Tweet
LESSONS LEARNED FROM NATIONAL CATASTROPHES: ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
14:14, 08 Dec 2014
Chairman of the Political Science Association of Armenia, Doctor of
Political Science Hayk Kotanjian made a statement at parliamentary
hearings on "The World without Genocides." Members of the European
Jewish Parliament participated in the sitting.
Honorable Mr. Chairman, Dear Members of the National Assembly of
the Republic of Armenia and the European Jewish Parliament, Ladies
and Gentlemen,
Let me start my presentation highlighting the fact that tomorrow is
the very day when 66 years ago - on December 9, 1948 - the United
Nations adopted The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
the Crime of Genocide developed by Professor of Jewish origin Raphael
Lemkin. At the same time, the proposal to legislatively announce the
December 9 the Remembrance Day for victims of all Genocides in Armenia
is on the agenda of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations of
the Parliament of the Republic of Armenia, under the auspices of
which today's hearings are conducted, that are very important in
terms of understanding the perspectives of the security cooperation
in the interest of the sustainable development of World Armenians
and World Jewry.
Nevertheless, we must state, bearing the full responsibility,
that on the eve of this significant event, in close proximity to
the Republic of Armenia and the State of Israel the torturers of
the Islamic State perpetrate genocide of Christians, Jews, Yazidis,
and Muslims - not engaged in terroristic jihad. To efficiently solve
the problem of countering this common threat, it is instrumental
to consider and reconsider the lessons learned by peoples from the
genocidal crimes committed against humanity and mankind during the
contemporary history. At the same time, the absolute or proportionate
number of victims from different peoples and religious groups is,
indeed, various; nevertheless, this in no way belittles the role of
tragedy in the fates of each of them.
The Armenian and Jewish peoples are alike in having responded to the
genocides by restoring and democratically promoting their ancient
statehoods. These remarkable events occurred at the end of the two
World Wars of the 20th century: the Republic of Armenia and the
State of Israel were established accordingly on 28 May, 1918 and 14
May, 1948.
The "Never Again" principle integrates the logical and moral
bases of the Jewish and Armenian peoples' right to contribute to
the international community in providing Israel and Armenia with
the guarantees of non-recurrence of genocide. This principle is
a cornerstone underlying the National Security Strategies of the
Republic of Armenia and the State of Israel.
The urgency of the "Never Again" principle for the Armenian people
called forth by the genocidal acts against the Armenians of Azerbaijan
during Perestroika in the USSR, in response to the Nagorno-Karabakh
Armenians' peaceful political actions for self-determination and
withdrawal from the Azerbaijani SSR in compliance with the USSR
legislation then in force. It concerns the pogroms in Sumgait and
Kirovabad in 1988 and in Baku in 1990. These crimes were interspersed
and to this day are being interspersed with the attempts to
"counterbalance" them with the genocidal acts against Azerbaijanis
allegedly committed by the Armenians. Thus, the slaughter of its
own citizens in Khojalu, carried out in 1992 by the Popular Front of
Azerbaijan - in order to discredit the then Azerbaijani President and
to seize the power - is imputed to the Armenians who, when neutralizing
enemy's firing positions, had actually opened a humanitarian corridor
for the evacuation of the people of Khojalu.
In recent past, the Baku mass media played up the information that
on the territory of the mass grave in Guba - a town in the north of
Azerbaijan - a memorial complex was erected in commemoration of the
victims of the genocide allegedly committed by the Armenians against
the Mountain Jews at the beginning of the last century. This fact
became a matter of political manipulations targeted at cultivating
anti-Armenian sentiments among the Jews. However, as the historical
facts picked up from the Turkish sources and published by the Armenian
side evidence, in fact this concerns the mass grave of the Armenians
killed as a result of the massacre perpetrated by the Ottoman Islamic
army under the command of Nuri Pasha at the invasion of the South
Caucasus in 1918. Besides, according to the documents of the Central
State Historical Archive of Russia the relations between the Armenians
and the Jews in the South Caucasus region were exceptionally friendly.
The attempts of using falsification of historical events in Guba -
to lead the Jewish and Armenian peoples to a clash - failed due to the
productive cooperation of the scholars and influential organizations of
the Armenian and Jewish Diasporas, as well as the experts of Armenia
and Israel.
In the case of the Jews, the urgency of guaranteeing non-recurrence
of the Holocaust is conditioned by the unremitting mortal attacks
against the Jewish people since the establishment of the State of
Israel, and at present accompanied by the terrorism of the radical
Islam. Direct intersection of security interests of the Armenians
and Jews in terms of the threat of recurrence of genocides in the
Middle East has recently been reflected in the destruction of the
1915 Armenian Genocide Martyrs' Memorial Church of the Armenian
Catholicosate of Cilicia in the Syrian desert Deir ez-Zor by the
vandals of the Islamic State.
