8/1 6/ 2015 “We continu e to bleed red, blue, an d oran ge :” The costs of the de nial of th e Armenia n Gen ocide | McGill Intern at ional Review http://mi ronl i ne.ca/?p=3682 1/13 Tweet 13 1 12 Home About History Executive StaffContact Us Blogs BolivarIbn Khaldun Kan Ke Loon Calls Ma japahit Of Soldiers and Statesmen Opre Roma Point / Counterpoint Yugosphere Regions TheAmericas Asia Pacific Europe Middle East & Africa Editor’sDeskMcGill Model U N IRSAM IRSAM Featured, Middle East “We continue to bleed red, blue, and orange:” The costs of the denial of the Armenian Genocide Posted by Emma Noradounkian on February 14, 2015 Though Polish Jewish lawyer and drafter of the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) Raphael Lemkin officially coined the term “genocide” in 1944, there can be no doubt that the Young Turk government’s deliberate and centrally- planned extermination of 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1917 should be labelled as such.[1] With the intention of purifying the region of Anatolia of its “cancerous” Christian population, the Young Turks undertook a series of “ethnoreligious homogenization” policies consisting of murder, mass rape, deportations, and forced death marches against hundreds ofthousands of Armenians.[2] These atrocities fall under Article II of the CPPCG, which provides a definition for the crime of genocide: “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a 330 Like
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7/23/2019 “We Continue to Bleed Red, Blue, And Orange” the Costs of the Denial of the Armenian Genocide by Emma Nora…
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HomeAbout
HistoryExecutiveStaff Contact Us
BlogsBolivar Ibn KhaldunKan Ke
Loon CallsMa japahitOf Soldiers and StatesmenOpre RomaPoint / CounterpointYugosphere
RegionsThe AmericasAsia PacificEurope
Middle East & AfricaEditor’s Desk McGill Model U NIRSAM
IRSAM
Featured, Middle East
“We continue to bleed red, blue, and orange:” The costs of the
denial of the Armenian Genocide
Posted by Emma Noradounkian
on February 14, 2015
Though Polish Jewish lawyer and drafter of the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Preventionand Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) Raphael Lemkin officially coined the term“genocide” in 1944, there can be no doubt that the Young Turk government’s deliberate and centrally-
planned extermination of 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1917
should be labelled as such.[1] With the intention of purifying the region of Anatolia of its “cancerous”Christian population, the Young Turks undertook a series of “ethnoreligious homogenization” policiesconsisting of murder, mass rape, deportations, and forced death marches against hundreds of thousands of Armenians.[2] These atrocities fall under Article II of the CPPCG, which provides adefinition for the crime of genocide: “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a
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national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”[3]
Yet, the classification of this crime as genocide has consistently been denied by the successiveTurkish governments and a number of Turkish and non-Turkish scholars alike.[4] The reluctance of defining the extermination of Armenians as a genocide has also been widespread amongst themajority of the world’s states, with only twenty-two states officially acknowledging the ArmenianGenocide.[5] The international community continues to suffer from what Lipmann calls “denialsyndrome,” in which it is “reluctant to invoke the morally and politically significant term genocide”
with regards to the Armenian massacres from 1915 to 1917.[6] This commonly-held denial of itsreality as a genocide not only enables cross-generational trauma within the Armenian community,thereby preventing it from healing from its traumatic history, but its denial also allows for itsrepetition in addition to the continuation of other present-day and future genocidal episodes.[7] Beforeexamining the consequences of denying the Armenian Genocide–which extend to the denial of allother genocides–it is important to consider the reasons for and the ways in which several scholars andthe Turkish government have taken pains to utterly deny it themselves.
