The Forgotten Genocide

“Who now remembers the Armenians?” were Adolf Hitler’s words of encouragement to his generals before invading Poland on 1 September 1939 and shortly after, starting his vicious genocide campaign against the Jews.

His rhetorical question is chilling and hard to swallow, but clear in its meaning. The lives of 1.5 million Armenians were lost by a campaign by the Young Turks in 1915 to physically annihilate Armenia and pursue an ethnically exclusive goal of creating a homogeneous society stretching from the Balkans to Central Asia. However, the decades of pain, suffering and constant persecution of the Armenians has since slipped into the shadows of world history. When war was re-visited in 1939, the negligence of the Armenian plight by the international community despite being fully aware of this issue, was taken by Hitler as an example to repeat genocide under conditions of total war.

No distinctions were made by the Young Turks: from ‘bishops to beggars’, all Armenians were to be exterminated. On 16 September 1915, Talât Pasha, one of the leaders of the Young Turks, gave strict instructions in a telegram to “put an end to [the Armenians'] existence, however criminal the measure taken may be, and no regard must be paid to either age or sex nor to conscientious scruples. ” The deportations began mostly in the Eastern Turkey, moving to the south where the deserts of Mesopotamia and Syria as well as the Turkish First Corps, responsible for rape and torture, met the dehydrated and hungry Armenians.

“The Turks had planned to move the Armenians to the south and put them in camps where they would starve to death from malnutrition and misery (…) I fled with Jabra, son of my aunt, and we were picked up by our friends Youssef and Yacoub, with whom we could stay. The rest of the family stayed in the train that left to Damas and from there to its final destination: Koneitra…hell for the poor Armenians.” These were the emotional words of Hagob Boghossian, the grandfather of a family friend, in his diary account which was preserved by his wife after his death 15 years ago in Syria, where he settled down after his escape. His words of truth, the invaluable individual touch to the event, can have the crucial effect of releasing people from their trap of merely collectivizing the atrocity, personalizing as well as humanizing what Robert Fisk believes is the “First Holocaust.”

May see these atrocities caused in the history of mankind as simply incomprehensible due to the complexity and the enormity of them. This was recognised by Joseph Stalin, who simply but so brutally stated, “One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.” Therefore, the personal accounts and the commercialisation of them such as Anne Frank’s diary, which have sold over 25 million copies in over 20 languages, serves to bring the readers closer to the suffering of the Jews during the Second World War. In the plight of the Armenians, however, the mass mobilization of international sympathy for the genocide is marred by the Turkish denial of it. Hence, publications of various diaries that are existent within the Armenian Diaspora do not have the same commercial effect.

As educated and diligent members of our society, I believe we have a moral obligation to engage in the appropriate processes to strengthen the community we inhabit, setting an example on how the international arena must be played out for ensuring security and cooperation. Thus, the recognition of other people’s histories, culture and religion are fundamental for shaping the communal spirit or what Abraham Lincoln believes is, “the strongest bond of human sympathy.”

But by being acquainted with the suffering of other peoples in their history, don’t we become disenchanted with the failure of the so-called global international ‘community’ to avoid that from happening? Why do we bother abbreviating the UN as the United Nations, viewed upon by political idealists as having a significant moral high ground, when genocide in Rwanda or Bosnia can take place without effective intervention or perhaps interest from fellow members?

Perhaps I am playing devil’s advocate, but these rhetorical questions concerns the security of minorities even today, resurrecting the harsh reality that self-interest of powerful nations can overwhelm the importance of collective security and justice. Taking the Armenian Genocide as an example, it is evident that as the mass slaughtering was being carried out, there were strict orders from the German high command in Berlin, even endorsed by the Emperor, to brand the Armenian issue as a noli me tangere (touch me not). The Germans were not prepared to be dragged into an internal conflict of their Turkish ally simply because it would, “jeopardize interests which are more important and crucial for us.”

Would Saddam Hussein’s Iraq have committed atrocities against the Kurds if the USA didn’t give a blind eye to his actions because of Iraq’s war with Iran? This is certainly debatable, but facilitates the argument that relying on a great power to sanction acts of violence creates a convenient environment in extenuating them.

Turkish politicians are strenuously trying to justify their value for entering the EU, unravelling the demands and criterions set out by the European council, but I am quite certain that the ability to recognise crimes against humanity in your own history is morally expected from the international community. Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey accused the Chinese government of committing genocide in the northwest province of Xinjiang in mid 2009. Perhaps he must understand that he must recognise his own nation’s role in committing genocide in the First World War, before accusing others.

“There's no point in interpreting this [‘genocide’ in Xinjiang] otherwise," Erdogan confidently claims. I would have never thought I would say this, but it seems like a Turkish leader has finally, even though in a perversely indirect way, voiced the frustration of the Armenians towards their fight for recognition and justice.

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