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Geoffrey Clarfield: Armenian genocide was in many ways Adolf Hitler 1939, rehearsal for the Holocaust

April 22, 2017 By administrator

Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
Adolf Hitler, 1939

Geoffrey Clarfield, Special to National Post |

Genocide is a 20th century word, coined by Polish Jewish lawyer Rafael Lempkin. He invented it to describe what the Nazis had tried to do to the Jewish people during the Second World War, wipe them from the face of the earth. Lempkin was instrumental in the creation of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, which defines genocide as comprising five elements:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

And so, as we commemorate the Armenian genocide this week, we seek to better understand what happened and how similar events must be prevented, as almost all of the above apply to what happened to the Armenians.

In the early 19th century, much of Asia was divided between two multi-ethnic empires, that of the Orthodox Christian Tsars of Russia and the Sunni Orthodox Muslim Ottomans of the Near East, Asia Minor and the Balkans. The Russians and the Ottomans had fought many wars during the 18th century as they each tried to maximize their territory and subject peoples. One of the fault lines between these two empires was in the Caucasus and what is now Eastern Turkey/Western Armenia, on the plains near Mount Ararat.

The Russians saw themselves as the protectors, or potential protectors of the Orthodox Christian communities in the Ottoman Empire such as the Balkan Slavs, as well as the Greek and the Armenian subjects of the Ottomans, whereas the Ottomans saw themselves as the protectors of the Muslim peoples of the northern and southern Caucasus who were coming under Russian authority.

During the 19th century the Europeans invented nationalism and Europe became a continent of nation states each defined by a national language, a territory and very often a dominant religion. Soon these ideas began spreading around the world. And so, newly defined nations such as the Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbians, Croatians and Hungarians broke off from the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman response was legal and political reform called the Tanzimat. Instead of Islamic law the Ottoman Empire declared all Muslims and non-Muslims equal before the law, in theory if not in practice.

In the second half of the 19th century the Armenians of what is now Eastern Turkey hoped for deliverance from the Ottomans by the Russians, and indeed in the 1870s Russia and Turkey went to war, with Russia temporarily occupying much of what is now Eastern Turkey.

The Armenians, an ancient nation with a 1,600-year history of Christianity, believed their time for national liberation had come and it was time to revolt against the Ottomans. Many took up arms against the Turks.

When the Turks went to war with the Germans against the allies, they declared their participation in the First World War as a jihad or holy war against the infidel

After 1900 as the turbulence on Ottoman Turkey’s eastern frontier with Russia became worse, the Ottoman Sultans lost control to radical secularists called the Young Turks who took over the government and the military. They began to redefine Muslim Ottoman identity as a Turkish national identity and therefore Turkish speaking Greeks and Turkish speaking Armenians of the Christian faith were now seen as fifth columnists and national enemies.

And so began what we now call the Armenian genocide. The prelude was the murder of hundreds of thousands of Armenian men, women and children that took place over two years, 1894-1896.

This was just a rehearsal. When the Turks went to war with the Germans against the allies, they declared their participation in the First World War as a jihad or holy war against the infidel. The government began mass arrests of Armenian intellectuals and professionals, killing and hanging many. In eastern Anatolia they planned systematic death marches where Armenian men were killed, and the surviving few men, and thousands of women and children, were marched into the desert to certain death. It is estimated that over one million people died or were killed en route.

No Turkish government has ever admitted this was a planned extermination of a specific ethnic group, including taking surviving orphans, converting them to Islam and raising them as Muslims. The Turkish government and its supporters have consistently argued that the Ottomans were engaged in a “civil war” with rebellious minorities.

Source: http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/lessons-from-a-genocide-annihilation-of-the-armenians-was-in-many-ways-a-rehearsal-for-the-holocaust

From sojourners to citizens, the Armenian-Canadian experience spans more than a century

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: 1939, Adolf Hitler, Holocaust, rehearsal

French SENATE Criminalization of Holocaust denial: CFC release

October 15, 2016 By administrator

criminalization-holocaustThe CFC welcomes the adoption by Parliament of a text penalizing the denial of genocides that have not only been convicted by an international court, but also, earlier, as the Armenians.

Genocide is the ultimate form of racism, hatred and violence. And Holocaust denial is, in the words of Bernard-Henri Lévy, the highest stage of genocide, therefore a particular expression of this hatred, this racism and violence that led notably to the annihilation of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire first genocide of the twentieth century.

By adopting the second time in less than five years a provision against Holocaust denial, the French Parliament as a whole implicitly denounce the behavior of accomplices Turkish authorities until today, through denial and concealment, extermination Armenians.

It is also launching a strong message to national and international scopes, on the incompatibility of attacks on the victims of crimes against humanity and the principles of living together.

This positioning reinforces the fundamentals of the Republic which are based on respect for human dignity. It is of crucial symbolic strength in troubled times where reappear obscurantist and totalitarian ideologies which, not having been sanctioned after the Armenian genocide, continue to sow death and destruction not only on the same land where the incident occurred there are a hundred years, but also to Europe and France.

National Bureau of CCAF (Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France)

Saturday, October 15, 2016,
Ara © armenews.com

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: criminalization, France, Holocaust, sanate

Intervention Özgüden during the day on genocide and Holocaust denial

February 3, 2016 By administrator

arton121442-454x293As part of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of victims of the Holocaust, the cell Democracy or barbarism of the Ministry of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation organized 25 January 2016 in Brussels a day of reflection dedicated to genocide deniers and revisionism.

In the first part of the day, Laurence Schram (Doctor of History) and Mr. Eric David (Professor Emeritus of International Law) spoke about the denial and the laws in force in Belgium and Europe. Mr. Yves Ternon (Doctor of History, Paris IV-Sorbonne) made a presentation on the Armenian genocide and the Tutsis.

In the second part of the day, first Özgüden Dogan, chief editor of Info-Türk, presented the Turkish denial about the 1915 genocide and its impact in countries hosting immigrants from Turkey.

Then a panel of M.Elias Constas (scientific collaborator MRAH) and representatives of the three resources Centres spoke concrete examples of situations or about whether they experienced themselves or that have been reported by their field actors (teachers, educators …)

The intervention of Dogan Özgüden

Ladies and gentlemen,

First of all I must make a clarification. Frankly, I’m not an expert on issues of genocide and denial … For cons, I’m a witness, both in my private life that in all my professional activities and social policies, including for over forty years ‘exile.

