Author: Ani Basmajian

Photo: AP

By Chris Bohjalian

Adolph Hotler kept a bust of Ataturk in his office. Heinrich Himmler considered moving to Turkey in the early 1920s. And Rudolf Hoess, commandant of Auschwitz, admitted in his memoirs (penned while awaiting his execution) that he first killed while serving in the Ottoman Empire in the First World War. Make no mistake: The Young Nazis were serious fanboys of the Yung Turks.

The term “Young Turk” today, of course, has come to mean a hard-charging young executive, a bullish entrepreneur who takes no prisoners. A century ago, however, the Young Turks — Talaat Pasha, Djemal Pasha, and Enver Pasha — were the leaders of the Ottoman Empire and the architects of the Armenian genocide: the systematic annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians during the First World War. Three out of every four Armenians living under Ottoman rule were killed by their own government; the nation, outside of Istanbul, was ethnically cleansed of its Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek minorities.

And the Germans, the Ottoman Empire’s ally, were there. They saw it all. The cables from the German diplomats from Aleppo to Erzurum that chronicled the slaughter are as clear as the photographs that German medic Armin Wegner took of starving children and dying women. And while some of those Germans were aghast at what they were witnessing, others clearly were inspired.

After the war, Mustafa Kemal — Ataturk — finished the work of the Young Turks, turning his armies on the Armenians and the Greeks, forcing them out and creating what he hoped would be a homogenous Turkic nation. No minorities to muddy the agenda. Then, with Stalin-like fanaticism, his government began to rewrite history, denying the carnage. Armenians went from victims to traitors; the true story was erased. It’s why Turkey today continues to deny the genocide with pathologic obsession. The last thing they want is for Mustafa Kemel and the Young Turks to be saddled with the moniker “war criminal,” or their nation to risk the sort of reparations that accompany the term “genocide.”

Today is April 24, the day when Armenians around the world commemorate the start of the Armenian genocide: It was that night in 1915 when the Ottoman authorities rounded up the Armenian political, intellectual, and religious leaders of Constantinople and executed almost all of them.

To commemorate this devastating anniversary, the president of the United States will likely find yet another euphemism for the word “genocide,” because heaven forbid America should risk antagonizing Turkey by describing accurately what happened and assigning the blame where it belongs. Trust me, some poor White House speechwriter’s thesaurus is looking pretty dogeared right about now.

Congress has not formally recognized the Armenian genocide either, and I’m not expecting this one to put moral spine before realpolitik.

But, fittingly, Germany has. Last year the German Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of calling the massacres a genocide.

Historians often note how the last stage in genocide is denial, and that denial becomes the first stage in the next one. As a character in one of my novels remarks, “There is a line connecting the Armenians and the Jews and the Cambodians and the Bosnians and the Rwandans. There are obviously more, but really, how much genocide can one sentence handle?”

The Holocaust might have occurred even without the precedent of the Armenian genocide. But as historian Stefan Ihrig proves in his book “Justifying Genocide,” the Young Nazis were there when the Young Turks were at work. They saw how easy it was to blame the problems of the nation on one small ethnic minority, and then rationalize their murder. They grew bold. As Hitler said to his Wehrmacht commanders on Aug. 22, 1939, a week and a half before unleashing his Panzers on Poland, “I have placed my death-head formation in readiness with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

That is precisely why today America must stop mincing words when it comes to the Armenian genocide.

An Armenian textile exhibit is now on display at the Lynn Museum. Museum’s Executive Director Drew Russo describes it as symbolic of an important story, one that perhaps is even more powerful given the current turbulent circumstances both nationwide and throughout the world, according to .

This April 24 marks the 102nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, a horrific event in which more than a million Armenians were killed and thousands more forcibly removed from their homeland during the reign of the Ottoman Empire in early 20th century Eastern Europe.

“The magnificent aspect of this display is that it represents the preservation of Armenian culture and traditions and how they were kept alive even after the genocide,” said Russo.

