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RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FOR TURKEY?
By Elizabeth H. Prodromou and Nina Shea
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/178317-religious-freedom-for-turkey
08/26/11 10:12 AM
The recent resignation of Turkey's military high command, along with
reports that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will subordinate
the military to civilian rule, could mark a new era for that
nation. Sweeping constitutional changes, however, are still needed to
ensure fundamental rights and avoid exchanging one form of repression
for another. The United States should challenge Turkey's civilian
leadership to make such long-overdue changes, especially regarding
religious freedom, including for religious minorities.
While Turkey has long been a formal democracy, it has been a
decidedly imperfect one. Since Kemal Ataturk founded the Republic
of Turkey in 1923, his rigid state secularism has stifled religious
freedom. Restrictions have hindered the majority Sunni Muslim community
and have discriminated against and threatened religious minority
communities, including Greek, Armenian, and Syriac Orthodox Churches;
Catholic and Protestant Churches; the Jewish community; and the Alevis.
Constitutionally, the military was the protector of the secular
state apparatus that engaged in or tolerated religious freedom
violations. Indeed, the context for the recent military resignations
was Erdogan's refusal to promote officers who allegedly plotted
within Ergenekon, a clandestine ultranationalist group, to topple
his Islamic-oriented government and commit violence against numerous
faith communities and their houses of worship.
As the inheritor of this legacy, Erdogan and his AK Party have
faced an uphill battle to deepen Turkey's democratic institutions
and culture. Their moves to bolster civilian rule have positive
implications for respecting international human rights norms,
including religious freedom. Indeed, the AKP government has widened
the opening for public religious expression, which has helped Turkey's
Sunni Muslim majority. Since 2007, imams have had some autonomy in
drafting their sermons. While the ban on religious dress in state
institutions continues, last month, the Council of State overturned
Turkey's high court ruling which had barred the wearing of headscarves
during the Selection Examination for Academic Personnel and Graduate
Studies. Enrollment in Imam-Hatip religious schools has expanded
notably. Without a doubt, Sunni Islam flourishes.
When it comes to religious minorities, however, Turkey's record
remains disappointing.
To be sure, the AKP government has ushered in some improvements,
including the addition of worship services allowed for a particular
church, citizenship for the leaders of another, accurate national
identity cards for converts, and continued engagement with Alevis.
Yet, Turkey's widely publicized constitutional reform process currently
omits any attention to religious freedom, thereby suggesting no
systematic relief for Turkey's smallest minorities, such as Christians
and Jews.
Turkey's Christian minority has dwindled to just 0.15 percent of the
country. In the words of one church leader, it is an "endangered
species." In past centuries, violence exacted a horrific toll on
Turkey's Christians and their churches. This provides a frightening
context and familiar continuity to a number of recent high-profile
murders by ultranationalists.
Turkey's Jewish community also fears a reprise of past violence,
such as the 2003 al Qaeda-linked Istanbul synagogue bombings.
Societal anti-Semitism has been fueled in recent years by Erdogan's
rhetoric against Israel's activity in the Middle East and by negative
portrayals in Turkey's state-run media.
Today, however, it is the state's dense web of regulations that most
threatens Turkey's religious minorities.
Religious communities are being strangled by legal restrictions on
internal governance, education, houses of worship and wider property
rights. It is difficult even to have a frank national discussion about
their plight; those who have tried can face constitutional charges
for insulting "Turkishness", as well as a broader climate of impunity.
One example of the oppressive regulatory climate is the meddling
in internal governance, as seen in the interference in the election
procedure for the acting Armenian Patriarch, as well as in the refusal
to recognize the title of "ecumenical" of the Greek Orthodox Church's
Ecumenical Patriarch and the inherited titles of Alevi leaders.
Another is the government's refusal to allow non-Muslim clergy to be
trained in Turkey. The military's shuttering in 1971 of the Greek
Orthodox Theological School of Halki, once the educational center
for global Orthodox Christianity, is a case in point.
Successive governments' policies have put at risk the very survival
of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and its Greek Orthodox flock.
