Yesterday was Armenian Remembrance Day. It commemorates the killing of as many as 1.5 million people in Turkey, by Young Turks, from 1915-23, marking the first genocide of the twentieth century.
106 Years of Denial and Counting…
Despite Turkey’s impassioned insistence that there was no genocide, instead labeling the Armenians as casualties of warfare and traitors who tried to bring down the Ottoman Empire, Armenians are making sure the legacy of those killed lives on. With only a small number of genocide survivors still alive, their kin are passing on the history in hopes that such a massacre will never happen again.
(Huffington Post, April 21 2015)
In fact, I commend Steven Spielberg’s USC Shoah Foundation not only for ‘making audio-visual interviews with survivors and witnesses,” but also for commemorating the 100th anniversary six years ago with “30 Days of Testimony to the Armenian Genocide”.
But just imagine the international outrage (and backlash) if Germany had premised much of its diplomatic relations on lobbying countries to deny the Jewish Holocaust. Yet that is precisely what Turkey has done with respect to the Armenian Genocide. Which makes China premising much of its diplomatic relations on lobbying countries to deny the Uyghur Genocide seem rather innocuous, no?
Equally outrageous, though, is that ever since Turkey joined NATO in 1952, every Turkish leader has used its geo-strategic importance to prevail upon every US president to collude in efforts to deny this genocide.
Even putatively enlightened and progressive former President Barack Obama colluded in this denial. But the greater was his shame because as a presidential candidate, he made quite a show of promising to recognize the Armenian Genocide, just as he promised to recognize the Cuban government.
This is why Obama’s collusion in this denial warranted as much condemnation as his initiative to re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba deserved commendation. But it is also why his former vice president, now President Joe Biden, deserves so much praise. Because here is how The Associated Press reported yesterday on his break from this shameful precedent:
________
President Joe Biden has formally recognized that the systematic killings and deportations of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Empire forces in the early 20th century were ‘genocide’ — using a term for the atrocities that his White House predecessors have avoided for decades over concerns of alienating Turkey.
With the acknowledgement, Biden followed through on a campaign promise he made a year ago Saturday — the annual commemoration of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day — to recognize that the events of 1915 to 1923 were a deliberate effort to wipe out Armenians.
While previous presidents have offered somber reflections of the dark moment in history via remembrance day proclamations, they have studiously avoided using the term genocide out of concern that it would complicate relations with Turkey — a NATO ally and important power in the Middle East.
________
Frankly, just as Germany duly acknowledged the Jewish Holocaust and suffered the political and legal consequences (including monetary reparations and property reclamations) – Turkey must acknowledge the Armenian Genocide and suffer the political and legal consequences too … whatever they entail.
This is why I hail Biden for being the first US president to end this tail-wagging-the-dog charade with Turkey, and call this spade a spade. In doing so, he has only dared Turkey to become an even thornier thorn in NATO’s hide than it has been since day one.
Not to mention that it’s president, Tayyip Recep Erdogan, now has more in common with dictators like Russian President Vladimir Putin than democrats like German Chancellor Angela Merkel. And there’s the rub: Even Putin has recognized this genocide. So Erdogan can’t even use him to play off against Biden.
But I’d be remiss not to acknowledge that Biden’s equally enlightened decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan probably made recognizing this genocide a little easier. Because that decision means Turkey no longer holds any significant leverage over their operations there. Never mind that the United States could have called Turkey’s bluff years ago — given that Turkey has always needed US-led NATO more than vice versa.
Mind you, the United Nations passed a resolution in 1948 declaring the atrocities at issue genocide. Unfortunately, few member states followed suit. No doubt, as with so many other issues of global concern, many were waiting for the United States to lead. Now it has.
That said, I lamented over 15 years ago that our “Celebrity-Obsessed World Has Made Actors and Rock Stars the Statesmen of Our Times,” May 23, 2005. Well, reality-TV stars -cum- social-media influencers have now joined the ranks of these newfangled statesmen.
The Armenian-American Kardashians proved that six years ago when they visited their homeland. Because it was truly surreal to see these reality-TV stars greeted and hailed like heads of state.
They are arguably the most famous people in the Armenian diaspora. The point is that I will not be surprised if Armenian history books record this occasion as having come about because, Kim Kardashian had become so influential, she got President Biden to recognize the Armenian genocide. This, just as surely as she got his predecessor to release a Black woman from prison.
Still, apropos of which, forget Donald Trump. Because, with his stewardship of the effort to vaccinate America, his $1.5 trillion Covid-stimulus package (which included expansion of Obamacare), his decision to end the war in Afghanistan, and this decision to recognize the Armenian Genocide, Biden is also upstaging his old boss, Obama.
In just 100 days, he might prove to be the most transformative president since LBJ, if not FDR. And, as “the Gipper” used to say, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
I urge you to visit Shoah’s Armenian archive here.
Related commentaries:
U.S. Congress Armenian genocide… Biden ends Afghan war… celebrity-obsessed world…