I just listened to the speech of dear Yves Ternon which is one of the foremost authorities on the subject of the first genocide of the 20th century. I had the honor of serving as an intermediary between him and my friend Zarakolu, there are more than twenty years, for publication in Turkey of the Turkish translation of his work, Armenian Tabou .. .

Indeed, until 1993, the genocide of Armenians in 1915 was a taboo in Turkey … Turkish public opinion has never known or recognized that the most bloody and shameful episode in its history.

All generations, including mine, have been raised in the schools of the Kemalist republic which inculcates the superiority of the Turkish race … As neighboring peoples such as the Russians, Arabs, Bulgarians, Greeks, Persians, non-Turkish peoples of Anatolia, as Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, Kurds were considered enemies of the Turkish nation.

Genocides, massacres, pogroms committed against these people appeared nowhere in the curriculum or in the Turkish media.

Fortunately, despite the brainwashing, as the child of a family of itinerant railroad, I had the chance to know in the Anatolian steppes or in the neighborhoods of cities such as Ankara, Izmir and Istanbul, some descendants of genocide survivors.

However, despite sharing the same social fate that my Armenian friends, they never raised this issue, because it was a taboo which forced the non-Turkish families to keep silent to not suffer harassment by official authorities or even by their neighbors proud of being Turkish and Muslim.

They were right, after the extermination and deportation, there were only a few tens of thousands of Armenians and Greeks in Turkey. But Turkish nationalism was not entirely satisfied with the ethnic cleansing done by the Ottoman power. During the Republican period, repressive operations against non-Turkish communities continued incessantly.

During the first year of the republic, in 1923, over one million Greeks were deported to Greece.

In 1934, after an anti-Semitic campaign in the Turkish media, Jews from the cities of Tekirdağ, Edirne, Kırklareli and Çanakkale were victims of pogroms.

From 1923 to 1937, the Turkish army has carried out several genocidal operations against the Kurdish population in the southeast provinces.

And it continues: during the second world war, many Armenians, Greeks and Jews were sent to forced labor camps in the east of the country under the pretext that they did not pay a tax on their property.

And pogroms and atrocities on 6 and 7 September 1955 against the Greek community in Istanbul and Izmir … I was personally eyewitness rampages in Izmir as a young journalist.

Of course, I have to add to the blacklist pogroms against Alevis in the 70, 80 and 90 in the cities of Kahramanmaras, Corum and Sivas.

While these pogroms were sometimes criticized by opposition parties and media, the 1915 genocide was never discussed in the media until recent years.

Even the 50th anniversary of the genocide in 1965, while the Armenian diaspora launched a genocide recognition campaign, the Turkish media remained deaf and dumb.

Neither the parties of the left or progressive unions have made no comment on this black page of history. All this despite the fact that there were Armenians, Greeks and Jews who were active in these organizations.

When someone dared to ask a question about this subject, we preferred to just say that during the first world war, imperialism sow hostility among the peoples to weaken the Ottoman Empire and share these territories.

About this silence, I remember an anecdote of my professional life with bitterness … In 1967, when I ran a week left, we hired a young academic as assistant technical director Inci Tugsavul.

He was wearing a Turkish name. After several months of collaboration, one day he told me: “I must confess one thing that bothers me since day one. Yes, my name Yasar Uçar, but I’m not Turkish. My family was forced to hide his real identity and wearing a Turkish name. I do not want you to have problems working with an Armenian then you already have dozens of lawsuits and threats … “

I reassured … “No Yasar, nothing to fear … This is an honor for me to work with an Armenian origin colleague. “

A second anecdote which I always remember with bitterness … After the second coup in 1971 … At the beginning of our exile with my wife Inci Tugsavul. We were organizing a protest campaign against the regime of generals in Turkey. One evening we were with our friend Marcel Croës with another guest. When I related violations of human rights in Turkey, this guest asked me a direct question: “What do you think of the genocide of Armenians in 1915? “

After a few seconds of hesitation, I tried to repeat the same argument that progressive organizations in Turkey, “Yes, there have been dramatic episodes in the history of our country, but they are the consequence of imperialist provocations. “

My interlocutor was not happy with this evasive answer, me neither!

It is from that time that I got into a closer study on the subject … It is above all thanks to the documents provided by the diaspora that my work team and I are better informed about this happened in 1915.

When the Armenian Asala organization launched in 1975 its violent actions against Turkish targets in order to force the Ankara regime for the recognition of the 1915 genocide, the subject is nilly entered the agenda of democratic organizations Turkey.

When these actions aroused anti-Armenian campaign in the media in the service of the Ankara regime in 1981 in an opposition newspaper that we were heading to Brussels, we published the first article calling on the Turkish democratic forces to seriously on the issue of the Armenian genocide.

In 1987, we published a voluminous black book on the violations of human rights in Turkey in which devoted a chapter about the oppression of Kurds and Christians in the country. To date, we are not alone in the search for historical truth.

Late 70s and especially after the third hit of 1980 state, the influx of Armenians, Assyrians and Kurdish political refugees fleeing repression is a real turning point in the community life of Turkish citizens in Europe.

While almost all Turkish immigrant associations were subject to the repressive policies of the military junta, the Armenian, Assyrian and Kurdish have set up their own organizations in all host countries in Europe.

The historical struggle of the Diaspora for the recognition of the 1915 genocide has gained a new dimension with the support of these new associations that have always kept their narrow organizational relations with Turkey.

It was at that time that we expanded continuing education activities and expression and creativity within our intercultural association Les Ateliers du Soleil. This center is frequented since tens of years by citizens from more than fifty backgrounds, including Armenian, Assyrian, Kurd from Turkey.

In the 90s, the Association of Democrats Armenians of Belgium, the Belgian Institute of Assyrian, Kurdish Institute of Brussels and the Info-Türk Foundation have established a platform for the defense of human rights and peoples in Turkey.

It is this platform that, with the European Armenian Federation, organized in 2005 a series of academic and cultural activities to mark the 90th anniversary of the genocide of Armenians and Assyrians.

Enraged by these developments, the Turkish lobby has not hesitated to provoke Turkish ultranationalist groups against Armenian organizations, Kurdish and Assyrian.

