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THE POPE, KIM KARDASHIAN, ESCAPED NAZIS -- THE PR AND POLITICS OF GENOCIDE RECOGNITION
Ha'aretz, Israel
April 15 2015
The reality star's visit to Jerusalem is leading the way in spreading
awareness of Ottoman Turkey's killing of Armenians during World War I.
By Anshel Pfeffe
You can't buy PR like this -- in one short weekend, Armenia
attracted more global attention than in all the years since it gained
independence from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991. Kim Kardashian,
who is more famous for being famous than anyone, was also revealed
to her millions of fans as the most famous Armenian in the world.
Together with her musician husband Kanye West and their daughter North,
they arrived in Yerevan on a personal pilgrimage to the land of her
fathers. The timing wasn't coincidental, of course.
Kardashian's entourage was taken on an emotional tour of the memorial
and museum commemorating the one and a half million victims of the
Armenian genocide, less than two weeks before the official 100th
anniversary of the disaster. The photograph of Kardashian laying
flowers at the eternal flame tweeted to her 31 million followers did
more for the recognition of the genocide than decades of lobbying. But
that wasn't all that Sunday brought for the Armenians.
At mass in the Vatican, Pope Francis, standing by the heads of the
Armenian Orthodox Church and President Serzh Sargsyan (Prime Minister
Hovik Abrahamyan met with the Kardashian-Wests back home in Yerevan),
said the Armenian tragedy had been "the first genocide of the 20th
Century."
Francis is of course a celebrity in his own right (though he has only
5.9 million Twitter followers). But he is also a head of state and the
Vicar of Christ; his statement at this particular Sunday mass was the
subject of intensive diplomatic pressure from the Turkish government,
but to no avail. Turkey's long-held policy of denying that its army
carried out a planned genocide of the Armenians during World War I,
and of cajoling other nations not to recognize it either, was rent
asunder in a few hours by a man of God and a woman whose initial
claim to fame was an Internet sex tape.
Since Turkey has already recently blocked YouTube and Twitter,
there is little it can do to Kardashian, but the pope is another
matter. The ambassador to the Vatican was immediately recalled and
Francis was accused of "prejudice." Vatican officials told the media
the pope had nothing against today's Turkey; his statement was meant
to echo the fact that in today's Middle East as well, Christians are
being persecuted.
The Turkish government, however, preferred to move the narrative
to other continents. On Monday, Ankara's minister for EU affairs,
Volkan Bozkir, went a step further, accusing Francis of being
"brainwashed" like his fellow Argentines by the Armenian diaspora,
which in Argentina apparently "controls the media and business." And
if that's not bad enough, said Bozkir, Argentina is also "a country
that welcomed the leading executors of the Jewish Holocaust, Nazi
torturers, with open arms."
Worse than Hitler
The minister at least got this historical detail correct. Argentina
under President Juan Peron was the destination of many Nazis on the
run after World War II (many were helped by well-placed priests in
the Vatican). But connecting Francis to sins he had no knowledge of
or involvement in as a boy in Buenos Aires is a nasty slur.
And the current Turkish administration has not flinched from using
this sort of imagery. Last July, at the height of the Gaza conflict,
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Israelis "curse Hitler morning
and night. However, now their barbarism has surpassed even Hitler's."
Erdogan and other Turkish politicians routinely allude to Jews
controlling the global media and financial system in exactly the same
way Bozkir spoke about the Armenian community in Argentina.
This of course isn't the first time the Holocaust has been dragged
into the Armenian-genocide controversy. For decades the Armenians
have tried to receive recognition of the genocide from Israel and
Jewish communities. The symbolism of the Jews recognizing the Armenian
national tragedy is of course inescapable. In the past some Armenian
emigres even called it the Armenian Holocaust, but whether because that
didn't catch on or out of a desire not to offend Jewish sensibilities,
they stuck with "genocide."
Israel, however, has resolutely refused the small but growing group of
countries that have officially recognized the Armenian genocide. For
years this was out of consideration for the national pride of strategic
ally Turkey. Powerful Jewish groups in the United States, particularly
the Anti-Defamation League, lobbied in Congress against the passage
of American recognition.
But in recent years, as ties with Erdogan's government have steadily
deteriorated and with Turkey's standing as a NATO member and reliable
ally of the West plummeting, Israel's policy remains unchanged, even as
other countries have formally recognized the genocide. Jerusalem has a
new friend in Baku; Azerbaijan is the supplier of most of Israel's oil,
a buyer of Israeli weapons and an ally in the anti-Iranian coalition.
The battle for victimhood
But why is Azerbaijan, Armenia's oil-and-natural-gas-rich neighbor,
so invested in the dispute over commemorating an atrocity that took
place three quarters of a century before it even gained independence?
