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ISRAEL SHOULD RECOGNIZE THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
[ Part 2.2: "Attached Text" ]
By JPOST EDITORIAL \
04/13/2015 22:13
THE “FIRST GENOCIDE OF THE 20TH CENTURY” WAS HOW THE POPE
REFERRED TO IT DURING A SUNDAY MASS IN ST. PETER’S BASILICA IN
THE VATICAN TO MARK 100 YEARS SINCE THE ARMENIAN KILLINGS.
January
An Armenian protester holds a banner reading ‘1915 never
again’ as she takes part in a demonstration near the European
Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in January. (photo credit:REUTERS)
Exhibiting his characteristic moral clarity and sensitivity, Pope
Francis referred to Turkey’s brutal massacre of about 1.5 million
Armenian men, women and children during World War I as genocide.
The “first genocide of the 20th century” was how the pope
referred to it during a Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in
the Vatican to mark 100 years since the Armenian killings.
In his speech, Francis intertwined that genocide - perpetrated
by Muslims against Christians - with contemporary persecution and
massacres of Christians in the Middle East, Africa and Asia at the
hands of Muslims.
Ahead of April 24, the Armenian Day of Remembrance, the State of Israel
should follow the pope’s lead and recognize the premeditated
massacre for what it was - genocide.
It was on that day a century ago that 250 prominent Armenians -
poets, doctors, bankers and a member of the Ottoman parliament -
were arrested in Istanbul. They were split up into groups, loaded
onto trains, shipped off to remote prisons, and eventually murdered.
Over a million Armenians - particularly in Turkey’s Anatolia
region - were rounded up from their homes.
Men were separated from women and children and summarily executed.
Those who remained alive were deported to concentration camps in the
Syrian Desert.
In areas where ammunition was in short supply, killing squads relied
on whatever weapons were at hand - axes, cleavers, even shovels.
Adults were hacked to pieces, and infants dashed against the rocks.
In the Black Sea region, Armenians were loaded onto boats and thrown
overboard. In the area around Lake Hazar, they were tossed over cliffs.
Official Israeli recognition of what happened - essentially the
destruction of a civilization built up over four millennia - is
important for a number of reasons.
As Francis pointed out, failing to honor the memory of those Armenians
systematically murdered because of who they were amounts to concealing
and denying evil. Denial allows this evil to fester, like a wound
that remains untreated.
Hitler and the Nazi regime looked to Turkey’s festering moral
wound for inspiration for their own genocide.
As Stefan Ihrig points out in his book Ataturk in the Nazi Imagination,
“The Nazis had grown up with both the rise of the New Turkey and
the Armenian Genocide and they had not forgotten either…. Nazis
saw the New Turkey as vibrant and hypermodern because it was following
its Fuhrer unquestionably and because it had ‘solved’ the
‘minority problem.’” Though Ataturk did not rise
to power until 1920, well after the Armenian Genocide, he benefited
from the ethnic cleansing that had taken place and that facilitated
Turkey’s reclamation in 1923 of Anatolia after it had been
taken away by the Allies after World War I. And the Nazis admired this.
They also took note of the fact that those Ottomans in power at the
time of the genocide were never punished.
Beyond the moral obligation to acknowledge and denounce genocide,
which applies equally to all humanity (only 20 countries have so
far officially recognized the Armenian Genocide), Israel has a
special duty.
Founded in the shadow of the Holocaust, the State of Israel is a living
testament to the failure of the international community to prevent
genocide. It was in large part out of international recognition of
this failure that legitimacy for a uniquely Jewish state with its own
armed forces and sovereignty was born. Israel has an obligation to
live up to that legacy by using its political sovereignty to prevent
genocide not just against Jews but against any group.
As a minority religious group living in a predominantly Muslim Middle
East, the Jewish people are the natural allies of the region’s
Christians. The Armenian Genocide is a chilling reminder of the dangers
that Christians, Jews and other religious and ethnic minorities face in
this part of the world. The chances of a future genocide are greater
in the Middle East than anywhere. Those who deny genocide tend to be
those who want to see one happen again.
Iran’s mullahs are promoters of Holocaust denial who regularly
vow to wipe Israel off the map.
Pope Francis has publicly recognized the Armenian Genocide. Now it
is Israel’s turn.
