Here we are within one year of an historic milestone in our quest for justice. It is now 99 years since the Ottoman-Turkish government unleashed the genocide that slaughtered some 1.5 million innocent Armenian men, women, and children. A genocide that uprooted another 500,000 from their ancestral lands and saw tens of thousands of our young women and children taken in servitude and denied their birthright to grow up as Armenians.
The purpose of the genocide was simple enough: to empty the historic provinces of Western Armenia of its people and to plunder their wealth. Complicit in this politically motivated crime were the government leaders of England, France, and the United States by their acceptance of the horrendous slaughter that was taking place with their full knowledge, notwithstanding what amounted to their meaningless protestations. Compounding this tragedy, England, as the principal architect of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), welcomed Kemal Ataturk, who was no less responsible for the anguish visited upon the Armenian people, and the newly formed Republic of Turkey into the community of nations absolved of all responsibility for the genocide.
The new Turkey was given the blood-soaked historic lands of Western Armenia emptied of its people by a genocide that subjected its victims to the most inhumane and barbaric methods imaginable. These supposed bastions of democracy saw fit to ignore this heinous crime against the Armenians. The personal and community property plundered from the victims was gifted to Ataturk in the Treaty of Lausanne. The government of the United States, by its inaction, was as culpable as England and France in allowing this transgression against the Armenian people to go unpunished.
The year 2015 will mark the 100th anniversary of the genocide that sought to wipe us from the face of the earth. A genocide that has continued unabated in the decades that followed to destroy physical evidence that Turkey occupies lands that were settled by our people for millennia—lands that still, legally and morally, belong to the Armenian nation. Today we are no closer to the justice that is rightfully ours than we were during those years immediately following the genocide, when our nation faced an improbable future against seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
Now here is the rub. Turkish intellectuals stress the importance for Turkey to “acknowledge its past”; bravo to them. When foreign leaders say that Turkey should face its past especially during official visits to Turkey, we become euphoric when it is reported in the Armenian press. Similarly when Turkish citizens demonstrate in remembrance of the tragic assassination of Hrant Dink or proclaim that “We are all Hrant Dink,” we are encouraged to believe that we are moving ever closer to the justice we seek. We want to believe that a wave of sympathy, like a tsunami, is slowing building and when it finally crashes on the Turkish shore, government leaders will be forced to acknowledge the country’s past. I don’t believe so. However, given the volatility of the domestic political environment within Turkey, no one can say with certainty what may happen in the future.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as a prelude to the 100th anniversary of the modern era’s first genocide, continues the official policy of denial that every Turkish government has followed. He refers to the common pain that Armenians and Turks endured and the need for historians to make a judgment as to what actually happened during the years from 1915 to 1923. His hypocrisy can be understood, but how can one say the same for President Barak Obama when his April 24th message is once again filled with platitudes; when fails to use the word genocide; and when he suggests that a “full, frank, and just acknowledgement of the facts is in all of our interests.” Who is he addressing with this banal suggestion?
Mr. President, the slaughter of 1.5 million innocent Armenian men, women, and children between 1915 to 1923 is an historic fact that has been thoroughly documented and evaluated by unbiased, credentialed scholars—not politicians—who have unanimously agreed that it was genocide. Yes, it would be “in all of our interests” if you would remind your friends in Ankara, as well as yourself, to acknowledge the facts.
Our naiveté in believing that the pressure is mounting on Ankara to accept its past is frightening. As part of the Turkish response to 2015, Erdogan has once again invited Armenia and the (Diasporan) Armenians to join Turkey so that we may “…wipe away the tears, push prejudice to one side, and reveal historic truths…in an objective manner.” Looking north across the Black Sea, Erdogan must be emboldened by President Vladimir Putin denying what the world was witnessing in real time—his occupation and annexation of Crimea from a sovereign neighboring state without fatal repercussions.
With all of his internal problems, the government of Prime Minister Erdogan is not about to collapse anytime soon. For us to believe that Turkey will implode for our benefit is an old saw that has been played since I was a youngster. Will it never end? Whether we like it or not, Turkey has assumed even greater strategic importance as the Southern Gas Corridor, as Western Europe seeks to shift its dependence on Russian oil and gas imports to the energy resources of the Caspian Sea Basin.
To bolster our belief that the political climate for recognition is improving, we conveniently overlook the possibility that the demonstrations for Hrant Dink (as well as the Taksim Square/Gezi Park demonstration that quickly spread to other major Turkish cities) may simply have served as the vehicle for urban and educated Turkish citizens to vent their frustration with the policies of Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), rather than actively supporting recognition—notably, his shift from the policies of Ataturk, especially the shift from a secular society to one that places significantly greater emphasis on the ultraconservative values of the Islamic faith. This has placed increased restrictions on individual rights and the movement toward an open society. Given this legitimate concern of these citizens, we cannot gauge the depth of their sympathy for our cause until it runs up against their loyalty and love for Turkey. However, it is extremely gratifying that the Human Rights Association of Turkey has come out forcefully not only for recognition, but for indemnification. It is not surprising that boundary rectification was not mentioned.
Yet, to be fair in our assessment we cannot summarily discount the fact that there are Turkish citizens sincere in their protestations who cringe at the suffering that the genocide has wrought upon the Armenian people. These Turks may or may not be in the vanguard of a people who are tired and ashamed of the guilt their intransigent leaders have forced them to bear.
A factor we seem to overlook is the response of those sympathetic Turkish citizens once they realize that there is a difference between advocating the need for the nation to face its past and actually acknowledging its past. Acknowledgement is the moment when they must come to terms with the hideous crime of genocide carried out by their forebears. Recognition carries a heavy emotional, moral, psychological, and economic burden. There are significant groups within Turkey, at least a majority, that would never willingly accept recognition. The culturally conservative rural population would have the most to lose with recognition. They are settled on land that belongs to the victims of the genocide. Of the 77 percent of the population that is classified as urban, it is safe to say that a majority are or lean toward being culturally conservative as well. The military may have been weakened by Erdogan, but it still remains a powerful force in support of a secular state and against recognition. Then there are those who for various reasons would object to any accommodation with our legitimate demands.
Unfortunately there are any number of foreign leaders, including those who have supported recognition, who would eagerly accept any proffered recognition by Erdogan or his successors as being sufficient to put the genocide issue to rest forever. It is not a pleasant thought to consider. And solely for the sake of argument, should recognition be achieved, there is no guarantee whatsoever that indemnification and boundary rectification would follow. Can you name one nation, other than Russia possibly, that would vigorously support our legitimate claims against Turkey for either indemnification or boundary rectification?
One final comment. The spate of reports coming from Diyarbakir is uplifting. The rehabilitation of the Sourp Giragos Armenian Church was a singular event in what might be called a sort of rapprochement between Armenians and the Kurdish people of Diyarbakir. Much credit should go to the people of the city and their officials, Abdullah Demirbas and Osman Baydemir. However, does the rehabilitation of a long-neglected Armenian church serve to expiate the transgressions of their Kurdish ancestors who participated in the genocide? It reminds me of the practice by the powerful and wealthy during centuries past who would have a church built or perhaps rehabilitated or adorned as a way to ease their entry into the Kingdom of Heaven. Does this rapprochement include encouraging the progeny of those young Armenian women and children taken during the genocide to become acquainted with their Armenian roots?
We may not want to accept it, but these “lost” or Islamized Armenians, however diluted their blood may have become through the generations, are still our people. How we respond and develop this relationship has significant ramifications for Hai Tahd. This is not suggesting that we proselytize, but simply take the opportunity to develop a dialog, perhaps with the assistance of our recently contrite Kurdish friends. It is something for our leaders to actively expand upon.
