THE FINAL SOLUTION TO THE ARMENIAN QUESTION
Bruce Walker
WEBCommentary
Oct 17 2007
We conservatives should not automatically oppose a resolution
condemning the Armenian holocaust. We should rather think about how
the resolution is worded.
The Armenian holocaust was very real and very horrible. It deserves
remembrance, but it deserves remembrance for the reason it was
committed. The whole issue is not as simple as it seems.
I cannot completely concur in my conservative friends who object
to a resolution condemning the Armenian holocaust. What happened
in 1915 was simply the Turkish equivalent to the "Final Solution
to the Armenian Question." Anyone who has studied the horrific
treated of Armenians in the decades before 1915 and the holocaust
that followed in 1915 can only come away aghast or can come away as
morally indifferent to Walter Duranty, who won a Pulitzer Prize for
not reporting the Ukrainian holocaust during Stalin’s reign.Quite
rightly conservatives complain about the Hitler of Teheran denying
the Holocaust, but if we do that then we cannot totally ignore the
fact that the Turkish government is, to a large degree, denying the
Armenian Holocaust. Denial of holocausts is denial of holocausts.
Mao, Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin, the Japanese military and, yes, the
Turks about ninety years ago committed holocausts. In different ways,
each can be said to be the worst of the holocausts. All were evil
beyond human imagining. But the situation with Turkey is rather
like the situation with Japan, a democratic ally which has not
done anything bad in a very long time. Japan essentially denies its
holocaust against, especially, the Chinese people and its horrific
treatment of POWs in the Second World War. Japanese textbooks leave out
critical facts. Is this bad? Yes, of course. But if every nation in the
world today behaved as well as Japan, we would have prosperity, peace
and general goodwill.Turkey committed genocide against the Armenian
people. Since then, however, it stayed neutral in the Second World War
when its alliance with the Nazis, who most other Moslems supported,
would have probably prevented us from defeating Hitler. Turkey has
been on decent terms with Israel, in stark contrast to other Moslem
nations. During the Cold War, Turkey was a stalwart ally of the good
guys. And Turkey has been, really, the closest to a success story in
terms of Islamic democracy. While Turkey is threatening to attack
Kurdish nationalists in Iraq, it is not threatening the nation of
Armenia at all. And, of course, its cooperation is very important in
terms of winning the war on global terrorism, which is something all
sensible people should want.
Finally, there is the question of whether or not America might want
a truly united Kurdistan, which would necessarily include a major
part of Turkey, a good chunk of Iran, and parts of Syria as well –
the Kurds are much more tolerant and pluralistic, much more likely to
be democratic, and are not Arabs. Kurdistan could easily become a truly
stable and potent ally of America, a nation friendly to Israel, and a
check on all mischief of Islamic extremism. It is surely something to
think about.All of which is to say that "The Armenian Question" is not
simple and that conservatives should weigh everything before deciding
– in principle, not in timing (which is clearly partisan) – to reject
the idea of condemning the very real holocaust of the Armenian people
on the grounds of expediency. The answer may lie in exploring the
reasons for the Armenian holocaust. Why were millions of Armenian men,
women and children tortured, raped, murdered and enslaved during the
last decade of the Nineteenth Century and the first two decades of the
Twentieth Century?The reason for their persecution was the same as the
reason for the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis: Armenians were the
wrong race, but more importantly, Armenians were the wrong religion. If
Leftists in Congress want to condemn the Armenian holocaust, then
it should condemn the Armenian holocaust on the same grounds that
Shoah has long been condemned. Shoah, the German Holocaust of the
Jewish people, was caused by anti-Semitism. The Armenian holocaust
was caused by irrational hatred of Christians and Christianity. The
Armenian survivors and the chronicles make this abundantly clear.So
any congressional resolution that ignores the historical hatred of
Christians around the non-Christian world is phony and lame. The
Armenians were the victims of genocide because they were Christians –
Armenia was the very first Christian nation in history, the Christian
Israel, if you will. The hatred of Christianity continues today.
Witness the persecution of Christians in Iraq. Witness the persecution
of Christians in Iran, in Pakistan, and even in normally tolerant
India. Witness the persecution, harassment and mocking of Christians
in America today. Witness the accommodation of Moslem religious
requirements alongside the removal of all Christian symbols from
public places. If the Armenian people suffered, and they did, for their
Christian beliefs (conversion to Islam was a way out of being tortured,
raped, murdered or enslaved), then surely their sacrifice, their
witness, needs to be remembered, but it must be remembered as that:
Christian witness.The German Holocaust of the Jewish people has made
anti-Semitism, thankfully, no longer chic or cute or popular. If the
Left wants to make a statement about the Armenian holocaust, then that
statement should be a defense of Christianity, a condemnation of the
long hatred of Christians by Moslems and by others. Perhaps Congress
should ask first the Hitler of Teheran whether he condemns the Armenian
genocide as a monstrous Islamic persecution of Christians. Why not
ask Speaker Pelosi to visit the Teheran (wearing a burqa, of course)
and see if he will. Or will he deny the Christian Holocaust as he
did the Jewish Holocaust?Hatred of Christians and Jews is not one of
the biggest problems we face in this century: it is, in many ways,
the only problem we face in this century. If remembering the millions
of pitiful, dehydrated, emaciated Armenian women and children – yes,
all dead now – is a way of fighting those two ancient hatreds, then
that cause transcends everything else. That is our victory.
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