Already in 1994, the Grey Wolves had attacked a hundred Kurds participating in a peaceful march. I remember with horror from firing, in 1998, the premises of the Kurdish Institute of Brussels and another Kurdish association in the Bonneels street in front of the Brussels police!

In 2007, the offices of a Kurdish Association in Saint-Josse were ravaged by arson. That same year, an Armenian trade in Saint Josse was sacked twice by the Grey Wolves.

Same year, the Turkish journalist Mehmet Köksal who had achieved a critical work of communalism and denial was the victim of a physical assault under the cries of “traitor”.

A year later, in 2008, a call to lynching campaign was launched against the leaders of Info-Türk because of our criticism against Holocaust denial. The Belgian government had to place me under protection.

A turning point in the fight against Ankara’s denial was the assassination of the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007 by the sinister forces of the Turkish state. It is for the first time in Turkey, tens of thousands of Turkish democrats have mobilized to protest against this last step of the Armenian Genocide while chanting “We are all Armenians … We are all Hrant Dink ! “

The recognition of the 1915 genocide has since become a key demand of Democratic Forces of Turkey

However, the Ankara regime, despite the fact that he is a candidate for decades in the EU persists in its denial. Not only in Turkey but in all the countries hosting Turkish immigrants, denying the 1915 genocide is one of the red lines of the Turkish state.

Organizations subject to Turkish lobby are forced at every opportunity to protest against the recognition of the 1915 Genocide … Even politicians from the Turkish community and belonging to the Belgian political parties manifest as burning during the genocide deniers elections …

Among them, there are some who promised the voters of Turkish origin to demolish the monument in Ixelles dedicated to the victims of genocide and to erect a monument in Brussels to honor the Ottoman Empire.

To my disappointment, the Belgian political leaders have preferred to close their eyes to this submission to negationist lobby of the Turkish state in order to attract votes in the municipalities inhabited by Turkish nationals.

That is why the resolution adopted last year by the Belgian parliament is not a real recognition of the 1915 genocide, because it absolves all the leaders of the Turkish Republic.

But several officials of the Ottoman genocide of 1915 were incorporated into the Republican politicians as ministers, MPs or military commanders.

In addition, the resolution praised the two main current leaders, Erdogan and Davutoglu, while they still deny the Armenian genocide.

Obviously, it was a game to keep politicians elected some deniers of Turkish origin in their ranks, giving them a chance to vote a version “soft” resolution.

Even more disturbing … Last year was commemorated in the world the 1915 genocide centennial Meanwhile, in Belgium, the head of denial and despotic regime was welcomed with full honors, red carpet the occasion of the inauguration of Europalia-Turkey.

Valuing the Belgian home as a diplomatic victory in its propaganda in the elections of November 1, Erdogan has strengthened its parliamentary majority.

Worse, this prestigious festival program was devoted solely to the promotion of the greatness of the Ottoman Empire without making any reference to the Armenian civilization, Assyrian, Greek or Kurdish that existed there even before the Turkish conquest.

After his conquest of Brussels and its electoral victory, Erdogan has launched a new campaign of repression against its opponents in order to establish a despotic presidential system and adapt all public institutions of Turkey to Islamic standards.

Is it not that Erdogan who, in the name of religious solidarity, provided logistical support Daech?

Currently, the Kurdish people in Turkey is subjected to an unprecedented bloodbath by Turkish security forces and Kurds in Syria are the only forces fighting against the Islamic state and they are constantly threatened by the power of Erdogan.

In Turkey today, not only the Kurdish politicians but also journalists, academics, artists who dare to protest against this repression suffer every day new threats, insults and searches.

More than a thousand scholars are accused of treachery to the fatherland by the media at the service of the Erdogan government.

Why ?

Because they have discovered that most of these academics had said: “We are all Hrant, we are all Armenians! “After the assassination of Hrant Dink.

Here are some testimonials from me in the time limit allotted to each speaker.

I believe that the Belgian democratic forces always have vis-à-vis duty of the peoples of Turkey and vis-à-vis the Turkish democrats, victims of repression by the leaders of this country which is a member of the Council of Europe , NATO member and candidate to the European Union.

Erdogan and his accomplices never deserve the red carpet, but a red light as they do not respect the universal and European conventions on human rights and peoples.

Thank you for your patience…

http://www.info-turk.be/449.htm#Intervention

Wednesday, February 3, 2016,
Stéphane © armenews.com

Filed Under: Articles, Genocide Tagged With: denial, Genocide, Holocaust

HISTORY LESSON: How the Armenian Genocide Shaped the Holocaust

January 25, 2016 By administrator

genocide images(thedailybeast.com) Nowhere was the debate over what was going on in Turkey to the Armenians more heated than Germany—and the conclusions drawn would change history.

One day in the winter of 1941, as he “walked through the streets of the Warsaw Ghetto,” Hermann Wygoda, “Ghetto smuggler,” tried to make sense of what was happening to him and the people around him: “I wondered whether God knew what was going on beneath Him on this troubled earth. The only analogy I could find in history was perhaps the pogrom of the Jews in Alexandria at the time of the Roman governor Flaccus … or the massacre of the Armenians by the Turks during World War I.”

Wygoda was not the only one seeing this parallel. The German Social Democrats in exile reported continuously on the situation in Germany in their “Germany reports”. In February 1939 they warned, “At this moment in Germany the unstoppable extermination of a minority is taking place by way of the brutal means of murder, of torment to the degree of absurdity, of plunder, of assault, and of starvation. What happened to the Armenians during the [world war] in Turkey is now being committed against the Jews, [but] slower and more systemically.”

We could also mention the famous German-Jewish writer Franz Werfel who in 1932/1933 wrote his most well-known novel about the Armenian Genocide, his Forty Days of Musa Dagh, mainly to warn Germany about Hitler. The book was later extremely popular in the Nazi-imposed ghettos of Eastern Europe.

There seems to be something obvious connecting both great genocides of the 20th century. Yet, in its hundredth year, the Armenian Genocide is still a peripheral object in the violent history of the 20th century. Most of the new grand histories of World War I marginalize the topic, if they mention it at all. It seems as if the topic is an exclusively partisan affair of the Armenian diaspora and a few confused others (like me). But the Armenian Genocide is an integral part of the history of humanity’s darkest century. There can be no doubt that it is an important part of the prehistory of the Holocaust, even if history books suggest that the two genocides were separated by a great distance in time and space.

