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Yet Again, Israel Denies the Armenian Genocide, side with Terrorist state of Turkey

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Israel Deny armenian GenocideIsrael is one of the only democratic countries in the world, if not the only one, to do so, and to support Turkey’s stubborn policy of denial.
ByProf.  Yair Aurongenocide scholar Jul 04, 2016 11:29 PM

On May 31, a few days before the lower house of the German Bundestag recognized the murder of the Armenian people – an act that reverberated worldwide – there was supposed to be a discussion of the subject in the Knesset. However, it was postponed under pressure from the Foreign Ministry (which is headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu). The discussion is due to take place in the Knesset on Wednesday.

This is a discussion of great importance for the battle that has been waged for years for Israeli recognition of the Armenian genocide. In the past year I hoped that if not the Israeli government, at least the Knesset would finally recognize it. But apparently there is very little chance of that, in light of the rapprochement agreement signed with Turkey. After all, who would endanger the agreement because of a negligible thing like whether or not there was a genocide of another nation.

There’s no chance that the Israeli government will recognize the Armenian genocide, but during the course of the year commemorating the 100th anniversary of the murder of the Armenian people, there was nevertheless a hope that perhaps the Knesset would do so. But apparently that hope is also evaporating.President Reuven Rivlin has in the past expressed profound identification with the suffering of the Armenians. When he served as Knesset speaker he even said that Israel should recognize the Armenian genocide. It’s a shame that he has refrained from repeating that since being elected president, saying only “I haven’t changed my mind.”

In a discussion in the Knesset Education Committee in July 2015, in which Edelstein participated, all the speakers from the coalition and the opposition supported recognition. Only a representative of the Foreign Ministry had reservations, claiming that the concept of “genocide” has become politicized, and therefore Israel should not use it. Imagine if any European government were to claim that the “Holocaust” is a political concept, and therefore their government should not use it.

At the conclusion of the discussion the Education Committee called on the Knesset to recognize the genocide and on the Education Ministry to teach about it, but nothing happened. The annual discussion to take place in the coming days is the moment of truth: The thawing of relations with Turkey and the weapons deals between the governments of Israel and Azerbaijan, worth billions of dollars – weapons designated for clashes with the Armenians – are not glad tidings for the chances of recognition.

Even if people and institutions in Israel won’t be happy to hear these words, they must be said: Israel denies the Armenian genocide. We are one of the only democratic countries in the world, if not the only one, to do so, and to support Turkey’s stubborn policy of denial. The United States neither recognizes nor denies the genocide. When we deny the Armenian genocide, we are desecrating the memory of its victims. In my opinion, in so doing we are also desecrating the memory and the victims of the Holocaust.

Because of this last sentence, which I refused to omit, the administration of Yad Vashem rejected a scientific article that I was invited to write for the institution’s newsletter, Teaching the Legacy. But I will continue to say and to write that sentence until the State of Israel, if only via the Knesset, recognizes the Armenian genocide.

Today it’s already known and has been proven: When we deny a genocide that took place in the past, we are preparing the ground for a future genocide.

The discussion in the Knesset should arouse great interest in the world, and of course among the Armenians in Armenia and in the Diaspora, and hopefully here too. Those who are fighting for recognition are requesting “a vote now.” Transferring the discussion to the committee was an important step for years, but it has become a cynical political means to conceal the truth. We continue to deny.

Israeli recognition (which is not anticipated, to my regret) would probably lead to recognition of the Armenian genocide by the entire world. If Israel recognizes it, U.S. President Barack Obama won’t be able to continue to remain on the sidelines either. What is true of genocide is also true of the battle against its denial: Anyone who is not on the side of the victims is on the side of the deniers.

Prof. Auron is a genocide scholar who has been working for years for recognition by Israel and the world of the Armenian genocide.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.728904

Armenian Genocide: Boston Guitarist Alex Baboian on Family’s Horror

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Pope visit 333By Claudio Lavanga,

YEREVAN, Armenia — It took only one word to turn the life of American jazz musician Alex Baboian upside down: genocide.

The 28-year-old was born and learned to play guitar in Boston — and it was also there that he found out about his ancestors’ painful past.

Historians agree around 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I. Armenians are still fighting to get this event universally recognized, however, with Turkey maintaining the deaths happened in the fog of the war amid the crumbling of the Ottoman Empire.

This controversy was highlighted last month after Pope Francis used the word “genocide” for the second time in as many years while on a visit to the former Soviet republic.

“My great-grandparents were from Armenia, but I was too young when they died and knew very little about them,” Baboian told NBC News during the pontiff”s visit. “So I asked my grandmother. That’s when the word ‘genocide’ hit home.”

Baboian had never heard about his own family’s suffering. His grandmother told him a story that her own mother had only spoken of once, before never mentioning it again.

“Armenians are proud people,” he said. “It’s not part of our character to sit around and talk about the fact that our great-grandparents were murdered and raped and tortured, and the people who escaped, took their stories to their graves.”

Baboian was among the 480,000 people with Armenian ancestry living in America, according to U.S. Census Bureau data from 2011.