Hovannisian argues that “following the physical destruction of a people and their material culture,memory is all that is left and is targeted as the final victim.”[8] Thus, denial, by which the memory of
a peoples’ physical annihilation is destroyed and forever forgotten, marks the final stage of genocide.[9] In the process of denial, eyewitness and survivor accounts are discredited, archives on thegenocide are destroyed, and scholars supporting the actuality of the genocide are bribed and/or
persecuted and executed.[10] Moreover, the perpetrators aim to reshape historical facts, exoneratethemselves of all blame, and demonize victims, reversing the victim-perpetrator roles and claimingthat they instead suffered at the hands of the other.[11] Such intentions for the denial of the ArmenianGenocide transpire in the writings of Kamuran Gürün, Stanford Shaw, Justin McCarthy, and HeathLowry amongst others, and in the actions of the Turkish government.[12] The denial tactics of theTurkish government over the years have included its scapegoating of Kurdish officials who wereallegedly blamed for this atrocity following the First World War; its continued coercion of journalistsand foreign scholars to write about “the other side of the story” since the 1960s; its disruption of genocide talks and conventions such as that of Tel Aviv in 1982; and most recently, its invitation tothe anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli to 102 countries, including Armenia, which convenientlycoincides with the centenary of the commemoration of the Armenian Genocide on April 24, 2015.[13]
Whether tacitly or explicitly, the denial of genocide may encourage further instances of genocide bythe same perpetrators and by other groups.[14] Denial absolves the wrongdoers from responsibility for genocide; they are undeterred from recommitting the same crime, either towards the same victimgroup or to others.[15] A more recent instance of the Turkish government’s complicity in an analleged assault on Armenians, according to the Armenian National Committee–International, occurredin March 2014 when Turkey was claimed to have played an active role in aiding al Qaeda-affiliated
terrorist groups in their three-day attack on Armenians in Kessab, Syria.[16] The same logic applies toother possible perpetrator groups, who, in turn, are also empowered to make similar genocidalattempts, as they are guaranteed impunity like their Turkish counterpart.[17] In fact, Alayariancontends that, had the international community officially recognized the Armenian Genocide, the firstgenocide of the twentieth-century, and punished its perpetrators, the Jewish Holocaust and subsequentgenocides could have been averted.[18]
The denial of the Armenian Genocide also prevents Armenians across the globe from fully healingfrom the cross-generational trauma that they continue to suffer.[19] While the present diasporans of Armenian Genocide survivors did not experience the Genocide themselves, they undeniably identifywith their Armenian ancestors who were victimized a hundred years ago and who have orallytransmitted their trauma throughout the generations.[20] Staub argues that the members of victims of genocide remain in fear of a future genocide, unable to trust the majority of the internationalcommunity that failed and continues to fail to protect them by virtue of their denial: “They mistrust
people and see the world as a dangerous place. They feel disconnected from the people and a world
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that has harmed them and, at the very least, has not protected them.”[21] If the world were torecognize the suffering that the Armenians endured from 1915 to 1917, Staub holds that they could
begin to recover from their trauma.[22] If the perpetrators were to acknowledge their own pain andguilt, they could, in turn, also heal themselves, “stop blaming the people they harmed, […] and begin[assuming] responsibility for having harmed them.”[23]
On the eve of the Jewish Holocaust, when an aide had noted to Hitler that the world would not allowthe Nazis to conduct a genocide against the Jewish people, he replied, “Who, after all, remembers the
annihilation of the Armenians?,” suggesting that he could expect to get away with his obliteration of the Jews without any intervention on his inhumane actions and with the guarantee of impunity, as hadthe Turkish government in 1915-1917.[24] In the wake of the commemoration of the centenary of theArmenian Genocide on April 24, Armenians around the world hope that the entirety of theinternational community will fully acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, and in the process, deter those who continue to partake in Hitler’s and other genocidists’ thoughts and repair the wound fromwhich so many have bled red, blue, and orange.
____________________________
References:
[1] Payam Akhavan, Reducing Genocide to Law: Definition, Meaning, and the Ultimate Crime(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 6, 90; Aida Alayarian, Consequences of Denial: TheArmenian Genocide (London: Karnac Books,2008), 8.