Mainstream history writing has not only been reluctant to discuss the Armenian Genocide at all, but even more so to even think about the possible connections. The alleged and imagined controversy over the factuality of the Armenian Genocide—or more correctly the denialist campaign sponsored by Turkey—have contributed to this impression of a great distance separating this genocide from the Holocaust.

Many problems surround the topic and Turkish denialism is but one of them. Claims to the uniqueness of the Holocaust and a lack of Nazi sources referring directly to the Armenians are others.

In fact the sentence attributed to Hitler, and the most famous Nazi quote on the matter, apparently epitomizes just that: “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” But this is something of a dead end, if not a distraction from the deeper connections between the two genocides. For one, it is not entirely clear whether he said it or not. Some sources of the meeting have it, others don’t (which, however, does not have to signify that he did not say it). Also, it means something different than some understand it. It is more about the fact that nations at war can commit horrible atrocities and get away with it.

The relationship between the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust is apparent in two periods of history. The first is the debate that raged in Germany regarding the slaughter of Armenians by its ally the Ottoman Empire in the early 1920s. The debate came down in favor of genocide, and by the time the Nazis came to power, violence against the Armenians had been understood and even outright justified, already for decades. The second period is when the Nazis were in power and looked to the post-ethnic cleansing Turkey as a role model.

Strangely enough, not only does Germany connect the two genocides in its own history very closely, it is also Germany that offers some historical clarity on the debate of whether it was a genocide or not.

It has been claimed that interwar Germany did not “come to terms” with the Armenian Genocide and that this somehow made the Holocaust possible. However, the opposite is true: Germany not only came to terms with it, but probably had the greatest genocide debate up to that point in human history. It was rather that the outcome of this genocide debate was particularly problematic: it had ended in justifications of genocide and even with calls for the expulsion of Jews from Germany. And despite a drawn-out debate there had been a marked failure to produce a deeper religious, humanist, or philosophical analysis, appreciation, and condemnation of what genocide meant. While most of the political spectrum had found solace in the fact that this had been an “Asian thing,” only the political extremes on both ends of the spectrum, radical Socialists, and Nazis realized that this was potentially also a “European thing.”

To understand all this one has to take a look at Germany’s very own Armenian history. Germany was not only an ally of the Ottoman Empire during World War I—at the time the genocide was committed—but had been a quasi-ally as early as the 1890s. And already since Bismarck’s times it had often acted as the Ottomans’ European shield when it came to the Armenians. In the 1890s when tens of thousands of Armenians were killed in the Hamidian massacres (1894-1896), this was also a “problem” for Germany, but also an opportunity to further ingratiate itself with the Ottomans (economic concessions were the immediate results). But it was problematic mainly vis-à-vis its own public at home. Pro-Armenian activists and papers were raising awareness of what had happened in the Ottoman Empire and the pro-Ottoman elites were disquieted; the result was a propaganda war between both sides waged in the German newspapers. The pro-Ottoman (and anti-Armenian) side seemed to be winning, but the massacres simply did not come to an end. During the last massacres (in 1896) a series of essays reporting on the atrocities of the last years was published in Germany and for a moment pro-Armenian sentiment seemed to have carried the day.

But then, merely two years later, the German Emperor Wilhelm II travelled to Istanbul. This obvious show of friendship with the “bloody” sultan necessitated a revisiting of the Armenian massacres in Germany and produced discourses that not only justified the violence against the Armenians but also the German government’s silence and continued support for the Ottomans. The preeminent German liberal thinker, imperialist, and Protestant pastor Friedrich Naumann even went one step further and argued for an ethic-free German foreign policy, devoted solely to national self-interest. This was a dynamic that would play out two more times in German history, during the genocide as well as after World War I in a great German genocide debate (1919-1923).

During World War I Germany, now officially an ally of the Ottomans, again acted as a shield for violent Ottoman policies vis-à-vis the Armenians. However, now this violence reached unprecedented, genocidal heights. While official Germany continued to back their Ottoman ally and even continued to spew violent anti-Armenian propaganda and justifications for whatever was actually happening to the Armenians, behind closed doors Germany started to become anxious. Official Germany now feared that what was happening in Anatolia and Mesopotamia would be used against Germany after the war. And so already in the summer of 1919 the German Foreign Office published a collection of documents from its internal correspondence on the Armenian Genocide. It was meant to show the world that Germany was innocent of the charge of co-conspiracy in the murder of the Armenians, but it inadvertently kick-started a genocide debate in Germany that would continue for almost four years.

The publication of this documental record of the Armenian Genocide, with all its gory details, provoked an outcry and condemnations in the liberal and left press in Germany, including attacks on Germany’s wartime leaders. At this point large sections of the press already acknowledged what we, today, would term “genocide” and what they called “annihilation of a nation” or “murder of the Armenian people.” But then followed a long year of backlash in which nationalist and formerly pro-Ottoman papers minimized what had happened, focused on the alleged Armenian wartime stab in the back, and justified what the Young Turk leadership had done as “military necessities.”

The debate could have ended here, but then, in March 1921, Talât Pasha, former Ottoman Grand Vizier and Minister of the Interior as well as the widely perceived author of the genocide, was assassinated in a crowded Berlin shopping street. Three months later the assassin stood trial in Berlin and was acquitted by a jury – the trial had been completely turned around and focused rather on the Armenian Genocide and Talât Pasha’s role in it than on the actual assassination.

Not only shocked by the outcome of the trial but also by all the evidence and testimony produced in the Berlin court, the German press again focused on the Armenian Genocide in depth. Discussing the trial, the German papers reproduced a horrifying liturgy of genocidal suffering. Now the whole German press landscape, including the formerly denialist papers, came to accept the charge of “genocide” against the Young Turk leadership. Again, the debate did not come to an end here, another backlash followed. Nationalist papers again offered justifications, but now for what even they understood as genocide. And this after the German genocide debate had already gone on since 1919 and after it had included all the ingredients needed for a true genocide debate: detailed elaborations on the scope, intent for, and ramifications of this “murder of a people.” And it was on this note that the debate simmered for another two years until the Treaty of Lausanne was signed (establishing modern Turkey).