Many of these are descended from families who fled the massacre.

The story Baboian’s grandmother told him spurred a move back to the home of his ancestors two years ago. He still spends time there but now lives mainly in Berlin, Germany, where he makes a living as a musician.

The story began in 1915, around the time Ottoman Turkish troops started rounding up and deport ethnic Armenians. Soldiers stormed Baboian’s great-grandmother’s town, killing her parents in front of her and telling her and her siblings they would be relocated.

Instead, they were sent on one of the many “death marches,” in which Armenians were forced out into the desert or into the mountains and left to die. In the space of few years, up to 1.5 million people died of hunger, thirst or exhaustion, or were murdered along the way.

But Baboian’s great-grandmother survived, managing to walk 1,500 miles to the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. On the way, however, her little sister was kidnapped and she never saw or heard from her again.

Today, Armenia is still suffering widespread social issues. Despite some economic reforms since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, it has an unemployment rate of almost 18 percent — compared with 5.5 percent in the U.S..

Its population of nearly 3 million is still slightly shrinking, but the 1990s mass exodus in the years following the separation from Moscow has slowed.

Groups such as Birthright Armenia, a non-profit organization that has offices in Yerevan and Pennsylvania, are encouraging the country’s diaspora to reconnect with their roots.

But the worldwide struggle to get universal recognition for the term “genocide” is still a source of anger for many of those inside the country and abroad.

A growing list of nations, including Canada, France, Russia and most recently Germany, have said they recognize the killings as a genocide. Barack Obama used the term as a presidential candidate in 2008 but he and his administration have since drawn criticism for using more ambiguous language.

The Armenian National Committee of America says Washington is “fearful of offending Turkey,” which is one of Washington’s key NATO allies.

Kim Kardashian, perhaps Armenia’s most famous daughter, visited her ancestral homeland just weeks before the 100th anniversary of the killings last year. She made no mention of the event but campaigners hoped it would draw attention to their plight.

The Vatican is among those who recognize the genocide and Pope Francis used the term during the 100-year commemorations last year. His said it again after landing in the capital Yerevan on June 24.

But for Baboian words are not enough.

“I don’t care if the pope or other leaders recognize it was genocide. I know, we all know it was genocide, I don’t need other to tell us,” Baboian said. “I want justice, some kind of action being taken. For instance, the boycott of Turkey until they finally accept that what they did was ethnic cleansing.”

Only a few hundred yards away, at the end of his address in Yerevan’s main square the pope urged Armenia and Turkey to seek reconciliation and to shun “the illusory power of vengeance.”

Source:nbcnews.com

Yair Auron: Knesset to hold debate on Armenian Genocide on July 5

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genocide israelIsrael’s  Knesset will hold debate on the Armenia Genocide on July 5 a month after Bundestag adopted resolution recognizing the Genocide, Dr. Yair Auron, an Israeli historian said in an interview with the Zoryan Institute .

“Israel refrained from allowing a public debate to have a free vote on the subject of the Armenian Genocide for fear of alienating the Turkish government, a key ally to Israel and the United States,” Auron believes.

The historian does not agree with the opinion on the uniqueness of the Holocaust.

“I cannot accept that because the Holocaust is not unique, and needs to be studied as one example of genocide and not in isolation. Israel, a state born out of the Holocaust, is expected not to barter with the memory of the genocide of another people,” he added.

Auron noted that American presidents avoid using the word genocide, but Israel has gone even further: not only denying the status of the Armenian Genocide, but honouring the tragic killing of a small group of Azerbaijanis at Khojaly during the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said at a commemoration in 1915, ‘We are gathered here today to talk about the necessity to combine the experience of Israel and Azerbaijan in order to prevent such tragedies in the future.’

The historian called on Knesset to have a free vote on whether or not to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

“Now that Israel and Turkey have mended fences and are about to renew their diplomatic ties, the Knesset must give a clear message that Israel’s relations cannot be held hostage to Turkey’s denial of these incontestable historical facts, especially after Germany’s admittance of its complicity, as an ally of Ottoman Turkey. It should further emphasise that Armenian Genocide recognition by Israel is not about friendship or enmity towards Turkey, but it is rather a moral responsibility of Israel. Furthermore, after Germany’s admittance of complicity, the failure of the Israeli Knesset to openly label the ‘events of 1915’ as ‘genocide’ is no longer only a simple moral issue, it is also a matter of credibility,” he resumed.

Armenian Genocide receives wide coverage in social networks – expert

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f576fb71ac60e7_576fb71ac6122.thumbPope Francis’ visit actually received wide Facebook coverage, but Brexit-related reports diverted universal attention, IT expert Samvel Martirosyan told Tert.am.

“In fact, Brexit-related reports proved to be the mainstream in, for example, Twitter. At the regional level, we can say that reports on the Pope’s visit to Armenia were among the top news stories – especially the Gyumri pictures,” Mr Martirosyan said.

“The shares addressing the Pope’s visit have been very active also on Instagram,” Martirosyan noted.

