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LET US COMPARE GENOCIDES
Religion News Service
April 14 2015
Jeffrey Salkin | Apr 14, 2015
This month is the one hundredth anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
That's right -- it's a genocide. That's exactly what Pope Francis
said recently -- much to the chagrin of the Turkish regime, which
recalled its ambassador to the Vatican. Worse: Turkish Prime Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu said that calling the wholesale slaughter of Armenians
"genocide" is tantamount to "Islamophobia" -- which wins this week's
prize for "The Most Irresponsible Playing Of The Islamophobia Charge."
Why should Jews be talking about this? Because when we look at the
Armenians, it is as if we are looking in the mirror.
The poet Joel Rosenberg writes:
I cite our landless outposts of diaspora...
I cite our neighboring quarters in the walled Jerusalem,
our holy men in black,
our past in Scripture,
and our overlapping sacred sites.
I cite our reverence for family ties,
our Middle Eastern food, our enterprise,
our immigration histories, our ironic manner, our eccentric uncles.
Our clustering in cities, our cherishing of books, our vexed and
aching homelands."
Here's how it happened. In the waning days of the Ottoman Empire,
the Armenians were seen as a foreign element in Turkish society -
and, in this sense, they occupied the same place as the Jews of the
Ottoman Empire. Like the Jews, the Armenian Christians challenged the
traditional hierarchy of Ottoman society. Like the Jews, they became
better educated, wealthier, and more urban. Like "the Jewish problem"
that would be frequently discussed in Germany, in Turkey they talked
about "the Armenian question."
The Turkish army killed a million and a half Armenians. Sometimes,
Turkish soldiers would forcibly convert Armenian children and young
women to Islam. The Turks delved into the records of the Spanish
Inquisition and revived its torture methods. So many Armenian bodies
were dumped into the Euphrates that the mighty river changed its
course for a hundred yards.
in America, the newspaper headlines screamed of systematic race
extermination. Parents cajoled their children to be frugal with their
food, "for there are starving children in Armenia." In 1915 alone,
the New York Times published 145 articles about the Armenian genocide.
Americans raised $100 million in aid for the Armenians. Activists,
politicians, religious leaders, diplomats, intellectuals and ordinary
citizens called for intervention, but nothing happened.
The Armenians call their genocide Meds Yeghern ("the Great
Catastrophe"). It was to become the model of all genocides and ethnic
cleansing. It served the Nazis well as a model. Not only the act of
genocide itself -- but also, the passive amnesia about that genocide.
"Who talks about the Armenians anymore?" laughed Hitler.
One day in 1915, in the small town of Kourd Belen, the Turks ordered
eight hundred Armenian families to abandon their homes. The priest was
Khoren Hampartsoomian, age 85. As he led his people from the village,
neighboring Turks taunted the priest: "Good luck, old man. Whom are
you going to bury today?"
The old priest replied: "God. God is dead and we are rushing to
his funeral."
Just as Elie Wiesel, writing in Night, recalled a child hanging
from a gallows in a concentration camp, his small body too light
to die immediately. "Where is God?" cries a prisoner. "Hanging on
the gallows."
After the Shoah, Jews cried aloud to God: "O God, how could You do this
to us, the children of Your covenant?" After the genocide, Armenian
theologians cried: "O God, how could this have happened to us - for we
were the first people to adopt Christianity as a state religion?" Some
Armenian Christians referred to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and
asked: "Were there not even fifty Armenians who could have been saved?"
After the Shoah, Jews cried: "We must have sinned. God has used the
Nazis as a club against us." Armenians cried: "God used the Turks
as a club against us. We were a Christian nation, but we lived as
atheists." Some Armenian Christians said: "If this is what God can
do to us, then God and Jesus Christ -- you go your way, and I will
go mine. Don't bother me anymore."
Is it chutzpah to raise this, as Jews mark Yom Ha Shoah, and the
seventieth anniversary of the liberation of the camps? Some Jews have
wanted to hoard the concept of genocide -- "What happened to the Turks
wasn't as bad as the Holocaust!'" True, but that's an extremely high
and ghastly bar to set. True -- no genocide has approached the scale
of the Shoah. True -- not every genocide is created equal.
Moreover, the very nature of the Armenian catastrophe was different.
Jews were killed wherever they lived in Europe; by contrast, Armenians
outside of Armenia were relatively safe. Anti-semitism is a deep,
pervasive moral illness; by contrast, there is no such thing as
"anti-Armenianism" in the collective psyche of the world.
But, If Jews do not allow the world to compare the Holocaust to other
genocides, then its relevance to the world will wither.
