Fighting the denial of genocide
Panel calls for Turkey’s recognition of Armenian killings, compares
them with 1940s Holocaust
UCLA Daily Bruin
/07/fighting-denial-genocide/
By Wafiqah Basrai
Friday, March 7, 2008
In a panel discussion titled "Facing Denial, the Last Stage of
Genocide," four experts spoke about the injustice of denying the
Armenian genocide.
The event, hosted by the Shant Student Association and the Armenian
Graduate Students Association, was held in order to acknowledge all
genocides, said Raffi Kassabian, executive officer of AGSA.
The Armenian genocide refers to the killing of Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire beginning April 24, 1915.
The total number of Armenian deaths are estimated to be around 1
million to 1.5 million. Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman
Empire, does not recognize these events as genocide.
But Joey Kurtzman, executive editor of Jewcy, an online magazine, said
there is an overwhelming consensus regarding the Armenian genocide.
Richard Hovannisian, chair of modern Armenian history at UCLA, said
genocide often involves denial, with the government covering up and
justifying what they are doing. When the genocide ends, denial
commonly follows, he said.
The panelists agreed that the importance of recognizing genocide is
crucial in providing comfort to those who have felt the effects of it
and to help prevent future genocides.
"Those won’t be able to look at the Armenian genocide like Hitler did
as an example of being able to get away with it," said Aram Hamparian,
executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America.
Hovannisian drew parallels between the Armenian genocide and the
Holocaust.
Both genocides were based on wartime propaganda and the victims of it
were portrayed as threatening to the country. Also, both governments
said they were simply relocating the victims and justified their
actions by claiming their own people were killed as well.
One of the significant differences between the two, Myers pointed out,
is that the Holocaust was recognized afterward and reparations were
made to the Jews, whereas the Armenian genocide was not acknowledged.
Hamparian said he believes recognizing genocide is a moral obligation.
"Efforts to cover up the destruction of a nation are wrong," he said.
David Myers, director of the Center for Jewish Studies said the
recognition of the genocide is important so that it fosters
communication between Armenians and Turks.
Hamparian said that the genocide is being denied is for political
reasons. He drew a connection between lobbyists preventing laws
against cigarette companies and governments being reluctant to
recognize genocide.
Kurtzman said that, as a Jew, he is especially concerned that some
Jewish leaders are denying the Armenian genocide for political
reasons.
"This is especially disconcerting for those in the Jewish community,"
he said. "What we claim to learn from our history is being desecrated
in a pretty mortifying manner."
Hovannisian said that Turkey can benefit from recognizing that a
genocide did occur.
By denying the genocide, he said the Turks who helped the Armenians
during that time are not being recognized, as those who helped Jews
during the Holocaust were.
All the panelists agreed that progress is being made with recognizing
the Armenian genocide. Some Turkish scholars are combating Turkish
denial themselves, Hovannisian said.
There is currently a pending resolution that was officially approved
by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives in
October to recognize the Armenian genocide.