[2] Taner Akçam, The Young Turks’ Crime Against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and EthnicCleansing in the Ottoman Empire (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2012), 29.
[3] UN General Assembly, Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 9 December 1948,United Nations, no. 1021, 280, https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%2078/volume-
78-I-1021-English.pdf (accessed 6 February 2015).
[4] Alayarian, Consequences of Denial, XXX, 8.
[5] “The White House and State Department Have Once Again Shown Their Fear of Turkey,”https://armeniangenocideblog.wordpress.com/tag/list-of-countries-officially-recognizing-the-armenian-genocide/, accessed February 8.
[6] Matthew Lippman, “Darfur: The Politics Of Genocide Denial Syndrome.” Journal of GenocideResearch 9, no. 2 (2007): 195, accessed February 7, 2015, doi: 10.1080/14623520701368594.
[7] Alayarian, Consequences of Denial, XXVII; Richard G. Hovannisian, Remembrance and Denial:The Case of the Armenian Genocide (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998), 229.
[8] Hovannisian, Remembrance and Denial, 202.
[9] Hovannisian, Remembrance and Denial, 201, 202; Sévane Garibian, “Taking Denial Seriously:Genocide Denial and Freedom of Speech in French Law,” Cordoso J. Of Conflict Resolution 9, no.479 (2008): 487, accessed February 8, 2015, http://cardozojcr.com/vol9no2/479-488.pdf.
[10] Alayarian, Consequences of Denial, XXX; Lippman, “Darfur: The Politics Of Genocide DenialSyndrome,” 210.
[11] Hovannisian, Remembrance and Denial, 229.
[12] Hovannisian, Remembrance and Denial, 208; See Gurun’s “The Armenian File: The Myth of Innocence Exposed,” Shaw’s “History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey,” McCarthy’s
7/23/2019 “We Continue to Bleed Red, Blue, And Orange” the Costs of the Denial of the Armenian Genocide by Emma Nora…
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“Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of the Ottoman Muslims, 1821-1922,” and Lowry’s “TheStory Behind Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story,” for examples of Armenian Genocide denialscholarship.
[13] Roger W. Smith, Eric Markusen, and Robert Jay Lifton, “Professional Ethics And The Denial Of Armenian Genocide,” Holocaust and Genocide Studies 9, no. 1 (1995): 1-22, accessed February 7,2015, http://hgs.oxfordjournals.org/content/9/1/1.full.pdf html. 5; Marvine Howe, “Turkey Denies ItThreatened Jewes Over Tel Aviv Parley On; Genocide,” The New York Times, June 5, 1982,
accessed February 8, 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/05/world/turkey-denies-it-threatened- jewes-over-tel-aviv-parley-on-genocide.html; Robert Fisk, “The Gallipoli Centenary Is a ShamefulAttempt to Hide the Armenian Holocaust,” The Independent, January 19, 2015, accessed February 7,2015. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-gallipoli-centenary-is-a-shameful-attempt-to-hide-the-armenian-holocaust-9988227.html.
[14] Smith, Markusen, and Lifton, “Professional Ethics And The Denial Of Armenian Genocide,” 14.
[15] Gregory H.Stanton, “The Eight Stages of Genocide,” Keene, accessed February 8, 2015.http://www.keene.edu/ksc/assets/files/10074/p_genocide_8stages.pdf; UN Human Rights Council,
Report on the Question of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide BenjaminWitaker, 2 July 1985, UN Document E/CN.4/Sub.2/ 1985/6,http://www.preventgenocide.org/prevent/UNdocs/whitaker/. accessed 7 February 2015.
[16] “Reports Cite 80 Dead in Kessab; Churches Desecrated,” Asbarez, March 24, 2014, accessedFebruary 7, 2015, http://asbarez.com/121007/reports-cite-80-dead-in-kessab-churches-desecrated/.
[17] Alayarian, Consequences of Denial, XXX.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Ervin Staub, “The Origins And Prevention of Genocide, Mass Killing, and Other CollectiveViolence,” Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 5, no. 4 (1999): 303-36, accessedFebruary 9, 2015, http://people.umass.edu/estaub/opcm.pdf, 308, 321.
