Genocide: An inconvenient truth (Salon)

The Armenian genocide bill has been attacked by both the right and the left - and it may make matters worse. But it's necessary.

It was the first holocaust, one of the worst crimes of the 20th century. In 1915, during World War I, the ruling political party under the Ottoman regime ordered the extermination of its Armenian subjects. At least 800,000 and as many as 1.5 million men, women and children were murdered or died of disease, starvation and exposure. The details of the genocide, as laid out in books like Robert Fisk's "The Great War for Civilization" and Peter Balakian's "The Burning Tigris," are harrowing. Lines of men, women and children were roped together by the edge of a river, so that shooting the first person caused all the rest to drown. Women were routinely raped, killed and genitally mutilated. Some were crucified. Children were taken on boats into rivers and thrown off.

Turkish Party Leader Gives Great Christmas Gift to Armenian Cause (California Courier)

In a historic decision on December 12, Switzerland's Federal Tribunal confirmed a lower court's conviction of Turkish Party leader Dogu Perincek for denying the Armenian Genocide.

The ruling by the Federal Tribunal (Supreme Court) has far-reaching consequences much beyond the borders of Switzerland. For years, Turkish officials have claimed that the Armenian mass killings of 1915-23 could not be viewed as a case of genocide since there was no court verdict to that effect. Turkish denialists persistently ignored the ample documentation provided by historians, genocide scholars, resolutions adopted by the European Parliament and legislatures of more than 20 countries, a UN human rights panel, and verdicts of Turkish Military Tribunals in 1919.

Two years ago, Perincek, the leader of Turkey's Workers' Party, went to Switzerland and challenged the Swiss authorities to try him for violating local laws on denying genocide. He claimed that he could not have violated the country's laws against genocide denial since there never was an Armenian genocide. He hoped that by obtaining a not guilty verdict, he would become a Turkish national hero for having single-handedly ended Armenian accusations of genocide against Turkey. Neither Perincek nor the Turkish government that backed his risky adventure seemed to realize that while winning the court case would promote their denialist agenda, a guilty verdict would deal a devastating blow to their continued refusal to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.

During his visit to Switzerland in July 2005, Perincek called the Armenian Genocide an "international lie" and was promptly detained and interrogated by Swiss Police. He was released, pending a fuller investigation of his statements. Charges were subsequently filed against him. For his mandated court appearance, Perincek returned to Switzerland in March 2007 with a planeload of fanatical supporters who described themselves as members of the "Talat Pasha Committee," in honor of the mastermind of the Armenian Genocide. He also brought with him over 200 pounds of "documents" that supposedly backed his denialist claims.

Testifying on Perincek's behalf were four notorious Turkophiles: Prof. Justin McCarthy from the United States; Norman Stone, a British denialist who teaches in Turkey; Jean-Michel Thibaux, a former Frenchman who had recently moved to Turkey, acquired Turkish citizenship and changed his name to "Atakan Turk"; and Prof. Paul Leidinger from Germany. Testifying against Perincek were genocide specialists Yves Ternon and Raymond Kevorkian from France and Tessa Hofmann from Germany.

Despite attempts by the Turkish government to pressure the Swiss authorities to drop the charges, the Lausanne Court of First Instance found Perincek guilty and fined $7,350 in lieu of a 90-day suspended jail term, ordered him to pay a $2,450 fine and $4,750 for court costs. In addition, the court warned Perincek that should he deny the Armenian Genocide again within the next 24 months, he could face imprisonment. Perincek thus became the first person to be convicted under Switzerland's anti-racism law for denying the Armenian Genocide. Article 261bis of the Swiss penal code -- which outlaws the denial, minimization or justification of genocide -- was heretofore applied only to those who had denied the Jewish Holocaust. Perincek was also ordered by the court to pay $9,000 for legal expenses and "moral compensation" to the Switzerland-Armenia Association which had initiated the lawsuit against Perincek. Since Ankara had sided with Perincek and provided legal and material support for his trial, the guilty verdict also implicated the Turkish government which declared the trial to be "inappropriate, groundless and controversial in every sense."

Fortunately for Armenians, Perincek stubbornly persisted in his efforts to challenge the Swiss legal system, thus causing even more damage to Turkey's denialist campaign. In June 2007, Perincek took his case to the Swiss Court of Appeal which confirmed his guilty verdict. Thus, within the short span of three months, Perincek helped confirm the fact of the Armenian Genocide through the verdicts of two Swiss courts. Not satisfied, Perincek then appealed his case to the Swiss Federal Tribunal which confirmed the verdicts of the lower courts on December 12, 2007.

The Federal Tribunal ruled that there was an overall consensus that the Armenian Genocide had taken place and that Perincek had not been able to prove the contrary, thus making light of his 200 pounds of anti-Armenian "documents" and dismissing the testimonies of the four so-called scholars who testified on his behalf. The Court also said that Perincek was "motivated by racism and nationalism," and not a desire for "historical debate." In countering Perincek's argument that not all countries have recognized the Armenian Genocide, the Court stated that even a United Nations resolution condemning the denial of the Jewish Holocaust received only 103 votes out of the 192 member states in January 2007. The Court further declared that the refusal of some countries to acknowledge such genocidal acts for political reasons does not cast doubt on their validity.

It is noteworthy that the Swiss Federal Tribunal stated in its verdict that "the denial of the Genocide constitutes a threat to the identity of the Armenian people." The Court also asserted that Perincek¢s conviction "contributes to the protection of the human dignity of the members of the Armenian community who define themselves by the memory of the Genocide of 1915." Thanks to Perincek and his shortsighted backers in Ankara, Armenians have won a very significant victory. This is the first time that the highest court of any country passes judgment on the Armenian Genocide, thus serving as a precedent for all future court cases on this issue. Despite his overzealous efforts to counter the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, Perincek and Turkish officials who support him have only managed to undermine Turkey¢s massive denialist campaign. Perincek announced last week that he will be appealing his conviction to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Should he go through with that appeal, he would be making an even more substantial contribution to the Armenian Cause, by furthering the legal recognition of the Armenian Genocide through Europe's highest court of law.