It is interesting to note that at the recent commemoration of the genocide in Diyarbakir (reported in the Armenian press) the Kurdish speakers referred to the shared pain that Kurds and Armenians suffered. One would think that the purpose of the genocide was to eliminate both Armenians and Kurds; that Kurds had no role in what happened; or that they did not benefit from the wealth that was plundered. Kurds continue to suffer under the brutal yoke of Turkish oppression, but let them not deflect their participation in the genocide by implying that they were also victims.
We should keep in mind what Talleyrand, the foreign minister to Napoleon, once remarked: that nations do not have friends, they only have interests. It would be surprising if we had any friends (with the possible exception of Russia) who would vigorously support our quest for justice against Turkey. For nearly a century Turkish leaders have been determined not to accept responsibility for the genocide. Although our cause is just, that alone will not bring us victory. Aiding Turkey as an unyielding enemy of Hai Tahd is the passage of time. After nearly a century we have yet to develop and implement a comprehensive coordinated plan that vigorously attacks Turkey’s numerous vulnerabilities. Our efforts have been and continue to be sporadic, disconnected, and diffused. We face a formidable enemy. Unfortunately, we do not have forever to achieve our purpose.
Michael Mensoian
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As a member of the diaspora all my life, I fail to see that the World, as well as, Turkey, will ever acknowledge the genocide of my family, and certainly never make reparations for our lost property and land. The will does not exist to make things right. Just look around us, in the Middle East, have the Palestinians convinced the World or the Israelis to return their land? Is the United States willing to return land to the Native Americans? Recognition of the crime is possible, the will does not exist to recover what has been lost. Quite frankly, my families history was altered nearly 100 years ago and that is the truth and pain that we endure to this day.
No worry:even our 8 year old know where they come from,and how they landed where they are,and who is responsible,and that they won’t let go until retribution is obtained …
Dear no one gives anything just because you ask for it, what reparation of stollen lands and properties in which planet are you living? You want it back? Is it yours? Than go and take it back the same way it was taken away from you, otherwise wait till eternity someone that will give you what is yours just because you want it…you must not be strong to attack , attacking make you strong remember . Armenians have lost their peculiarity where are our modern Nejdeh, Dro, and Aram Manukian? They are all krikor Zohrab, hand by hand dancing with the modern Talaats…
Yes, soon or leader Turkey must recognize the historical fact of GENOCIDE and I’m shore I will be the victims of that day.
Getting back land/property has been a one-in-a-million long shot. I only know of 2 or 3 properties of the millions lost, that were returned to Armenians who had the deed/ownership documents etc. A few properties in Sisli, Kumkapi, one in Bursa, one in bakirkoy. Very very little satisfaction there. Plus have you ever asked yourselves this: WE AS AMERICANS NOW, OR CANADIANS, ETC… WOULD WE REALLY WANT TO LIVE BACK THERE IN ANATOLIA AGAIN, IN A BACKWARDS COUNTRY, ON OUR OWN LAND, UNDER THE ERDOGAN GOVERNMENT??? WE ARE AMERICANS NOW, FRENCH, WHATEVER, WE HAVE IT WAY BETTER THAN WE HAD IT IN ANATOLIA UNDER DOUBLE TAXATION, ABUSE, GENOCIDE. I personally would stay in New York City, than go back to Sivas and live on an acre of land among millions of Turks with no education.
Best analysis and insight to the reality of the problems we continue to face.We need a concerted effort by the combined effort of a group of our intelligentsia to formulate A strategy.
All correct, but the present is not forever. As far as Muslim people of Armenian descent are concerned, it is entirely up to them to reclaim their identity and do what that entails.
I want to thank the author Mr Mensoian here, this is a brilliant article, which touches upon some points that stark realities, namely that the real Genocide denial is not by Turkey, but, you guessed it, “the west”.
“The purpose of the genocide was simple enough: to empty the historic provinces of Western Armenia of its people and to plunder their wealth. Complicit in this politically motivated crime were the government leaders of England, France, and the United States by their acceptance of the horrendous slaughter that was taking place with their full knowledge, notwithstanding what amounted to their meaningless protestations.”