All this would perhaps not be that important, had Germany not been merely ten years before Hitler’s rise to power: A genocide debate had not only taken place, but had ended in justifications for genocide. Even then, the true saliency of the topic lay in the racial and national view of the Armenians held by many of the German commentators: they were seen as the (true) “Jews of the Orient,” either as equivalent to the Jews of Europe or even “worse.” This German anti-Armenianism was as old as Germany’s tradition of excusing violence against the Armenians (especially since the 1890s) and was a carbon copy of modern, racial Anti-Semitism. In this logic, it had been no surprise that in 1922, when another two Young Turks were assassinated in Berlin, the nationalist press connected the Armenian assassins to the German Jewish question. Consciously confusing the two categories, the (hyper-)nationalist press called for an “ethnic surgeon” to cut out what was eating away at Germany’s flesh.

So, who was still talking about the Armenians in the Third Reich? Surprisingly, almost nobody. The Nazis were remarkably silent on the topic, but were very vocal on what had followed the Armenian Genocide. The rise of the New Turkey and all the accomplishments of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk were important ingredients in the Nazi political imagination. In the German interwar and Nazi discourses on the New Turkey, one finds a chilling propagation of what a post-genocidal country, one cleansed of its minorities, could achieve: To the Nazis, the New Turkey was something of a post-genocidal wonderland, something that Germany would have to emulate. The Nazis were discussing the Turkish model already in the early 1920s. A German-Jewish newspaper reader and critic of Anti-Semitism, Siegfried Lichtenstaedter, understood the “Turkish lessons” formulated in Nazi articles (in 1923 and 1924) to mean that the Jews of Germany and Austria should be, and had to be, killed and their property given to “Aryans.” He wrote this in his 1926 book Anti-Semitica.

In the end it does not matter how important we find the possible influences exerted from the Armenian Genocide on the Nazis—they surely did not need to learn their murderous business from others. What they did learn was that there were many people, even in an open pluralistic society who would ignore, rationalize, or even outright justify genocidal violence. Even the Churches did not significantly intervene for fellow Christians. To paraphrase the impression of a Jewish reader of Werfel’s book in the ghettos during World War II: If nobody would save Christians, who would intervene for the Jews? And if German nationalists could find it in themselves to justify the genocide of Christians and were not met with much opposition in the German public, who would speak out for the Jews?

There are no easy and automatic casual connections from one genocide to the next, but the Armenian Genocide and its close proximity to the Holocaust illustrate the importance and the pitfalls of how we come to terms with the past. They also illustrate that we are far from done with struggling to understand the tragic 20th century. This is why the Armenian Genocide finally needs to take its place, and be allowed to take its place, in the bloody history of the 20th century, not only generally in world history, but specifically in European and German history.

Stefan Ihrig is the author of Justifying Genocide: Germany and the Armenians from Bismarck to Hitler published by Harvard University Press.

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: Armenian, Genocide, Holocaust, Shaped

PARIS The fifth national conference of the fight against Holocaust denial

October 30, 2015 By administrator

denialThe focus was on the genocide of Armenians on the occasion of the fifth national conference of the fight against Holocaust denial. Under the patronage of the Minister of Justice, Christiane Taubira, the symposium brought together a hundred people, mostly students from the Paris School of business just connoisseurs of the Armenian question, Thursday, October 29 in the premises of the Hotel City of Paris.

This is the Geopolitics and Professor Frédéric Encel who organized and hosted this meeting fifths. “This is the first time they occur at the Mairie de Paris, it gives them more luster, more prestige,” said t -he explained in his introduction, before thanking Anne Hidalgo and Patrick Klugman for this welcome. If they could not be present as they are traveling in Erbil, Catherine Vieu-Charier, Assistant to the Mayor of Paris in charge of memory, represented them.

In her speech, she explained that genocide question is remember that it is all the time followed by a negation. Yet “the denial must be condemned with firmness, even if this is not enough. That is why, in addition to the exhibition that was held in the town hall of Paris a few months ago, the League of Education printed a brochure to tell the story of the three big genocides “ for children. “For the children of today do not become the executioners of tomorrow,” concluded Catherine Vieu-Charier, before leaving his place to Mourad Papazian.

It also emphasized the importance of the younger generation, “who must hold high the values ​​against racism”. The co-chairman of CCAF signified how important it was that such a meeting take place now, as the ECHR has just made ​​its verdict on Perincek case. “The climate is not healthy, s is he worried. But we want to believe in a burst of values. Freedom should not be recovered to justify the denial “.

Hosted by journalist Vartan Kaprielian, the first of three round tables of the day was then able to start at 11am. Titled “Origin, nature and implementation of the negation”, it brought together historians Duclert Vincent, Yves Ternon and Claire Mouradian.

Vincent Duclert an update on the role of research, having been ignored for many years, has refined his answers against denial over the years, particularly since the 80 He expressed how, for him before the centennial of the Armenian Genocide, the search was in some impasse in the fight against Holocaust denial. But this year, the importance of literature that removes all publishing space for Holocaust deniers, work on Armenian history (notably Gaïdz Minassian), support to researchers, the strength of the political response (Francois Hollande Yerevan, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem symposium at the Sorbonne), textbooks and a better knowledge of the situation in Turkey shows some success in the fight against the denial.

Yves Ternon then spoke: “the negation is first a lie, that one tries to raise doctrine”, he was first proclaimed. After histories denials of the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide, the historian explained how one of the Armenian Genocide was singular. “The Republic of Turkey was founded on this genocide.” He continued by explaining that the perverse game led by Erdogan today, especially towards refugees, leave no hope.

Then it was Claire Mouradian who spoke, referring in particular to the treatment of criminals, the Treaty of Sevres that of Lausanne.

After lunch, a new round table was held, this time on the theme of “Armenian Genocide and International Law”, marked by the interventions of Bernard Bruneteau Raffi-Philippe Kalfayan and Armen Couyoumdjian. The first returned to the genesis of the concept of genocide: “it must be understood that this concept is at the mouth of an era, it was not applied but was artificially manufactured by a historical process between 1918 and 1930” explained the historian.

Raffi-Philippe Kalfayan was then asked about the criminalization of genocide denial: is this the right solution? Is this political undertaking timely?

Armen Couyoumdjian is, meanwhile, returned to the trial of Istanbul 1919-1920. Three in particular caught his attention: the Yozgat, which opened the way for a discussion of the massacres against Armenians in the press; the lawsuit against Union and Progress, which makes a distinction between those responsible for genocide and simple accomplices; and the secretaries of the Unionists.