A third example is the expropriation of land from the 1,600-year-old
Mor Gabriel Monastery, the world's oldest Syriac Orthodox
monastery. Last January, Turkey's Supreme Court granted its treasury
parts of the monastery's territory. Besides impacting the church,
such arbitrary state expropriations encourage acts of impunity against
all religious minorities.
Finally, there is the status of the Alevis, the nation's largest
religious minority. Turkey refuses legal recognition of Alevi meeting
places (cemevi) as houses of worship, and has denied them construction
permits.
These examples underscore how Turkey's religious minorities still
lack full legal status and are deprived of full rights as citizens.
To help remedy this injustice, the United States should urge Erdogan
to fulfill his pledge to amend the military-drafted constitution of
1982 by making changes in line with religious freedom and the other
human rights guarantees found in the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights, which Turkey ratified.
By strengthening civilian control, Turkey has an opportunity to chart
a clearer course toward greater freedom for all its citizens.
It's time for the country's leaders to embrace constitutional reform,
end impunity, protect religious diversity, and advance religious
freedom for every citizen.
Elizabeth H. Prodromou serves as Vice Chair of the U.S. Commission
on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Nina Shea serves as a
USCIRF Commissioner. Both authors traveled to Turkey in February 2011
as part of a USCIRF delegation.
Source:
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/178317-religious-freed
om-for-turkey The contents of this site are © 2011 Capitol Hill
Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.
Comments (8)
Frankly, although there are many good things about this article,
I believe Ms. Prodromou and Ms. Shea are part of the problem.
For example, they wrote this: "In past centuries, violence exacted
a horrific toll on Turkey's Christians and their churches."
It was not "violence". Nor was it a "toll." Those are weasel words. It
was Genocide, committed against Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks by
the Young Turk goverement and Ataturk's forces.
Afraid to use the "G word", Ms. Prodromou and Ms. Shea ?
Concerned that Turkey might get angry? Afraid that Prime Minister
Erdogan might throw one of his famous temper tantrums? Afraid that
President Obama will get angry at you? I think so, on all counts.
You need to visit www.Armenian-Genocide.org. Did you know that
President Reagan issued an official proclamation on the Armenian
Genocide and used the "G word" in doing so? Turkey did nothing at
that time to retaliate, nor could it, nor could it now. Ever noticed
that the US, not Turkey, is the superpower?
Thus, you are afraid of Turkey for no good reason. Many countries, and
bodies such as the Vatican, the EU Parliament and a UN subcommittee,
have recognized the Armenian genocide and suffered little more than
verbal slings and arrows by Turkey.
Are you unaware that the US made an official World Court filing in
1951 that explicitly recognized the Jewish genocide and the Armenian
"genocide". Yet, you recognize only the former as a genocide. Is
this not religious discrimination of the sort that your commission
should look into? Though admittedly it would be a bit awkward for it
to investigate itself.
I have a feeling that you wrote this article because you knew you had
been outflanked by activists who pushed a resolution in Congress that
demanded that Turkey return all Christian churches to their rightful
owners. That was a few weeks ago. It passed a House Committee.
Why didn't your so-called U.S. Commission on International Religious
Freedom (USCIRF) do something similar years ago?
Because your commission is not doing its job, that's why.
I believe that you and your commission should start getting some
backbone by using the "G word" in reference to the acts Turkey has
committed. It will begin to work wonders for your conscience, your
committee's credibility, and US credibility.BY David Boyajian on
08/26/2011 at 22:37
Please take Mr. Boyajian words with a grain of salt...I've said it
before and I'll say it again, you just cannot force/pass a genocide
resolution 90 years later without proper representation or due process
and especially by email ;)
All joking aside, Mr. Boyajian, the 'g' word is a very serious word
and matter and should not be misused, abused, or maligned in anyway
shape or form. It is reserved for the proper moment and this is not
that moment, sir! It takes countless man-hours, facts, investigations
by multiple professions, forensic and admissible, nonprejudicial
cumulative evidence, which requires particularly rigorous, or in any
event more arcane reasoning than is usually needed or expected.
Let's work together and solve the current crisis in Armenia by
extending an olive branch with Turkey. Every time you mention that
'g' word against the Turks how do you think it makes us feel? I am
only a sophomore in high school so please mitigate any browbeating
against me. Warm Regards.