Another popular topic, he added, was the Armenian Genocide. “All the media outlets’ attention was focused on the fact that the [Pope] hadn’t initially used ‘genocide’. And there was a boom after he said it. So the Genocide has been the most actively shared topic on Facebook.”

Martirosyan noted that most of the posts with hashtags and photos were shared by Armenia-based media outlets and users. He added that reports by foreign media were given more preference. “Our media were not in a monpopolistic positions so to speak,” he added.

The sounds of Armenian duduk were heard during Pope Francis’ visit to the Armenian Genocide Memorial,

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Pope at Armenin genocideYEREVAN. – The sounds of Armenian duduk were heard during Pope Francis’ visit to the Armenian Genocide Memorial, on Saturday morning.

Duduk masters Djivan Gasparyan, Gevorg Dabaghyan, and Kamo Seyranyan performed near the Eternal Flame.

Afterward, the Holy Father stopped briefly to bless and water a tree in remembrance of his visit to the Memorial.

An Armenian American Group Caves in to the Anti-Defamation League

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Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan receives the ADL's 'Courage to Care' award from ADL National Director Abraham Foxman in New York

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan receives the ADL’s ‘Courage to Care’ award from ADL National Director Abraham Foxman in New York

By David Boyajian,

For several decades the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and other leading Jewish American organizations (AIPAC, AJC, B’nai B’rith, and JINSA) have deliberately colluded with Turkey and Israel to defeat U.S. Congressional resolutions on the Christian Armenian Genocide and to diminish the factuality of that genocide. 

Yola Habif Johnston, a director at JINSA (Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs), once admitted that “the Jewish lobby has quite actively supported Turkey in their efforts to prevent the so-called Armenian genocide resolution from passing.”

The hypocrisy is breathtaking given these organizations’ loud, endless demands for recognition of, and legislation on, the Jewish Holocaust. 

Starting in 2007, Armenian Americans in Massachusetts and elsewhere made international news by exposing the national ADL’s hypocrisy.  In disgust, 13 Massachusetts cities and the umbrella Massachusetts Municipal Association kicked out the ADL’s alleged anti-bias program, “No Place for Hate.”  Human rights advocates and many honest Jews supported those efforts.  The Turkish government raged that its collaboration with Israel, the ADL, and other Holocaust hypocrites had been blown wide-open.

But in mid-May, a small group of Armenian Americans in Massachusetts — including the politically ambitious Sheriff of Middlesex County Peter Koutoujian and a few members of the Armenian Assembly of America (AAA) and the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) — struck a horrible “deal” with the two-faced ADL. 

For his part of the “deal,” ADL National Director Jonathan Greenblatt casually “blogged” that his organization now “unequivocally” acknowledges the Armenian Genocide and “would support” (not “do support”) American recognition of that genocide. 

Even Andrew Tarsy, former Director of the New England ADL, termed the pact “inadequate.” The ADL “ought to lead the conversation about reparations for these [Armenian] families … assets, land … everything that Holocaust reparations … has represented should be on the table.” 

Of the many things wrong with this “deal,” let’s list a few.

The Horrible “Deal”

  • The “deal” was concocted behind the backs of the Armenian American community and the hundreds of activists — Armenian and non-Armenian — who started the campaign in 2007 and have battled the ADL since.  Why haven’t the verbal or written details of the negotiations and “deal” been made public?  Why the lack of transparency?
  • Greenblatt (former Starbucks VP and Special Assistant to Pres. Obama) isn’t the ADL’s highest official and may not have the authority to set policy.  Have the ADL’s National Commission and National Executive Committee (its “highest policymaking bodies”) formally approved of Greenblatt’s “blog” post?  We don’t know. 
  • The ADL has long played word games with the Armenian Genocide. In 2007, for example, it disingenuously dubbed it “tantamount to genocide” but not genocide.  Greenblatt’s conditional claim that “we would sup­port U.S. recog­ni­tion of the Armen­ian Geno­cide” is similarly suspect.  Why not just “we support”?
  • The Armenian American activist website “NoPlaceForDenial.com” demands that the ADL “support U.S. affirmation of the Armenian Genocide, as it does with the Holocaust.”  I authored those last six words years ago.  They mean that as partial atonement the ADL must work as hard for acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide as it has for the Holocaust.  Nothing in Greenblatt’s statement remotely suggests that the ADL would do that.
  • For three decades or more, the ADL has attacked Armenian Americans and worked with Turkey and Israel to defeat U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Yet the ADL has never apologized for its atrocious conduct.  Ironically, the only ADL apology came in 2007 when National Director Abe Foxman apologized to Turkey because publicity surrounding the Armenian issue had embarrassed that country.  The failure to obtain an apology from the ADL is scandalous.
  • Americans deserve to know the details of the ADL’s longtime Genocide-denial pact with Turkey and Israel.  Where are the documents, and why was their release not part of the “deal”?

The Berman Affair

Armenian Americans won a major victory in 2014 when Attorney Joseph Berman, an ADL National Commissioner, lost his bid to become a Massachusetts Superior Court judge.  Governor Deval Patrick had nominated him in 2013.  I testified against Berman.