As it is well known, there is a serious issue regarding the fact that
genocide - being an international crime against humanity and humankind
- requires recognition from the state, the former authorities of
which had committed genocide, as well as the international community.
Meanwhile, non-recognition of genocide, as a rule, is politically
motivated. As a precedent we should consider the recognition of the
Holocaust by the authorities of the FRG, who have fundamentally
dissociated themselves from Nazi Germany's former genocidal
leadership. As we know, the government of Konrad Adenauer on this
basis signed an agreement with the government of Israel and the
Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany, under which
committed itself to pay compensation to the affected party.
Distancing itself from the genocidal regimes of Sultan Abdul Hamid
and the Young Turks with the assumption of adequate responsibility for
compensating the damage is expected from modern Turkey's authorities
in terms of the Genocide committed against 1.5 million of its citizens
of Armenian origin.
As some Israeli experts think, in due time, taking into account the
dynamics of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israel, with a view to build
and maintain partnership with secular Turkey - an alternative to
Arab states - has refused to recognize the Armenian Genocide, so as
not to irritate Ankara. The public arguments of the given political
solution were veiled in the form of protection of the uniqueness of
the Holocaust as a phenomenon incomparable with any other genocide
in the history of mankind.
However, along with the changing priorities of the Turkish authorities,
based on the doctrine of "neo-Ottomanism", and the consequent recent
new geostrategy of Turkey in the Middle East and the Islamic world,
there is a tendency for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by
authoritative representatives of the world Jewry. Let me provide you
with some assessments by the leading researchers of the Holocaust.
DR. ISRAEL CHARNY,
Executive Director of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide,
Jerusalem.
Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Genocide.
"The Armenian Genocide is remarkable in many respects, including
the fact that in the bloody 20th century it was an early example
of mass genocide, which many recognize as a "dress rehearsal" of
the Holocaust."
SOL GITTLEMAN
Provost and Head of the Chair of Judaic Studies, Tufts University (US).
"The campaign of vilification and dehumanization which preceded the
destruction of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in 1895-1896 and
again in 1915 was, in subtlety and in preparation, just as carefully
orchestrated as was the preparation of Dr. Goebbels. The Armenians
were categorized according to the stereotype. Therefore, they were
less than human, and killing men, women, and children was not an
act of brutality, but rather an act of heroism necessary to free the
country from an infection."
LUCY DAWIDOWICZ,
Expert on Holocaust, Harvard (US).
"The Armenian Genocide in its extent and horror most closely
approximated the murder of the European Jews The once unthinkable
"Armenian solution" became, in our time achievable "Final solution",
the Nazi code name for the annihilation of the European Jews."
Meanwhile, Israel urged to recognize the Armenian Genocide not only
by leading experts on the Holocaust. Over the years Knesset members
Aryeh Eldad, Ze'ev Elkin, Zahava Gal-On, Haim Oron, Yossi Sarid,
Yuri Stern, Yair Tzaban, Alexander Tzinker and others bore on the
agenda of the plenary sessions of the Israeli Parliament proposals
for official recognition of this tragic fact of history. Today's
Israeli president Reuven Rivlin - the then Speaker of the Knesset -
also considered the recognition of the Armenian Genocide to be the
duty of the Israeli parliament.
A crucial support for the recognition of Armenian Genocide demonstrated
Yona Metzger, Chief Rabbi of Israel, who visited the Memorial to the
victims of the Armenian Genocide in Tsitsernakaberd in 2005.
We welcome the members of the European Jewish Parliament at the
National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia on the threshold of the
100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. Let
me express my confidence that today's joint discussion of ours
will advance the understanding and implementation of constructive
cooperation between the Armenians of the World and World Jewry in
the interests of security and sustainable development of the Republic
of Armenia and the State of Israel, as well as the Armenian and the
Jewish Diasporas.
In conclusion, I feel genuinely obliged to speak about the
appropriateness of the invitation of His Excellency the President
of Israel Dear Mr. Reuven Rivlin to Yerevan in April, 2015, to take
part in events marking the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
in the Ottoman Empire. This visit, reflecting the national security
interests of the State of Israel and the Republic of Armenia, and I
am sure of it, may become a high performance act of moral duty for
all the states and peoples of the world - in relation to the memory
of the victims of crimes against humanity and mankind.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2014/12/08/lessons-learned-from-national-catastrophes-on-the-threshold-of-the-100th-anniversary-of-the-armenian-genocide/
From: Baghdasarian
14:14, 08 Dec 2014
Chairman of the Political Science Association of Armenia, Doctor of
Political Science Hayk Kotanjian made a statement at parliamentary
hearings on "The World without Genocides." Members of the European
Jewish Parliament participated in the sitting.
