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RECOGNIZING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
New York Observer
March 18 2015
By The Editors | 03/18/15 11:18am
In 1944, as the Nazi slaughter of Europe's Jews continued unabated,
a Jewish refugee from Poland, Raphael Lemkin, coined a new word:
genocide. He defined this new word as the destruction of "the life
of national groups ... the disintegration of ... culture, language,
national feelings, religion ... and even the lives of the individuals
belonging to such groups."
The ongoing slaughter in Europe had a profound effect on his thinking.
But so did another horror, this one nearly forgotten by the time he
wrote--the mass killing of Armenians in 1915.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of one of the 20th century's grim
milestones, the murder of 1.5 million civilians in Armenia, carried out
by the Ottoman Turks over several years. The predominately Christian
community of Armenia had suffered discrimination and worse during
centuries of Ottoman rule, but with the outbreak of war in 1914,
the Turkish government came to regard the Armenians as a potential
fifth column for its enemies, Britain, France and Russia.
Beginning in April 1915, Armenians were rounded up, deported, marched
into the Syrian Desert and resettled in concentration camps. Their
property was confiscated and they were murdered by the hundreds of
thousands. Children were poisoned and their deaths ruled the result
of natural causes.
A conference in New York next month will attempt to raise greater
awareness of the crimes committed against the Armenians a century ago.
The speakers and panelists have their work cut out for them, because
Turkish authorities have sought to suppress greater awareness of
these unfathomable events.
But as the organizers of the conference, entitled "Responsibility
2015," know well, it is important--it is imperative--to call evil by
its proper name. Lemkin certainly understood that. The question is
whether we have his courage and his conviction.
The perpetrators of genocide, then and now, hope that Lemkin's sense
of outrage has gone out of fashion, replaced by fear and an almost
pathological unwillingness to recognize reality. Certainly nobody can
study the fate of the Armenians during World War I and not conclude
that a great crime--genocide--was committed by the Ottoman Empire.
The speakers who will come to New York beginning April 24 hope to call
the perpetrators to account for the deaths of 1.5 million a century
ago. But, sadly, even as they speak, bloodthirsty terrorists in Syria,
Iraq, Nigeria and Libya proudly carry out genocide as a matter of
policy. The world looks on. The crimes go unpunished. The criminals
boast of the blood they have shed.
We have much to learn.
http://observer.com/2015/03/recognizing-the-armenian-genocide/
New York Observer
March 18 2015
By The Editors | 03/18/15 11:18am
In 1944, as the Nazi slaughter of Europe's Jews continued unabated,
a Jewish refugee from Poland, Raphael Lemkin, coined a new word:
genocide. He defined this new word as the destruction of "the life
of national groups ... the disintegration of ... culture, language,
national feelings, religion ... and even the lives of the individuals
belonging to such groups."
The ongoing slaughter in Europe had a profound effect on his thinking.
But so did another horror, this one nearly forgotten by the time he
wrote--the mass killing of Armenians in 1915.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of one of the 20th century's grim
milestones, the murder of 1.5 million civilians in Armenia, carried out
by the Ottoman Turks over several years. The predominately Christian
community of Armenia had suffered discrimination and worse during
centuries of Ottoman rule, but with the outbreak of war in 1914,
the Turkish government came to regard the Armenians as a potential
fifth column for its enemies, Britain, France and Russia.
Beginning in April 1915, Armenians were rounded up, deported, marched
into the Syrian Desert and resettled in concentration camps. Their
property was confiscated and they were murdered by the hundreds of
thousands. Children were poisoned and their deaths ruled the result
of natural causes.
A conference in New York next month will attempt to raise greater
awareness of the crimes committed against the Armenians a century ago.
The speakers and panelists have their work cut out for them, because
Turkish authorities have sought to suppress greater awareness of
these unfathomable events.
But as the organizers of the conference, entitled "Responsibility
2015," know well, it is important--it is imperative--to call evil by
its proper name. Lemkin certainly understood that. The question is
whether we have his courage and his conviction.
The perpetrators of genocide, then and now, hope that Lemkin's sense
of outrage has gone out of fashion, replaced by fear and an almost
pathological unwillingness to recognize reality. Certainly nobody can
study the fate of the Armenians during World War I and not conclude
that a great crime--genocide--was committed by the Ottoman Empire.
The speakers who will come to New York beginning April 24 hope to call
the perpetrators to account for the deaths of 1.5 million a century
ago. But, sadly, even as they speak, bloodthirsty terrorists in Syria,
Iraq, Nigeria and Libya proudly carry out genocide as a matter of
policy. The world looks on. The crimes go unpunished. The criminals
boast of the blood they have shed.
We have much to learn.
http://observer.com/2015/03/recognizing-the-armenian-genocide/