All over Turkey, Christians are under attack (The Economist)

"THIS has been a bad year for Orhan Ant. As a Protestant missionary in Samsun, on the Black Sea, he has had death threats and his church has been repeatedly stoned. Local newspapers called him a foreign agent. A group of youths tried to kidnap him as he was driving home. His pleas for police protection have gone unheeded. Mr Ant is not alone. All over Turkey, Christians are under attack. In January Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian newspaper editor, was shot dead in Istanbul by a teenager who said he had “insulted Turkishness”. In April two Turks and a German, all evangelists, were murdered in Malatya. Their killers bound and tortured them before slitting their throats. In December an Italian Catholic priest was knifed by a teenager in Izmir. Another Italian priest was shot dead in Trabzon in 2006."

INTERNATIONAL GENOCIDE SCHOLARS ASSOCIATION OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZES ASSYRIAN, GREEK GENOCIDES

In a groundbreaking move, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) has voted overwhelmingly to recognize the genocides inflicted on Assyrian and Greek populations of the Ottoman Empire between 1914 and 1923.

The resolution passed with the support of fully 83 percent of IAGS members who voted. The resolution (text below) declares that "it is the conviction of the International Association of Genocide Scholars that the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire between 1914 and 1923 constituted a genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian Greeks." It "calls upon the government of Turkey to acknowledge the genocides against these populations, to issue a formal apology, and to take prompt and meaningful steps toward restitution."

In 1997, the IAGS officially recognized the Armenian genocide. The current resolution notes that while activist and scholarly efforts have resulted in widespread acceptance of the Armenian genocide, there has been "little recognition of the qualitatively similar genocides against other Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire." Assyrians, along with Pontian and Anatolian Greeks, were killed on a scale equivalent in per capita terms to the catastrophe inflicted on the Armenian population of the empire -- and by much the same methods, including mass executions, death marches, and starvation.

IAGS member Adam Jones drafted the resolution, and lobbied for it along with fellow member Thea Halo, whose mother Sano survived the Pontian Greek genocide. In an address to the membership at the IAGS conference in Sarajevo, Bosnia, in July 2007, Jones paid tribute to the efforts of "representatives of the Greek and Assyrian communities ... to publicize and call on the present Turkish government to acknowledge the genocides inflicted on their populations," which had made Asia Minor their home for millennia. The umbrella term "Assyrians" includes Chaldeans, Nestorians, Syriacs, Aramaens, Eastern Orthodox Syrians, and Jacobites.

"The overwhelming backing given to this resolution by the world's leading genocide scholars organization will help to raise consciousness about the Assyrian and Greek genocides," Jones said on December 15. "It will also act as a powerful counter to those, especially in present-day Turkey, who still ignore or deny outright the genocides of the Ottoman Christian minorities."

The resolution stated that "the denial of genocide is widely recognized as the final stage of genocide, enshrining impunity for the perpetrators of genocide, and demonstrably paving the way for future genocides." The Assyrian population of Iraq, for example, remains highly vulnerable to genocidal attack. Since 2003, Iraqi Assyrians have been exposed to severe persecution and "ethnic cleansing"; it is believed that up to half the Assyrian population has fled the country.

FULL TEXT OF THE IAGS RESOLUTION

WHEREAS the denial of genocide is widely recognized as the final stage of genocide, enshrining impunity for the perpetrators of genocide, and demonstrably paving the way for future genocides;

WHEREAS the Ottoman genocide against minority populations during and following the First World War is usually depicted as a genocide against Armenians alone, with little recognition of the qualitatively similar genocides against other Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire;

BE IT RESOLVED that it is the conviction of the International Association of Genocide Scholars that the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire between 1914 and 1923 constituted a genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian Greeks.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Association calls upon the government of Turkey to acknowledge the genocides against these populations, to issue a formal apology, and to take prompt and meaningful steps toward restitution.

British Government's response to the petition to recognise the Armenian Genocide

The office of the Prime Minister has today responded to the petition to recognise the Armenian Genocide signed by over 1,100 British citizens and residents:

The British Government acknowledges and regrets the terrible events that afflicted the Ottoman Armenian population at the beginning of the last century, when over a million ethnic Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire were killed. Many were massacred; some were victims of civil strife, starvation and disease, which ravaged the whole population of Eastern Anatolia during the First World War.

The massacres were an appalling tragedy, which the British Government of the day condemned. We fully endorse that view. However, neither this Government nor previous British Governments have judged that the evidence is sufficiently unequivocal to persuade us that these events should be categorised as genocide as defined by the 1948 UN Convention on Genocide, a convention which is, in any event, not retrospective in application.

The British Government believes that the focus should be on ensuring a progressive approach; to improve the chances for reconciliation between Armenian and Turkish people and to achieve a peaceful and secure future for everyone living in the region. To this end we encourage the Governments of Armenia and Turkey to improve co-operation, economic development and understanding between their countries.

In preparing for EU accession, Turkey must demonstrate its commitment to good neighbourly relations and must have undertaken to resolve outstanding border disputes. The advancement of accession negotiations will be guided by progress made in these, and other areas.

We note some positive changes in the wording of this standard response compared with earlier statements, however it still remains unsatisfactory in its denial of the historical fact and reality of the Armenian Genocide. The British Armenian community and the Armenian Genocide Trust remain determined to continue our efforts to put an end to the shameful denial of the 20th century's first genocide and will announce our action plan for the 2008 shortly.