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ARMENIAN GENOCIDE WAS ALSO A JIHAD
Boston Globe , MA
April 14 2015
By Jeff JacobyGlobe Columnist April 14, 2015
Unlike some of Pope Francis's other headline-generating pronouncements,
his description of Turkey's mass murder of 1.5 million Armenians
during World War I as "genocide" was anything but inadvertent.
Speaking at the Vatican during a Sunday Mass to mark the centenary
of the slaughter, the pope said it is "widely considered the first
genocide of the 20th century" -- a quote from Pope John Paul II,
who used nearly the same words in 2001. But Francis went further,
equating the destruction of the Armenians to the Nazi Holocaust
and the Soviet bloodbaths under Stalin. And he linked the genocidal
Ottoman assault on Armenia, the world's oldest Christian nation, with
the epidemic of violence against Christians today, especially by such
radical Islamist terror groups as ISIS, Boko Haram, and Al Shabab.
Turkey reacted angrily, recalling its ambassador to the Vatican and
accusing Francis of distorting history and spreading prejudice. On
Twitter, the Turkish foreign minister denounced the pope for fueling
"hatred and animosity" with his "unfounded allegations." That was
no surprise, given the government's vehement history of denialism on
the subject. To this day, the use of the word "genocide" to describe
the killing of the Armenians is a criminal offense in Turkey, and
Turkish diplomats labor mightily to defeat genocide-recognition
efforts worldwide.
The journalist Thomas de Waal wrote recently in Foreign Affairs that
"no other historical issue causes such anguish in Washington." The
political debate over "the G-Word" has consumed countless hours,
even as the historical debate -- as the pope suggested -- has been
largely resolved. As de Waal explains, Turkey is so adamant for reasons
both material and psychological. Some Turkish politicians fear that
acknowledging the Ottoman-perpetrated genocide could trigger claims for
financial reparations or territorial concessions. But beyond that is
"the emotive power of the word," which was coined in the wake of the
Holocaust and is indelibly linked in the public mind with the absolute
evil of the Final Solution. "No one willingly admits to committing
genocide," writes de Waal, and many Turks seethe at "being invited
to compare their grandparents to the Nazis."
Yet Turkish authorities weren't always so reluctant to accurately label
the genocidal horror unleashed against the Armenians a century ago.
For nearly a century, Turkish leaders have worked fanatically to
falsify the historical record.
Talaat Pasha, the powerful Ottoman interior minister during World War
I, certainly didn't disguise his objective. "The Government . . . has
decided to destroy completely all the indicated [Armenians] persons
living in Turkey," he brusquely reminded officials in Aleppo in a
September 1915 dispatch. "An end must be put to their existence . . .
and no regard must be paid to either age or sex, or to conscientious
scruples."
US Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, flooded with accounts of the torture,
death marches, and butchery being inflicted on the Armenians,
remonstrated with Talaat to no avail. "It is no use for you to argue,"
Morgenthau was told. "We have already disposed of three quarters
of the Armenians. . . . The hatred between the Turks and Armenians
is now so intense that we have got to finish them. If we don't,
they will plan their revenge. . . . We will not have the Armenians
anywhere in Anatolia."
If some of them survived, it wasn't for lack of effort by the killers.
Of the roughly 2 million Armenians living in the country in 1914,
90 percent were gone by 1918. The death toll was well over one
million; innumerable others fled for their lives. To read eyewitness
descriptions of the ghastly cruelties the Armenian Christians were
made to suffer a century ago is to be reminded that the jihadist
savagery of ISIS and Al Qaeda is not an innovation.
That key fact is one the pope, to his credit, refuses to downplay:
Armenians were victims not only of genocide, but also of jihad. In
imploring his listeners on Sunday to hear the "muffled and forgotten
cry" of endangered Christians who today are "ruthlessly put to
death -- decapitated, crucified, burned alive -- or forced to leave
their homeland," Francis was reminding the world that the price of
irresolution in the face of determined Islamist violence is as steep
as ever.
The jihadists of 1915 murdered "bishops and priests, religious women
and men, the elderly, and even defenseless children and the infirm."