The Azeris see themselves as the Turks' brother nation, but more than
they're concerned with maintaining Turkey's historical image, they're
anxious to prevent anything from boosting Armenia's international
standing. Azerbaijan, in an on-off conflict with Armenia over the
Nagorno-Karabach enclave since the early 1990s, is eager to prevent the
Armenians from attaining any status of victimhood. In their national
narrative, it was the Karabach Azeris who were murdered and ethnically
cleansed by cruel Armenians.
The Aliyev family that rules Azerbaijan as its private fiefdom has
invested hundreds of millions in trying to brand the country as a
Westernized regional power while lobbying foreign governments and
the international media to view it favorably. One aim of Azerbaijan's
PR campaign is to smear Armenia; in recent months the lobbyists have
vigorously tried to portray the Armenians as chronic Jew-haters. They
have tried to place op-ed pieces to his effect in newspapers,
especially in Israeli and Jewish media.
Azerbaijan's mouthpieces are not motivated by concerns for the welfare
of the Jews, though there may be some truth to the allegations. Last
year the ADL published a survey on 100 countries, according to which
no less than 58 percent of Armenians harbored anti-Semitic beliefs.
Whether that figure is accurate however, the tiny Jewish community
in Yerevan, apart from a few isolated acts of vandalism, has never
suffered any serious incidents.
Armenia has also tried to improve its ties with Israel, including the
inviting of ministers. Next week at the marking of the genocide's
centenary, a delegation of Knesset members will be on hand. The
Foreign Ministry has made it clear this doesn't count as official
recognition, but perhaps that doesn't matter as much now that Armenia
has Kim Kardashian and Pope Francis.
It's ironic that is the current Israeli position, as Jews were once
so instrumental in recording the Armenian genocide. It was the U.S.
ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau, who in 1915,
disgusted by the reports he was receiving from his consuls, first
brought the killings to the world's attention. It was the lawyer
and Holocaust refugee Raphael Lemkin who actually coined the term
"genocide," applying it first to the Armenian tragedy. But Israel's
immediate geopolitical needs trump the recognition of history.
It was probably no coincidence that from Yerevan, the Kardashian
cavalcade flew to Israel. And while Kim and Kanye landed at Ben-Gurion
Airport, encountered mobs of Israeli fans and dined with Jerusalem
Mayor Nir Barkat, the visit focused on churches in the Old City across
the Green Line. Mindful of political and diplomatic considerations,
not once was the word "Israel" tweeted, just "Jerusalem." A subtle
reminder perhaps that everyone has recognition issues.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/.premium-1.651886
Ha'aretz, Israel
April 15 2015
The reality star's visit to Jerusalem is leading the way in spreading
awareness of Ottoman Turkey's killing of Armenians during World War I.
By Anshel Pfeffe
You can't buy PR like this -- in one short weekend, Armenia
attracted more global attention than in all the years since it gained
independence from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991. Kim Kardashian,
who is more famous for being famous than anyone, was also revealed
to her millions of fans as the most famous Armenian in the world.
Together with her musician husband Kanye West and their daughter North,
they arrived in Yerevan on a personal pilgrimage to the land of her
fathers. The timing wasn't coincidental, of course.
Kardashian's entourage was taken on an emotional tour of the memorial
and museum commemorating the one and a half million victims of the
Armenian genocide, less than two weeks before the official 100th
anniversary of the disaster. The photograph of Kardashian laying
flowers at the eternal flame tweeted to her 31 million followers did
more for the recognition of the genocide than decades of lobbying. But
that wasn't all that Sunday brought for the Armenians.
At mass in the Vatican, Pope Francis, standing by the heads of the
Armenian Orthodox Church and President Serzh Sargsyan (Prime Minister
Hovik Abrahamyan met with the Kardashian-Wests back home in Yerevan),
said the Armenian tragedy had been "the first genocide of the 20th
Century."
Francis is of course a celebrity in his own right (though he has only
5.9 million Twitter followers). But he is also a head of state and the
Vicar of Christ; his statement at this particular Sunday mass was the
subject of intensive diplomatic pressure from the Turkish government,
but to no avail. Turkey's long-held policy of denying that its army
carried out a planned genocide of the Armenians during World War I,
and of cajoling other nations not to recognize it either, was rent
asunder in a few hours by a man of God and a woman whose initial
claim to fame was an Internet sex tape.
Since Turkey has already recently blocked YouTube and Twitter,
there is little it can do to Kardashian, but the pope is another
matter. The ambassador to the Vatican was immediately recalled and
Francis was accused of "prejudice." Vatican officials told the media
the pope had nothing against today's Turkey; his statement was meant
to echo the fact that in today's Middle East as well, Christians are
being persecuted.
