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TALKING TURKEY
St. Louis Jewish Light, MO
April 15 2015
Posted: Wednesday, April 15, 2015 2:30 pm
Talking Turkey Jewish Light Editorial St. Louis Jewish Light |
0 comments
As we recognize Yom HaShoah this week and as anti-Semitism has exploded
across Europe, one of the most powerful stances against racial and
ethnic hatred has been taken by none other than Pope Francis.
The pontiff over the weekend made a historic statement describing the
1915 massacre by Turkish forces of 1.5 million Armenians as "the first
genocide of the 20th century." Predictably, his statement was applauded
by Armenians and many others who have supported such a description.
And in a predictably pathetic show to the contrary, the pope's bold
assertion received a vehemently angry response from the government
of Turkey, which recalled its ambassador to the Vatican to protest
the pope's statement.
According to reporting in the New York Times by Jim Yardley and Sebnem
Arsu, Pope Francis made the comments at a Mass for the centenary of
the start of the mass killings of Armenians. Then, in a later message
to all Armenians, he indicated that the "seemingly piecemeal global
violence of the 21st century represented a 'third world war.' " He also
described his frustration with what he considers global indifference
toward the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere
by militants with the Islamic State.
"Today, too, we are experiencing a sort of genocide created by general
and collective indifference," he said.
The term "genocide" was coined by the Polish-Jewish writer Raphael
Lempkin in his book "Axis Rule in Europe," which was published in
1944. In 1948, in direct response to the Holocaust, the United Nations
General Assembly adopted the Genocide Convention for the prevention
of genocide and to punish the organizers of genocide.
By August 2014, 146 nations, including the United States, have
ratified it.
Within the text of the Genocide Convention, not only is mass murder
outlawed, but also several other actions of an extreme nature, taken
against groups of individuals. It does not give a legal definition
of the term "genocide," but the term has come to be understood as an
intent to destroy, wholly or partially, a national, ethnic, racial
or religious group per se.
Of note is the fact that the only time since the adoption of the
Genocide Convention that the term has been officially used by the
UN to describe a mass murder was the case of Rwanda in 1994, when
800,000 Tutsis were murdered by Hutu militia using machetes, while
UN peacekeepers stood by without intervening.
Several other mass killings in addition to the Armenian massacre
have not been designated as genocides by the UN General Assembly,
including claims regarding the murder of blacks in Southern Sudan,
Kurds in Iraq, Nagas in India, communists and Chinese in Indonesia
and the Ibos during the Biafran War in Nigeria. Nor was the systematic
killing of over 1 million "intellectuals" and other anti-regime people
by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia given that description.
The Times piece reports that "many Armenians have long demanded that
Turkey acknowledge that about 1.5 million of their forebears were
actually killed in a systematic genocide," and points out that more
than 20 countries have passed parliamentary bills recognizing the
killings as genocide, while nations like Greece and Switzerland have
called for criminal charges against those who deny it.
The Turkish government continues to insist that the deaths of the
Armenians during the World War I period was the result of a "civil
war," and was not a genocide. On Sunday, Turkish officials in the
capital city of Ankara summoned the Vatican's ambassador to Turkey
and notified him of their government's "grave disappointment and
sadness" over the pope's remarks, which were supposedly "away from
historical facts."
The Armenian massacre was a genocide as a matter of historical fact,
and it is high time that the bullying of the Turkish government to
prevent its acknowledgment was stopped.
Many Jewish organizations and individuals have supported the
position that the Armenian massacre was a genocide. Last month,
the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center and the Jewish
Community Relations Council, were among the co-sponsors of a lecture by
Nicole E. Vartanian, acting director of the Children of Armenia Fund,
about the "Enduring Lessons and Legacies of the Armenian Genocide."
There is a quote anecdotally attributed to Adolf Hitler, that when
he was asked whether the world would respond to the mass murder of
Jews, Gypsies (Roman) and other groups, he responded, "Who today
cares about what the Turks did to the Armenians?"