Following a widely publicized fight, the eight elected Governor’s Councilors refused to confirm Berman.  His leadership position in the hypocritical ADL was one reason why Councilors opposed him.

While I was in close touch with several Councilors, an incident occurred that has never before been made public.

A Councilor who opposed Berman told me of receiving several calls asking that the Councilor vote for Berman.  One such caller was Sheriff Peter Koutoujian, an Armenian American prominent in the recent ADL “deal.”  I remain deeply troubled by that call.  Why would Koutoujian do such a thing?  I think I know, but only Koutoujian can answer that question.  He did not return my recent call asking about his past activities in the campaign against the ADL.

The final Council vote on Berman was 4 to 4.  Had the Councilor voted as Koutoujian asked, the ADL’s candidate and the ADL would have triumphed, and Armenian activists would have been defeated.

That and other significant incidents raise questions as to whether the recent ADL “deal” was negotiated in the tough, adversarial way required to defend Armenian interests.

Failing to Confront

When a few activists and I launched the battle against the ADL in July 2007 and events were moving quickly, AAA and ANCA initially delayed even issuing a statement.  Perhaps they were concerned about retaliation or being called anti-Jewish.

The following year, moreover, several activists and I became convinced that these organizations were not fully committed to the ADL fight.  At one point, we were told that at least one of the organizations would no longer try to convince cities to sever ties with the ADL.

In 2015, even the NoPlaceForDenial.com website, an essential news resource maintained by ANCA persons, disappeared. It reappeared after I persisted in complaining about its removal. 

Indeed, the ADL came under renewed pressure months ago only because I informed ANCA and a pro-AAA person that Newton, MA had, perhaps unintentionally, invited in the ADL after having booted it out in 2007.

Sheriff Koutoujian himself has long been very close to various Jewish organizations. He once received an award from the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston. He has taken two trips to Israel.  The second one, last year, concerned “counter-terrorism.”  It was organized by the ADL and funded by Israel’s Gal Foundation, which sponsors ADL programs. Of the 14 Massachusetts law enforcement personnel on the trip, Koutoujian was the only sheriff.  Koutoujian later co-narrated a slideshow of the trip at a synagogue in Burlington, MA.  Koutoujian has also spoken at other Jewish venues.

He recently wrote this on his Facebook page: “Thank you to the ADL and the Boston Globe for recognizing this terrible moment [Armenian Genocide] for what it is.”  So after three decades of the ADL’s conspiring with Turkey to abuse Armenians, defeat Armenian Genocide resolutions, and damage the cause of genocide prevention, the ADL is thanked and all is forgiven, while hundreds of Armenian American activists get no thanks whatsoever?  Incredible.

It’s well-known that Americans often interact with powerful Jewish American political organizations in two related ways.  First, a person may hesitate to publicly disagree with such organizations due to concern about retaliation and being labeled anti-Jewish.  On the other hand, being friendly and deferential to these organizations may advance one’s career in politics, academia, business, and other endeavors.

This question must be asked: Could these two types of interactions have adversely affected the post-2007 Armenian American campaign against, and the recent “deal” with, the ADL?

The Anti-Human Rights ADL

The ADL has an appalling anti-Armenian record.  Despite this, recent stories about the “deal” in the Boston Globe and an Armenian American newspaper depicted the ADL as now somehow virtuous.  Neither told readers about the ADL’s three decades of hypocrisy and collusion with Turkey.

The ADL claims to be “the nation’s premier civil rights/human relations agency [which] protects civil rights for all.”  What nonsense.  If that were so it would never have been in the business of covering up genocide. Nor can acknowledging the Armenian Genocide magically now make the ADL a human rights organization. Indeed, the Armenian issue is just one of many that have unmasked the ADL.

The ADL, therefore, is not about civil or human rights.  It’s just a Jewish political organization. For instance, it lobbied for an oil pipeline from Azerbaijan to Turkey. Human rights organizations don’t do that sort of thing.   

What about nice-sounding ADL programs such as “No Place for Hate,”  “World of Difference,” and “Combatting Bullying”?  They’re covers.  The ADL uses them to penetrate schools, colleges, corporations, and communities to enhance its visibility and political influence.

So that’s the organization that some Armenian Americans just made a “deal” with – a deal that was fatally flawed from the day it was conceived.  True human rights advocates and perceptive Armenians reject it.                                                                     

The author is an Armenian American freelance journalist. For his activism and writing on the ADL issue he has been honored by Armenian American organizations, and has won commendations from the Massachusetts Governor’s Council, Watertown (MA) Town Council, and the Newton Tab newspaper.  Many of his articles are archived at http://www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/David_Boyajian

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Tehlirian’s Specter Returns, Armenian Genocide & Germany Acknowledges

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Germany’s Lower House Artfully Acknowledges and Regrets Armenian Genocide

Germany’s Lower House Artfully Acknowledges and Regrets Armenian Genocide

Germany’s Lower House Artfully Acknowledges and Regrets Armenian Genocide

By Ludér Tavit Sahagian, June 17, 2016

Following 101 years of dithering and nearly two decades of intense German civil society advocacy and petitioning, Germany’s lower house, the Bundestag, finally joined the national parliaments of nearly thirty countries on June 2, 2016 by acknowledging the veracity of the (ongoing) Armenian Genocide and regretting the German Kaiser Reich’s complicit role in the Genocide.

