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Stick to ‘genocide’ wording despite Turkey, Armenia urges Bundestag

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armenian orphans 250,000(DW) Armenia’s president has urged German politicians to brand deaths in 1915 Ottoman Turkey as “genocide” and not be intimidated by Ankara. Turkey’s president and prime minister have both spoken out against the wording.

Serzh Sargsyan, Armenia’s president, told Germany’s daily newspaper Bild on Wednesday that he was sure that German lawmakers would adopt the wording submitted in a motion from Germany’s opposition Greens.

The draft resolution on Thursday’s agenda of the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament, contains the word “genocide,” despite warnings by Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday, followed by new Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Wednesday.

Yildirim said the deaths were the result of “ordinary” events during war conditions.

Turkey and Armenia have long been estranged over the World War One massacre. Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were killed between 1915 and 1916. Ankara argues that roughly half a million died in civil strife with Ottoman rulers.

More than 20 nations, including France and Russia, have already recognized the mass deaths as genocide, albeit prompting diplomatic tension with Turkey.

Don’t allow ‘intimidation’

“I am sure: the politicians in the Bundestag see it the same way and will not allow themselves to be intimidated,” Sargsyan said, referring to the draft.

Changing the wording “just because that makes the head of state of another country angry” would not be fair, nor prudent long-term, said Sargsyan.

Erdogan, who telephoned German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday, told a news conference that the Greens’ resolution, if adopted by the Bundestag, would damage ties between Ankara and Berlin.

‘Absurd’ formulation

Reiterating that stance on Wednesday, Yildirim described as “absurd” Thursday’s pending Bundestag motion, which also has support from Merkel’s conservative bloc and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD).

“History should be left to historians,” Yildirim told journalists in Ankara.

The Greens’ draft resolution entitled “Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916” carries the contested word throughout the text.

The pending Thursday vote collides with the bid by Merkel and the EU as a whole to get Turkey to implement a complex deal to exchange migrants with Europe.

Germany has extensive ties with Turkey, including 3 million residents of Turkish origin, dating back to a “guest worker” scheme in the 1960s and 70s.

ipj/msh (AP, Reuters, AFP)

Merkel will not attend vote on Armenian Genocide resolution

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merkel not to joinGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel agrees with her parliamentary group that the Armenian massacres should be called a genocide, her spokeswoman said on Thursday.

However, Christiane Wirtz said the Chancellor would not attend the vote at the Bundestag on Thursday due to other official engagements on her schedule, Local.de reported.

The resolution titled “Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916” has been drafted by Merkel’s Christian Democrats and junior coalition partner Social Democrats, along with the opposition Greens.

Turkey’s Erdogan warns Germany ahead of #ArmenianGenocide vote

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1920-Alexandropol

Over 250,000 Armenian Orphans

Turkish President Erdogan has warned Germany of consequences if it passes an Armenian genocide resolution. Berlin and Ankara’s deep cultural, economic, political and military ties could sour at a critical time.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Germany on Tuesday against labeling the mass death of Armenians during World War I as a “genocide,” a sensitive move that could damage relations at a critical juncture.

German lawmakers are expected to pass the resolution on Thursday, with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, coalition partner the Social Democrats as well as Greens backing the measure.

Before heading on a trip to Africa on Tuesday, Erdogan told reporters the resolution’s passage would “naturally damage future diplomatic, economic, business, political and military relations between the two countries – and we are both also NATO countries.”

Erdogan also initiated a call with Merkel on Tuesday, Turkish state media Anatolia Agency reported.

As the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, Turkey officially denies that the events that started in 1915 amounted to genocide and has lashed out at countries that have officially recognized the term.

When France formally called the displacements and killings genocide in 2011, Turkey temporarily recalled its ambassador; it did the same thing to Austria last year. It has threatened the US with the closure of critical NATO bases if the US Congress passes a resolution.

