The Washington Post Perpetuates a Destructive Myth
By Khatchig Mouradian
Jewcy.com
Nov. 2, 2007
The Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.106) has attracted enormous
media attention since it was passed by the House International Affairs
Committee on October 10. However, the content of many of the articles,
columns and stories make one thing clear: Writers across the United
States were ill-prepared to tackle the issue of the Armenian genocide,
simply because they knew very little about it.
One case in point is Richard Cohen’s article in the Washington Post,
titled "Turkey’s War on the Truth" (Oct. 16, 2007). Cohen makes
arguments based on false premises. After conceding–with
condescension–that what happened to the Armenians in 1915 was "plenty
bad," he concludes that it falls short of genocide "because not all
Armenians…were…affected." Clearly, if we follow his train of
thought, Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur and several other cases should not
be labeled as "genocide."
Cohen’s standards are clearly different from those of the UN
Convention defining genocide, but Cohen doesn’t just introduce his own
novel definition of genocide, he also creates his own facts. He
suggests that jurist Raphael Lemkin, the author of the Genocide
Convention, coined the term "genocide" based solely on "what the Nazis
were doing to the Jews." This is blatantly wrong. Although this
factual error was pointed out by many–including myself–to the
editors of the Washington Post, no correction was issued and, to this
day, no letter to the editor on this issue has appeared in the paper.
To set the record straight, the horrors of the Armenian genocide–and
not only the Holocaust–played a central role in Lemkin’s lifelong
pursuit to find a name for the ultimate crime against humanity–the
cleansing of a group–and to incorporate into international law the
prevention of this crime and the punishment of its perpetrators.
The destruction of the Armenians came to Lemkin’s attention when, in
1920, Soghomon Tehlirian–an Armenian whose entire family was killed
during the genocide–assassinated Talaat Pasha, the mastermind behind
the Armenian genocide, in Berlin. Lemkin read about Tehlirian’s trial
and, during a discussion with his professor at the University of Lvov,
asked, "It is a crime for Tehlirian to kill a man, but it is not a
crime for his oppressor to kill more than a million men?" His
professor argued that states are sovereign and they can do what they
want to their citizens. "Consider the case of a farmer who owns a
flock of chickens. He kills them and this is his business. If you
interfere, you are trespassing," his professor argued. Lemkin was
proud of Tehlirian for defending "the moral order of mankind," but
wanted international law–and not individuals–to punish the
perpetrators.
Lemkin, a Polish Jew who lost 49 relatives in the Holocaust, coined
the term "genocide" in 1944 based on the planned extermination of the
Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in 1915 and the Jews by the Nazis
during World War II. He worked tirelessly to have the United Nations
pass a law on the prevention and punishment of that crime. Finally, on
Dec. 9, 1948, the UN General Assembly ratified the Genocide
Convention.
In a CBS program first broadcast in 1949, Lemkin said, "I became
interested in genocide because it happened to the Armenians… So, you
see, as a lawyer, I thought that a crime should not be punished by the
victims, but should be punished by a court, by a national law."
In an article in the Hairenik Weekly (later the Armenian Weekly)
published on Jan. 1, 1959, he confirmed that the suffering of the
Armenians had paved the way to the ratification of the Genocide
Convention:
"The sufferings of the Armenian men, women, and children thrown into
the Euphrates River or massacred on the way to [the north Syrian
desert of] Der-el-Zor have prepared the way for the adoption for the
Genocide Convention by the United Nations. … This is the reason why
the Armenians of the entire world were specifically interested in the
Genocide Convention. They filled the galleries of the drafting
committee at the third General Assembly of the United Nations in Paris
when the Genocide Convention was discussed."
At the end of this article, Lemkin asserted, "One million Armenians
died, but a law against the murder of peoples was written with the ink
of their blood and the spirit of their sufferings."
There are numerous similar references in Lemkin’s private papers as
well as in the press. In an age where information is readily
accessible, columnists and editors have little excuse to make grave
factual mistakes. When they do, they ought to correct themselves
promptly–unless, of course, their aim is to perpetuate those
mistakes.
***
Want to read more about the origins of the concept of genocide? Check
out either of the following books:
Steven L. Jacobs, "Raphael Lemkin and the Armenian Genocide," in
Richard Hovannisian’s Looking Backward, Moving Forward (Transaction
Publishers, 2003), pp. 125-135.
Samantha Power, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide,
(Basic Books, 2002).
***
About Khatchig Mouradian
Khatchig Mouradian is editor of the Armenian Weekly. From 2000 to 2007
he was an editor of the Lebanese-Armenian Aztag Daily. His writing has
been translated into more than 10 languages, and he has translated
such works as Paulo Coelho’s "The Alchemist" (Hamazkayin, 2004). He
also contributes to a number of U.S. and European publications.
Mouradian has presented papers on genocide and the media at
conferences such as the 5th Workshop on Armenian-Turkish Scholarship,
held at NYU in 2006.
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