Over a hundred German-Armenian community members and other truth-and-justice seekers had gathered to welcome the landmark decision of German lawmakers both outdoors under the late spring sun and inside the parliamentary chamber. Turkey impulsively recalled its ambassador to Germany in protest and has threatened Germany with an “action plan” against it.

The symbolic resolution entitled “Remembrance and Commemoration of the Genocide of Armenians and Other Christian Minorities in the Years 1915 and 1916” passed overwhelmingly, with one dissenting vote and one abstention via an open ballot in a nearly half-attended quorum.

The unified text, agreed upon by the parliamentary factions of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union, Social Democratic Party and Green Party, is built on a series of premises, followed by policy prescriptions for the federal government and a justification statement.

It is a significant upgrade over the Bundestag’s June 2005 resolution entitled “Remembrance and Commemoration of the Expulsions and Massacres of Armenians in 1915.”

The Bundestag vote was preceded by consecutive passionate speeches by German parliamentarians urging their colleagues not to be cowed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s admonitions of harm to Berlin-Ankara relations and to vote in favor of the motion. Expensive “Say the Truth” advertisements with Forget-Me-Not flowers representing the Armenian Genocide’s Centennial were placed in top national newspapers in the days leading up the vote. Several conscientious letters were also sent in by leading German grassroots activists, academicians and church heads in conditional support for the pending resolution.

Additionally, two widely-promoted, but poorly-attended counter-protests organized by local and regional Turks were held in front of Brandenburg Gate, Berlin’s central and most-visited location, waving Turkish and Azeri flags and spreading genocide denial over the microphone. Their main mottos were “Parliaments Are Not Courts of Law,” “The Bundestag is Not a Tribunal” and “The Bundestag is Not Competent [to Deal with Such Matters].” Per police estimates, no more than 1,500 out of approximately 3-3.5 million German Turks, with “special guests” including fervent denier Dogu Perincek, who had flown in from Turkey for a day, attended each of the controversially-permitted actions.

Immediately following the vote, the “Recognition Now” civil society initiative held an hour-long commemorative vigil in front of Brandenburg Gate with representatives of all communities which have suffered genocide in the former Ottoman space, who alongside their worldwide compatriots expressed appreciation for the resolution’s passing. Ruling Turkish politicians and some right-wing Turkish newspapers issued slanderous words and threats of prosecution, loss of Turkish citizenship and direct physical harm to the eleven principled German MPs of Turkic extraction who had voted for the human rights measure following years of silence, hesitation or opposition to doing so. This unfortunate targeted vilification could have been partially avoided had the measure been prudently promoted mainly by ethnic German MPs representing all four parties in the Bundestag, instead of by German-Turkic MPs like Cem Özdemir of the Green Party and Sevim Dagdelen of the Left Party, in the period leading up to the vote.

The 2016 resolution, to be explored in detail in the following sections, has special meaning for all of humanity, considering Germany’s owning up to its past genocidal crimes and the fact that the Armenian Genocide was carried out right before the eyes of German military officers and officials, who as key allies of the Ottoman Empire directly assisted the Turks in the planning, execution and cover-up of this great crime against humanity.

Humanism Up Close

The Bundestag “pays tribute to the victims of expulsion and massacres, which were committed against the Armenians and other Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire…deplores the actions of the former Young Turk government, which led to an almost complete annihilation of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.” Armenians’ “fate exemplifies the history of mass extermination, ethnic cleansing, expulsions and even genocides, which characterized the 20th century in such a terrible way” – taken verbatim from German President Joachim Gauck’s April 23, 2015 speech at an Armenian Genocide Centennial event in Berlin and the Bundestag debate the day after.

The Bundestag “regrets the inglorious role of the German Empire, which, as a principal ally of the Ottoman Empire, did not try to stop these crimes against humanity, despite explicit information regarding the organized expulsion and extermination of Armenians, including also from German diplomats and missionaries…The German Empire bears complicity in the events.”

Per the Bundestag, “honored” are not only victims “of the unimaginably cruel crimes,” but also all of those good Germans and Turks who defied respective government orders and “devoted themselves to the rescue” of genocide survivors.

This “commemoration of the German Bundestag is also an expression of particular respect for the probably oldest Christian nation on earth.”

The Bundestag calls for “an honest appraisal” and “constructive analysis” of history and emphasizes the importance of “fac[ing] the dark chapters” of one’s own past and for “the Turkish side to openly deal with the former expulsions and massacres.” “The commemoration of the Armenian victims of the massacres and displacement” should be seen as a means “to stay alert and to prevent that hatred and destruction threatening people and nations over and over again” and “a contribution to integration and peaceful coexistence.” “Germany sees itself in a particular responsibility in this regard” and remains committed “to contribut[ing] to a broad public discussion” on this issue as well as “supporting scientific, civic and cultural activities in Turkey and Armenia…within budgetary capacity.”