And when that happens, Jews would be inflicted by moral laryngitis,
losing their ability to speak truth to the world.
http://jeffreysalkin.religionnews.com/2015/04/14/let-us-compare-genocides/
Religion News Service
April 14 2015
Jeffrey Salkin | Apr 14, 2015
This month is the one hundredth anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
That's right -- it's a genocide. That's exactly what Pope Francis
said recently -- much to the chagrin of the Turkish regime, which
recalled its ambassador to the Vatican. Worse: Turkish Prime Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu said that calling the wholesale slaughter of Armenians
"genocide" is tantamount to "Islamophobia" -- which wins this week's
prize for "The Most Irresponsible Playing Of The Islamophobia Charge."
Why should Jews be talking about this? Because when we look at the
Armenians, it is as if we are looking in the mirror.
The poet Joel Rosenberg writes:
I cite our landless outposts of diaspora...
I cite our neighboring quarters in the walled Jerusalem,
our holy men in black,
our past in Scripture,
and our overlapping sacred sites.
I cite our reverence for family ties,
our Middle Eastern food, our enterprise,
our immigration histories, our ironic manner, our eccentric uncles.
Our clustering in cities, our cherishing of books, our vexed and
aching homelands."
Here's how it happened. In the waning days of the Ottoman Empire,
the Armenians were seen as a foreign element in Turkish society -
and, in this sense, they occupied the same place as the Jews of the
Ottoman Empire. Like the Jews, the Armenian Christians challenged the
traditional hierarchy of Ottoman society. Like the Jews, they became
better educated, wealthier, and more urban. Like "the Jewish problem"
that would be frequently discussed in Germany, in Turkey they talked
about "the Armenian question."
The Turkish army killed a million and a half Armenians. Sometimes,
Turkish soldiers would forcibly convert Armenian children and young
women to Islam. The Turks delved into the records of the Spanish
Inquisition and revived its torture methods. So many Armenian bodies
were dumped into the Euphrates that the mighty river changed its
course for a hundred yards.
in America, the newspaper headlines screamed of systematic race
extermination. Parents cajoled their children to be frugal with their
food, "for there are starving children in Armenia." In 1915 alone,
the New York Times published 145 articles about the Armenian genocide.
Americans raised $100 million in aid for the Armenians. Activists,
politicians, religious leaders, diplomats, intellectuals and ordinary
citizens called for intervention, but nothing happened.
The Armenians call their genocide Meds Yeghern ("the Great
Catastrophe"). It was to become the model of all genocides and ethnic
cleansing. It served the Nazis well as a model. Not only the act of
genocide itself -- but also, the passive amnesia about that genocide.
"Who talks about the Armenians anymore?" laughed Hitler.
One day in 1915, in the small town of Kourd Belen, the Turks ordered
eight hundred Armenian families to abandon their homes. The priest was
Khoren Hampartsoomian, age 85. As he led his people from the village,
neighboring Turks taunted the priest: "Good luck, old man. Whom are
you going to bury today?"
The old priest replied: "God. God is dead and we are rushing to
his funeral."
Just as Elie Wiesel, writing in Night, recalled a child hanging
from a gallows in a concentration camp, his small body too light
to die immediately. "Where is God?" cries a prisoner. "Hanging on
the gallows."
After the Shoah, Jews cried aloud to God: "O God, how could You do this
to us, the children of Your covenant?" After the genocide, Armenian
theologians cried: "O God, how could this have happened to us - for we
were the first people to adopt Christianity as a state religion?" Some
Armenian Christians referred to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and
asked: "Were there not even fifty Armenians who could have been saved?"
After the Shoah, Jews cried: "We must have sinned. God has used the
Nazis as a club against us." Armenians cried: "God used the Turks
as a club against us. We were a Christian nation, but we lived as
atheists." Some Armenian Christians said: "If this is what God can
do to us, then God and Jesus Christ -- you go your way, and I will
go mine. Don't bother me anymore."
Is it chutzpah to raise this, as Jews mark Yom Ha Shoah, and the
seventieth anniversary of the liberation of the camps? Some Jews have
wanted to hoard the concept of genocide -- "What happened to the Turks
wasn't as bad as the Holocaust!'" True, but that's an extremely high
and ghastly bar to set. True -- no genocide has approached the scale
of the Shoah. True -- not every genocide is created equal.
Moreover, the very nature of the Armenian catastrophe was different.
Jews were killed wherever they lived in Europe; by contrast, Armenians
outside of Armenia were relatively safe. Anti-semitism is a deep,
pervasive moral illness; by contrast, there is no such thing as
"anti-Armenianism" in the collective psyche of the world.
But, If Jews do not allow the world to compare the Holocaust to other
genocides, then its relevance to the world will wither.
And when that happens, Jews would be inflicted by moral laryngitis,
losing their ability to speak truth to the world.
http://jeffreysalkin.religionnews.com/2015/04/14/let-us-compare-genocides/