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WRITER PETER BALAKIAN DISCUSSES ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AT HOLOCAUST MUSEUM HOUSTON
Monday, March 16th, 2015
http://asbarez.com/133024/writer-peter-balakian-discusses-armenian-genocide-at-holocaust-museum-houston/
Peter Balakian speaks at the Holocaust Museum Houston
HOUSTON--A crowd gathered at the Holocaust Museum Houston on Saturday,
March 14, for an emersion into a fascinating lecture on Raphael
Lemkin, the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, and cultural
destruction.
Tamara Savage, Director of the Holocaust Museum Houston introduced
Balakian, the Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the
Humanities at Colgate University, who has made the genocide a key
part of his life's work as an award-winning writer, poet and genocide
expert.
Balakian started by praising the history of Jewish rescue, witness,
and intellectual work on the Armenian Genocide. From Ambassador Henry
Morgenthau to Raphael Lemkin, to Franz Werfel and into the modern
era of Jewish scholars working on and standing up for the Armenian
Genocide discourse, Balakian noted that "the role Jews have played
in bearing witness to and later defining the Turkish genocide of the
Armenians has been profound."
It was Lemkin who became the father of the U.N. genocide convention
of 1948. It was Lemkin who coined the phrase "Armenian genocide"
in the 1940s. As a graduate student he challenged his professor
after learning about the Turkish massacres of the Armenians: "How
can it be that if one man kills another he is charged with murder,
but if a whole nation-state kills more than a million people they are
allowed to do it without any consequences?" And this moment ended up
changing his career path.
Among Lemkin's many layers of his understanding of genocide as
a crime is the concept that the destruction of culture is also a
vitally important aspect of the genocidal process. At the core of
every group identity is also culture and the cultural institutions
that codify group identity.
The official number of dead in the Holocaust, according to the U.S.
Holocaust Museum is 5.1 million. In the Armenian case, Lemkin put
the death toll at 1.2 million. The epicenter of killing was in 1915
and 1916. About two-thirds of the Armenian population perished.
Balakian discussed some definitions of culture as essential to the
identity of any ethnic group. And he analyzed some of the tactics
of Turkish assault on Armenian culture in 1915. He discussed the
destruction of about 4,500 churches and schools; the killing of
culture producers: writers, teachers, editors, clergy, journalists
on April 24 and after throughout Turkey; and the forced conversion
of Armenians to Islam as a way of eradicating ethnic identity and
absorbing Armenians into the Turkish nation.
Balakian discussed the city of Ani among many Churches in eastern
Turkey as an example for the politicization of historical monuments
and preservation in a post-genocidal context. Ani, which Balakian
suggested might be seen as the equivalent of Florence for Italy,
was the medieval capital of the Armenian Bagratid kingdom in the 10th
and 11th centuries and is today on the Turkish-Armenian boarder was
celebrated for the artistry of its churches and other structures. The
city was abandoned in the seventeenth century and has since been
subjected to earthquakes and destruction that have left it in ruins.
Balakian referred to Grigoris Balakian's "The Ruins of Ani" to suggest
that scholars might now see the erosion and falsification of Ani by
the Turkish government today through a post-colonial lens. During
his presentation, Balakian emphasized the connection that Armenians
have to eastern Turkey but also the experiences of exile and loss
because of what he called the 'lock out syndrome' which is the result
of Ankara's policy of disallowing even proper identification on the
signage of the historic Armenian churches.
In response to a question from the audience about the US government's
refusal to go on official record about the Armenian genocide,
Balakian noted that the State Department remains afraid of standing
up to Turkish coercion and pressure, and this seems to be a failure
of ethical courage. Twenty-two countries have passed a resolution
of recognition of the Armenian Genocide including Poland, Sweden,
France, Greece, and Switzerland.
Vreij Kolandjian thanked Professor Balakian for his lecture which
underlines the importance of Genocide as a chain of never ending
violence and destruction and thanked the Holocaust Museum Houston
for emphasizing the importance of the Armenian Genocide by hosting
two lectures and one exhibition on the topic three months in a row.
