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Armenian memorial By JPOST EDITORIAL
12/24/2011 21:12
Erdogan's unmistakable aggressive stance towards the French parliamentary
initiative contains a message for Israel too.
Knesset members of radically different political orientations will seek
this week to sway the Knesset Education Committee to promote Israeli
recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin
(Likud), MK Arye Eldad (National Union) and MK Zehava Galon (Meretz) will
argue for a special annual Armenian memorial day in Israel.
As Jews, we entertain understandable reservations regarding the overuse the
genocide term, already applied to numerous diverse incidents of
mass-slaughter, including Cambodia's Khmer Rouge purges and Rwanda's tribal
carnage. But the massacres and violent deportations by Ottoman Turks, which
claimed as many as 1.5 million Armenian lives during World War I, are
different.
They're closer to a premeditated scheme to cleanse Turkey of Christians,
even if not imbued with the Nazis' systematic, all-encompassing ideology
of `scientific' racism. Not every last Armenian was hunted down as in
Germany's methodical, industrialized extermination process that targeted
and pursued every last hidden Jewish baby.
Holocaust scholar Yehuda Bauer explained it best: `The Nazis saw the Jews
as the central problem of world history....
The attitude towards Jews had in it important elements of pseudo-religion.
There was no such motivation present in the Armenian case; Armenians were
to be annihilated for power-political reasons, and in Turkey only.... Yet
even if the Armenian case is not seen as a holocaust in the extreme form,
which it took towards Jews, it is certainly the nearest thing to it.'
It, therefore, amply deserves Israeli recognition. Previous attempts to
secure such recognition were foiled by Foreign Ministry opposition. Every
care was taken not to vex Turkey, for years Israel's sole quasi-ally in the
region.
Presumably, now that Turkey has turned ultra-hostile - particularly after
Operation Cast Lead and the Mavi Marmara confrontation - such constraints
should no longer be relevant.
Nonetheless, enough cautionary voices in high echelons still counsel
against `rash action' on the grounds that residual hope might yet exist,
scant and flimsy as it may be, that some cooperation with Ankara can be
rekindled in future.
Turkey continues to cast a dark shadow over Israeli considerations even in
the stark absence of any viable relationship with that country. Turkey
continues to prevent Israel from doing the right thing even when there's
no expedient realpolitik incentive to avoid the moral high ground.
But Ankara intimidates elsewhere as well. France's lower house of
parliament has moved to criminalize Armenian Genocide-denial. In response,
Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had thrown a super-temper tantrum,
warning that `this hostile move... will have grave consequences for future
relations between Turkey and France in political, economic, cultural and
all areas, and the responsibility will rest with those behind this
initiative.'
In retaliation, Erdogan on Thursday cut ties with France, recalled his
ambassador for consultations.
He said Turkey was cancelling all economic, political and military meetings
with its NATO partner and it would cancel permission for French military
planes to land, and warships to dock, in Turkey.
In short, Erdogan throws his weight around, in characteristic neighborhood
bully style. His unmistakable aggressive stance towards the French
parliamentary initiative contains a message for Israel too.
Obviously, it's not Israeli `misconduct' alone that provokes his ire. This
is something for our diplomats to stress overseas. In-house, too, we need
to realize that self-blame is inherently unwarranted vis-à-vis Turkey.
Erdogan's ruffian demeanor isn't Israel-specific. There's no plausible
reason not to answer his hectoring defamations with incontrovertible
historical truths. Why, for starters, not quit our unsavory habit of
resisting Knesset resolutions on Turkey's infamous atrocities against the
Armenians? We could elaborate on Turkey's first Armenian massacre of 1890
(100,000-200,000 dead); Turkey's subsequent mega-massacres of 1915 in which
over a million Armenians perished in a series of bloodbaths and forced
marches of uprooted civilians in Syria's direction; the WWI slaughter of
tens of thousands of Assyrians in Turkey's southeast; the ethnic cleansing,
aerial bombardments and other operations that cost Kurds untold thousands
of lives throughout the 20th century and beyond and still deny them the
sovereignty they deserve; and finally, the 1974 invasion and continued
occupation of northern Cyprus (which fails to bother the international
community).