P.S. Just one very simple question for the Prodromou and Shea
sisters. What about religious freedom in Armenia?
BY Maximus on 08/27/2011 at 03:05
Turkey doesn't listen to the U.S. anymore. It's new allies are our
enemies...like Iran. It is likely that our former ally, with a strong
economic base and strong army, will continue down the path towards
Islamic rule. BY LIAMD2 on 08/27/2011 at 07:02 @ LIAMD2
Who listens to the USA nowadays?
You cant even stop Israel from building illegal settlements in the
Westbank (humiliating VP Biden).BY John on 08/27/2011 at 10:40 @
Boyajian
Get over it, move on. 100 years ago.
Dont look to the past but to the future.
If you care so much about the Armenians, look at the armenians
of today, who live under a dictatorial oppressive rule in poverty
in Armenia.
BY Henk on 08/27/2011 at 10:46
Raphael Lemkin, a lawyer of Polish-Jewish descent and Holocaust
survivor, coined the word "genocide" specifically to describe the
destruction of the Armenians at the hands of the Turkish State.
Dr. Lemkin explained that the Turks committed genocide with the intent
to annihilate; he added "I became interested in genocide because
it happened so many times, first to the Armenians, then after the
Armenians, Hitler took action." - CBS News Interview 1949.
The inscriptions from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Washington reads, "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation
of the Armenians?" - Adolf Hitler on the eve of the invasion of Poland
and destruction of European Jewry.
We cannot help but ask ourselves, had the world community used its
full energy and resources to speak out against the Armenian Genocide,
might the world have become more aware and more forcibly interceded
against the destruction of European Jewry during the time of the Nazis?
And, to the comments posted by "MAXIMUS" and "HENK" - you are clearly
anti-Armenian racist. I wonder if you would even dare to describe
the Jewish Holocaust in the same manner?
In addition, prior to coining the word genocide by Dr. Lemkin to
describe the Turkish barbarity that befell the Armenians, Prime
Minister Winston Churchill and world leaders described it as the
"Armenian holocaust".BY Berge Jololian on 08/27/2011 at 16:35
The United States National Archives and Record Administration
holds extensive and thorough documentation on the Armenian Genocide,
especially in its holdings under Record Group 59 of the United States
Department of State, files 867.00 and 867.40, which are open and
widely available to the public and interested institutions.
PS. THERE IS NO STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS ON MASS MURDER. ARMENIANS WILL
NOT GET OVER IT UNTIL JUSTICE IS SERVED. ITS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME
BEFORE THE US STATE DEPARTMENT STOPS THE DOG AND PONY SHOW FOR THE
HANDFUL THAT RULE TURKEY TODAY.
BY john on 08/30/2011 at 18:11
When does genocide end?
Genocide ends when denial ceases.
The Armenian genocide is ongoing because the perpetrator - the Turkish
State - and 99.7% of Turks deny their crime of genocide.
For 20 years, Turkey has maintained a hostile economic land blockade on
Armenia, preventing land access routes for import/export trade passage
to Europe and the Middle East; and has refused to normalize relations.
According to a report by the (IMF) International Monetary Fund,
Armenia loses nearly US $1 billion per year. Armenians are forced to
seek economic survival elsewhere outside their natural environment,
language, culture, customs, etc.
The Turkish state continues its crime of genocide [aided by the US
State Department] by implementing a coordinated plan of different
actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of
life in Armenia, with the aim of annihilating the Armenians in
Armenia. To bring about the disintegration of the political and social
institutions, culture, language, national feelings, religion, and
the economic existence, and the destruction of the personal security,
liberty, health, dignity, and the lives of individuals.
The Turks have not only murdered humans, destroyed an ancient culture
civilization and rewritten history, but they continue to legitimize
the act as well as the racist ideology that led to the act.
Denial is not just the simple negation of an act; it is much more
the consequent continuation of the very act itself.
Genocide should not only physically destroy a community; it should
likewise dictate the prerogative of interpretation in regard to
history, culture, territory and memory. As the victims - Armenians -
never existed.