The resolution urges the continuation and intensification of “the recently started preservation of the Armenian cultural heritage” in occupied Western Armenia and Cilicia, in today’s eastern and southwestern part of Turkey, as well as “support, within budgetary possibilities, [for] German initiatives and projects in science, civil society and culture which deal with the analysis of the events of 1915/1916.”

The text’s concluding justification section delineates the “greatest and most serious catastrophe in the several thousand-year old history of the Armenian people,” stating that “numerous independent historians, parliaments and international organizations consider the expulsion and extermination of the Armenians as genocide,” whose commemoration, along with their religion and language, constitute a fundamental part of Armenian identity. It adds that “the former government of the German Empire was informed about the persecution and murder of the Armenians, but remained inactive…refrained from putting effective pressure on their Ottoman ally,” ignoring the pleas of German Protestant missionary Dr. Johannes Lepsius, among other prominent German public and private figures, through his quickly-banned and -confiscated “Report on the Situation of the Armenian People in Turkey.” It posits: “Contrary to the facts, Turkey denies to this day that the expulsion, persecution and murder of Armenians was based on systematic planning or that the mass extermination during the resettlement measures and the massacres committed were intended by the Ottoman government…A reconciliation between the two nations is only imaginable if the events that occurred 100 years ago are fundamentally clarified and the facts are no longer denied.”

The Bundestag resolution concludes with a reference to the wartime archives of the German Foreign Office. Based on the reports of German ambassadors and consuls in the Ottoman Empire, they “document the systematic execution of massacres and expulsions” and “constitute the most important government record of the events of that time.”

Atypical German Imprecision

Despite its constructive elements, the Bundestag resolution is rife with errors and deficiencies, some of which are dangerous to the advancement of the Armenian Cause and attainment of restorative justice.

First, the resolution’s title implies that the genocide victims were not majorities in their occupied homelands, but minority subjects of an empire whose human rights were greatly violated in acts of genocide that now should only be remembered and commemorated.

Shades of its 2005 resolution, the Bundestag hides mostly behind the statements and quotations of third-parties, shrouded in evasive, superfluous and denial-friendly speech, instead of issuing its own statement on the genocidal crimes using direct, precise and first-person formulations that are not subject to arbitrary interpretation. A single sentence such as “the Bundestag publicly recognizes the Armenian Genocide,” as is found in the succinct French Law of January 2001, does not exist in the resolution. There are only two explicit references to the Armenian Genocide – one each in the title and the text. The remainder of the text deals only indirectly with the Genocide.

The resolution also presents a victims’ hierarchy, placing Jews on top, followed by Armenians, Arameans/Assyrians and Chaldeans, and omitted Greeks at lower levels. These genocides are equally “unique,” as cited in the resolution concerning the Jewish Holocaust, in the totality of the cataclysmic loss and pain they have inflicted on each victim group.

Furthermore, the main genocides in the former Ottoman space occurred not just during 1915-1916, the dates specified in the resolution, but lasted up until the founding of the Turkish republic in 1923 and continue to the present-day.

The resolution regrets the actions of only the German Kaiser Reich (1871-1918) and not the political assistance and support that four German successor states have provided Turkey to this day. It also renders German complicity strictly in the manner of knowing and staying neutral, offering not one clause that implies apology, responsibility and steps toward reparations by the German state to the Armenian people for its chief accomplice role in this genocide, including benefits gained from Armenian slave labor during the construction of the Berlin-Baghdad Railway.

It also lauds that the Bundestag with all party heads had occupied itself with this genocide on April 24, 2015, while refraining to explain why the resolution was not passed on that important centennial date.

Displaying commitment to “the special historical responsibility of Germany,” the resolution stresses the need for “new impulses” to “overcoming old divisions” and “seeking paths of reconciliation and understanding” between Armenia and a Turkey that continues the crime of genocide, enjoys all the fruits of genocide, suppresses within its current borders victims and recognizers of genocide, occupies the bulk of indigenous Armenian lands annexed by genocide, and assists ally Azerbaijan to finish along Armenia’s and Artsakh’s eastern borders the act of genocide.

In open support for reviving the defeatist Armenia-Turkey Protocols of 2009, the Bundestag backs “the long overdue improvement of Turkish-Armenian relations,” “the memory and the normalization of inter-state relations,” “the resumption of diplomatic relations and the opening of the shared border,” “the commemoration and reappraisal of the expulsions and massacres of the Armenians of 1915,” “a commission for the scientific study of the historic events,” the “rapprochement, reconciliation and a forgiveness of historical guilt between Turks and Armenians” and “the stabilization of the Caucasus region.” The words “commemoration” and “reconciliation” are explicitly used nine and ten times respectively throughout the text.

The resolution’s calls for wider inclusion of the genocide “issue” in German school and out-of-school curricula, teaching materials and research initiatives dealing with the history of ethnic conflicts of the 20th century can only be welcomed if it is introduced mandatorily and part of examinations, as German public schools’ self-driven learning structure quite often emphasizes only voluntary reading and instruction. A pilot program has already been run in the federal state of Brandenburg.