At 15:30 started the third and final roundtable of the day. On “Review and Prospects”, co-chairman of CCAF Ara Toranian, journalist Gaïdz Minassian and Turkish political scientist Ali Kazancigil concluded the day, led by Frédéric Encel.

Ara Toranian cited Cornelius speaking of “time rule things well”, by questioning on why the relationship genocide does not improve over the years. “The right to justice can not be extinguished,” said the co-chairman of CCAF.

Gaïdz Minassian then tried to take stock of this year’s centennial. If the institutionalization of the Armenian message is for him a satisfaction he regretted the lack of political reflection on the future of the Armenian question. According to the journalist, polarize on the world stage, support and encourage research and assert itself in other ways gathering that genocide could be three axes to dig.

Finally, the Turkish political scientist Ali Kazancigil arrived late, but in time to stack mention the developments in Turkish society. According to him, we can see two symbols of emancipation. The beginning of a working memory that goes beyond the issue of genocide, and Taksim events “Today in Turkey about the Genocide is not considered a scandal, “argued political scientist who said it remained” optimistic “.

Frédéric Encel concluded this day full of interventions intended for a young audience by announcing that the sixth national conference of the fight against Holocaust denial will take place Sunday, January 24 at the School of Business. The theme of the genocide and its denial in the Arab world, including Darfur.

Friday, October 30, 2015,
Claire © armenews.com

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: Conference, denial, Holocaust, Paris

Atom Egoyan: Armenian Genocide fuelled the Holocaust

October 22, 2015 By administrator

Atom-Egoyan-5-620x300Canadian Armenian filmmaker Atom Egoyan newest work, Remember, was presented at Festival du Nouveau Cinéma last week and attempts to bring a material reality to the unfathomable tragedy of genocide, The Link Newspaper reports.

After success at the Venice Film Festival, the Oscar nominee presents a tale that revolves around Zev Guttman (Christopher Plummer), a Holocaust survivor struggling with dementia. He tries to track down and kill the Nazi leader of his block at Auschwitz, who killed Zev’s family before escaping to North America under an assumed name.

Due to his failing memory, Zev must constantly be reminded of his mission through a letter written by Max (Martin Landau), a fellow Auschwitz survivor and the organizer for Zev’s journey.

“It focuses on the questions of memory and justice and how to deal with unresolved history. It’s fuelled by the notion of trauma. The two characters are both survivors,” said Egoyan.

Anti-Semitism and the formation of hate play a central role in Remember, exemplified in a powerful scene where Zev visits the home of a neo-Nazi (Breaking Bad’s Dean Norris). At first, the man believes Zev is a Nazi as well. After Zev is forced to admit that he’s Jewish, the man becomes furious, forcefully screaming threatening anti-Semitic profanities.

“It’s horrifying in that moment; we understand the mechanics,” Egoyan said. “We see what triggers hate. When the trust is betrayed, he has to find a reason for his sense of pain and it converts into this extraordinarily violent anti-Semitism.”

This is Egoyan’s second film with Plummer. Their first collaboration, Ararat, also focused on themes of genocide, specifically the Armenian massacre during World War I.

From 1915 to 1918, the former Ottoman Empire was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in what is now the Republic of Turkey. Many of the persecuted were burned alive, drowned or given poisonous drugs. Others were subjected to death marches, where they were forced to wander toward the Syrian Desert, deprived of food and water. Raphael Lemkin used these events as a reference when he first coined the word genocide in 1943.

Egoyan said that as an Armenian, he can relate to Remember’s theme of mass murders left unresolved, especially since the institutional perpetrators have never admitted guilt, and the Turkish government still hasn’t recognized the methodical mass murders as genocide.

“I’m bringing my own sort of history, but I’m also understanding the persistence of what fuelled the Holocaust,” he said.

The Ottomans committed the Armenian genocide with the oversight of the German government. During his reign, many of Hitler’s key friends and policy makers could be directly connected to perpetrators in World War I. Evidence suggests that Hitler used tactics gleaned from the Armenian genocide as a template when executing his Final Solution.

More and more institutions are recognizing the Armenian genocide. Within the past year, Pope Francis acknowledged the genocide at his service in Rome, going as far as to say: “Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it.”

Egoyan is proud that the Catholic Church supports the plight of the Armenians, though he’s more pleased to hear that the German and Austrian governments have acknowledged their roles. He feels that their admission of responsibility has opened a new constructive dialogue.

“Some extraordinary things happened this year,” he said. “People are beginning to understand [the genocide] as a template for things that happened afterwards.”

“I used to always boycott Turkey,” said Egoyan.

As a young man, the Canadian director was passionately involved in a political Armenian student group at the University of Toronto, dedicated to bring awareness to issues of genocide and a destructively selective state memory. This year, however, Egoyan attended a wedding in Turkey for the daughter of Hrant Dink, the Armenian journalist assassinated by a Turkish nationalist in 2007.

When the director entered Turkey for the first time, he discovered a community of Armenians that were never driven out, a people on the frontline of forming a new dialogue around the genocide. At the time, these groups gave Egoyan hope for a new dynamic in the conversation between the Turkish government and Armenians.

“When I went in the summer all this seemed very possible. Literally three weeks after I got back it all went to hell. It’s very scary what’s happening in Turkey right now.”

Though the dialogue process may have broken down as political tensions in Turkey increased, Egoyan believes that there are enough progressive forces to shift the discussion, just as he has witnessed in the 28 countries who acknowledge the genocide around the world.

“Since I was a student, Canada has recognized the genocide,” he said. “That was an extraordinary moment. There’s a huge shift in contagiousness.”

Filed Under: Articles, Genocide Tagged With: Armenian, fuelled, Genocide, Holocaust

Remembering the Armenian holocaust in art

September 17, 2015 By administrator

Armenian holocaust art

Armenian holocaust art

Exclusive: Marisa Martin highlights brave expressions at century mark of genocide

Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians? – Adolph Hitler, arguing for success of his “final solution”

What do these things have in common?

  • A painted hell for rotten politicians
  • The Armenian holocaust
  • Leon Trotsy’s ramblings
  • A theatre for jellyfish?

Nothing really – but they all take a bow at Istanbul’s 14th Art Biennial, Sept. 5 – Nov. 1, 2015.

Situated in a nation philosophically at war with civilization over their national holocaust denial, the Biennial commenced with trumpeting and international attention – but little of that has gone to the art so far.