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Israel-should-recognize-the-Armenian-Genocide-3
97970
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
[ Part 2.2: "Attached Text" ]
By JPOST EDITORIAL \
04/13/2015 22:13
THE “FIRST GENOCIDE OF THE 20TH CENTURY” WAS HOW THE POPE
REFERRED TO IT DURING A SUNDAY MASS IN ST. PETER’S BASILICA IN
THE VATICAN TO MARK 100 YEARS SINCE THE ARMENIAN KILLINGS.
January
An Armenian protester holds a banner reading ‘1915 never
again’ as she takes part in a demonstration near the European
Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in January. (photo credit:REUTERS)
Exhibiting his characteristic moral clarity and sensitivity, Pope
Francis referred to Turkey’s brutal massacre of about 1.5 million
Armenian men, women and children during World War I as genocide.
The “first genocide of the 20th century” was how the pope
referred to it during a Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in
the Vatican to mark 100 years since the Armenian killings.
In his speech, Francis intertwined that genocide - perpetrated
by Muslims against Christians - with contemporary persecution and
massacres of Christians in the Middle East, Africa and Asia at the
hands of Muslims.
Ahead of April 24, the Armenian Day of Remembrance, the State of Israel
should follow the pope’s lead and recognize the premeditated
massacre for what it was - genocide.
It was on that day a century ago that 250 prominent Armenians -
poets, doctors, bankers and a member of the Ottoman parliament -
were arrested in Istanbul. They were split up into groups, loaded
onto trains, shipped off to remote prisons, and eventually murdered.
Over a million Armenians - particularly in Turkey’s Anatolia
region - were rounded up from their homes.
Men were separated from women and children and summarily executed.
Those who remained alive were deported to concentration camps in the
Syrian Desert.
In areas where ammunition was in short supply, killing squads relied
on whatever weapons were at hand - axes, cleavers, even shovels.
Adults were hacked to pieces, and infants dashed against the rocks.
In the Black Sea region, Armenians were loaded onto boats and thrown
overboard. In the area around Lake Hazar, they were tossed over cliffs.
Official Israeli recognition of what happened - essentially the
destruction of a civilization built up over four millennia - is
important for a number of reasons.
As Francis pointed out, failing to honor the memory of those Armenians
systematically murdered because of who they were amounts to concealing
and denying evil. Denial allows this evil to fester, like a wound
that remains untreated.
Hitler and the Nazi regime looked to Turkey’s festering moral
wound for inspiration for their own genocide.
As Stefan Ihrig points out in his book Ataturk in the Nazi Imagination,
“The Nazis had grown up with both the rise of the New Turkey and
the Armenian Genocide and they had not forgotten either…. Nazis
saw the New Turkey as vibrant and hypermodern because it was following
its Fuhrer unquestionably and because it had ‘solved’ the
‘minority problem.’” Though Ataturk did not rise
to power until 1920, well after the Armenian Genocide, he benefited
from the ethnic cleansing that had taken place and that facilitated
Turkey’s reclamation in 1923 of Anatolia after it had been
taken away by the Allies after World War I. And the Nazis admired this.
They also took note of the fact that those Ottomans in power at the
time of the genocide were never punished.
Beyond the moral obligation to acknowledge and denounce genocide,
which applies equally to all humanity (only 20 countries have so
far officially recognized the Armenian Genocide), Israel has a
special duty.
Founded in the shadow of the Holocaust, the State of Israel is a living
testament to the failure of the international community to prevent
genocide. It was in large part out of international recognition of
this failure that legitimacy for a uniquely Jewish state with its own
armed forces and sovereignty was born. Israel has an obligation to
live up to that legacy by using its political sovereignty to prevent
genocide not just against Jews but against any group.
As a minority religious group living in a predominantly Muslim Middle
East, the Jewish people are the natural allies of the region’s
Christians. The Armenian Genocide is a chilling reminder of the dangers
that Christians, Jews and other religious and ethnic minorities face in
this part of the world. The chances of a future genocide are greater
in the Middle East than anywhere. Those who deny genocide tend to be
those who want to see one happen again.
Iran’s mullahs are promoters of Holocaust denial who regularly
vow to wipe Israel off the map.
Pope Francis has publicly recognized the Armenian Genocide. Now it
is Israel’s turn.
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Israel-should-recognize-the-Armenian-Genocide-3
97970
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress