Kingston Whig-Standard (Ontario), Canada
January 14, 2008 Monday
Final Edition
In order to prevent genocide, we need to learn about it
by: alan whitehorn
Pg. 5
Over the past two years, there has been considerable research,
discussion and debate about a Grade 11 course being developed for the
Toronto District School Board. The course is to deal with the painful
yet crucial topic of genocide. The proposed outline seeks to draw
upon both historical and contemporary aspects. The issue of the
subject matter of the course has been discussed on CBC-Radio’s As it
Happens, has received coverage in national newspapers and has even
become the target of an online petition by some members of the
Turkish community.
One would expect that the Toronto District School Board’s efforts at
developing a comparative genocide and human rights course would be
universally applauded, given the topic’s genesis in the founding of
the United Nations. The inclusion of the Armenian genocide, which is
often seen in scholarly analysis as the first major genocide of the
20th century and as an important template for other genocides, would
seem an obvious choice. So why the controversy? What is the
background? What is the path ahead?
It is impossible to study modern history without understanding key
political concepts, such as revolution, war, totalitarianism,
genocide, freedom and security. Indeed, one would not seek insight
into the modern history of many prominent countries without some
reference to key concepts. For example, for France, we explore the
causes and consequences of revolution; for Europe, we observe the
enormous impact of world wars; to comprehend the Stalinist Soviet
Union or Hitler’s Nazi Germany, we carefully study despotic
totalitarianism; we draw the important linkage between the end of
slavery in the United States and the quest for freedom for all; and
to assess postwar Germany, we need to comprehend the immense impact
of the Holocaust.
Similarly, to understand genocide, we draw insight from the
pioneering and heavily cited case study of the Armenian genocide of
1915.
The accounts of the Armenian genocide exist in considerable detail.
More than nine decades ago, in 1915, the Toronto Globe, along with
the New York Times, dutifully reported events as the shocking news,
often drawn from clergy and neutral embassy officials, circulated
around the world. Amongst the troubling headlines were the following:
"Extermination the watchword"; "Million Armenians wiped out by
Turks"; and "Million Armenians massacred by Turks." In confidential
consular reports back to Washington and later in his wellpublicized
memoirs, Henry Morgenthau Sr., the American ambassador to the
Otttoman Empire’s Young Turk regime, described with enormous despair
the persecution, massive deportations and horrific massacres of the
Armenians. American president Woodrow Wilson’s visionary Fourteen
Points for the post- First World War world included Article 12,
relating to Armenians’ suffering.
The inability of the legal terminology of the day to address the
magnitude and scope of the Armenian massacres was a catalyst for
Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin to give the wardevastated world of the
1940s the ominous term "genocide. " Lemkin also convinced the newly
formed United Nations to pass the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It was a landmark development in
international law and the quest to foster global justice.
Any comprehensive review of the substantial genocide literature will
reveal that the Armenian genocide is a pivotal case study that is
included in most of the key texts and edited case studies on
genocide. One important example is the pioneering book The History
and Sociology of Genocide, by Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn, two
founders of Concordia University’s Montreal Institute for Genocide
Studies. Globally, the Armenian genocide is such an important case
study and template that the International Association of Genocide
Scholars, the distinguished academic organization of leading
researchers and authors in the field of genocide studies, has
formally declared its official recognition of the historic 1915
genocide. In Canada, both our Senate and the House of Commons have
formally recognized the Armenian genocide.
Acclaimed international scholar Gregory Stanton, author of
groundbreaking work on the Cambodian genocide, one of the first to
forewarn the world about the Rwandian genocide, and founder of the
Genocide Watch, provides an analytical outline on the eight stages of
genocide. Ominously, he warned that the last stage of genocide is
"denial."
Political regimes can offer many excuses why they find it
inconvenient, for reasons of state. to acknowledge past injustices.
Even democracies find it difficult to admit past misdeeds. Too often,
genocidal regimes or their successor states are even less likely to
acknowledge their past horrific deeds. Article 301 of the Turkish
penal code, which forbids insulting the Turkish state, has often been
used to intimidate and silence those within Turkey who dare raise the
topic of the Armenian genocide. Neither Orhan Pamuk, a Nobel Prize
winner in literature, nor Hrant Dink, the assassinated editor of Agos
magazine, were spared from that draconian decree.
Powerful attempts at censorship overseas can spill across borders in
troubling ways. It is, therefore, all the more important for
educators, researchers, writers and citizens in democracies to speak
up in solidarity with brave Turkish voices today, and even more so
for those who were brutally killed en masse.
Genocide is a pressing global concern. The past can serve as a
warning. We must not shove aside the evidence. We need to be solemn
public witnesses to the fragments of the scarred bones of countless
genocide victims. We must resist the "sin of indifference." Today,
all of us need to honestly and frankly acknowledge what took place.
We need to speak up in place of those who have been brutally
silenced. Genocide must stop. Genocide denial must cease.
The first step to a better future begins today. We need to teach what
happened. We need to analyse why genocide occurred. We need to listen
to the victims and somehow comprehend what terrible deeds happened to
them. We need to understand their quest for closure. A wide and full
education on genocide is a key component in building the foundation
for a more just and secure world. Without such an education, we learn
too little too late, and too often with tragic consequences.
The Toronto District School Board’s course on genocide is long
overdue. Its content should be comprehensive, in depth, and should
deal with difficult issues in a frank and forthright manner. Such a
course could be a model for other school boards across the province
to embrace.
My generation has done too little. The next generation carries our
hope. However, as teachers, parents and grandparents, we are,
nevertheless, fearful. The young deserve a better world. We can help
them achieve it with a deeper and broader education.
Genocide education is one crucial tool for a more just and safer
world, and perhaps with it "Peace on Earth" will become more than
just a seasonal greeting.
– Alan Whitehorn is a professor of political science at the Royal
Military College of Canada, was a former J.S. Woodsworth Chair of
Humanities at Simon Fraser University, and is a cross-appointed
professor at Queen’s University.