Author: Albert Nalbandian

In the spring of 1982, shortly before the First International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide was scheduled to begin in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the Turkish government demanded that the six sessions on the Armenian Genocide (out of 150 overall) be canceled, and Armenian speakers prohibited from participating. If the Israeli government, which was co-sponsoring the conference, did not comply, Turkish authorities threatened to end protection to Jews escaping from Iran and Syria through their country.

Under pressure from Israeli officials, Elie Wiesel resigned as president of the conference; Yad Vashem withdrew its offer to host the opening ceremonies; Tel Aviv University backed out as a co-sponsor; the Szold National Institute for Research in the Behavioral Sciences in Jerusalem and Hunter College of the City University of New York stopped participating; many speakers, including professors Yehuda Bauer and Alan Dershowitz canceled; donations from philanthropists dried up; pre-conference coverage in the Jewish press was curtailed; and the number of registrants shrank from 600 to 300.

Nonetheless, Israel Charny, the originator and director of the conference, decided to go ahead. The proceedings are now regarded as an important event in the development of the field of genocide studies, marking the first recognition of the Armenian Genocide in an international setting.

In Israel’s Failed Response to the Armenian Genocide, Charny, an American-Israeli psychologist, co-founder of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, author of How Can We Commit The Unthinkable: Genocide: The Human Cancer and editor-in-chief of the two-volume Encyclopedia of Genocide, revisits the conference, attempts by the Foreign Ministry to torpedo it, and issues a scathing indictment of Israel’s refusal, then and now, to officially recognize genocidal wars against other peoples.

Understandably, perhaps, even after 40 years, Charny approaches his subject with a mixture of pride and pain. Intent on setting the record straight and speaking truth to power, he steps on his analysis by going over familiar ground, repeating himself in clumsy prose, and inserting long lists of panels, presenters, book titles and extended excerpts from essays written by him and other human rights advocates in the 1980s and 1990s. And on occasion, Charny seems determined to settle scores.

That said, serious consideration of Charny’s claim – “the basic and horrendous commonality” in all genocides, including the Armenian tragedy, should override obsessions about uniqueness and a consensus definition of the “category name” – is as urgently necessary as it has ever been.

Because he defied the Israeli government in 1982, Charny states, the rector of Tel Aviv University denied him tenure at the School of Social Work, despite favorable recommendations by the relevant committees. The decision “hurt deeply” and “may have contributed psychosomatically” to “the development of cancer a few years later.” Charny sued Tel Aviv University, was appointed a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and for a time collected a TAU pension along with his Hebrew University salary. Grateful in retrospect for being forced to choose between personal, professional and financial security and fundamental ethical values, the experience, he now believes, was “a Turkish delight.”

Charny maintains that in response to Turkey’s threats and the Israeli government’s intervention, he considered reducing the visibility of the Armenian sessions at the conference, but not eliminating them. He indicates as well, rather contradictorily, that he was convinced that “threats of this sort should never be honored to any extent whatsoever.” And then lets himself off the hook by adding that an official of the US State Department assured him, “almost without any reservation or uncertainty,” that the Turks were bluffing.

In any event, Charny makes a compelling case that the principal reason Israeli leaders opposed the conference was their determination to keep the Holocaust, the “unbearable cataclysmic tragedy” of the Jewish people, “at the ultimate untouchable apex of a hierarchy of genocidal suffering… the greatest evil ever seen in human history.” 

Wiesel, who “believed entirely – naively and, one might say, messianically – in the virtue, decency and integrity of the miraculous State of Israel,” Charny writes, warned him “not to use genocide in plural.”

Charny emphasizes that he is a Zionist, proud of Israel’s survival in the face of enemies determined to destroy the Jewish state, and its efforts “to achieve a secure country that is basically still largely democratic.” He also blasts Israel’s quest for exclusivity and superiority; for refusing to acknowledge “the genocidal massacre of unarmed civilian Arabs” in Kafr Kassem in 1956; for indifference toward the forced expulsion of the Rohingya in Myanmar; persecution of Uighurs in China; and “genocidal orgies” in Yemen; for arm sales to Azerbaijan, “where there are gathering storms of potential genocide;” and for recent “fascist trends,” including discrimination against non-Jewish people who are fully entitled citizens of Israel.

Irrepressibly candid and combative at age 91, Charny has thrown down the gauntlet. Whether or not they “claim to be the most important and chosen victim people,” he insists, those who have “experienced fiendish genocidal destruction” should have “heightened sensitivity and caring for others who became victims.” And it is unnecessary, unproductive and unjust for them “to continue denying hard historical facts” about the commission of brutal acts of genocide.

The writer is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University.

Israel’s Failed Response to the Armenian GenocideBy Israel W. Charny

Academic Studies Press

267 pages; 

$26.95

• Police released chilling audio of woman claiming credit for murder of two men
• Turkish Consul-General Sarik Ariyak and guard Engin Sever were shot in 1980
• The two men were gunned down outside a home in Sydney’s Dover Heights 
• The ‘Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide’ claimed responsibility

By BEN TALINTYRE FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

A chilling message claiming credit for the assassination of two men outside a house more than 40 years ago has been released as police ask for public assistance to decipher the message.

NSW Police released the audio as part of its ongoing investigation into the unsolved shooting of Turkish Consul-General Sarik Ariyak and his bodyguard, Engin Sever outside a house in Sydney’s harbourside suburb of Dover Heights back in 1980.

Detectives released an audio recording of the phone call, which was made to a media outlet a short time after the murders, where a woman claimed responsibility for the attack.

The voice can be heard taking credit for the assassinations on behalf of the ‘Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide’, saying the attacks were in retaliation for the injustice done to Armenians.

‘The attacks are in retaliation for the injustice done to the Armenians by Turkey in 1915,’ the woman’s voice says.

‘And Turkish institutions are our target, for the Armenian genocide.’

Turkish Consul-General Sarik Ariyak, 50, and his bodyguard, Engin Sever, 28, were shot outside a residence on Portland Street, Dover Heights, about 9.45am on December 17, 1980. 

The pair were leaving the residence in different vehicles, when they were approached by two unknown assailants, who fired multiple shots at close range before escaping on a motorcycle. 

Mr Ariyak died at the scene, and Mr Sever died a short time later at St Vincent’s Hospital.

Shortly after the attack, responsibility was claimed by the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide, however, despite extensive police investigations, no one has ever been charged over the attack. 

Investigators are also seeking the public’s help to decipher inaudible words spoken after, ‘The authors of…’ in case they are of significance to the investigation.

The NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT), which includes the NSW Police Force, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the NSW Crime Commission, restarted its investigation under Strike Force Esslemont.

Counter Terrorism and Special Tactics Commander, Assistant Commissioner Mark Walton, urged the community to listen to the recording carefully as it could greatly assist with the investigation.

‘Identifying the female through her voice – or recognising any indecipherable words in the audio – will greatly assist us with this investigation,’ Assistant Commissioner Walton said.

‘Police have strong reason to believe that there are members of the public who are aware of who this person is, and we urge them to come forward.

‘While we continue this investigation, we suspect there are people who know exactly what happened that day but have not yet been willing to speak with authorities.

‘We’d like to hear from these people as soon as possible, as well as anyone whose memory may be refreshed by the audio we’ve released – no matter how insignificant the information may seem, it could be invaluable to the investigation.’

Police also announced up to $1million would be paid for any information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the men’s murders.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11075055/Police-release-audio-claiming-credit-assassination-Sarik-Ariyak-bodyguard-Engin-Sever.html