Honorable Mr. Chairman, Dear Members of the National Assembly of
the Republic of Armenia and the European Jewish Parliament, Ladies
and Gentlemen,
Let me start my presentation highlighting the fact that tomorrow is
the very day when 66 years ago - on December 9, 1948 - the United
Nations adopted The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of
the Crime of Genocide developed by Professor of Jewish origin Raphael
Lemkin. At the same time, the proposal to legislatively announce the
December 9 the Remembrance Day for victims of all Genocides in Armenia
is on the agenda of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations of
the Parliament of the Republic of Armenia, under the auspices of
which today's hearings are conducted, that are very important in
terms of understanding the perspectives of the security cooperation
in the interest of the sustainable development of World Armenians
and World Jewry.
Nevertheless, we must state, bearing the full responsibility,
that on the eve of this significant event, in close proximity to
the Republic of Armenia and the State of Israel the torturers of
the Islamic State perpetrate genocide of Christians, Jews, Yazidis,
and Muslims - not engaged in terroristic jihad. To efficiently solve
the problem of countering this common threat, it is instrumental
to consider and reconsider the lessons learned by peoples from the
genocidal crimes committed against humanity and mankind during the
contemporary history. At the same time, the absolute or proportionate
number of victims from different peoples and religious groups is,
indeed, various; nevertheless, this in no way belittles the role of
tragedy in the fates of each of them.
The Armenian and Jewish peoples are alike in having responded to the
genocides by restoring and democratically promoting their ancient
statehoods. These remarkable events occurred at the end of the two
World Wars of the 20th century: the Republic of Armenia and the
State of Israel were established accordingly on 28 May, 1918 and 14
May, 1948.
The "Never Again" principle integrates the logical and moral
bases of the Jewish and Armenian peoples' right to contribute to
the international community in providing Israel and Armenia with
the guarantees of non-recurrence of genocide. This principle is
a cornerstone underlying the National Security Strategies of the
Republic of Armenia and the State of Israel.
The urgency of the "Never Again" principle for the Armenian people
called forth by the genocidal acts against the Armenians of Azerbaijan
during Perestroika in the USSR, in response to the Nagorno-Karabakh
Armenians' peaceful political actions for self-determination and
withdrawal from the Azerbaijani SSR in compliance with the USSR
legislation then in force. It concerns the pogroms in Sumgait and
Kirovabad in 1988 and in Baku in 1990. These crimes were interspersed
and to this day are being interspersed with the attempts to
"counterbalance" them with the genocidal acts against Azerbaijanis
allegedly committed by the Armenians. Thus, the slaughter of its
own citizens in Khojalu, carried out in 1992 by the Popular Front of
Azerbaijan - in order to discredit the then Azerbaijani President and
to seize the power - is imputed to the Armenians who, when neutralizing
enemy's firing positions, had actually opened a humanitarian corridor
for the evacuation of the people of Khojalu.
In recent past, the Baku mass media played up the information that
on the territory of the mass grave in Guba - a town in the north of
Azerbaijan - a memorial complex was erected in commemoration of the
victims of the genocide allegedly committed by the Armenians against
the Mountain Jews at the beginning of the last century. This fact
became a matter of political manipulations targeted at cultivating
anti-Armenian sentiments among the Jews. However, as the historical
facts picked up from the Turkish sources and published by the Armenian
side evidence, in fact this concerns the mass grave of the Armenians
killed as a result of the massacre perpetrated by the Ottoman Islamic
army under the command of Nuri Pasha at the invasion of the South
Caucasus in 1918. Besides, according to the documents of the Central
State Historical Archive of Russia the relations between the Armenians
and the Jews in the South Caucasus region were exceptionally friendly.
The attempts of using falsification of historical events in Guba -
to lead the Jewish and Armenian peoples to a clash - failed due to the
productive cooperation of the scholars and influential organizations of
the Armenian and Jewish Diasporas, as well as the experts of Armenia
and Israel.
In the case of the Jews, the urgency of guaranteeing non-recurrence
of the Holocaust is conditioned by the unremitting mortal attacks
against the Jewish people since the establishment of the State of
Israel, and at present accompanied by the terrorism of the radical
Islam. Direct intersection of security interests of the Armenians
and Jews in terms of the threat of recurrence of genocides in the
Middle East has recently been reflected in the destruction of the
1915 Armenian Genocide Martyrs' Memorial Church of the Armenian
Catholicosate of Cilicia in the Syrian desert Deir ez-Zor by the
vandals of the Islamic State.