It turns out that many people care, including the courageous and
principled Pope Francis.
http://www.stljewishlight.com/opinion/editorial/article_1ce4a2a8-e399-11e4-8416-3b2fd1dad132.html
St. Louis Jewish Light, MO
April 15 2015
Posted: Wednesday, April 15, 2015 2:30 pm
Talking Turkey Jewish Light Editorial St. Louis Jewish Light |
0 comments
As we recognize Yom HaShoah this week and as anti-Semitism has exploded
across Europe, one of the most powerful stances against racial and
ethnic hatred has been taken by none other than Pope Francis.
The pontiff over the weekend made a historic statement describing the
1915 massacre by Turkish forces of 1.5 million Armenians as "the first
genocide of the 20th century." Predictably, his statement was applauded
by Armenians and many others who have supported such a description.
And in a predictably pathetic show to the contrary, the pope's bold
assertion received a vehemently angry response from the government
of Turkey, which recalled its ambassador to the Vatican to protest
the pope's statement.
According to reporting in the New York Times by Jim Yardley and Sebnem
Arsu, Pope Francis made the comments at a Mass for the centenary of
the start of the mass killings of Armenians. Then, in a later message
to all Armenians, he indicated that the "seemingly piecemeal global
violence of the 21st century represented a 'third world war.' " He also
described his frustration with what he considers global indifference
toward the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere
by militants with the Islamic State.
"Today, too, we are experiencing a sort of genocide created by general
and collective indifference," he said.
The term "genocide" was coined by the Polish-Jewish writer Raphael
Lempkin in his book "Axis Rule in Europe," which was published in
1944. In 1948, in direct response to the Holocaust, the United Nations
General Assembly adopted the Genocide Convention for the prevention
of genocide and to punish the organizers of genocide.
By August 2014, 146 nations, including the United States, have
ratified it.
Within the text of the Genocide Convention, not only is mass murder
outlawed, but also several other actions of an extreme nature, taken
against groups of individuals. It does not give a legal definition
of the term "genocide," but the term has come to be understood as an
intent to destroy, wholly or partially, a national, ethnic, racial
or religious group per se.
Of note is the fact that the only time since the adoption of the
Genocide Convention that the term has been officially used by the
UN to describe a mass murder was the case of Rwanda in 1994, when
800,000 Tutsis were murdered by Hutu militia using machetes, while
UN peacekeepers stood by without intervening.
Several other mass killings in addition to the Armenian massacre
have not been designated as genocides by the UN General Assembly,
including claims regarding the murder of blacks in Southern Sudan,
Kurds in Iraq, Nagas in India, communists and Chinese in Indonesia
and the Ibos during the Biafran War in Nigeria. Nor was the systematic
killing of over 1 million "intellectuals" and other anti-regime people
by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia given that description.
The Times piece reports that "many Armenians have long demanded that
Turkey acknowledge that about 1.5 million of their forebears were
actually killed in a systematic genocide," and points out that more
than 20 countries have passed parliamentary bills recognizing the
killings as genocide, while nations like Greece and Switzerland have
called for criminal charges against those who deny it.
The Turkish government continues to insist that the deaths of the
Armenians during the World War I period was the result of a "civil
war," and was not a genocide. On Sunday, Turkish officials in the
capital city of Ankara summoned the Vatican's ambassador to Turkey
and notified him of their government's "grave disappointment and
sadness" over the pope's remarks, which were supposedly "away from
historical facts."
The Armenian massacre was a genocide as a matter of historical fact,
and it is high time that the bullying of the Turkish government to
prevent its acknowledgment was stopped.
Many Jewish organizations and individuals have supported the
position that the Armenian massacre was a genocide. Last month,
the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center and the Jewish
Community Relations Council, were among the co-sponsors of a lecture by
Nicole E. Vartanian, acting director of the Children of Armenia Fund,
about the "Enduring Lessons and Legacies of the Armenian Genocide."
There is a quote anecdotally attributed to Adolf Hitler, that when
he was asked whether the world would respond to the mass murder of
Jews, Gypsies (Roman) and other groups, he responded, "Who today
cares about what the Turks did to the Armenians?"
It turns out that many people care, including the courageous and
principled Pope Francis.
http://www.stljewishlight.com/opinion/editorial/article_1ce4a2a8-e399-11e4-8416-3b2fd1dad132.html