The German resolution comes at a time Merkel is relying on Turkey to implement a migrant deal with the EU. The controversial deal has already faced difficulty over Turkish demands for visa-free travel to the bloc. Erdogan’s allies have threatened to unleash a wave of migrants on Europe if the country’s demands are not met.

It also comes amid mounting concern over human rights in Turkey, Erdogan’s authoritarian bent and spill over from the war in Syria. Domestically, the resolution could stir emotions among Germany’s 3 million-strong Turkish minority.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Tuesday he didn’t believe passing the resolution would cause problems with Germany’s Turkish community. However, he did voice popular concern that passing resolution would trigger an unproductive response from Turkey and hamper efforts at reconciliation with Armenia.

Backing away from passing the resolution could also renew criticism Merkel is appeasing Erdogan. She has already come under criticism for allowing an investigation into a German comedian who insulted the Turkish president in a poem.

Militating against a sharp and sustained Turkish response against a genocide resolution is Germany’s position as Ankara’s top trading partner.

The resolution and German culpability

The resolution up for vote on Thursday uses the world “genocide” in both the headline and text.

“The fate of the Armenians is exemplary in the history of mass exterminations, ethnic cleansing, deportations and yes, genocide, which marked the 20th century in such a terrible way,” it reads.

It also notes that Germany, as an ally of the Ottoman Empire during World War I, “bears partial responsibility for the events.”

Last April 24, on the 100th anniversary of what Armenians call the Great Crime, the Bundestag postponed voting on a similar resolution to classify the mass killings as genocide. Yet German President Joachim Gauck used the term, drawing criticism from Turkey.

At the time, the governing coalition opted not to vote on the resolution, but the Greens led by Cem Ozdemir, an ethnic Turk, forced a vote this year.

Turkey officially refers to what happened as the “Events of 1915” and denies that the massacres and deportations amounted to genocide. The official line is that ethnic Armenians represented a fifth column backed by Russia during World War I, and that the mass deportation and accompanying Armenian deaths were not premeditated or intentional – a key requirement in the legal definition of genocide.

Officials in Turkey put the number of Armenians who died at around 500,000, while Armenia puts the number at about 1.5 million out of a prewar population of some 2 million. Turkish officials also point out that hundreds of thousands of Muslims died from combat, starvation, cold and disease in eastern Anatolia during the war. Armenians have documented systematic mass murder, organized banditry, raping of women, pillaging of property and other atrocities.

Nearly 30 countries have formally recognized the massacres as genocide. Keen to avoid irking a key ally, the United States has avoided using the term, although more than 40 US state legislatures have passed genocide resolutions.

cw/jr (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

Egyptian film producer: Armenian Genocide applies to all nations

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Myriam Zaki from Egypt, who is producer of the documentary film “Who Killed the Armenians?”

Myriam Zaki from Egypt, who is producer of the documentary film “Who Killed the Armenians?”

YEREVAN. – Armenian Genocide is among the key parts of history, and it applies to not only Armenians, but all nations.

Myriam Zaki from Egypt, who is producer of the documentary film “Who Killed the Armenians?” about Armenian Genocide, told the aforesaid to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Zaki is in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan these days, and as reported earlier, she was among the recipients of the President of Armenia 2015 awards, on Thursday. She received the President’s award in recognition of her considerable contribution to the recognition of Armenian Genocide.

“It was very important to explain to Arab audiences what Armenian Genocide is,” said Myriam Zaki. “Today, I can confidently say that all Egyptians know about the Armenian Genocide, and today, there is another friendship between the two nations.

“When you look at the players in 1915, [you can see that] they still exist today—in 2015, in 2016—; we still see them. They use the same terminologies, the same tactics. It’s time to wake up!”

“Who Killed the Armenians?” is the first Arabic-language documentary on Armenian Genocide.

The ADL and the Armenian Genocide: It’s Not Over Until It’s Over

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daviBy David Boyajian,

In mid-May, on the Anti-Defamation League’s “blog,” CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said that the ADL now “unequivocally” acknowledges the Armenian Genocide committed by Turkey. Curiously, he doesn’t mention Turkey.  The ADL, he added, “would support U.S. acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide.”