The resolution frees modern Turkey of guilt for the ongoing crime of genocide. The text adds that “a distinction has to be made between the guilt of the perpetrators and the responsibility of those alive today.” There is nothing on eliminating or overcoming the consequences of this great crime, specifically on land return, reparations and concrete liability of Turkey. It is no wonder that official Ankara’s fervent reactions immediately following the vote have speedily softened.

Rejecting, upon the recommendation of the German Foreign Office, the Left Party’s petition for unconditional admittance of co-responsibility in the Genocide was another major mistake.

The resolution’s justification section repeats “expulsions” and “massacres” several times, downplaying the fact that these were all systematically-planned death marches of an unprecedented genocide.

An international law council or expert must also determine if use of the term “Völkermord” (literally “the murder of peoples” and historically a synonym for “war” and “mass murder”) carries the exact juridical meaning and implications as the term “genocide” (“Genozid” in German) per the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.

Dynamic Armenian and Greek diplomacy during the resolution’s drafting may have ensured the adoption of a more valuable resolution.

Errors and deficiencies aside, the Bundestag resolution is an unforgettable testament to the German people’s cardinal respect for human rights and justice.

“Never Again” or “Yes Again”?

“Armenia-Resolution,” “Armenian-Resolution” and “Armenians-Resolution” (and very rarely “Armenian-Genocide-Resolution”) are the main headlines dominating the German-speaking media and press landscape since the resolution’s June 2nd adoption – a minimization or soft form of denial. These have been juxtaposed by generally-favorable editorials, opinions and letters by several enlightened German writers and readers, especially in Berliner Morgenpost, Bild, Der Tagesspiegel, Die Tageszeitung, Die Welt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Junge Welt, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Neues Deutschland and Süddeutsche Zeitung – all of which include one or two descriptive sentences on the Armenian Genocide. Stuttgarter Zeitung of Germany’s manufacturing hub and prominent weeklies Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, Focus and Stern, some of whose latest printed editions include not a single word on the subject or cite the “G-word” strictly in quotation marks, are among the exceptions. Owing to increasing Turkish threats against German parliamentarians of Turkic extraction, never in recent decades has the Armenian Genocide received such continuing coverage in Germany than this month.

Armenia’s country profile on the German Foreign Office’s website still denies the veracity of the Armenian Genocide, using defamatory terms like the “accusation of genocide against 1.5 million Armenians raised by Armenia” and the “massacres and deportations of 1915/1916.” German Ambassador to Armenia Matthias Kiesler’s dodging of the crucial “G-word” and talk of this world not being “black and white,” when Armenians are incontestably unacknowledged and unrequited victims of genocide, during a June 7, 2016 interview on Yerevan-based CivilNet TV, is another clear case of government denial. Additionally, unconfirmed reports state that Germany is finalizing a deal with Turkey to upgrade housing and aircraft facilities for German forces at Turkey’s Incirlik airbase – on lands forcefully seized from Armenian Genocide victims – to support airstrikes against ISIS targets. With some 280 German troops already at the base, this implies Germany’s continued complicity in the Armenian Genocide.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was controversially absent alongside the vice-chancellor, foreign minister and other senior officials on the day of the vote that she indirectly backed – also meant to reaffirm Germany’s international commitment to “Never Again.” Immediately following the vote, in an attempt to quell Turkish ebullition, she stoically presented the fact of the Armenian Genocide as “a difference of opinion on an individual matter” with Turkey, while showering words of praise on the strategic and multi-vectoral character of German-Turkish relations. There is no known evidence of her ever having used the “G-word” publicly in reference to the Armenian Genocide in her entire political career. At a recent press conference with visiting Azerbaijani President Aliyev, she reiterated her support to the formation of a commission of historians between Armenia and Turkey, which would imply starting anew all attained research and conclusions on the Genocide. Had she dared to act in a same manner regarding the Jewish Holocaust perpetrated by Germany’s predecessor state, she would certainly have been pressured to resign.
Political and legal action against acts of genocide in the timeliest, most unambiguous and justice-oriented manner is always essential. Otherwise, the message to the entire world is “Yes Again” to similar crimes against humanity.

Resolution’s Significance

The adopted Bundestag resolution, neither a law nor a binding legal statement signed and sealed by the country’s Bundesrat and President, is a legislative piece serving mostly German national interests and predicated on political gamesmanship ahead of summer recess. Since senior government officials responsible for foreign policy, trade and defense deliberately skipped the vote, the positive threads of this vote will not translate into government policy. The Green and Left Parties appear to be the main winners of this resolution process in the eyes of the German electorate.

The resolution effectively serves as a straightjacket to restrain increasingly authoritarian and aggressive Turkish leaders, especially swellhead President Erdogan, whose hysterical and baleful words of late toward European leaders have reached new, unacceptable heights. Furthermore, it is a distanced face-saving move for Chancellor Merkel following several recent grandstanding trips to Turkey and months of intensive pandering to Turkish whims to stem the refugee flow into Europe at the expense of democracy and human rights even within Germany. It is also a yellow card to Turkish citizens expecting visa-free travel in the Schengen Area and furtherance in relations between still-genocidal Turkey and the civilized EU in the near future.