The world knew what was happening; the grisly details were extensively
reported at the time. Just as they are now, and with as little effect.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/04/14/armenian-genocide-was-also-jihad/Aq1zTutJ73IJWRnlG8V6lN/story.html#
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Boston Globe , MA
April 14 2015
By Jeff JacobyGlobe Columnist April 14, 2015
Unlike some of Pope Francis's other headline-generating pronouncements,
his description of Turkey's mass murder of 1.5 million Armenians
during World War I as "genocide" was anything but inadvertent.
Speaking at the Vatican during a Sunday Mass to mark the centenary
of the slaughter, the pope said it is "widely considered the first
genocide of the 20th century" -- a quote from Pope John Paul II,
who used nearly the same words in 2001. But Francis went further,
equating the destruction of the Armenians to the Nazi Holocaust
and the Soviet bloodbaths under Stalin. And he linked the genocidal
Ottoman assault on Armenia, the world's oldest Christian nation, with
the epidemic of violence against Christians today, especially by such
radical Islamist terror groups as ISIS, Boko Haram, and Al Shabab.
Turkey reacted angrily, recalling its ambassador to the Vatican and
accusing Francis of distorting history and spreading prejudice. On
Twitter, the Turkish foreign minister denounced the pope for fueling
"hatred and animosity" with his "unfounded allegations." That was
no surprise, given the government's vehement history of denialism on
the subject. To this day, the use of the word "genocide" to describe
the killing of the Armenians is a criminal offense in Turkey, and
Turkish diplomats labor mightily to defeat genocide-recognition
efforts worldwide.
The journalist Thomas de Waal wrote recently in Foreign Affairs that
"no other historical issue causes such anguish in Washington." The
political debate over "the G-Word" has consumed countless hours,
even as the historical debate -- as the pope suggested -- has been
largely resolved. As de Waal explains, Turkey is so adamant for reasons
both material and psychological. Some Turkish politicians fear that
acknowledging the Ottoman-perpetrated genocide could trigger claims for
financial reparations or territorial concessions. But beyond that is
"the emotive power of the word," which was coined in the wake of the
Holocaust and is indelibly linked in the public mind with the absolute
evil of the Final Solution. "No one willingly admits to committing
genocide," writes de Waal, and many Turks seethe at "being invited
to compare their grandparents to the Nazis."
Yet Turkish authorities weren't always so reluctant to accurately label
the genocidal horror unleashed against the Armenians a century ago.
For nearly a century, Turkish leaders have worked fanatically to
falsify the historical record.
Talaat Pasha, the powerful Ottoman interior minister during World War
I, certainly didn't disguise his objective. "The Government . . . has
decided to destroy completely all the indicated [Armenians] persons
living in Turkey," he brusquely reminded officials in Aleppo in a
September 1915 dispatch. "An end must be put to their existence . . .
and no regard must be paid to either age or sex, or to conscientious
scruples."
US Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, flooded with accounts of the torture,
death marches, and butchery being inflicted on the Armenians,
remonstrated with Talaat to no avail. "It is no use for you to argue,"
Morgenthau was told. "We have already disposed of three quarters
of the Armenians. . . . The hatred between the Turks and Armenians
is now so intense that we have got to finish them. If we don't,
they will plan their revenge. . . . We will not have the Armenians
anywhere in Anatolia."
If some of them survived, it wasn't for lack of effort by the killers.
Of the roughly 2 million Armenians living in the country in 1914,
90 percent were gone by 1918. The death toll was well over one
million; innumerable others fled for their lives. To read eyewitness
descriptions of the ghastly cruelties the Armenian Christians were
made to suffer a century ago is to be reminded that the jihadist
savagery of ISIS and Al Qaeda is not an innovation.
That key fact is one the pope, to his credit, refuses to downplay:
Armenians were victims not only of genocide, but also of jihad. In
imploring his listeners on Sunday to hear the "muffled and forgotten
cry" of endangered Christians who today are "ruthlessly put to
death -- decapitated, crucified, burned alive -- or forced to leave
their homeland," Francis was reminding the world that the price of
irresolution in the face of determined Islamist violence is as steep
as ever.
The jihadists of 1915 murdered "bishops and priests, religious women
and men, the elderly, and even defenseless children and the infirm."
The world knew what was happening; the grisly details were extensively
reported at the time. Just as they are now, and with as little effect.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/04/14/armenian-genocide-was-also-jihad/Aq1zTutJ73IJWRnlG8V6lN/story.html#
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress