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Why Armenians cannot 'get past' the genocide

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  • Why Armenians cannot 'get past' the genocide

    Why Armenians cannot 'get past' the genocide

    Allowing Turkey to continue its denial of the 1915-1918 genocide is too high
    a price for Armenia to pay for normalized relations.

    By Karnig Dukmajian

    Los Angeles Times
    3:22 PM PDT, October 15, 2009


    Just as The Times expressed in its Oct. 13 editorial, "Turkey and Armenia:
    reconciling history," I believe that it's in both countries' interest to
    restore diplomatic ties and open their shared border. However, I cannot help
    but question the logic of The Times' appeal to Armenians and Turks to "get
    beyond" the issue of the Armenian genocide -- especially when the editorial
    board shares the concern of Armenians that the establishment of a commission
    to study the genocide is "simply a means for Turkey to continue denying
    history."

    For Armenians, there is no "getting beyond" the issue of the genocide.
    Turkey's denial of the genocide, for which it has gone unpunished, is an
    injustice all Armenians must live with every day.

    Imagine this: Suppose Israel and Germany share a common border, as Armenia
    and Turkey do. Suppose also that Germany has not recognized that the
    Holocaust took place; that Germany admits only that some Jews died in "civil
    unrest" during World War II, and that Germany claims that Jews also killed
    many Germans. Suppose West Germany did not pay 3 billion marks in
    reparations to Israel (which it did in the 1950s and '60s), renovate
    deserted Jewish synagogues across Germany or establish memorial parks where
    concentration and extermination camps once stood. Suppose then that 16 years
    ago, Germany unilaterally decided to shut its common border with Israel in
    solidarity with a third country with which Israel went to war, and that its
    stated purpose of such action was to cause Israel economic strain. And
    finally, suppose that after much international pressure, Germany has decided
    it will reopen the border but only if Israel agrees to make several
    concessions, including partaking in a commission to study whether the
    Holocaust actually took place and making territorial concessions in its
    unresolved conflict with the third country.

    These circumstances would justifiably outrage the international community.
    But today, no one shares in the Armenians' outrage as they continue their
    long march on the road to justice alone.

    Turkey and Armenia should establish diplomatic relations, but it should not
    come at so high a price for Armenians. Turkey's calculated campaign of
    choking Armenia's economy -- after having nearly annihilated its people less
    than a century ago -- and subsequently seeking concessions in return for
    reopening the border should be unequivocally condemned by all Western
    democracies. Instead, the foreign ministers of the European Union, the
    United States, France, Switzerland and Russia were on hand in Zurich last
    week to applaud the lopsided agreement signed by Armenia and Turkey.

    For Turkey, this is another victory in its efforts to erase the genocide
    from the world's memories, a campaign it prosecutes both within its own
    borders (a national law makes it illegal to insult the Turkish nation, which
    the government uses to prosecute those who speak truthfully about the
    genocide) and abroad by working to stop further international recognition of
    the genocide. For the West to applaud the agreement reached by Turkey and
    Armenia, presumably due to geopolitical gains, is to condone sweeping under
    the rug one of the world's worst unpunished crimes.

    It is highly offensive to suggest that Turkey and Armenia "get beyond" the
    Armenian genocide. To "get beyond" an issue, one must first face it. It is
    impossible for either Turkey or Armenia to "get beyond" the Armenian
    genocide because Turkey has not yet faced its crime.

    Karnig Dukmajian lives in Tarzana.

    Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
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