Stop the politicking and recognize Armenian genocide

Taleen Khalafian
Contributing reporter

France has done it. Italy, Germany, and Switzerland have done it, too. About twenty countries (and forty-two U.S. states) have officially recognized the Armenian Genocide. Now, it’s time for the United States government to step up and do the same.

Doing so will affect relations between the U.S. and Turkey and for this reason, President Obama’s administration, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is against the measure. The truth of the matter is, though, justice and human values should take precedence over politics.

The genocide of 1915 sought to wipe out the Armenian culture with the massacre of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians. Women and children were brutally raped, dehydrated, and starved while on death marches led by the Ottoman Empire.
The term genocide is defined by Merriam-Webster as the “deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.” By this legal definition, it is impossible to deny that the mass-killings of 1915 were indeed intended to exterminate the Armenian people altogether and was, therefore, a genocide.

Earlier this month, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed House Resolution 232 which would officially label these massacres as genocide. However, this is only the first step, and a baby step at that. The measure has yet to go through Congress in April and win the floor vote. And although President Obama promised to acknowledge the genocide while on the campaign trail, he has recently discouraged the passing of the resolution due to the U.S’s current alliance with Turkey.

Clearly, it is all about the politics; while the President does not deny that the genocide has occurred, he has noted that the timing of the resolution is just not right, the alliance being too important to the United States.

So, why should we care? This issue is not only in the best interests of the Armenian people, it is a human rights issue. By passing this resolution, we can gradually begin to put an end to genocides around the world, such as the current situations in Congo and Sudan.

Adolf Hitler, influenced by the Armenian Genocide, was infamously quoted to have said, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” By shining an international light on the genocide of 1915, we will ultimately be saying, “This is not ok.” Think of what would happen, for example, if murderers and sex offenders were brushed off and not convicted; crime rates would sky rocket and basic human rights would go out the window.

Turning a blind eye to the mass killings of an entire nation is morally wrong, no matter how significant the ties between the U.S. and Turkey. The very fact that the Turkish government is adamantly denying the genocide rather than accepting it as a part of history should prompt the United States to do the right thing, even if it means cutting off its political ties.

Do we really need an ally that, almost one hundred years later, fails to accept the truth… even going so far as to recall its U.S. ambassador upon the passing of House Resolution 232 and arrest any of its citizens who claim the genocide occurred (while, interestingly, that law is just the opposite in Switzerland and France, where it is illegal to deny the genocide happened)?

Hopefully, our government will do the right thing by finally accepting the Armenian genocide and facing any backlash with heads held high.


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  • Alice

    Jake,

    So turks want the medals too? I mean you did say you pigs were demanding medals for being pigs…

  • Albarian

    France, Switzerland, Germany (and 42 states)–All call the murder of Armenian’s Genocide. Obama and Bush called it Genocide (before the Turks threatened the U.S. with sanctions and before they were president).

    It’s really only the Turks who stand alone and pressure the rest of the world to cover up for the them.

    I guess if you repeat a lie often enough, there is hope that some will believe it.

    My thanks to the young Armenian’s who honor the memory of their grandparents.

  • Robert

    War, eh? Leading innocent women and children on death marches until they were starved and dehydrated to death was part of self-defense?

  • UDIN COMMENT

    So what!!! The name is World War I. Of course you have to kill each other during a war. There is no doubt about that. One has to defend him self. If he has more military power he has more advantages.

    I fear a similar genocide holocaust shall happen again. And this time the actors will be the super power against a less power country in the name of “to fight terrorism”.

    The question that has yet to be answered is who is the real terrorist of the globe.

  • Goerge Sixfeathers

    Our fathers killed this inocent people, so, if we want to be a part of 21st century civilized world, we should have the courage to admit it. It has nothing to do with native Americans or Glendale or anything else. Turket committed a Genocide and the world knows it.

  • John

    WOW,
    It’s funny to see what kind of bullshit all these stupid GENOCIDE DENIERS come out with every year.

  • http://JackThreefeathers Krikor Zohrab

    I love you, Jack Threefeathers.

    What is this all about? Here is a piece of news I came across, just by chance, on weathersealed.com:

    “It turns out that each state tweaks the tax code – by adjusting the Federal rules with their own credits and deductions – to help the less fortunate and foster positive behavior, amongst other reasons. By California law, income specifically excludes compensation for false imprisonment and reparations to those oppressed by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923. Whoa.”

    That’s what it’s all about.

  • Jake Threefeathers

    I am shocked. SHOCKED!