As it is well known, there is a serious issue regarding the fact that
genocide - being an international crime against humanity and humankind
- requires recognition from the state, the former authorities of
which had committed genocide, as well as the international community.
Meanwhile, non-recognition of genocide, as a rule, is politically
motivated. As a precedent we should consider the recognition of the
Holocaust by the authorities of the FRG, who have fundamentally
dissociated themselves from Nazi Germany's former genocidal
leadership. As we know, the government of Konrad Adenauer on this
basis signed an agreement with the government of Israel and the
Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany, under which
committed itself to pay compensation to the affected party.
Distancing itself from the genocidal regimes of Sultan Abdul Hamid
and the Young Turks with the assumption of adequate responsibility for
compensating the damage is expected from modern Turkey's authorities
in terms of the Genocide committed against 1.5 million of its citizens
of Armenian origin.
As some Israeli experts think, in due time, taking into account the
dynamics of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Israel, with a view to build
and maintain partnership with secular Turkey - an alternative to
Arab states - has refused to recognize the Armenian Genocide, so as
not to irritate Ankara. The public arguments of the given political
solution were veiled in the form of protection of the uniqueness of
the Holocaust as a phenomenon incomparable with any other genocide
in the history of mankind.
However, along with the changing priorities of the Turkish authorities,
based on the doctrine of "neo-Ottomanism", and the consequent recent
new geostrategy of Turkey in the Middle East and the Islamic world,
there is a tendency for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by
authoritative representatives of the world Jewry. Let me provide you
with some assessments by the leading researchers of the Holocaust.
DR. ISRAEL CHARNY,
Executive Director of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide,
Jerusalem.
Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Genocide.
"The Armenian Genocide is remarkable in many respects, including
the fact that in the bloody 20th century it was an early example
of mass genocide, which many recognize as a "dress rehearsal" of
the Holocaust."
SOL GITTLEMAN
Provost and Head of the Chair of Judaic Studies, Tufts University (US).
"The campaign of vilification and dehumanization which preceded the
destruction of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in 1895-1896 and
again in 1915 was, in subtlety and in preparation, just as carefully
orchestrated as was the preparation of Dr. Goebbels. The Armenians
were categorized according to the stereotype. Therefore, they were
less than human, and killing men, women, and children was not an
act of brutality, but rather an act of heroism necessary to free the
country from an infection."
LUCY DAWIDOWICZ,
Expert on Holocaust, Harvard (US).
"The Armenian Genocide in its extent and horror most closely
approximated the murder of the European Jews The once unthinkable
"Armenian solution" became, in our time achievable "Final solution",
the Nazi code name for the annihilation of the European Jews."
Meanwhile, Israel urged to recognize the Armenian Genocide not only
by leading experts on the Holocaust. Over the years Knesset members
Aryeh Eldad, Ze'ev Elkin, Zahava Gal-On, Haim Oron, Yossi Sarid,
Yuri Stern, Yair Tzaban, Alexander Tzinker and others bore on the
agenda of the plenary sessions of the Israeli Parliament proposals
for official recognition of this tragic fact of history. Today's
Israeli president Reuven Rivlin - the then Speaker of the Knesset -
also considered the recognition of the Armenian Genocide to be the
duty of the Israeli parliament.
A crucial support for the recognition of Armenian Genocide demonstrated
Yona Metzger, Chief Rabbi of Israel, who visited the Memorial to the
victims of the Armenian Genocide in Tsitsernakaberd in 2005.
We welcome the members of the European Jewish Parliament at the
National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia on the threshold of the
100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. Let
me express my confidence that today's joint discussion of ours
will advance the understanding and implementation of constructive
cooperation between the Armenians of the World and World Jewry in
the interests of security and sustainable development of the Republic
of Armenia and the State of Israel, as well as the Armenian and the
Jewish Diasporas.
In conclusion, I feel genuinely obliged to speak about the
appropriateness of the invitation of His Excellency the President
of Israel Dear Mr. Reuven Rivlin to Yerevan in April, 2015, to take
part in events marking the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
in the Ottoman Empire. This visit, reflecting the national security
interests of the State of Israel and the Republic of Armenia, and I
am sure of it, may become a high performance act of moral duty for
all the states and peoples of the world - in relation to the memory
of the victims of crimes against humanity and mankind.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2014/12/08/lessons-learned-from-national-catastrophes-on-the-threshold-of-the-100th-anniversary-of-the-armenian-genocide/
From: Baghdasarian