So then, when does the Armenian genocide end? Only when Turkish denial
ceases and Turkey is brought to accountability for the worst crime
humanity has given a name - Genocide.BY Haig Justinian on 08/31/2011
at 17:09
By Elizabeth H. Prodromou and Nina Shea
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/178317-religious-freedom-for-turkey
08/26/11 10:12 AM
The recent resignation of Turkey's military high command, along with
reports that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will subordinate
the military to civilian rule, could mark a new era for that
nation. Sweeping constitutional changes, however, are still needed to
ensure fundamental rights and avoid exchanging one form of repression
for another. The United States should challenge Turkey's civilian
leadership to make such long-overdue changes, especially regarding
religious freedom, including for religious minorities.
While Turkey has long been a formal democracy, it has been a
decidedly imperfect one. Since Kemal Ataturk founded the Republic
of Turkey in 1923, his rigid state secularism has stifled religious
freedom. Restrictions have hindered the majority Sunni Muslim community
and have discriminated against and threatened religious minority
communities, including Greek, Armenian, and Syriac Orthodox Churches;
Catholic and Protestant Churches; the Jewish community; and the Alevis.
Constitutionally, the military was the protector of the secular
state apparatus that engaged in or tolerated religious freedom
violations. Indeed, the context for the recent military resignations
was Erdogan's refusal to promote officers who allegedly plotted
within Ergenekon, a clandestine ultranationalist group, to topple
his Islamic-oriented government and commit violence against numerous
faith communities and their houses of worship.
As the inheritor of this legacy, Erdogan and his AK Party have
faced an uphill battle to deepen Turkey's democratic institutions
and culture. Their moves to bolster civilian rule have positive
implications for respecting international human rights norms,
including religious freedom. Indeed, the AKP government has widened
the opening for public religious expression, which has helped Turkey's
Sunni Muslim majority. Since 2007, imams have had some autonomy in
drafting their sermons. While the ban on religious dress in state
institutions continues, last month, the Council of State overturned
Turkey's high court ruling which had barred the wearing of headscarves
during the Selection Examination for Academic Personnel and Graduate
Studies. Enrollment in Imam-Hatip religious schools has expanded
notably. Without a doubt, Sunni Islam flourishes.
When it comes to religious minorities, however, Turkey's record
remains disappointing.
To be sure, the AKP government has ushered in some improvements,
including the addition of worship services allowed for a particular
church, citizenship for the leaders of another, accurate national
identity cards for converts, and continued engagement with Alevis.
Yet, Turkey's widely publicized constitutional reform process currently
omits any attention to religious freedom, thereby suggesting no
systematic relief for Turkey's smallest minorities, such as Christians
and Jews.
Turkey's Christian minority has dwindled to just 0.15 percent of the
country. In the words of one church leader, it is an "endangered
species." In past centuries, violence exacted a horrific toll on
Turkey's Christians and their churches. This provides a frightening
context and familiar continuity to a number of recent high-profile
murders by ultranationalists.
Turkey's Jewish community also fears a reprise of past violence,
such as the 2003 al Qaeda-linked Istanbul synagogue bombings.
Societal anti-Semitism has been fueled in recent years by Erdogan's
rhetoric against Israel's activity in the Middle East and by negative
portrayals in Turkey's state-run media.
Today, however, it is the state's dense web of regulations that most
threatens Turkey's religious minorities.
Religious communities are being strangled by legal restrictions on
internal governance, education, houses of worship and wider property
rights. It is difficult even to have a frank national discussion about
their plight; those who have tried can face constitutional charges
for insulting "Turkishness", as well as a broader climate of impunity.
One example of the oppressive regulatory climate is the meddling
in internal governance, as seen in the interference in the election
procedure for the acting Armenian Patriarch, as well as in the refusal
to recognize the title of "ecumenical" of the Greek Orthodox Church's
Ecumenical Patriarch and the inherited titles of Alevi leaders.
Another is the government's refusal to allow non-Muslim clergy to be
trained in Turkey. The military's shuttering in 1971 of the Greek
Orthodox Theological School of Halki, once the educational center
for global Orthodox Christianity, is a case in point.
Successive governments' policies have put at risk the very survival
of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and its Greek Orthodox flock.
A third example is the expropriation of land from the 1,600-year-old
Mor Gabriel Monastery, the world's oldest Syriac Orthodox
monastery. Last January, Turkey's Supreme Court granted its treasury
parts of the monastery's territory. Besides impacting the church,
such arbitrary state expropriations encourage acts of impunity against
all religious minorities.