Opening to the news of yet more war and oppression in Turkey, the massive art exhibit made a surprisingly adroit turn to face the day’s troubles. New treachery and deceit from Turkey included sudden airstrikes against Kurdish militia instead of the coordinated assaults on ISIS they had promised to the U.S.

Curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargie, artist Pelin Tan and editor Anton Vidokle responded by calling Biennial artists to “suspend their work for 15 minutes” in support of Turkey’s Kurdish community. Suspending work was symbolic, but few artists followed through, since it required them to shoot themselves in the foot by remaining silent at their own presentations.

Gestures of contempt are balefully common in the West, but now the Turks are their hosts, making things dicey for native artists. Even using the forbidden term “Armenian genocide” can land you in a cell (according to Article 301 of the Turkish penal code). This is a live political grenade where bombs, slaves and absolute terror reign within hours of Istanbul and its sophisticated art shows.

Long before, Christov-Bakargiev had her sights on the Armenian holocaust and considers it timely to speak to the black cloud of collective guilt over Turkey, as well as ethnic cleansing in any place.

“The ghosts are the ghosts of history … [as well as] the very nationalistic attitude towards the Kurds that caused so many deaths also in recent years,” she says. “Turkey has so many wounds that are not healed.”

The year 2015 marks a full century since the “great crime” or what Armenians call “Medz Yeghern.” Associated with 1915, Turks had intermittently scrubbed the nation of Armenians, or specifically Christians, until they ran out at about 1.5 to 2.7 million. This was the swan song act of the Ottoman Empire and pretty much sums it up.

As a “diplomatic act,” 13 artists were asked to create works related to the world’s first prototype for modern genocide. Most of these were Armenian or of Armenian descent. The sponsors, Dilijan Art Initiative, accomplished this on a roll of critical acclaim. Their Armenian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale won the “Golden Lion award for best national participation” earlier in 2015.

Fourteen paintings by famed modernist painter Paul Guiragossian grace the exhibit. Born to parents of the Armenian diaspora, his work often relates to wandering and force displacement. His paintings are almost all columnar, appearing as tightly packed humanity, claustrophobic and with little movement.

Works by the tormented Ashile Gorky are among Armenian survivors of the last century who immigrated to America. Gorky’s mother died of starvation in the artist’s arms during a forced march, and the rest of his short life wasn’t much cheerier.

At a Greek school, Haig Aivazian performs a song by Armenian-Turkish oud master Udi Hrant Kenkulian, a survivor of the genocide. Perhaps the venue isn’t significant, but Greeks fared little better than Armenians, with about 1.5 million Greeks either murdered or forced out of the Ottoman Empire until 1923. Their genocide wasn’t racially based, it was religious. Their target was all Christianity.

Iraqi-American Jewish artist Michael Rakowitz added an impressive installation of plaster-cast of architectural details. Originals were created by Armenian craftsmen throughout Istanbul, something they excelled at. Many important buildings still bear their marks in Turkey’s largest city.

Focus from the art organizers was on Syrian refugees, murdered Kurdish civilians and at least implied the love/faux-hate relationship Turks seem to have with ISIS and other Islamic terror groups. Muslim imperialism that sent genocide and pillage across Armenia in 1915 are the parents of ISIS (although it is terribly politically incorrect to actually admit such a thing).

Turkey’s unacknowledged acts of anti-Christian hate have been like a huge rotted corpse they’ve been unable to bury by a million denials. “Armenian holocaust? What holocaust? Anyway there is no such thing as ‘Armenian’.”

Sources claim that Turks now open the border to ISIS and fund, train, trade and arm them. Considering this, ISIS representatives may be brokering deals with Turks, staying in the same hotels or treated in Istanbul’s hospitals within meters of the Biennial’s art exhibits.

Christov-Bakargiev and other organizers displayed no fear over the loaded issues they cover (in the midst of the place of their conception in some cases). She claimed that they were never censored to this point. The Biennial is privately financed and supported with no sponsorship by the Turkish government.

Other Armenian-related pieces sprinkle Istanbul. Belgian-born artist Francis Alÿs offered a black and white film, “Silence of Ani,” with children from Eastern Anatolia using bird whistles to create songs. Filmed in the ruins of a ghost town near the Armenian border, emptiness and desolation symbolize the annihilated regions that Turkey seized or destroyed.

Actual title and vague theme of the exhibit is “Saltwater: a Theory of Thought Forms.” Sea water features in a few works and is referred to in artist’s statements as well as becoming part of the medium of some pieces. Thought forms? Conveniently, that could be slapped onto anything, even a genocide that began about 1894 or earlier.

If there must be so much politicizing of art, at least it is finally relevant. Artists and some exhibits at the Biennial support actual victims and observe a major crisis in real time. Most contemporary “political art” is only an excuse to further personal grandiosity or to beat a dead horse saddled with Marxist-Leftist trivia.

Curator Christov-Bakargiev speaks confidently about the power of art to “shape souls” and affect politics. “Whether the action will have any effect on the Machiavellian deals being done behind closed doors, I’m not sure,” she admitted to the press there.

Byzantine in more than one sense, the Biennial hosts at least 100 participants including artists, writers and even neuroscientists, with almost as many venues. It is intentionally difficult, and in some cases impossible, for viewers to see the entire thing, a fact Christov-Bakargiev acknowledges but thinks is not too important. Works are situated in a steam bath, a house where Leon Trotsky once lived and under the Marmara Sea, as well as traditional galleries. They straddle both the European and Asian coasts of the Bosphorus.

Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles offered his drolly-titled painting, “Project hole to throw dishonest politicians in” – which could be a light jab at Turkey’s often grandiose and brutal leaders. Christov-Bakargiev claims one of Meireles’ works is the conceptual platform for the entire Biennial Exhibition, and this is his sole contribution, so …

Although most of the world shares her concerns, it isn’t likely have much effect other than encouraging some Turkish dissidents and the Kurds (who are mentioned often). Amy Shaw for the Art Newspaper summed this up well. “The painting (by Meireles ) is a tongue-in-cheek solution, a metaphor for how to deal with corrupt statesmen, but ultimately the work – and the biennial as a whole – is futile in the face of so much suffering.”