It’s surprising that such a serious subject would only be “blogged.”  But let that go.

For decades the ADL has been colluding with Turkey to defeat Armenian Genocide resolutions in the U.S. Congress and to avoid acknowledging that genocide.  For an organization that loudly espouses human rights and insists on Holocaust recognition and legislation, the hypocrisy has been breathtaking.

Just imagine the ADL’s reaction had some Armenian American organization questioned the Holocaust and lobbied against Holocaust-related legislation.

Jewish and Israeli media have long candidly conceded that Turkey, Israel, the ADL, and groups such as the American Jewish Committee, B’nai B’rith, AIPAC, and others had mutually agreed to help Turkey stop U.S. acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide. See NoPlaceForDenial.com, “Press Kit.”

Consider Yola Habif Johnston, a director at JINSA (Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs).   In 2006 she explained that for over 15 years “the Jewish lobby has quite actively supported Turkey in their efforts to prevent the so-called Armenian genocide resolution from passing.”

The general public became aware of the ADL’s hypocrisy in the summer of 2007.  As a result, over a dozen Massachusetts cities – including Arlington, Belmont, Medford, Newburyport, Newton, Northampton, Peabody, Somerville, and Watertown – cut ties with ADL “anti-bias” programs such as “No Place for Hate.” So did the Massachusetts Municipal Association, which represents every city and town.

Human rights advocates and many principled Jewish Americans and Israelis blasted the ADL. They also rejected ADL National Director Abraham Foxman’s ambiguous statement that what happened to Armenians was merely “tantamount” to genocide.  Hundreds of editorials and articles nationwide and around the world exposed the ADL. 

But New England Regional Director Andrew Tarsy soon recognized the Armenian Genocide.  Foxman immediately fired him.  Tarsy was rehired, but later resigned.  He has since criticized the ADL.  Greenblatt’s recent statement, says Tarsy, should have gone further: “Assets, land, money, family heirlooms … everything that Holocaust reparations has represented … should be on the table” for Armenians too.

In 2007 Foxman arrogantly declared that the Armenian genocide doesn’t belong “in the U.S. Congress or the parliament of any other country.”  Yet Canada, France, Switzerland, Uruguay, the Vatican, a UN sub-commission, the World Council of Churches, the European Union Parliament, and many more have all acknowledged the Armenian Genocide.  What brought about the ADL’s seeming reversal?

Newton, Massachusetts School Superintendent David Fleishman recently began sending students to an ADL “social justice” program.  Hired in 2010, perhaps he was unaware that Newton had ceased its affiliation with the ADL three years earlier.

After reading about this in March, I contacted Armenian American organizations and individuals.  Newton Mayor Setti Warren and many of the city’s citizens and officials were made aware that Newton was breaking its 2007 promise.

Only under renewed pressure and unwanted scrutiny did the ADL and Greenblatt issue their May “blog” post.  Greenblatt’s statement that “We would support U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide” is a bit suspicious, however, given the ADL’s past word games. Why not “do support” or “will support” rather than “would support”?

Moreover, the official Armenian American website NoPlaceForDenial.com has long contained this demand: “The ADL must support U.S. affirmation of the Armenian Genocide, as it does with the Holocaust.”

In partial atonement, will the ADL lobby as hard for the Armenian Genocide resolution as it has for Holocaust legislation?  Highly doubtful.  Sadly, two American organizations — the Armenian Assembly of America and the Armenian National Committee of America – have taken the ADL’s bait.   But many Armenian Americans have not.  They’re protesting the obvious sellout.

While the ADL claims to be concerned with human rights and genocide, it has for decades consciously and grievously hurt not only the Christian Armenian people but also the cause of genocide recognition and prevention.