    The Viennese weightlifter, aka the Gropenator, takes Armenian money to tell the Armenians what they want to hear. Turks must be shaking in their boots now. Horror of horrors! Calamity of calamities! What to do, what to do! That Aahnold, he sure fixed them dastardly Turks’ wagon now.

    These ethnic-pandering politician prostitutes have caught on quickly to the fact that the hate-mongering Armenians will pay a pretty penny for their psychotic obsession. So the prostitutes are milking the Armenian cow for all they can

    Armenian slicks are wasting their time and money paying for useless proclamations and worthless resolutions. Instead, they should try going to a competent court of law and bribe some judges.

  • Kiraz

    Oh hey Morad, I can cut and paste too! Did you know there are 2, yes that’s at least TWO, United Nations Resolutions against Armenia?

    You can read all about it here–and it’s more of the same. Armenians can’t seem to just occupy a town, they have to kill or massacre whoever is left that is not Armenian. Seems nothing has changed in 95 years…

    Cheers

    The Khojaly Massacre was the killing of hundreds of ethnic Azerbaijani civilians from the town of Khojaly on 25 February 1992 during the Nagorno-Karabakh War.

    According to the Azerbaijani side, as well as Memorial Human Rights Center, Human Rights Watch and other international observers, the massacre was committed by the ethnic Armenian armed forces, reportedly with help of the Russian 366th Motor Rifle Regiment. The official death toll provided by Azerbaijani authorities is 613 civilians, of them 106 women and 83 children.

    According to Human Rights Watch, the tragedy struck when “a large column of residents, accompanied by a few dozen retreating fighters, fled the city as it fell to Armenian forces. As they approached the border with Azerbaijan, they came across an Armenian military post and were cruelly fired upon”.

    In Written Declaration No. 324, members of the Parliamentary Assembly of Europe from Albania, Azerbaijan, Turkey and the United Kingdom, and individual members from Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Macedonia and Norway stated that “On 26 February 1992, Armenians massacred the whole population of Khodjaly and fully destroyed the city”, and called on the Assembly to recognize the massacre in Khojaly as part of “genocide perpetrated by Armenians against the Azerbaijani population”.

    United Nations Security Council Resolution 822 was adopted at the 3205th meeting of the Security Council on 30 April 1993, and called for the immediate cessation of all hostilities and hostile acts with a view to establishing a durable cease-fire, as well as immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces from the Kelbadjar district and other recently occupied areas of Azerbaijan.

    United Nations Security Council Resolution 884 was adopted at the 3313th meeting of the Security Council on 12 November 1993. In this resolution UNSC expressed its serious concern that a continuation of the conflict in and around the Nagorny Karabakh region of the Azerbaijani Republic, and of the tensions between the Republic of Armenia and the Azerbaijani Republic, would endanger peace and security in the region, and demanded from the parties concerned the immediate cessation of armed hostilities and hostile acts, the unilateral withdrawal of occupying forces from the Zangelan district and the city of Goradiz, and the withdrawal of occupying forces from other recently occupied areas of the Azerbaijani Republic in accordance with the Adjusted timetable of urgent steps to implement Security Council resolutions 822 (1993) and 853 (1993) (S/26522, appendix), as amended by the CSCE Minsk Group meeting in Vienna of 2 to 8 November 1993.

    Armenia has, to date, refused to comply with the U.N. Resolutions.

  • Morad

    SACRAMENTO–California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has once again proclaimed the week of April 19-26 as “Days of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide,” the Armenian National Committee’s Western Region offices reported on Thursday.

    We present the proclamation below:

    It is important to remember the horrors of the past in order to keep history from repeating itself. The Armenian Genocide was a terrible breach of human rights and an event that has outraged the world. Between 1915 and 1923, 1.5 million innocent Armenians lost their lives at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, and 500,000 more were forced from their homeland.

    The atrocities carried out against the Armenian people were grave and unimaginable, as they were subjected to deportation, abduction, torture, starvation and more. And as with any violent conflict, Armenian women and children suffered the worst abuses. The bulk of the Armenian population that was displaced from their homes was forced to escape to neighboring as well as faraway countries. Many fled to the United States.

    Today, California is honored to be home to a vibrant Armenian-American population, the largest outside the Republic of Armenia. This thriving community is a proud reminder of survival and determination even in the face of extreme injustice.

    As Americans and Californians, it is our duty to raise awareness of the Armenian Genocide and to participate in the remembrance and mourning of the loss of innocent lives.

    NOW, THEREFORE, I, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim April 19-26, 2010, as “Days of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.”

    IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 8th day of April 2010.

    ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
    Governor of California

    ATTEST:
    DEBRA BOWEN
    Secretary of State

  • christine

    THE 8 STAGES OF GENOCIDE
    *hint your people are on the last stage*

    1. CLASSIFICATION: All cultures have categories to distinguish people into “us and them” by ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality: German and Jew, Hutu and Tutsi. Bipolar societies that lack mixed categories, such as Rwanda and Burundi, are the most likely to have genocide. The main preventive measure at this early stage is to develop universalistic institutions that transcend ethnic or racial divisions, that actively promote tolerance and understanding, and that promote classifications that transcend the divisions. The Catholic church could have played this role in Rwanda, had it not been riven by the same ethnic cleavages as Rwandan society. Promotion of a common language in countries like Tanzania has also promoted transcendent national identity. This search for common ground is vital to early prevention of genocide.

    2. SYMBOLIZATION: We give names or other symbols to the classifications. We name people “Jews” or “Gypsies”, or distinguish them by colors or dress; and apply the symbols to members of groups. Classification and symbolization are universally human and do not necessarily result in genocide unless they lead to the next stage, dehumanization. When combined with hatred, symbols may be forced upon unwilling members of pariah groups: the yellow star for Jews under Nazi rule, the blue scarf for people from the Eastern Zone in Khmer Rouge Cambodia. To combat symbolization, hate symbols can be legally forbidden (swastikas) as can hate speech. Group marking like gang clothing or tribal scarring can be outlawed, as well. The problem is that legal limitations will fail if unsupported by popular cultural enforcement. Though Hutu and Tutsi were forbidden words in Burundi until the 1980’s, code-words replaced them. If widely supported, however, denial of symbolization can be powerful, as it was in Bulgaria, where the government refused to supply enough yellow badges and at least eighty percent of Jews did not wear them, depriving the yellow star of its significance as a Nazi symbol for Jews.

    3. DEHUMANIZATION: One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases. Dehumanization overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder. At this stage, hate propaganda in print and on hate radios is used to vilify the victim group. In combating this dehumanization, incitement to genocide should not be confused with protected speech. Genocidal societies lack constitutional protection for countervailing speech, and should be treated differently than democracies. Local and international leaders should condemn the use of hate speech and make it culturally unacceptable. Leaders who incite genocide should be banned from international travel and have their foreign finances frozen. Hate radio stations should be shut down, and hate propaganda banned. Hate crimes and atrocities should be promptly punished.

    4. ORGANIZATION: Genocide is always organized, usually by the state, often using militias to provide deniability of state responsibility (the Janjaweed in Darfur.) Sometimes organization is informal (Hindu mobs led by local RSS militants) or decentralized (terrorist groups.) Special army units or militias are often trained and armed. Plans are made for genocidal killings. To combat this stage, membership in these militias should be outlawed. Their leaders should be denied visas for foreign travel. The U.N. should impose arms embargoes on governments and citizens of countries involved in genocidal massacres, and create commissions to investigate violations, as was done in post-genocide Rwanda.

    5. POLARIZATION: Extremists drive the groups apart. Hate groups broadcast polarizing propaganda. Laws may forbid intermarriage or social interaction. Extremist terrorism targets moderates, intimidating and silencing the center. Moderates from the perpetrators’ own group are most able to stop genocide, so are the first to be arrested and killed. Prevention may mean security protection for moderate leaders or assistance to human rights groups. Assets of extremists may be seized, and visas for international travel denied to them. Coups d’état by extremists should be opposed by international sanctions.

    6. PREPARATION: Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity. Death lists are drawn up. Members of victim groups are forced to wear identifying symbols. Their property is expropriated. They are often segregated into ghettoes, deported into concentration camps, or confined to a famine-struck region and starved. At this stage, a Genocide Emergency must be declared. If the political will of the great powers, regional alliances, or the U.N. Security Council can be mobilized, armed international intervention should be prepared, or heavy assistance provided to the victim group to prepare for its self-defense. Otherwise, at least humanitarian assistance should be organized by the U.N. and private relief groups for the inevitable tide of refugees to come.

    7. EXTERMINATION begins, and quickly becomes the mass killing legally called “genocide.” It is “extermination” to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human. When it is sponsored by the state, the armed forces often work with militias to do the killing. Sometimes the genocide results in revenge killings by groups against each other, creating the downward whirlpool-like cycle of bilateral genocide (as in Burundi). At this stage, only rapid and overwhelming armed intervention can stop genocide. Real safe areas or refugee escape corridors should be established with heavily armed international protection. (An unsafe “safe” area is worse than none at all.) The U.N. Standing High Readiness Brigade, EU Rapid Response Force, or regional forces — should be authorized to act by the U.N. Security Council if the genocide is small. For larger interventions, a multilateral force authorized by the U.N. should intervene. If the U.N. is paralyzed, regional alliances must act. It is time to recognize that the international responsibility to protect transcends the narrow interests of individual nation states. If strong nations will not provide troops to intervene directly, they should provide the airlift, equipment, and financial means necessary for regional states to intervene.