Monday, March 16th, 2015
http://asbarez.com/133024/writer-peter-balakian-discusses-armenian-genocide-at-holocaust-museum-houston/
Peter Balakian speaks at the Holocaust Museum Houston
HOUSTON--A crowd gathered at the Holocaust Museum Houston on Saturday,
March 14, for an emersion into a fascinating lecture on Raphael
Lemkin, the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, and cultural
destruction.
Tamara Savage, Director of the Holocaust Museum Houston introduced
Balakian, the Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the
Humanities at Colgate University, who has made the genocide a key
part of his life's work as an award-winning writer, poet and genocide
expert.
Balakian started by praising the history of Jewish rescue, witness,
and intellectual work on the Armenian Genocide. From Ambassador Henry
Morgenthau to Raphael Lemkin, to Franz Werfel and into the modern
era of Jewish scholars working on and standing up for the Armenian
Genocide discourse, Balakian noted that "the role Jews have played
in bearing witness to and later defining the Turkish genocide of the
Armenians has been profound."
It was Lemkin who became the father of the U.N. genocide convention
of 1948. It was Lemkin who coined the phrase "Armenian genocide"
in the 1940s. As a graduate student he challenged his professor
after learning about the Turkish massacres of the Armenians: "How
can it be that if one man kills another he is charged with murder,
but if a whole nation-state kills more than a million people they are
allowed to do it without any consequences?" And this moment ended up
changing his career path.
Among Lemkin's many layers of his understanding of genocide as
a crime is the concept that the destruction of culture is also a
vitally important aspect of the genocidal process. At the core of
every group identity is also culture and the cultural institutions
that codify group identity.
The official number of dead in the Holocaust, according to the U.S.
Holocaust Museum is 5.1 million. In the Armenian case, Lemkin put
the death toll at 1.2 million. The epicenter of killing was in 1915
and 1916. About two-thirds of the Armenian population perished.
Balakian discussed some definitions of culture as essential to the
identity of any ethnic group. And he analyzed some of the tactics
of Turkish assault on Armenian culture in 1915. He discussed the
destruction of about 4,500 churches and schools; the killing of
culture producers: writers, teachers, editors, clergy, journalists
on April 24 and after throughout Turkey; and the forced conversion
of Armenians to Islam as a way of eradicating ethnic identity and
absorbing Armenians into the Turkish nation.
Balakian discussed the city of Ani among many Churches in eastern
Turkey as an example for the politicization of historical monuments
and preservation in a post-genocidal context. Ani, which Balakian
suggested might be seen as the equivalent of Florence for Italy,
was the medieval capital of the Armenian Bagratid kingdom in the 10th
and 11th centuries and is today on the Turkish-Armenian boarder was
celebrated for the artistry of its churches and other structures. The
city was abandoned in the seventeenth century and has since been
subjected to earthquakes and destruction that have left it in ruins.
Balakian referred to Grigoris Balakian's "The Ruins of Ani" to suggest
that scholars might now see the erosion and falsification of Ani by
the Turkish government today through a post-colonial lens. During
his presentation, Balakian emphasized the connection that Armenians
have to eastern Turkey but also the experiences of exile and loss
because of what he called the 'lock out syndrome' which is the result
of Ankara's policy of disallowing even proper identification on the
signage of the historic Armenian churches.
In response to a question from the audience about the US government's
refusal to go on official record about the Armenian genocide,
Balakian noted that the State Department remains afraid of standing
up to Turkish coercion and pressure, and this seems to be a failure
of ethical courage. Twenty-two countries have passed a resolution
of recognition of the Armenian Genocide including Poland, Sweden,
France, Greece, and Switzerland.
Vreij Kolandjian thanked Professor Balakian for his lecture which
underlines the importance of Genocide as a chain of never ending
violence and destruction and thanked the Holocaust Museum Houston
for emphasizing the importance of the Armenian Genocide by hosting
two lectures and one exhibition on the topic three months in a row.