The ADL, therefore, also owes an explicit public apology to Armenians and human rights and genocide prevention organizations.  In 2007, Abraham Foxman did apologize, but not to Armenians.  He apologized to Turkey because the publicity surrounding the ADL – Turkey collusion had embarrassed that country.

The ADL must also make public the agreements and documents that created and sustained the genocide denial pact among itself, Turkey, and Israel. 

Other organizations, including B’nai B’rith and the American Jewish Committee (which has since apparently accepted the factuality of the Armenian genocide and claimed it would support a Congressional resolution on it) should do the same.  They owe it to the American people and their consciences.

As Yogi Berra, the late, great New York Yankees catcher, famously noted, “It Ain’t Over till It’s Over.”

The author is an Armenian American freelance journalist. Many of his articles are archived at http://www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/David_Boyajian

Cem Ozdemir: Germany and EU should not be susceptible to blackmail by authoritarian rulers like Erdogan

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Cem OzdemirYEREVAN. – Bundestag is expected to hold debates on the Armenian Genocide resolution on June 2. Armenian News-NEWS.am talked to Cem Ozdemir, co-chairman of the German political party Alliance ’90/The Greens who is supporting recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Bundestag will discuss the Armenian Genocide resolution in June. After heated discussions, the Greens withdrew the draft resolution to review the document. What changes have been made? Is “genocide” term mentioned in the document?

When we were discussing the Armenian genocide issue in Bundestag last time, chairman of the Chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group Volker Kauder shook my hand and assured me that we would make a joint statement. We clarified that the statement would contain the following points: a. yes, it was a genocide; b. yes, Germany had its share of responsibility; c. we will support reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey. Our agreement is in force and is the key point of a joint statement that we want to adopt on June 2.

What are your personal expectations? Will Bundestag adopt the resolution this time?

I am very optimistic that this time it will be put to the vote. However, it is more important to vote on a resolution that mentions precise words. We have been working on it for over a year. We have been holding talks for a long time, and I am pleased that we are on a good track now.

Turkey pressed EU to interfere with the “Aghet” concert project of the Dresden symphony orchestra.  Olaf Zimmermann, head of the German Cultural Council, said it’s yet another case of Turkey’s inappropriate interference abroad. How strong in your mind is Turkey’s influence on Germany? Do you think the influence is the reason that the Armenian Genocide resolution has not been adopted by Bundestag so far?

You can see the result: the Armenians, Syrians, Assyrians, Chaldeans and Pontic Greeks, who made up a quarter of the population of the Ottoman Empire before the genocide, make only small minority groups in today’s Turkey.  Whatever Turkey calls the events, everyone can get an idea. Therefore, the Turkish government is making a mockery of themselves when trying to press the Dresden symphony orchestra or even the German Bundestag to accept their interpretation of history. Neither Germany, nor the EU should be susceptible to blackmail by authoritarian rulers such as Erdogan or Putin. The result is increasingly the opposite, namely more and more people are getting interested not only in the fate of the Christians in the former Ottoman Empire, but also in the Muslim world today.

The director of the Dresden symphony orchestra and other prominent cultural figures called on to recognize the genocide in a letter sent to Bundestag this week. My impression is that the case of “Aghet” will encourage certain colleagues in the Bundestag to vote for the recognition on June 2.

Germany MP: Bundestag will pass Armenian Genocide resolution this time

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Recognize GYEREVAN. – After struggling for years for the Armenian Genocide recognition at our Bundestag (parliament), the respective resolution shall finally be adopted on June 2, and where it will be called like it is: genocide.

Ursula “Ulla” Jelpke, Left Faction member of the German Bundestag and member of Die Linke Party of Germany, on Thursday stated the aforementioned at a press conference in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan.

The German MP, however, stated that such a resolution should have passed a long time ago.

“The document, which we have submitted to the Bundestag, contains a more important point,” Jelpke stated. “We underscore the acceptance of Germany’s accountability and complicity [in the Armenian Genocide].”