Finally, there is the status of the Alevis, the nation's largest
religious minority. Turkey refuses legal recognition of Alevi meeting
places (cemevi) as houses of worship, and has denied them construction
permits.
These examples underscore how Turkey's religious minorities still
lack full legal status and are deprived of full rights as citizens.
To help remedy this injustice, the United States should urge Erdogan
to fulfill his pledge to amend the military-drafted constitution of
1982 by making changes in line with religious freedom and the other
human rights guarantees found in the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights, which Turkey ratified.
By strengthening civilian control, Turkey has an opportunity to chart
a clearer course toward greater freedom for all its citizens.
It's time for the country's leaders to embrace constitutional reform,
end impunity, protect religious diversity, and advance religious
freedom for every citizen.
Elizabeth H. Prodromou serves as Vice Chair of the U.S. Commission
on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Nina Shea serves as a
USCIRF Commissioner. Both authors traveled to Turkey in February 2011
as part of a USCIRF delegation.
Source:
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/178317-religious-freed
om-for-turkey The contents of this site are © 2011 Capitol Hill
Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.
Comments (8)
Frankly, although there are many good things about this article,
I believe Ms. Prodromou and Ms. Shea are part of the problem.
For example, they wrote this: "In past centuries, violence exacted
a horrific toll on Turkey's Christians and their churches."
It was not "violence". Nor was it a "toll." Those are weasel words. It
was Genocide, committed against Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks by
the Young Turk goverement and Ataturk's forces.
Afraid to use the "G word", Ms. Prodromou and Ms. Shea ?
Concerned that Turkey might get angry? Afraid that Prime Minister
Erdogan might throw one of his famous temper tantrums? Afraid that
President Obama will get angry at you? I think so, on all counts.
You need to visit www.Armenian-Genocide.org. Did you know that
President Reagan issued an official proclamation on the Armenian
Genocide and used the "G word" in doing so? Turkey did nothing at
that time to retaliate, nor could it, nor could it now. Ever noticed
that the US, not Turkey, is the superpower?
Thus, you are afraid of Turkey for no good reason. Many countries, and
bodies such as the Vatican, the EU Parliament and a UN subcommittee,
have recognized the Armenian genocide and suffered little more than
verbal slings and arrows by Turkey.
Are you unaware that the US made an official World Court filing in
1951 that explicitly recognized the Jewish genocide and the Armenian
"genocide". Yet, you recognize only the former as a genocide. Is
this not religious discrimination of the sort that your commission
should look into? Though admittedly it would be a bit awkward for it
to investigate itself.
I have a feeling that you wrote this article because you knew you had
been outflanked by activists who pushed a resolution in Congress that
demanded that Turkey return all Christian churches to their rightful
owners. That was a few weeks ago. It passed a House Committee.
Why didn't your so-called U.S. Commission on International Religious
Freedom (USCIRF) do something similar years ago?
Because your commission is not doing its job, that's why.
I believe that you and your commission should start getting some
backbone by using the "G word" in reference to the acts Turkey has
committed. It will begin to work wonders for your conscience, your
committee's credibility, and US credibility.BY David Boyajian on
08/26/2011 at 22:37
Please take Mr. Boyajian words with a grain of salt...I've said it
before and I'll say it again, you just cannot force/pass a genocide
resolution 90 years later without proper representation or due process
and especially by email ;)
All joking aside, Mr. Boyajian, the 'g' word is a very serious word
and matter and should not be misused, abused, or maligned in anyway
shape or form. It is reserved for the proper moment and this is not
that moment, sir! It takes countless man-hours, facts, investigations
by multiple professions, forensic and admissible, nonprejudicial
cumulative evidence, which requires particularly rigorous, or in any
event more arcane reasoning than is usually needed or expected.
Let's work together and solve the current crisis in Armenia by
extending an olive branch with Turkey. Every time you mention that
'g' word against the Turks how do you think it makes us feel? I am
only a sophomore in high school so please mitigate any browbeating
against me. Warm Regards.
P.S. Just one very simple question for the Prodromou and Shea
sisters. What about religious freedom in Armenia?