Perhaps the tone of the Biennial and the “Project Hole” painting is best illuminated by remarks of the world’s politicians. Continuing policy of all U.S. presidents except Reagan, the words “Turkey” and genocide” never passed their lips in one sentence. (Reagan issued a written statement acknowledging the genocide.)

Obama promised to deal with this while campaigning, yet it is no shock he steadfastly refuses. Even after this pledge to the world: “I will recognize the Armenian genocide. … America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides. I intend to be that president.”

Well, he forgot, consistent with a policy of never offending Muslims. This covers both Boko Haram and marauding, genocidal Turks a century ago. To be fair, America’s Congress hasn’t officially acknowledged the Armenian holocaust either, for purely political reasons.

On the April 24, 2015 centenary anniversary of the Armenian holocaust, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent statements trivializing the genocide as equal to suffering “of every other citizen of the Ottoman Empire.” This includes thousands who were actively slaughtering Christians – and it may have been quite tiring, chasing millions across deserts into oblivion. In spite of this, Erdogan “sincerely shared their pain.”

Would it be wrong to hope Erdogan and those denying holocausts and creating new ones may indeed “share their pain” at some near point?

But I had better place a little disclaimer here for their sake: The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency or person related to the 14th Istanbul Biennial.

Sources

  • Hurriyet Daily News
  • Time Out Istanbul
  • The Art Newspaper
  • Liveleak
  • The Art Newspaper
  • The Guardian
  • The Armenian Weekly
  • American Thinker
Click here for reuse options!
Copyright 2015 WND

Source: http://www.wnd.com/2015/09/remembering-the-armenian-holocaust-in-art/#AuwzKMzSwqiwymhg.99

Filed Under: Articles, Genocide Tagged With: Armenian, art, Holocaust, remembering

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum issues statement on Genocide

May 5, 2015 By administrator

191665The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) issued a noteworthy statement on the centenary of the Armenian Genocide, according to Massis Post.

Headlined “Museum Statement on the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,” it starts: “On the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum remembers the suffering of the Armenian people.”

“The Ottoman government, controlled by the Committee of Union and Progress…, systematically eliminated the Armenian ethnic presence in the Anatolia region of its empire,” the statement reads in part.

The USHMM statement also references Raphael Lemkin, who coined the word ‘genocide,’ by explaining that: “The origins of the term ‘genocide’ rest, in part, in the evens of 1915-16 in Anatolia, then part of the Ottoman Turkish empire.”

In addition to the historic statement, the museum now features a ‘Special Focus’ section in its online exhibitions dedicated to the Armenian Genocide, which provides background information, imagery, and select eyewitness testimonies from the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive. The ‘Special Focus’ also provides links to additional information including a more in-depth description of the Armenian Genocide in the museum’s online Holocaust Encyclopedia.

Viewers are also encouraged to read USHMM historian Dr. Edna Friedberg’s April 17th article about Franz Werfel’s “Forty Days of Musa Dagh” in the Jewish Daily Forward article headlined “How Novel About Armenian Genocide Became Bestseller in Warsaw Ghetto.”

Dedicated in 1993, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is America’s national institution for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history, and serves as this country’s memorial to the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust.

“On behalf of the Armenian Assembly of America, the Armenian National Institute, and the newly launched online Armenian Genocide Museum of America, we thank the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for joining other institutions and organization from around the world in commemorating the Armenian Genocide. The continued attention by USHMM to the Armenian Genocide since its founding through lectures, exhibits, and publications is tremendously appreciated,” stated Assembly co-chairs Anthony Barsamian and Van Z. Krikorian.

Related links:

Massis Post. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Highlights Centenary of the Armenian Genocide

Filed Under: Articles, Genocide Tagged With: Genocide, Holocaust, Memorial, statement

Time of Israel Holocaust and Aghet #Armeniangenocide against any denial!

April 16, 2015 By administrator

Chaim Ouizmann April 16, 2015

20141024_142431-medium-146x140Just when our people is preparing to commemorate the memory of the six million of our people exterminated by Nazi Germany, my thoughts are directed to the Armenian cause.

Indeed, on 24 April, will commemorate our Armenian friends, in turn, the centenary of the genocide which they were direct victims, mostly from 1915 to 1917 genocide perpetrated by the government led by the Union and Progress Party the “Young Turks” .

One and a half million men, women and children were exterminated.

How we Jews, holders of so much suffering, can we remain indifferent to that of the Armenians?

The drama of the early 20th century, “the first genocide of the 20th century”, in the words of Pope Francis April 12, 2015 before a delegation of Armenian Patriarchs, cleverly planned and executed drama with great cruelty by Talaat Pasha, Djemal Pasha and Enver Pasha, is as much ours as theirs. Why is this cause ours? What unspeakable catastrophe of the Holocaust which we were the victims he forced us to explicitly recognize the tragedy of the Armenians?

The Holocaust would probably not take place, or at least would not have known the dimensions that we know him, if nations had emerged and had intervened in their day for the Armenians.

Filed Under: Articles, Genocide Tagged With: Armenian, Genocide, Holocaust

Holocaust Museum spotlights 100th anniversary of #Armeniangenocide

February 11, 2015 By administrator

By Mike Isaacs

(Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education... (Illinois Holocaust Museum)

(Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education… (Illinois Holocaust Museum)

Some 100 years later, the black-and-white photo, grainy and archaic as it may be, remains ghastly and gruesome, documentation of grand inhumanity still difficult to digest today.

The remains of a woman and two young children lay lifeless, starved to death and apparent victims of the Armenian genocide that dates back to 1915. report chicagotribune

Tragically, other global genocide — whether the Holocaust waged by Nazi Germany against the Jews or barbarity more recent and current —- have produced their own photos documenting systematic, brutal murder, efforts to eliminate a demographic of human beings.

In marking the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide with a symposium Feb. 8 at Skokie’s Illinois Holocaust Museum, a panelist concluded that every genocide is unique and yet every genocide is the same.

“The magnitude of them could be different, the causes of them could be different, but there tends to be common elements that you see persistently through most of them,” said Shant Mardirossian, chairman of the Near East Foundation.

One of the most basic is dehumanization of a group of people. Eventually targeted for persecution, those people become regarded as less than human beings so attempts to eliminate them take on a warped and skewed sense of morality.

Filed Under: Articles, Genocide Tagged With: 100th, anniversary, armenian genocide, Chicago, Holocaust, Museum

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