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IIGHRS' President Sets Record Straight On Turkey's Treatment Of Jews

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  • IIGHRS' President Sets Record Straight On Turkey's Treatment Of Jews

    IIGHRS' PRESIDENT SETS RECORD STRAIGHT ON TURKEY'S TREATMENT OF JEWS

    By MassisPost
    Updated: February 11, 2015

    TORONTO -- On January 27, 2015 a Holocaust commemoration was organized
    in Ottawa, the capital city of Canada, a country that officially
    recognizes the Armenian Genocide. There, the Turkish Ambassador was
    one of the keynote speakers.

    However, the invitation of the Turkish ambassador to speak drew sharp
    criticism from some, including several of the politicians and members
    of the public in attendance because of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel
    views expressed by some Turkish leaders in recent years. Earlier,
    at a meeting of the speakers of 30 European parliaments held in
    Prague, Czech Republic, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day,
    Turkey was the only European country that did not sign a declaration
    against contemporary manifestations - including Holocaust denial -
    of anti-Semitism.

    "I share those concerns," said Ottawa event co-organizer Floralove
    Katz. "However, during the Holocaust, the Turkish government was the
    only government in Europe that instructed its diplomats to save as
    many Jews as possible."

    Wishing to set the historical record straight, Mr. K.M. Greg
    Sarkissian, President of the International Institute for Genocide
    and Human Rights Studies (A Division of the Zoryan Institute) sent
    the following communication to the comment section of the Ottawa
    Jewish Bulletin.

    K.M. Greg Sarkissian's remarks are as follows:

    The invitation of the Turkish Ambassador to speak at the International
    Holocaust Remembrance Day commemoration in Ottawa on January 27 drew
    sharp criticism from several of the politicians and the members of
    diplomatic core attending the event, and many Canadians complained.

    The organizers showed great insensitivity by inviting the official
    representative of Turkey, a country that aggressively denies its role
    in the Armenian Genocide, to an event commemorating another genocide,
    the Holocaust, both of which are officially recognized by the Canadian
    Government.

    This distress is all the more painful, since the Turkish Ambassador's
    presence was justified by false information, in response to the
    criticism raised, causing insult over injury. Event co-organizer
    Floralove Katz claimed that "during the Holocaust, the Turkish
    government was the only government in Europe that instructed its
    diplomats to save as many Jews as possible." In fact, only Jews
    of Turkish background were aided by Turkish embassies in Europe,
    and then only clandestinely. Yad Vashem has recognized only one
    Turkish diplomat for rescuing Jews, Selahattin Ulkumen, the Turkish
    Consul-General in Rhodes. Necdet Kent, the Turkish Consul-General
    in Marseilles also assisted many Jews to flee France for Turkey,
    but it grossly overstates the case to say that "Turkey instructed
    its diplomats to save as many Jews as possible." Despite the Turkish
    propaganda, current research shows that Turkey was far from welcoming
    toward Jews during the Holocaust era.

    In commemorating the Holocaust, it is important to remember its
    interconnectedness with the Armenian Genocide. Many German soldiers
    and diplomats who were active in Turkey during the Armenian Genocide
    went on to become influential Nazis. The success of the Armenian
    Genocide and the failure to punish those responsible encouraged and
    emboldened Nazi leaders in their racist and genocidal plans. On the eve
    of WWII, Hitler boasted of his ability to exterminate entire civilian
    populations and get away with it, saying, "Who today remembers the
    annihilation of the Armenians?"

    There are numerous parallels and links between the Holocaust and the
    Armenian Genocide, too many to go into here. When commemorating the
    Holocaust, it behooves us not only to remember this history, but its
    many lessons. As Raphael Lemkin, the man who coined the word "genocide"
    referring to many mass atrocities including the Armenian Genocide,
    and devoted his life to establishing an international law for its
    prevention and punishment wrote, "...the function of memory is not
    only to register past events, but to stimulate human conscience."

    http://massispost.com/2015/02/iighrs-president-sets-record-straight-on-turkeys-treatment-of-jews/

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