And when asked how confident she is that the resolution will pass this time, Ulla Jelpke noted that she is sure of this.

“German Chancellor Angela Merkel was criticized for conducting a deal with Turkey,” the MP added. “So, the Bundestag MPs want to express their clear [respective] position, and say that we have our own view.”

Armenian Genocide recorded in historical drawings

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karikatur_1(AGOS) Killings of Armenian people in Anatolia started in 1890 and reached its peak in 1909 Adana Massacre and 1915 Armenian Genocide. This tragic history is not only recorded by witnesses, but also by the striking caricatures published in the newspapers and humor magazines. On the occasion of 101st anniversary of the genocide, here is a collection of such caricatures selected by caricaturist-artist Vrej Kassouny.

Writer Vartevar Zeytuntsyan

Title:‘Huşer, Mahvan Semen’ (Memories , On the Verge of Death)

Alexander Saroukhan (1898 – 1977): Egyptian-Armenian caricaturist Saroukhan was born in Batumi (Russian Empire). In 1908, his family migrated to İstanbul. He went to Mkhitaryan School as a boarder. During the World War I, Saroukhan was locked in this school with his brother. Only after the war was ended, they were able to go outside. In 1922,  Alexander Saroukhan fled to Belgium. After that, he went to Vienna and studied graphics in ‘Graphic Lehr und Versuchsansalt’. In 1924, he migrated to Egypt and lived there for the rest of his life. Saroukhan was one of the most famous and best caricaturist in the world. His caricatures were published in Arabic and international magazines and newspapers. 

Before photography became a part of printed publication and the term of photojournalism wasn’t coined yet, there was wood carving publication. Art of wood carving used to function as photography by producing illustrations and caricatures. Thanks to this art and profession, people were kept informed about what is happening around the world, events, disasters and war and also got to know the other continents, countries, nations and cultures. 

Like witnesses and historians, illustrators and caricaturists-artists used to transfer the information that they got from the reliable sources through printed publications. In this way, like the orientalists who described their journeys to the east, they enabled people to know more by these original drawings. 

1915 with drawings 

During the period when the Ottoman Empire was described as “the sick man”, there were many international publications that published the drawings depicting the annihilation of Armenians, which was planned and carried out during the times of Young Turks and Unionists. Given the opportunities that the mass media have today for popularizing the any kind of news and information, such visual material was very important for that time, since they functioned as documents. 

Though the denialists try to explain those caricatures and illustrations by the lobbying of Armenians, there was no “Armenian lobby” when those drawings were published. During those times, genocide survivor Armenians were struggling to stay alive in the deserts of Der Zor. Moreover, “the lobbying” of Armenians started only in the second half of 20th century, when they managed to hold on to life and began to repair the humanitarian, cultural and spiritual losses of their people. 

It is also said that these “provocative” drawings were ordered by the governments of those countries for the good of Armenians. However, putting aside the fact that Armenians had no power to direct the powerful western countries like Germany, France and Belgium, those countries were like three monkeys called ‘Mizaru, Kikazaru, Iwazaru’ (Hear no evil, Speak no evil, See no evil) that were carved on “Tōshō-gū” shrine in 17th century Japan.

Memory of the wind

While newspapers and accordingly the political humor were risen in the mid-19th century, in Istanbul, right after the European countries, illustrated journalism and political humor achieved a lot in raising awareness, thanks to Armenian craftsmen. Illustrated journalism, graphic journalism and political caricatures of that time represent the current photojournalism and they were considered as an important innovation in media. 

Here, we present you a selection of the works of that media. In the pages of the publications like Punch (England), Simplicissium (Germany), Chicago Daily News (the US), Khatapala (Georgia), there are drawings with the documentary value of Oskar Shmerling, Thomas Theodore Heine, Luther Daniels Bradley, Oliver Herford, Bernard Partridge, Alexander Saroukhan who were known and gained the trust of the readers. 