    8. DENIAL is the eighth stage that always follows a genocide. It is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres. The perpetrators of genocide dig up the mass graves, burn the bodies, try to cover up the evidence and intimidate the witnesses. They deny that they committed any crimes, and often blame what happened on the victims. They block investigations of the crimes, and continue to govern until driven from power by force, when they flee into exile. There they remain with impunity, like Pol Pot or Idi Amin, unless they are captured and a tribunal is established to try them. The response to denial is punishment by an international tribunal or national courts. There the evidence can be heard, and the perpetrators punished. Tribunals like the Yugoslav or Rwanda Tribunals, or an international tribunal to try the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, or an International Criminal Court may not deter the worst genocidal killers. But with the political will to arrest and prosecute them, some may be brought to justice.

    • Kiraz

      Dear Christina,

      To even get to these 8 stages which you’ve so carefully cut and paste from another website, you’ve got to prove that a genocide even occurred with credible admissible evidence in a court of law.

      Armenia won’t even open its archives, much less take the Republic of Turkey to court on this matter.

      Even more laughable, are the assertions that Turks should not even be permitted to speak out because their assertions are indisputable.

      Tell us, Christina, in what modern civilized jurisprudence is the accused bound in silence and presumed guilty, without a trial, without competent evidence? Note, the Republic of Armenia doesn’t count.

      Then, of course, there’s the question of credibility, due to all those forged documents Armenians bandied about to the gullible public. If truth is on their side, why forge so many documents?

      Cheers.

      • christine

        In 1981 Reagan acknowledged the genocide as a genocide, therefore limiting financial aid to turkey until they recognized the genocide.

        The proof lies in the people. There are no documents that prove the genocide happened. After all how could there be when a country was swept clean of its people?

        Don’t know if you have ever spoke to a genocide survivor. My guess is probably not… but what reason do they have to lie.

        Lets say for arguments sake the genocide did happen, would turkey ever even admit it…. OF COURSE NOT! for every action there is a consequence, and turkey would never want to pay the billions it OWES to Armenia.

        AT LEAST THE NAZIS TOOK RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT THEY DID!!
        WHY WONT turkey!!!

        • Jake Threefeathers

          There is actually one more stage to genocide. The last stage of genocide is admitting the genocide but instead of making amends, continuing to enjoy the fruits of that genocide. That is what the Armenians in this country and the rest of the American continent are doing. They admit Native Americans suffered genocide, but these Armenian interlopers and carpetbaggers are still occupying the stolen land of the Amerindians.

          Perhaps you’ll do the right thing, Christine. When can we expect you to pack your bags and give back the stolen lands?

          Oh, and how many billions do you think the flimflamming Armenians owe the Native Americans? And could they please cough up that 40 acres and a mule that were promised the African slaves upon emancipation? Don’t you think it’s about time you paid up?

        • Kiraz

          Christine/Alice or whoever you are,

          Have you read nothing above?

          A good third of the citizen of the Republic of Turkey are the direct descendants of the survivors of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

          What is shameful here is the insanity displayed by the way you write.

          No evidence of genocide? Of course there is. There was an enormous amount of evidence produced during the Nuremburg trials– why don’t you learn about them?

          The Jews who survived the Holocaust didn’t need to forge documents like Armenians have, for example, the Andonian telegrams, to prove up anything.

          Genocide is a crime that must be proved with evidence.

          Armenian genocide claimants have produced forgeries and fabrications, but no real evidence.

          Moreover, Armenia continues to hide the Dashnak archives from the world. Why? Is it because they will establish that Armenian militants planned to ethnically cleanse all Ottoman Muslims from the eastern third of Anatolia just like they had cleansed them all from the Caucasus less than 60 years before?

          Did you know most of the Ottoman Muslims in eastern Anatolia who were massacred by Armenian militants were themselves survivors of the massive Circassian genocide perpetrated by the Russians and from which Armenians benefitted so much?

          Christine, you desperately need to learn the real history of the region instead of lapping up the propaganda and myths forged by ANCA and the ARF. All those groups have every done has caused death and destruction to your people.

          Cheers

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