Armenian National Committee of Canada
130 Albert St., Suite 1007
Ottawa, ON KIP 5G4
Tel: 613-235-2622
Fax: 613-238-2622
E-mail: [email protected]
OTTAWA-The Armenian National Committee of Canada (ANCC) today, January
30, participated in a press conference organized by the Canadian Jewish
Congress (CJC) to discuss issues related to the punishment of war
criminals. In addition to the CJC and the ANCC, conference participants
included the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies,
PAGE-Rwanda, and the Roma Community Centre.
Due to a last-minute emergency, the representative of Darfur Association
of Canada could not participate in the press conference. His remarks
were distributed to the attendees.
The press conference was held in Lord Elgin Hotel.
Below are the ANCC representative’s remarks:
Accountability and Responsibility
Remarks by
Aris Babikian
Executive Director, Armenian National Committee of Canada
January 30, 2007
It is ironic that at the dawn of a new century and after 92 years of the
Armenian Genocide, we are gathered, as victim nations of Genocide and
Holocaust to remind the international community of its responsibility
and obligation to bring to justice the perpetrators and their
accomplices.
Canada and the international community can not sit idly and watch as a
new genocide unfolds in front of our eyes and on our TV screens. The
pledge "never again" should not be a hollow echo of the past, but it
should be our moral and ethical compass to prevent future Holocausts,
Genocides, and ethnic cleansing.
By bringing to justice the architects of such heinous crimes and by
recognizing, commemorating, and banning the denial of these despicable
acts, Canada and the international community can send a clear and
unequivocal message to the despots of the world that that the
international community will not tolerate such vile and inhuman
treatment of our fellow human beings.
To cover up their responsibility and to escape justice the first act of
the perpetrators of any Genocide is to deny its occurrence. We have
witnessed this again and again.
As scholars have demonstrated, the last act of any Genocide is the
denial of the horrendous act.
Once the denial machine is set into motion, the planners and executors
of the Holocaust or Genocide get emboldened and feel that they have
gotten away with their original plan of wiping out a whole race. They
then proceed to blame the victims and the survivors for their misfortune
and plight.
It is true that while each genocide has its own unique circumstances,
planning and implementation, the concept of genocide and the denial are
universal and integral for each other. In all genocides the survivors
are subjected to the denial machine one way or another. The denial can
originate in individuals, organizations or states.
Unlike the historical revisionism and the denial of the Armenian
Genocide by the Turkish Government, Holocaust deniers, such as Ernst
Zundle and Jim Keegstra, constituted the lunatic fringe of society. But
recently-learning from the Turkish Government’s tactics-certain
countries have started implementing the Turkish Government’s denial
strategy to rewrite the Holocaust.
Denial of any mass killing is to deflect justice and to perpetuate the
hatred cycle against the victims. Denial has another catastrophic impact
on nations and civil societies: Once the guilty part covers up its crime
and gets away with it, it spreads falsehoods in its educational system,
to indoctrinate future generations with hatred and animosity towards the
victim nation. The denialist portrays the victims as the enemy of the
state and of the nation. It injects the US against THEM concept into the
mentality of its own society. The recent assassination of
Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink is quintessential expression of
this concept.
Here’s the full cycle–from genocide to genocide denial:
· For 92 years the Turkish state denied its responsibility for
the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians
· The Turkish state then proceeded to arouse hostility among
its citizens against Armenians. It did this through the educational
system and trough broad propaganda.
· The Turkish state supported ultra nationalists to incite the
masses against the Armenians.
· The result? A teenage assassin, goaded and armed by
ultranationalists, assassinated an Armenian journalist whose sole
"crime" was writing about the truth of the Armenian Genocide and
promoting friendship between Turks and Armenians.
By suppressing the truth the perpetrators discharges its responsibility.
It also justifies its action as a "righteous crusade" for the welfare of
its own people. With incredible chutzpah Turkey turned the story of the
Armenian Genocide upside down and depicted itself as the victim! It was
the Armenians who had committed genocide against the Turks, blithely
said.
Armenians all over the world believe in accountability and
responsibility. The punishment of the guilty is imperative because it
will help the civil society of the perpetrator to atone for the crimes
of its leaders and to reconcile with the victim nation. As we have seen,
without recognition of the crime and punishment of the guilty there can
be no reconciliation.
The denial of the Holocaust or any other genocide is an encouragement
for its repetition, as it eventually did happen in Turkey against the
Kurds, in Germany against the Romas, in Cambodia and in Rwanda against
the Tutsis and today in Darfur.
We should not allow Hitler’s contemptuous remark:" Who remembers
nowadays the Armenians?" haunt us forever.
We call on the Canadian Government to take the lead and ask the UN to
amend its UN Charter on the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of the Genocide by adding an article on denial of the