Humanity, before learning to speak and inventing the letters, transferred what is happening around to the next generations through cave painting. The cave paintings that were made forty thousand years ago gave the inkling of the life of old to the humanity. And the truth is hidden in what is express in the drawings that were published in the midst of the tragedy that happened 100 years ago. 

They say that the sand has no memory.

What is drawn on the sand disappears with tCleaning the moonhe wind. 

However, the wind has memory.

The burning wind of Der Zor desert bear witness to it. 

From the cave area to present, lines maintain their characteristic of coding. This is a universal coding method. It is the means of communication that we all understand best. After all, we all tried to express ourselves through lines at first. Let’s look for the lines that are hidden, embedded in lines, get to know the objects with their names and underline them. 

Magazine: Simplicissimus 1909 – Munich

Expert advice2Title: “Last test of Abdulhamid” Artist: Thomas Theodore Heine

Simplicissimus: A German satire magazine that is founded by Albert Langen in 1896. It was published until 1967, with a break between 1944-1954.

Thomas Theodore Heine (1867-1948): German artist and caricaturist. Born in Leipzig, Heine became known as a talented caricaturist at a young age. He studied in fine arts academies in Dusseldorf and Munich. In 1896, he started to work for Simplicissimus. Because of his caricatures criticizing social order and monarchy, he served 6 months in prison in 1898. In 1890s, he started to illustrate books. In 1933, he fled from Germany to Prag. Until his death in 1942, he lived in Stockholm. (From the collection of Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute in Yerevan)

Magazine: Punch 1936 – United Kingdom

Title: “Expert advice” Shade of Abdulhamid: “I defied the civilized world and did my best to exterminate the Armenians – and you know what happened to me.”

Artist: Bernard Partridge

Punch: English humor and satire magazine that was founded by Henry Mayhew and Ebenezer Landells in 1841. 1840s and 1850s were its most influential times; it Khatalapalacontributed to the coining of word “cartoon”. After ’40s, its circulation was boosted. After years, a period of decline started and the magazine was closed in 1992. Though it was started to be published again in 1996, it was closed in 2002. 

Bernard Partridge (1861-1945): He was born in London. He is the son of the Chair of Royal College of Surgeons’ Prof. Richard Partridge and the nephew of John Partridge who made a portrait of Queen Victoria. He gained fame with his book illustrations. In 1891, he started to work for Punch. In 1910, he became the lead caricaturist of the magazine. 

Magazine: Khatapala 1906 – Tbilisi 

Title: Annihilation of Christian population between Turkey and Iran.

Artist: Oskar Shmerling

Title: “Turning over a new leaf” 1916

Artist: Oliver Herford

Oliver Herford (1863-1935): American writer, artist, caricaturist. He contributed to “The Mentor”, “Life” and “Ladies’ home Journal”. In 1906, he wrote and illustrated “Little Book of Bores. He has short poems. His sister Beatrice Herford was also a humorist. 

Magazine: Chicago Daily News – the US

Title: “As near as the pupil can come it” 

Artist: Luther Daniels Bradley

Chicago Daily News: A daily evening newspaper published in Chicago between 1876-1978.

Luther Daniels Bradley (1853-1917): Caricaturist in Chicago Daily News. He wrote and illustrated children’ books. At an early stage of his carrier, he worked in the Melbourne Punch. 

Magazine: Khatapala 1916 – Tbilisi

Title: “Who wants what?” “Anatolian Armenian: the cursed year; may you never come back.”

Artist: Oskar Schmerling

Khatapala: Weekly humor and satire magazine. It was published between 1906-1916, 1922, and 1925-1926 in Tbilisi. Published by Asdvadzadur Yeritsyan and edited by Aşod Atanasyan, Khatapala covered the Armenian massacres by Ottoman Empire. It defended the fellowship of Transcaucasia people. It published stories on international developments and the struggle for freedom of Balkan and eastern peoples. It published jokes and puzzles. It published one in 1922, 5 in 1925 and 2 in 1926. (The information on Khatapala is taken from Zakarya Mildanoğlu’s work on Armenian periodicals.)