The Turkish government, however, preferred to move the narrative
to other continents. On Monday, Ankara's minister for EU affairs,
Volkan Bozkir, went a step further, accusing Francis of being
"brainwashed" like his fellow Argentines by the Armenian diaspora,
which in Argentina apparently "controls the media and business." And
if that's not bad enough, said Bozkir, Argentina is also "a country
that welcomed the leading executors of the Jewish Holocaust, Nazi
torturers, with open arms."
Worse than Hitler
The minister at least got this historical detail correct. Argentina
under President Juan Peron was the destination of many Nazis on the
run after World War II (many were helped by well-placed priests in
the Vatican). But connecting Francis to sins he had no knowledge of
or involvement in as a boy in Buenos Aires is a nasty slur.
And the current Turkish administration has not flinched from using
this sort of imagery. Last July, at the height of the Gaza conflict,
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Israelis "curse Hitler morning
and night. However, now their barbarism has surpassed even Hitler's."
Erdogan and other Turkish politicians routinely allude to Jews
controlling the global media and financial system in exactly the same
way Bozkir spoke about the Armenian community in Argentina.
This of course isn't the first time the Holocaust has been dragged
into the Armenian-genocide controversy. For decades the Armenians
have tried to receive recognition of the genocide from Israel and
Jewish communities. The symbolism of the Jews recognizing the Armenian
national tragedy is of course inescapable. In the past some Armenian
emigres even called it the Armenian Holocaust, but whether because that
didn't catch on or out of a desire not to offend Jewish sensibilities,
they stuck with "genocide."
Israel, however, has resolutely refused the small but growing group of
countries that have officially recognized the Armenian genocide. For
years this was out of consideration for the national pride of strategic
ally Turkey. Powerful Jewish groups in the United States, particularly
the Anti-Defamation League, lobbied in Congress against the passage
of American recognition.
But in recent years, as ties with Erdogan's government have steadily
deteriorated and with Turkey's standing as a NATO member and reliable
ally of the West plummeting, Israel's policy remains unchanged, even as
other countries have formally recognized the genocide. Jerusalem has a
new friend in Baku; Azerbaijan is the supplier of most of Israel's oil,
a buyer of Israeli weapons and an ally in the anti-Iranian coalition.
The battle for victimhood
But why is Azerbaijan, Armenia's oil-and-natural-gas-rich neighbor,
so invested in the dispute over commemorating an atrocity that took
place three quarters of a century before it even gained independence?
The Azeris see themselves as the Turks' brother nation, but more than
they're concerned with maintaining Turkey's historical image, they're
anxious to prevent anything from boosting Armenia's international
standing. Azerbaijan, in an on-off conflict with Armenia over the
Nagorno-Karabach enclave since the early 1990s, is eager to prevent the
Armenians from attaining any status of victimhood. In their national
narrative, it was the Karabach Azeris who were murdered and ethnically
cleansed by cruel Armenians.
The Aliyev family that rules Azerbaijan as its private fiefdom has
invested hundreds of millions in trying to brand the country as a
Westernized regional power while lobbying foreign governments and
the international media to view it favorably. One aim of Azerbaijan's
PR campaign is to smear Armenia; in recent months the lobbyists have
vigorously tried to portray the Armenians as chronic Jew-haters. They
have tried to place op-ed pieces to his effect in newspapers,
especially in Israeli and Jewish media.
Azerbaijan's mouthpieces are not motivated by concerns for the welfare
of the Jews, though there may be some truth to the allegations. Last
year the ADL published a survey on 100 countries, according to which
no less than 58 percent of Armenians harbored anti-Semitic beliefs.
Whether that figure is accurate however, the tiny Jewish community
in Yerevan, apart from a few isolated acts of vandalism, has never
suffered any serious incidents.
Armenia has also tried to improve its ties with Israel, including the
inviting of ministers. Next week at the marking of the genocide's
centenary, a delegation of Knesset members will be on hand. The
Foreign Ministry has made it clear this doesn't count as official
recognition, but perhaps that doesn't matter as much now that Armenia
has Kim Kardashian and Pope Francis.
It's ironic that is the current Israeli position, as Jews were once
so instrumental in recording the Armenian genocide. It was the U.S.
ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau, who in 1915,
disgusted by the reports he was receiving from his consuls, first
brought the killings to the world's attention. It was the lawyer
and Holocaust refugee Raphael Lemkin who actually coined the term
"genocide," applying it first to the Armenian tragedy. But Israel's
immediate geopolitical needs trump the recognition of history.
It was probably no coincidence that from Yerevan, the Kardashian
cavalcade flew to Israel. And while Kim and Kanye landed at Ben-Gurion
Airport, encountered mobs of Israeli fans and dined with Jerusalem
Mayor Nir Barkat, the visit focused on churches in the Old City across
the Green Line. Mindful of political and diplomatic considerations,
not once was the word "Israel" tweeted, just "Jerusalem." A subtle
reminder perhaps that everyone has recognition issues.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/.premium-1.651886