From: A. Papazian
12/24/2011 21:12
Erdogan's unmistakable aggressive stance towards the French parliamentary
initiative contains a message for Israel too.
Knesset members of radically different political orientations will seek
this week to sway the Knesset Education Committee to promote Israeli
recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin
(Likud), MK Arye Eldad (National Union) and MK Zehava Galon (Meretz) will
argue for a special annual Armenian memorial day in Israel.
As Jews, we entertain understandable reservations regarding the overuse the
genocide term, already applied to numerous diverse incidents of
mass-slaughter, including Cambodia's Khmer Rouge purges and Rwanda's tribal
carnage. But the massacres and violent deportations by Ottoman Turks, which
claimed as many as 1.5 million Armenian lives during World War I, are
different.
They're closer to a premeditated scheme to cleanse Turkey of Christians,
even if not imbued with the Nazis' systematic, all-encompassing ideology
of `scientific' racism. Not every last Armenian was hunted down as in
Germany's methodical, industrialized extermination process that targeted
and pursued every last hidden Jewish baby.
Holocaust scholar Yehuda Bauer explained it best: `The Nazis saw the Jews
as the central problem of world history....
The attitude towards Jews had in it important elements of pseudo-religion.
There was no such motivation present in the Armenian case; Armenians were
to be annihilated for power-political reasons, and in Turkey only.... Yet
even if the Armenian case is not seen as a holocaust in the extreme form,
which it took towards Jews, it is certainly the nearest thing to it.'
It, therefore, amply deserves Israeli recognition. Previous attempts to
secure such recognition were foiled by Foreign Ministry opposition. Every
care was taken not to vex Turkey, for years Israel's sole quasi-ally in the
region.
Presumably, now that Turkey has turned ultra-hostile - particularly after
Operation Cast Lead and the Mavi Marmara confrontation - such constraints
should no longer be relevant.
Nonetheless, enough cautionary voices in high echelons still counsel
against `rash action' on the grounds that residual hope might yet exist,
scant and flimsy as it may be, that some cooperation with Ankara can be
rekindled in future.
Turkey continues to cast a dark shadow over Israeli considerations even in
the stark absence of any viable relationship with that country. Turkey
continues to prevent Israel from doing the right thing even when there's
no expedient realpolitik incentive to avoid the moral high ground.
But Ankara intimidates elsewhere as well. France's lower house of
parliament has moved to criminalize Armenian Genocide-denial. In response,
Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had thrown a super-temper tantrum,
warning that `this hostile move... will have grave consequences for future
relations between Turkey and France in political, economic, cultural and
all areas, and the responsibility will rest with those behind this
initiative.'
In retaliation, Erdogan on Thursday cut ties with France, recalled his
ambassador for consultations.
He said Turkey was cancelling all economic, political and military meetings
with its NATO partner and it would cancel permission for French military
planes to land, and warships to dock, in Turkey.
In short, Erdogan throws his weight around, in characteristic neighborhood
bully style. His unmistakable aggressive stance towards the French
parliamentary initiative contains a message for Israel too.
Obviously, it's not Israeli `misconduct' alone that provokes his ire. This
is something for our diplomats to stress overseas. In-house, too, we need
to realize that self-blame is inherently unwarranted vis-à-vis Turkey.
Erdogan's ruffian demeanor isn't Israel-specific. There's no plausible
reason not to answer his hectoring defamations with incontrovertible
historical truths. Why, for starters, not quit our unsavory habit of
resisting Knesset resolutions on Turkey's infamous atrocities against the
Armenians? We could elaborate on Turkey's first Armenian massacre of 1890
(100,000-200,000 dead); Turkey's subsequent mega-massacres of 1915 in which
over a million Armenians perished in a series of bloodbaths and forced
marches of uprooted civilians in Syria's direction; the WWI slaughter of
tens of thousands of Assyrians in Turkey's southeast; the ethnic cleansing,
aerial bombardments and other operations that cost Kurds untold thousands
of lives throughout the 20th century and beyond and still deny them the
sovereignty they deserve; and finally, the 1974 invasion and continued
occupation of northern Cyprus (which fails to bother the international
community).
From: A. Papazian