Decades of Denial

Though for some people controversial, many reliable historical and academic sources, documents, photos, and eyewitness’ accounts indicate that 1.5 million Christian Armenians were massacred in their ancestral land by Ottoman Turkey during the Armenian Genocide, which started in 1890s, and reached its climax in 1915. Women were raped in front of their children and husbands, children were brutally beaten and killed in front of their parents, homes and properties were confiscated. Hundreds of thousands innocent people were harassed, abused, robbed, killed and deprived of everything they had in the true sense of the word.[1] To totally eradicate the Armenian population of the Western Armenia (nowadays Eastern Turkey), the Ottoman Turkey employs his long intended project of deportation and death marches made up of women, children and the elderly into the Syrian deserts, Deir ez Zor. During those marches hundreds of thousand were killed by Turkish soldiers, gendarmes and Kurdish mobs. Others died because of famine, epidemic diseases and exposure to the elements.[2] Tens of thousands were forcibly converted to Islam.

During this period of time, numerous Armenian churches were destroyed, and clergy killed, many schools were demolished, and sacred literature burned.[3] In his official telegraph addressed to the Prefecture of Aleppo, Minister of the Interior of Turkey, Talaat, writes,

“You have already been advised that the Government, by order of the Djemiet, has decided to destroy completely all the indicated persons [Armenians] living in Turkey.

All who oppose this decision and command cannot remain on the official staff of the empire.
Their existence must come to an end, however tragic the means may be; and no regard must be paid to either age or sex, or to conscientious scruples.”[4]

This unspeakable crime against humanity, the genocide, could have been prevented, if the entire world would not turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to the tragic happenings. The US archives still preserve the memoirs and official letters of the US Ambassador to Turkey at that time, Henry Morgenthau, who asks his country to help the Armenians. The German Ambassador to Turkey, Wangenheim, reports to his country on the atrocities committed by Turks against the unarmed Armenian population. No one responded, no one responds. Many other documents and factual evidences can be found in US, British, German, Austrian, Russian and French archives.[5] Unfortunately, the Turkish government has carefully destroyed own archives pertaining the Armenian massacres. But, again, who on earth can conceal the undeniable truth?

Years later, Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of Nazi Germany, in justifying his inhuman atrocities would say,

“I have placed my death-head formations in readiness - for the present only in the East - with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”[6] (This text is the English version of the German document handed to Louis P. Lochner in Berlin. It first appeared in Lochner's What About Germany? (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1942), pp. 1-4. The Nuremberg Tribunal later identified the document as L-3 or Exhibit USA-28. Two other versions of the same document appear in Appendices II and III. For the German original cf. Akten zur Deutschen Auswartigen Politik 1918-1945, Serie D, Band VII, (Baden-Baden, 1956), pp. 171-172).[7]

Even nowadays, when many of us pretend to be the most just advocates of human rights, and freedom of nations in this globalized democratic world, only a few countries officially recognize the Armenian Genocide. Logically, those who do not recognize and condemn the Genocide are in the line with the deniers like Turkey, Israel, US, and the rest. For me, this is a moral, ethical and Christian issue. How can nations speak of human rights, freedom and stuff, when their decades’ of denial encouraged and allowed others to perpetrate atrocities of the same nature? Can we conclude that those lofty ideas (freedom, human rights, justice, democracy, etc.) are simply fictitious and made up criteria to deceive people? It goes without saying that every nation has its political interests and gains. But is it just to sacrifice the truth for the sake of political dividends? Doesn’t it contradict the teachings of Christianity and the spirit of Bible?

Every year, on April 24, Armenians in the world come together to commemorate the first genocide of the 20^th century. Every year, when the Armenian Genocide Remembrance day approaches, prominent statesmen make promises to recognize the Armenian Genocide but generally, they all betray their promises. Many political scientists, analysts and scholars believe that the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by Israel and US is very important at this point. They claim that once the United States of America and Israel recognize the Armenian Genocide, the whole world we accept the truth, and ultimately, Turkey will be obliged to admit it. Unfortunately, both countries fail to fulfill their moral obligation. Armenian-Americans (approximately 1.5 million) were very enthusiastic about President Barak Obama’s election. Barak Obama as a senator and presidential candidate, frequently supported efforts to recognize the mass killings using the word “genocide,” famously stating in a speech on Jan. 19, 2008, that “the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. The facts are undeniable ... and as president, I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.”[8] Now, when Barak Obama is the President of the United States of America, he betrays his promise. Lincoln McCurdy, the president of the Turkish coalition of America, said, “President Obama has sent a clear message to America and the world. His administration will not sacrifice long-term strategic allies for short-term political gains.”[9] Obviously, the denial continues. In his official statement, President Obama said, “I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view of that history has not changed.”[10] It is clear and obvious from this statement that President Obama’s personal view is not the same as the view of the United States of America, and I wonder if these two different views will one day coincide. Isn’t it a moral issue? Isn’t it an ethical problem? Aren’t we dealing with double standards?

