crimes
witnessed.