The resolution is, nevertheless, a one-stop moral victory over a century of German pragmatism and a partial step forward in the noble quest for restorative justice for the Armenian, Aramaic/Assyrian, Chaldean and Greek peoples. The parliament of yet another major country – never mind the EU’s largest Turkey ally and trade partner, host of the world’s largest Turkish Diasporan community and itself responsible and apologetic for the Jewish/Roma/Sinti Holocausts, among others – can be checked off for having indirectly recognized the genocides against Armenians and other Orthodox Christians, symbolically regretted its high-level of participation in the genocides and increased global perception and denunciation of these great crimes.

Germany is no longer the missing piece on the global map in terms of parliamentary acknowledgment and remorse for the Armenian Genocide. It still remains one, however, in terms of the necessity for univocal state and government recognition and condemnation, criminalization of the Genocide’s ubiquitous denial, official permission for the erection of Armenian Genocide Memorials on central public lands nationwide, the renaming of infrastructure and removal of graves glorifying genocidaires in Germany, and the provision of long-overdue German remands to the Armenian people. The same applies in handling Germany’s genocide of Herero, Nama and other indigenous peoples in modern-day Namibia during 1904-1908.

Weight of Armenian Genocide

The massive weight of the Armenian Genocide – the longest-running and most-complete genocide in modern human history – is indeed shifting, adding fresh momentum to 101 years of sociopolitical unity, activism and scholarship by principled peoples of all backgrounds across the globe.

Thanks to the Bundestag’s and several other parliaments’ measures on the Armenian Genocide over recent years, as well as Pope Francis’ 2015 watershed reaffirmation, the denial genie is finally out of the bottle and there is no going back. Countless front-page press articles as well as primetime television and radio emissions worldwide are circulating on this pressing issue weeks in a row, sending a powerful signal to world leaders – including Australian PM Turnbull, British PM Cameron, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Georgian President Margvelashvili, Japanese PM Abe, Indian PM Modi, Iranian President Rouhani, Israeli PM Netanyahu and U.S. President Obama – that it is high time that they too follow suit in domino-like style. Turkey and Germany are slowly headed to the docks to adjudicate their co-responsibility in this great crime against humanity, unless, of course, they take higher ground to amicably settle their accountabilities outside of court. And, Armenians are slightly closer to reclaiming their Mount Ararat and reestablishing vibrant Armenian life in the golden plains of Western (Wilsonian) Armenia, abutting democratic and prosperous Armenia and Artsakh.

Righteous Soghomon Tehlirian, deeply disturbed by the sudden decimation of two-thirds of his ancient nation in just a few years, was compelled to assassinate chief genocidaire Mehmed Talaat Pasha on Hardenbergstrasse in Berlin on the morning of March 15, 1921. It was a post-war, though still-genocidal, period when Germany and the rest of the world were looking completely the other way and providing safe haven to major perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide. Tehlirian testified that he could not sleep then. With a new political paradigm today emerging based more so on Wilsonian-style human rights and self-determination principles, strongly embodied by this June 2nd decision (ironically 95 years to the day of Tehlirian’s trial start and subsequent acquittal), he and many others revering his specter globally can sleep now in more complete peace.

The Massachusetts-based author specializes in international relations and diplomacy.

 

Corriere della Sera evokes Armin Wegner, the medical officer of German direct witness of the Armenian Genocide

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arton127911-400x300Commenting on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Germany and its collaboration with the Young Turks during the genocide, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reminds mail Armin Wegner German officer sent in 1933 to Hitler. Armin Wegner who witnessed the genocide of the Armenian and had made many pictures, questions Hitler on the fate of the Jews. “How can we chase the Jews, a people who did so much for the German company and patriotism? “Armin Wegner had questioned in his letter to the Führer. Corriere della Sera says that six months after that letter, the German police arrested and thrown into prison. The Italian newspaper wrote Armin Wegner is also known for his photographs of the genocide of the Armenians. It was then military medical officer in the German army in the Ottoman Empire. “In the plains of Cilicia he saw groups of Armenians refugees descended from the chains of Taurus and wandered in the wilderness. The heart of Armin Wegner was tight when he saw hungry children, unaided, pressing against each other and shivering night. “

“All Tucs soldiers and Germans and the population had been ordered to ignore and do nothing to help. But Armin who had tried to rescue one of the children had been arrested and degraded from office. Returning from the war, he had once testified to the atrocities he had witnessed. He lives in the Republic of Weimar organized conferences and showed her photos and other images (…) in 1921 he had testified at the trial of Soghomon Tehlirian who killed Talat Pasha. In 1919 he had written a letter to US President Woodrow Wilson caller studying the Armenian issue. (…) In 1939 he moved to Italy. There it married with the Polish Irene Kovakskaya. The Jewish origin of the latter drew attention to the fascist police. “But Armin Wegner, who had written a letter to Benito Mussolini to show his admiration for the art of Italian artists was not going to be pressured by the Italian police. He died in Rome in 1978.

Krikor Amirzayan