The only US President, who was sincerely concerned about the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, was Woodrow Wilson. In his message delivered on May 24, 1920 President Wilson requests the Congress to accept a mandate for Armenia. He says,

“I received and read this document [official communication from the Secretary of the Senate of the United States] with great interest and with genuine gratification, not only because it embodied my own convictions and feelings with regard to Armenia and its people, but also, and more particularly, because it seemed to me the voice of the American people expressing their genuine convictions and deep Christian sympathies, and intimating the line of duty which seemed to them to lie clearly before us.”[11]

Unfortunately, domestic opposition led by the Republican Party leveled the good intentions and the plans of the president. Studying the above mentioned document closely, I was struck by President Wilson’s Christian convictions, which he emphasizes so strongly. Biographers affirm that President Wilson was a devout Presbyterian, follower of the Calvinist theological tradition. I believe that Wilson’s moral and ethical standards were grounded on the Calvinist theology.

Rosemary Radford Ruether, in her America, Amerikkka: Elect Nation and Imperial Violence claims that some of the Puritans, among them Roger Williams, were inspired by that the same Calvinist theology. Roger Williams thought that no king could claim to override the rights of natural men in relation to land claims. Furthermore, he believed that land claims were based on the rights of those who first settled the land.[12]

President Woodrow Wilson was on the same page with Roger Williams. In his mandate for Armenia, as well as in his letter defining the borders between Armenia and Turkey, President Wilson was guided by the same Calvinist conviction, i.e. the land belongs to the natives, to those who first settled it.[13]

I think President Woodrow Wilson’s brave expression of morality, ethics and true Christian spirit answers also Jeffrey Stout’s question whether reasoning from religious premises to political conclusions can be considered valid and acceptable.

Mass killings of innocent people continue even today. We are all witnessing the contemporary genocides in Darfur and Rwanda. If we are going to turn a deaf ear to the cries of these dying people, if we are going to sacrifice the truth, our morality, conscience and values for the sake of political gains, the history will repeat itself. Genocides will happen again if we fail to recognize them, if we fail to condemn them.

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[1] Bertha S. Papazian, The Tragedy of Armenia (Boston: The Pilgrim Press, 1918), 131.

[2] http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/armenian_genocide.php (visited on 04/25/2009)

[3] Torkom Manoogian, Loss of the Armenian Apostolic Church during the Genocide (New York: St. Vartan, 1972), 10.

[4] http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/turkish.php (visited on 04/25/2009)

[5] Sample documents from the above mentioned archives can be found on the web at http://www.armenian-genocide.org/sampledocs.html, http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/austrian.php and elswhere.

[6] Kevork B. Bardakjian, Hitler and the Armenian Genocide (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Zoryan Institute, 1985).

[7] http://www.armenian-genocide.org/hitler.html (visited on 04/25/2009)

[8] http://glendalenewspress.com/articles/2009/04/26/news/gnp-genocide25.art.txt (visited on 04/25/2009)

[9] Teresa Watanabe Christi Parsons, “Marking Armenian Genocide, Many Feel Snubbed by Obama,” Los Angeles Times, April 25, 2009.

[10] http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Statement-of-President-Barack-Obama-on-Armenian-Remembrance-Day/ (visited on 04/25/2009).

[11] http://www.armenian-genocide.org/Affirmation.64/current_category.4/affirmation_detail.html (visited on 04/25/2009).

[12] Rosemary Radford Ruether, America, Amerikkka: Elect Nation and Imperial Violence (London: Equinox, 2007), p 217.

[13] http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Wilsonian_Armenia (visited on 04/25/2009)