[20] Ibid., 320, 323.
[21] Ibid., 320.
[22] Ibid., 321.
[23] Ibid., 321.
[24] Gregory H. Stanton, “The Eight Stages of Genocide;” “U.S. Congress and Adolf Hitler on theArmenians,” Armenian, Assyrian, and Hellenic Genocide News, January 7, 2004, accessed February8, 2015, http://www.atour.com/~aahgn/news/20040107c.html.
Tags: armenian diaspora armenian genocide armenian genocide denial denial genocide lemkinremember1915 Turkey
About Emma Noradounkian
Emma is a second-year undergraduate student majoring in Political Science and minoring in History
8/16/2015 “W e continue to bleed red, blue, and orange:” The costs of the denial of the Armenian Genocide | McGill International Review
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who still can’t seem to decide whether she feels more Armenian or more Italian to this day. As areporter dedicated to unearthing social justice issues, Emma continues to be fascinated by the effectsof mass media on domestic and international politics.
22 Comments 1
• •
Jack Kalpakian •
More simply, we are forced to live as an unwelcome minority in the West and the Middle
East and our right to transmit our identity is consistently maligned in both cases by the
"host" societies.
• •
Fatma Sarikaya •
Just like the Turks who used to live in what is now the Armenian Republic or the
Caucasus in general were wiped out by the Armenians in large numbers felt since
those tumultous years of 1900... And they were not even the minority - but the
majority...
Peace cannot be achieved, until the Armenians' hatred of anyone and anything
Turkish subsides down.
• •
Jack Kalpakian •
In your world, we Armenians must be forced to pay for what Balkan and
Russian governments did to you, and not only that you invent a Turkish
minority in Armenia that did not exist to deny us even the small rump left.
Thank you for showing this to the whole world here.
• •
Marcus77 •
Most educated read real historian the world already know the truth
that is why 100 years you struggle to prove something no one but few
ignorant uninformed or have different agenda believes your lies or
pretend to believe it for the Armenian lobby money, you are trying to
buy a lie, false witness, that is why no real cour t proceedings gave
you the okay. I think you guys told the lie so often now you really
started to believe it LOL
Ergun Kirlikovali •
"...n some towns containing ten Armenian houses and thirty Turkish
houses, it was reported that 40,000 people were killed, about 10,000
women were taken to the harem, and thousands of children left
One of these falsifications is a quote attributed to Adolf Hitler in which he
purportedly responded to a query about his planned annihilation of European
Jewry, by quipping: ‘Who, after all, speaks today of the extermination of the
Armenians?’, on August 22, 1939, a few days prior to his invasion of Poland (Obersalzberg
speeches).
Contrary to Richard Hovannisian and other Armenians, the Nuremberg transcripts through
their preservation of U.S.-29 (798-PS), U.S.-30 (1014-PS), and the notes of
Admiral Boehm (which are corroborated by the relevant passages from the diary
of General Halder), in no way authenticate the infamous Hitler quote. On the
contrary, by establishing the actual texts of Hitler’s Obersalzberg speeches
they demonstrate that the statement is conspicuously absent from Hitler’s
remarks. The assertion that Hitler made a reference to the Armenians in any
context whatsoever is without foundation. (Heath W Lowry, The U.S. Congress and
• •
Gagik Angelo •
As a Grand son of the Genocide survivor, have to heal, but how, if Turks deny it, and theyalso have been forced to deny by the Turkish Constitution (article 301 "insulting
Turkishness)?
Some Turkish citizens are speaking about it and have been imprisoned for that, mainly not
Turkish Nationals, just like Journalist Hrant Dink (Armenian), who eventually have been
murdered in cold blood.
Anyway, Thank you for your work and a great research on the subject!
Avetis Muradyan •
Emma jan,
Thank you for your work and I encourage you to continue.
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