Oscar Shmerling (1863-1938): He was born in Tbilisi. In 1884-1891, he studied in St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. He went to Munich in 1891 and came back in 1893. Until 1918, he worked as the director of “Academy of Painting and Sculpture” in Tbilisi. Schmerling is the founder of Georgian caricature. Starting from 1901, his caricatures had been published in many newspapers and magazine in Caucasus. He worked with magazines like Khatapala and Tartarus. 

Two Italian city councils recognize Armenian Genocide

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defaultItaly’s Canosa City Council unanimously recognized the Armenian Genocide Wednesday.

Earlier, on April 30, Civita Castellanacity Council also unanimously acknowledged the Armenian Genocide.

Thus, overall 107 councils recognized the Armenian Genocide and expressed their solidarity with the Armenian people at the state and city council levels, Armenian MFA reports

Jordan Kutzik,: Why Jews Need To Recognize the Armenian Genocide Once and for All

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Armenian genocide recognitionBy Jordan Kutzik,

Imagine that you’re walking in Manhattan a few days before Holocaust Memorial Day and see five airplanes skywriting in massive letters that the Holocaust was a hoax.

How would you feel?

Imagine that you later find out that a full-page advertisement had run the same day in the Washington Post explaining that although some Jews were killed during World War II, the Holocaust never occurred. Imagine if that advertisement directed readers to a website that explained that these same Jews were responsible for their own deaths.

How would the American Jewish community react?

And imagine that a massive billboard with the same advertisement was erected in Times Square shortly before tens of thousands of Jews were set to gather there to commemorate Kristallnacht.

To whom would you turn? Would you still feel safe living in New York?

For New York’s Armenian community, this is unfortunately not just a hypothetical situation. On April 20, a few days before the 101st anniversary of the beginning of the Armenian Genocide, five airplanes really did skywrite over the Hudson River that the Armenian Genocide is a “Geno-lie.” A full-page advertisement was really run in the Washington Post explaining that although some Armenians were killed during WWI, there was never a genocide against them, and the same advertisement directed readers to a website explaining that the Armenians were responsible for their own deaths. When tens of thousands of Armenian Americans gathered in Times Square to commemorate the 101st anniversary of the April 24, 1915 mass arrest and subsequent execution of 250 Armenian intellectuals, regarded as the first attack of the genocide, attendees really were confronted by a large billboard denying the slaughter.

Despite the attempts of groups trying to pretend otherwise, the historical veracity of the Armenian Genocide is simply not up for debate. Between 1915 and 1923, the Turkish government systematically and purposefully murdered about 1.5 million Armenians in a plethora of horrific ways. As attested to by hundreds of articles in The New York Times alone, the Turkish army raided thousands of villages, immediately slaughtering the young men and forcing the surviving Armenian women, children and elderly onto death marches in the Syrian desert. During these marches Turkish soldiers raped young Armenian women and girls by the thousands and shot random people dead. According to various contemporary diplomatic sources, the massive Euphrates River was left overflowing with tens of thousands of corpses.

In a disturbing foreshadowing of the Jewish Holocaust, thousands of Armenians were squeezed into crowded train cars that led to their deaths. Many of those who reached the Syrian desert, either by train or after having survived death marches, were imprisoned in concentration camps where they quickly died of dehydration. In other places, children were murdered with overdoses of morphine. In a few cases the Turks executed large groups of Armenian children by locking them in schools and releasing a toxic gas.

Contemporary press reports explain in remarkable detail that the massacres were not the actions of random misbehaving soldiers but the result of a clear and intentional plan by the Turkish government. As one article that ran in The New York Times on October 7, 1915 titled “800,000 Armenians Counted Destroyed” explained, Viscount Bryce, a British MP who had previously served as the U.K.’s ambassador to America, testified before Parliament that “The death of these people resulted from the deliberate and premeditated policy of the gang now in possession of the Turkish government. Orders for the massacres came in every case direct from Constantinople.”