With the missing Soviet Union into the group above, it cannot get any clearer than this. This needs to be hammered into the head of every Armenian. This passage needs to be made into a poster and spread everywhere on the centennial of the Genocide.
We have been a bunch of dupes thus far, first listening to, then believing the neocon lie of “The US [The world’s number one superpower] needs Turkey [One of many of America’s puppets] and can’t anger her at this time”. The United States and its co-conspirators France and the UK are the real Genocide deniers – “the countries that won both world wars and who think only they have the right to run the world”. When a Turkish genocide denying western puppet opens his mouth to deny the Gencoide, he is not only representing the crude and low calibre Turkish masses, but also these countries.
“But France recognized the Genocide!” – yeah sure it did, right after giving Cilicia to the Turks, and what did it get us now, our lands back? After Turkey “threatened to tear up French contracts” according to the “news”, everything went back to business as usual.
Can any Armenian Francophile answer this question? After France knew exactly what went on in WWI during the massacres, and knew exactly what Armenian Cilicia was and even had troops stationed there, why did it create and protect Syria and Lebanon under mandate but not a simple little nation called Cilicia for the Armenians, but instead withdrew its troops so the Turkish savages can continue the Genocide and the Armenians lose their historic nation of Cilicia?
The root cause of the Turkish action is not articulated well. Armenians collaborated with the enemy of the Ottoman Empire (Russia), formed gangs and attacked Turks. In essence, this was treason. Turk’s reaction could not be justified, but is no different than what the Russians did to Tatars, and Chechens, etc. Essentially, changing the composition of the land, so the country can protect its boundaries. Turkish intellects may agree with a stronger recognition, but majority of the Turks will not accept the genocide because it is positioned as the same as what Nazis did to the Jews. The fact is nothing will satisfy the Armenians. The ones who are living in Europe or North America will never go back to live in Anatolia even if it was under Armenian rule. Armenia is much poorer and even more badly managed than Turkey. As Turkey gets richer, chances of any viable recognition will decrease. Armenia should have accepted the offer for a mutual research, but they’re afraid to find skeletons that will embarrass them even if it will eventually prove the Genocide. The irony of it all is siding with the communist Russia placed Armenians on a worse path than if they had partnered with the Ottomans
Türkoğlu Matt Adams:
Your illogical Denialist post is chock full of denialist delusion.
Love it when we get visitors such as you @AW.
Kindly allow me to retort:
{“ The root cause of the Turkish action is not articulated well.”}
Yes, it is articulated very well.
{“ Armenians collaborated with the enemy of the Ottoman Empire (Russia), formed gangs and attacked Turks. In essence, this was treason.”}
There was no enemy to ‘collaborate’ with in 1895, when up to 300,000 Armenian civilians were massacred by Turks (Sultan Hamid.)
There was no enemy to ‘collaborate’ with in 1909, when up to 30,000 Armenians were massacred in Adana by Turks.
So who did Pontic Greeks allegedly ‘collaborate’ with that they too were subjected to Genocide by Turks.
So who did Assyrians allegedly ‘collaborate’ with that they too were subjected to Genocide by Turks.
Who did Alevi Kurds allegedly ‘collaborate’ with that up 90,000 were massacred at Dersim in 1938 ?
See the pattern there Türkoğlu ? Turk & Massacre, &Massacre, &Massacre; Turk & Genocide, &Genocide, &Genocide.
btw, Turk: Turkey attacked Russia without provocation in 1914 upon urging of its secret ally Germany.
The WW1 Allies – Russia, France, and England – then retaliated and dismembered the rotted OT in a couple of years.
Unfortunately the savage nomadic Turks found salvation for their massive humiliation in the mass murder of millions of unarmed Christian civilians: old men, women, children, babies.
{“… no different than what the Russians did to Tatars, and Chechens,”}
Since you live in Denialverse and are disconnected from reality, you may have missed the following:
Crimean Tatars were exiled by Stalin, quite true.
