Nearly a century after genocide, the grieving continues. This year, April 24th, marks the 99th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide during which the Ottoman Turks massacred 1.5 million Armenians.
Beginning in 1915, the Young Turks regime initiated a plan to exterminate the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire. Turkish military officers and commanders orchestrated a premeditated cleansing of Christians Armenians from Ottoman territories whom they considered an impediment to their “Turkification” effort.
On April 24, 1915, the most prominent members of the Armenian community were gathered up and executed. So began the devastating period of genocide, defined by death marches, executions, beheadings, rape, hangings, dismemberment, and similarly horrific courses of extermination.
By 1923, Armenian land was stolen, ancient churches left in ashes, and an entire race nearly wiped away. Many of those who survived the massacre fled to safety in neighboring countries, but the wounds of sorrow remained.
The Turkish government vehemently denies its hand in the genocide 99 years later. Despite thousands of eye-witness accounts, historical records, archeological evidence and worldwide documentation of the genocide, Turkey refuses to admit that the event occurred.
In fact, the Turkish Government has resorted to extreme measures, such as erasing records and silencing historians who recognize the Armenian Genocide. Using the “g” word in Turkey is not a light offense – death threats and imprisonment are certain consequences of openly discussing the Armenian Genocide’s veracity, as such a discussion threatens “Turkishness,”a concept introduced in Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. This law opened legal pathways to the prosecutions of writer Orhan Pamuk and Armenian Journalist Hrant Dink. Both publically spoke of the Armenian Genocide, and Dink was subsequently murdered by a Turkish Nationalist.
The United States does not officially recognize the events of 1915 as “Genocide.” The US and Turkey are close military allies, and Turkey has made it clear that US recognition of the genocide is unacceptable.
While Ronald Reagan referred to the 1915 massacre as “genocide,” he has been followed by less-willing presidents. During his 2008 campaign, then-Senator Barack Obama acknowledged the events of 1915 as genocide. “There was a Genocide that did take place against the Armenian People. It is one of these situations where we have seen a constant denial on behalf of the Turkish Government,” he said.
Since becoming president, Obama avoided referencing the Armenian Massacres as Genocide. In 2013, Obama compensated for his silence by labeling the Genocide as a “medz yeghern,” Armenian for the “the great calamity.”
The U.S. remains gagged by Turkey’s silencing hand and avoids recognizing the Armenian Genocide because recognition, at least for now, is politically inconvenient.
By: Alexa Youssefian
neontommy.com