The same article reported that nearly the entire Armenian population in large swaths of the Ottoman Empire had already been killed. Other contemporaneous articles precisely described the events as a “policy of extermination against a helpless people” and a “campaign of race extermination.” It is no surprise, therefore, that the Polish-Jewish legal scholar Raphael Lemkin had the Armenian catastrophe in mind, along with the extermination of his own family in the Holocaust, when he coined the term “genocide” in 1943.

The Armenian-American community strongly protested against the campaign by Fact Check Armenia to deny the historical veracity of the murders of their families. Unfortunately, the American Jewish community barely responded to it. One reason why is that today’s Turkish government completely denies that the founders of its country committed a crime against humanity. Because Turkey plays a key role in Middle Eastern politics, many politicians and organizations, including American Jewish ones, are afraid to offend it.

President Barack Obama is a good example. Despite the fact that 44 American states recognize the Armenian Genocide, the federal government carefully avoids using the G-word out of fear that Turkey may punish the U.S. by ceasing to cooperate with the U.S. military.

In 2007, when the U.S. Congress failed to pass a bill recognizing the Armenian Genocide, then-senator Obama criticized his colleagues for voting against the proposal. In January 2008, Obama strongly criticized the State Department’s decision to relieve American Ambassador to Armenia John Marshall Evans of his duties, allegedly for his having described Turkey’s actions during World War I as genocide. Obama promised at that time that if he were elected president he would always openly state that the Turkish government had committed genocide against its Armenian citizens. Despite his promises, however, President Obama has fastidiously avoided using the G-word in official statements.

Similarly, Abe Foxman, the former national director of the Anti-Defamation League, unleashed a firestorm of controversy in 2007 when he urged Congress not to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Andrew Tarsy, the director of the ADL’s New England branch, was fired after he told Foxman over the phone that he felt that the organization’s position was “morally indefensible.” (He was rehired shortly thereafter. ) The ADL then released a cowardly press release explaining that the events in Turkey during WWI were “tantamount to genocide” but that the Congressional effort to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide was a “counterproductive diversion” that would potentially endanger Turkish Jewry and Israel’s relationship to Turkey.

Seven years later, Foxman and the ADL formally recognized the Armenian Genocide. Around the same time, the American Jewish Committee also changed its position. They, together with a half dozen prominent Jewish organizations — including the Union for Reform Judaism, the Zionist Organization of America and most recently, in 2015, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs — now recognize Turkey’s persecution of the Armenians as genocide. And just last week, the ADL’s current national director and CEO Jonathan Greenblatt released a statement unequivocally recognizing the WWI events as genocide and saying that the ADL will support American recognition of the genocide. This is far from sufficient, however; the vast majority of American Jewish organizations still do not have a firm policy on the issue.

The latest brazen attempts to deny history make vividly clear why the Jewish community must take a united stand in recognizing the Armenian Genocide and encouraging the American and Israeli governments to do so. We Jews, more than perhaps any other people in the world, know what it means to suffer genocide and what it feels like when people have the gall to deny that it ever occurred. Besides the fact that it is our moral imperative to do so, there is also a lot we can learn from the Armenians if we express our solidarity with them and work together to fight the denial of their genocide. Since they are a people that experienced genocide a generation before the Jews, we can learn a great deal from them about how to properly remember and commemorate such a tragedy when there are hardly any remaining survivors. It would also, of course, be of great use to have another closely allied people in the fight against Holocaust denial.

Most important, however, is the fact that remaining silent when governments deny the veracity of a genocide encourages others who would seek to commit similar atrocities. As a sign in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum notes, Adolf Hitler incited his generals just before the Nazi invasion of Poland by asking, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

This piece was published in the Yiddish Forward on May 8, 2016 . It has been translated into English by the author.