But then they were rehabilitated and returned to Crimea.
Their numbers are about the same before and after.
Chechens were treated roughly by Russians, quite true.
But there are now about 1.3 million ethnic Chechens living in Chechnya.
Chechnya is run locally by Chechens, who despise and hunt down the radical Islamist Chechen terrorists that were murdering children.
Moscow rebuilt Grozny completely with federal funds.
Moscow built a brand new mosque in Grozny, reportedly the largest in Russia, with federal funds.
How many Christians left in Turkey, Turk ?
In 1915 there were about 4 million Christians in OT, about 25% of the total: now there are less than 100K: 0.2%
How do you explain that denialist Türkoğlu ?
{“ As Turkey gets richer,”}
Turkey had its own version of “peak oil” a few years ago: its decline has begun.
Check the Per Capita GDP and then talk about getting richer: even dysfunctional, bankrupt Greece has 2X higher PPP than Turkey.
Turkey is slowly being torn apart by its internal forces: Kemalists vs AKP Islamists; Kurds vs Turks; Alevi/Shia vs Sunni.
Ethnic Turks (and those who call themselves Turks) will become minority around 2035-2040: Kurds will become majority.
(Erdogan said so).
Occupied Western Armenia will become Kurdistan sooner or later.
Just like the decrepit Ottoman Turkey was dismembered, so too will modern Turkey, an unnatural state held together by force.
Then we will make a mutually beneficial deal with Kurds: everybody happy.
Armenians have been around for 5,000+ years.
We can wait. And we have long memories, Mr. Türkoğlu Adams
“Turk’s reaction could not be justified”
Yet you justified it when you called Armenians collaborators and traitors.
Your absurd explanation that “Armenians collaborated with the enemy of the Ottoman Empire (Russia), formed gangs, and attacked Turks,” is actually the same exact absurd excuse given by a large number of Turk apologists to justify their forefathers’ extermination of the Armenian people which caused the historic provinces of Western Armenia to be emptied of its people, followed by the seizing of those lands by the Ottoman Turks along with the stolen properties and wealth of the 1.5 million slaughtered Armenians.
And what’s your excuse for the genocides committed against the Greeks and Assyrians by the Ottoman Turks? Are you going to again give the same exact absurd excuse just like a typical Turk apologist?
In regard to the return of the stolen Western Armenian lands, stolen properties, and reparations for the murder of 1.5 million Armenians along with the destruction of over two thousand Armenian churches, what does any of this have to do with satisfying Armenians? This is not a matter of satisfaction; this is a matter of returning and giving what is due to the Armenian people.
Since you’re curious about who could possibly live on the stolen Western Armenian lands when they eventually get liberated, the answer is the three million plus Islamized Armenians who already live on those lands.
Armenia should have accepted the offer for a mutual research on the Armenian Genocide, under Turkey’s terms? And why is that? If you didn’t already know by now, the Armenian Genocide which is recognized by the International Association of Genocide Scholars, is an extremely well-documented fact with an enormous amount of factual evidence from foreign diplomats, missionaries, and military officers, who were present in Anatolia during the period of time that the atrocities were taking place. That’s the reason why countries like the United States, Germany, and Britain, ended up collecting such a massive amount of factual evidence on the Armenian Genocide. As a matter of fact, Henry Morgenthau, the U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, happened to collect a huge pile of factual evidence by himself on the extermination of the Armenian people that was going on in Anatolia.
In addition, the Armenian Genocide happens to also be recognized by the Human Rights Association of Turkey.
Mr. Adams has unfortunately not read anything published outside of Turkey in the last 99 years. He has not read the meticulous authoritative study of Ottoman-Turkish archives, eyewitness accounts, Ottoman court-marshal testimony by leading CUP officials, foreign consular reports, German and Austrian diplomatic correspondence, descriptions of systematic massacre from town to town, ‘provoke, then destroy’ patterns of agitation…
Mr. Adams fails to distinguish between Russian-Armenians and Ottoman-Armenians. He fails to realize that Ottoman-Armenians were not allowed to own weapons, and that their properties were searched for weapons by Ottoman authorities before the declaration of war. He fails to realize that the Armenian ‘rebels’ consisted actually of Russian-Armenian soldiers in the czarist army.