BY Maximus on 08/27/2011 at 03:05
Turkey doesn't listen to the U.S. anymore. It's new allies are our
enemies...like Iran. It is likely that our former ally, with a strong
economic base and strong army, will continue down the path towards
Islamic rule. BY LIAMD2 on 08/27/2011 at 07:02 @ LIAMD2
Who listens to the USA nowadays?
You cant even stop Israel from building illegal settlements in the
Westbank (humiliating VP Biden).BY John on 08/27/2011 at 10:40 @
Boyajian
Get over it, move on. 100 years ago.
Dont look to the past but to the future.
If you care so much about the Armenians, look at the armenians
of today, who live under a dictatorial oppressive rule in poverty
in Armenia.
BY Henk on 08/27/2011 at 10:46
Raphael Lemkin, a lawyer of Polish-Jewish descent and Holocaust
survivor, coined the word "genocide" specifically to describe the
destruction of the Armenians at the hands of the Turkish State.
Dr. Lemkin explained that the Turks committed genocide with the intent
to annihilate; he added "I became interested in genocide because
it happened so many times, first to the Armenians, then after the
Armenians, Hitler took action." - CBS News Interview 1949.
The inscriptions from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Washington reads, "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation
of the Armenians?" - Adolf Hitler on the eve of the invasion of Poland
and destruction of European Jewry.
We cannot help but ask ourselves, had the world community used its
full energy and resources to speak out against the Armenian Genocide,
might the world have become more aware and more forcibly interceded
against the destruction of European Jewry during the time of the Nazis?
And, to the comments posted by "MAXIMUS" and "HENK" - you are clearly
anti-Armenian racist. I wonder if you would even dare to describe
the Jewish Holocaust in the same manner?
In addition, prior to coining the word genocide by Dr. Lemkin to
describe the Turkish barbarity that befell the Armenians, Prime
Minister Winston Churchill and world leaders described it as the
"Armenian holocaust".BY Berge Jololian on 08/27/2011 at 16:35
The United States National Archives and Record Administration
holds extensive and thorough documentation on the Armenian Genocide,
especially in its holdings under Record Group 59 of the United States
Department of State, files 867.00 and 867.40, which are open and
widely available to the public and interested institutions.
PS. THERE IS NO STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS ON MASS MURDER. ARMENIANS WILL
NOT GET OVER IT UNTIL JUSTICE IS SERVED. ITS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME
BEFORE THE US STATE DEPARTMENT STOPS THE DOG AND PONY SHOW FOR THE
HANDFUL THAT RULE TURKEY TODAY.
BY john on 08/30/2011 at 18:11
When does genocide end?
Genocide ends when denial ceases.
The Armenian genocide is ongoing because the perpetrator - the Turkish
State - and 99.7% of Turks deny their crime of genocide.
For 20 years, Turkey has maintained a hostile economic land blockade on
Armenia, preventing land access routes for import/export trade passage
to Europe and the Middle East; and has refused to normalize relations.
According to a report by the (IMF) International Monetary Fund,
Armenia loses nearly US $1 billion per year. Armenians are forced to
seek economic survival elsewhere outside their natural environment,
language, culture, customs, etc.
The Turkish state continues its crime of genocide [aided by the US
State Department] by implementing a coordinated plan of different
actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of
life in Armenia, with the aim of annihilating the Armenians in
Armenia. To bring about the disintegration of the political and social
institutions, culture, language, national feelings, religion, and
the economic existence, and the destruction of the personal security,
liberty, health, dignity, and the lives of individuals.
The Turks have not only murdered humans, destroyed an ancient culture
civilization and rewritten history, but they continue to legitimize
the act as well as the racist ideology that led to the act.
Denial is not just the simple negation of an act; it is much more
the consequent continuation of the very act itself.
Genocide should not only physically destroy a community; it should
likewise dictate the prerogative of interpretation in regard to
history, culture, territory and memory. As the victims - Armenians -
never existed.
So then, when does the Armenian genocide end? Only when Turkish denial
ceases and Turkey is brought to accountability for the worst crime
humanity has given a name - Genocide.BY Haig Justinian on 08/31/2011
at 17:09