WORLD JEWRY CANNOT BECOME A TOOL IN THE HANDS OF ANTI-ARMENIAN PROPAGATORS – RIMA VARZHAPETYAN
13:38 * 15.01.15
On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, when
civilized humanity stands together with Armenia and the Armenian
people, honors the memory of one and a half million innocent victims,
killed in the Ottoman Empire, Turkish-Azerbaijani propaganda has
become more aggressive.
Pursuing a goal to distract the attention of the international
community and attract support from different Jewish community
structures, targeted efforts have been exerted recently to cast a
shadow on Armenian-Jewish relations through publications of ordered
and one-sided articles in various media outlets. At the same time,
one should mention that those attempts cannot but fail. The history of
the two ancient peoples – Armenians and Jews – is full of similarities
and mutual contacts, and, even with the utmost effort in the world,
one can not derail those relations. Nevertheless, in the existence
of a political agenda and irresponsible analysts – one cannot avoid
comments based on void arguments, trying to prove the reverse.
An old Jewish proverb says, “Hatred makes the straight crooked.”
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin thinks that when people lapse into anger,
their common sense fails.
Unfortunately, some journalists, politicians, pseudo-diplomats, and
public figures in pursuit of profits and in the process of cajolery
go against every ethic.
The articles by Maxime Gauin and Alexander Murinson in Haaretz,
by Arye Gut in JNS.com, and by Alexander Murinson in The Hill are of
that kind. The activity and biography of those authors leaves no doubt
about the one-sidedness of their analysis. Maxime Gauin, who presents
Armenia as an anti-Semitic country, himself publicly supports an
ultra-right party in Turkey – the Nationalist Movement Party. Apart
from the explicitly employed stance of the denial of the Armenian
Genocide, that party is known for propagating anti-Semitism and
xenophobia. However, Gauin turns a blind eye to that circumstance. For
quite a long time being at the service of the Azerbaijani propaganda
machine, Arye Gut is at the same time a member of Azerbaijan-Israel
International Association. Alexander Murinson takes for reality the
line of his doctoral thesis, that, supposedly Azerbaijan, Turkey and
Israel are nothing less than an entente alliance. On the assumption
of such a misplaced hypothesis he develops the thesis that the enemy
of one of these states is the enemy of all three.
By some strange coincidence, though, that Raoul Contreras, who supports
conservative views and who had never published anything on Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Jewry, develops the theses of the abovementioned authors
in The Hill on January 5, and demonstrates “extensive knowledge”
of Israel, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The one-sidedness of the arguments of the aforesaid authors leaves
no doubt about the oneness of the source feeding.
It is no secret what methods the authorities of Azerbaijan are using
for opinion-making in the West – something that was mentioned by
many highly influential editions, as The New York Times September
2014 issue, and Foreign Policy magazine in June 2014 made quite
extensive survey on how the dictator of Azerbaijan attempts to shape
the international public opinion. I think, that all influential
international Jewish structures at least should not allow themselves
to get involved in such speculations.
Referring to the articles of the aforementioned authors, it is
necessary to underscore the apparent falsehood of their points. All
those authors that try to present Armenia as an anti-Semitic state are
doomed to failure for the apparent lack of any reliable facts. Indeed,
no such arguments exist, as the Armenian-Jewish relations have shown
a rare example of tolerance and co-existence. The history of the two
ancient peoples of the Middle East – the history of the Armenian-Jewish
relations – derives from the depth of centuries; the Armenian Quarter
of Jerusalem serves as the best example. On the other hand, evidence
of the existence of densely Jewish population in the towns of Armenia
is available in ancient sources.
The “examples” that are brought by the falsifiers of history make no
sense, and, according to their authors, are directed at discrediting
of relations between the two friendly peoples. Particularly, during
the World War II an Armenian legion, that is presented as a unit,
that fought on the side of Nazis, in reality, was formed from the
Armenian prisoners of war, serving in Soviet Army. National legions
of such kind were also formed from various nationalities of the former
Soviet Union. The idea of creation of the Armenian legion was thrown to
the Nazi leadership by some representatives of the Armenian Diaspora;
the aim was clear – to save the POWs from physical extermination and
afford an opportunity to escape and rejoin the Soviet Army. Numerous
soldiers of the Soviet Army were saved through this very way –
Armenians, Yazidis, Greeks, Assyrians, Russians and Jews among them.