“It demonstrates the heroic efforts of those who were able to escape – how they made sure their traditions were preserved even after being forced to vacate their home,” he said.

The exhibit, entitled “Heartstrings: Embracing Armenian Needlelace, Embroidery and Rugs,” opened in February and is running through June at the museum. The show displays items from the collection of Mary Mooradian, which includes the work of former Lynn resident Abraham Megerdichian, who made “wonderful, artistic creations” using leftover scrap material brought home from his job at General Electric, according to Russo.

Just as Armenians worldwide commemorate the anniversary of the genocide in order to honor those lost, the Lynn exhibit will be further enhanced by the one-day appearance of a seldom-viewed and rare collection of Armenian inscribed rugs from the personal collection of Raffi Manjikian.

The Manjikian collection will be on display, Saturday, April 22, from 10 a.m. until noon.

“[The rugs] are devotional and memorial pieces with iconography that marks that period in history. They show the dates and names of people,” Manjikian explained. “As a person of Armenian descent, whose grandparents lost loved ones in the genocide, I belief objects like this that come into our hands have important stories to tell. So much can get lost in times of turmoil. We need to preserve what we can.”

Manjikian said this is a part of his collection that has not previously been showcased publicly.

“These are pieces I usually share only with close friends but Mary asked if I’d be willing to display them at this exhibit,” he said. “I’m an enthusiastic collector and I’m fortunate to have these items in my collection. It’s part of an immigrant story, really, and it reinforces the importance of highlighting and showcasing works from people of all cultures.”

Russo said the exhibit is a way of keeping memories and history alive – a powerful reminder to never forget.

“I think the exhibit has an important story to share, a story we need to be reminded of, especially at a time like this in our history,” he said. “There’s so much richness and hope yet so much tragedy wrapped up in the work [on display]. We’ve been fortunate to be able to work with Mary and Raffi to help bring this story to life.”

Photo: Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia failed to prevent a school siege in Beslan in 2004, in which more than 330 people died.

The operation to end the siege, with the use of heavy weaponry, and the investigation that followed have also been strongly criticised.

The Court concluded that the use of lethal force by security forces had contributed, to some extent, to the casualties among the hostages.

The Court held that Russia had failed to set up an effective legal framework of safeguards against arbitrariness and the use of force, since the applicable legislation had failed to set the most important principles and constraints of the use of force in lawful anti-terrorist operations.

The Court held that Russia was to pay the applicants a total of 2,955,000 euros (EUR) in respect of non-pecuniary damage, and the applicants’ representatives a total of EUR 88,000 in respect of costs. The individual awards to the applicants took account of the extent of their suffering and of the measures taken by Russia with the aim of compensating and rehabilitating the victims.

The case concerns a terrorist attack on a school building in the city of Beslan, North Ossetia in September 2004.

In the siege, Chechen rebels took more than 1,000 hostages, mostly children.

It ended when Russian forces stormed the building. Survivors say the troops used excessive force.

For more than a decade, survivors and relatives have been asking whether the siege could have been prevented and whether so many people had to die in the rescue operation. So more than 400 of them applied to the European Court of Human Rights.

Armenian American actress, singer and author Cher has joined the anti-genocide call to action connected to “The Promise” film.

“Hitler said if they don’t remember the Armenians, they will not remember the Jews. We cannot let this happen to another group of people. I vow to keep the promise,” Cher says in a video shared on Twitter.

I vow to ?? 4/21 ?

— Cher (@cher)

Armenian Genocide film The Promise will be released in mainstream theaters across the United States and Canada on April 21.

Produced by the legendary Kirk Kerkorian’s Survival Pictures and directed by Academy Award winner Terry George (Hotel Rwanda), The Promise features an outstanding international cast, including Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon, Christian Bale, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Angela Sarafyan, and many more.

All proceeds from the film will be donated to non-profit organizations, the first time for a film of this scale.