Regarding modern Armenia, even if there were some signs of
anti-Semitism, which, unfortunately, may happen in every corner of
the world, they never enjoyed the support either of the authorities,
or more or less influential social and political entities. Can the
restoration of the Jewish medieval cemetery in one of the provinces
of Armenia at the expense of funds, allocated by the Government, be
considered as an expression of anti-Semitic policy? The opinion poll,
to which one of the articles refers, is nothing but farce, urged to
prove the prejudice thought over in advance. The methodology of the
poll begets more questions, than provides answers. The questions are
formed so, that even if one holds these polls in the country with
most densely populated Jewish community, that country may find itself
considered as the most anti-Semitic country. It should be noted,
that the authors of that “opinion poll” considered unnecessary to
hear the views of the Jewish community of Armenia on questions raised.
The Jewish community feels itself protected in Armenia, and the
authorities respect the rights, culture, traditions of Jews. There
is no anti-Semitism in Armenia, and we enjoy good relations with
the Armenians. Of course, the community has certain problems which
originate from the general situation of the country. Numerous citizens
– Armenians and representatives of national minorities – emigrated
from Armenia as a result of grave economic conditions. Jews of Armenia
share all the difficulties of the country and, at the same time,
consider themselves proud citizens of the Republic of Armenia. With
regard to the society, Armenians always treated Jews and the State
of Israel with admiration; and, surveys were conducted as per the
historical path of which people deserves utmost respect, undoubtedly,
a greater percentage of answers would be “the Jews”, and “Israel”.
Definitely, one can not even image holding of anti-Semitic and
anti-Israel demonstrations in Armenia, which took place in different
towns of Azerbaijan a couple of years ago.
I am neither a political figure, nor an analyst, and I do not want
to comment about the relations of Armenia and Iran, that of Armenia
and Israel or Azerbaijan and Israel, however, the fact that in the
aforesaid articles attempts were made to present the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict in an extremely biased manner reveals that, indeed, the
Azerbaijani and the Turkish lobbying is task-oriented on the use of
the Jewish structures for moving forward the policy of denial of the
Armenian Genocide and covering the Azerbaijani aggression against
Nagorno-Karabakh. The Jewish people are well aware of what happened
to Armenians in Azerbaijan and Karabakh.
In 1990s, when bandits of the People’s Front of Azerbaijan organized
and committed pogroms and deportation of the Armenian population,
one of the slogans stated was; “Azerbaijan will prosper without Jews
and Armenians.” No matter how hard the authorities of Azerbaijan
try to present themselves as friends of Israel, they cannot be
one of for the Jewish people. If there is someone, who doubts
this argument, please, read the publications on numerous flagrant
cases of violations of human rights by Aliyev’s Administration, or,
at least, the articles on funding of anti-Jewish demonstrations in
Europe. There is no doubt, that Azerbaijan is utilizing the relations
of Iran and Israel, presenting itself in Israel as the most reliable
regional partner in the policy against Iran. Obviously, the leaders
of Azerbaijan are playing a dangerous game, if they think that they
would succeed in using Israel and the world Jewry for promoting their
personal interests.
It is well-known, that during the massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire, along with other national minorities, the Jews also became the
target of the Young Turks. Particularly, Cemal Pasha declared, that,
“the policy of massacre of the Armenians is to be pursued against the
Jews.” During the actions in Gezi park, Istanbul, last year, one of the
policemen, shooting at the demonstrators, said, “You are not Turks,
you are Armenians and Jews.” Today alarming news come from Turkey,
that against the backdrop of growing anti-Semitism, the Jews started
emigrating to other states.
The bitter fate of the Jewish and the Armenian peoples is abundant in
distress, persecutions and pogroms. Crossing paths of history, full
of the horrendous ordeals, the two peoples, more than anyone else,
perceive the pains of one another, and are well aware of what life
looks like when surrounded by hostility and hatred.
And if disregard of the reality by journalist and analysts is
condemned, but fits the logic of propaganda, disregard by political
figures, moreover, by those of democratic states, is unforgivable
irresponsibility, which cannot have any excuse. Thus, on December
12, 2014, Congressman Steve Stockman, known for his pro-Azerbaijani
views, delivered a speech reflecting the article by Arye Gut. This
is an overt disrespect not only to the voters of Mr. Stockman,
but also to the American democracy. Promotion of ordered and false
these should by no means be allowed to sound from the rostrum of the
legislative power. One cannot present propaganda of hatred and promote
the agenda and interests of a dictator as an expression of freedom
of speech and media, and use the world Jewry in it, particularly,
the Jewish community of Armenia. I would like to draw the attention
of the Jewish community of the USA to those facts and urge them to
stay alert and condemn any attempt to exploit the Jewish factor in
such a despicable way by certain political circles.
Rimma Varzhapetyan-Feller is the President of the Jewish Community
of Armenia.
http://www.tert.am/en/news/2015/01/15/rima/1560038