He fails to realize that the Ottoman authorities had a predetermined plan to eliminate the Armenians, and in some instances provoked the Armenians into “rebelling” and used these instances as a pretext. As one example, Ottoman officials’ post-war testimony reveals that the first deportation orders were given orally in March 1915, well before the Van ‘rebellion’ took place, and that up until this fighting in Van, Armenian villages were being razed.
He fails to perceive the mega irony that Ottoman Turkey tried to create the exact kind of Armenian rebellion in Russia that today’s apologists use as an excuse for the genocide. Turkish government historian Esat Uras even revealed that Ottoman leadership approached the Dashnaktsutiun at their Party Congress and offered a deal: Armenians would get autonomy if Dashnaks would get Armenians in Russia to undermine the czar’s war effort; the Dashnaks refused, and said that Armenians would remain loyal to their respective countries.
If Mr. Adams critically analyzes the events, he will come to the same conclusion reached by the vast majority of world historians, the world’s leading scholars on the Holocaust, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the International Center for Transitional Justice, the Center for Holocaust Studies in Jerusalem (a museum owned by the state which is/was one of Turkey’s biggest allies), and 30000 brave Turkish intellectuals.
The definition of Genocide does not require that the victim group passively wait to be exterminated. All people have the right to self-defense.
If taking up arms against oppression and state murder makes a people subject to intentional destruction of unarmed noncombatants, then the US had license to kill before Appamatox every southern white woman, and every civilian in Okinawa in 1945. We know that this is not true.
Most peoples, when faced with extermination, will rise up, but this gives the state and its murderers no right to destroy unarmed civilians in whose defense arms are taken up when possible.
Lemkin knew far more about the Armenian case when he coined the term Genocide than he did as to the Jewish Genocide, because the War was not over and because it was the trial of Soghomon Tehlerian in 1921 which caused him to wonder why a man who murders faces justice but a state which murders a race does not.
Finally, the state which commits Genocide always asserts that the victim group is disloyal, and is causing harm: Jews were portrayed as a foreign bacillus and a parasite which corrupted German morality, that Jews secretly killed Christians in ghastly rituals, and they were blamed for German losses in WWI; Armenians were portrayed in exactly the same terms by CUP and its religious auxiliaries. CUP also started causing the extermination of Armenians en masse in villages in 1913.
An interesting footnote to this is that the Armenian Genocide taught five generations of tyrants that they can kill civilians with impunity: in Turkey, in Germany, by Japan, by the Soviets, by Chinese Communists, in Rwanda, the list goes on and on. Today we see it with Sunni groups beheading Shias in Mosul.
This was the great gift of the Satanic Turkish government to the murder world: scalability with immpunity
Matt – what’s your real Turkish name?
You guys always pick pseudonymns that you think are red white and blue American.
But your syntax and diction always give you away. For example, your use of the phrase ‘Armenian gangs’ is a standard term in Turkish denial translations we see everywhere.
Apparently you want to create an impression that Americans are in the denial camp by using an American sounding name. Here is a newsflash: Armenians are well integrated into American life,and have been since the 1890’s. You morons from Turkey keep reminding Americans of what they knew in 1915: that the Turks, who had a pretty terrible reputation starting not later than the 15th Century, brutally murdered defenseless Christians with gusto. Two dozen Turkish scholars today affirm this fact. Argue with them in your native tongue.
Matty, me-Boyo:
See the Isis Jihadis.
Kill, kill, kill.
Chop, chop, chop.
Mad, bad, mean Isis Jihadis.
They learned “the Turkish [Moslem] lesson.”
That lesson is: kill as many unbelievers, Christians, Shia, etc. as you want, and other [Sunni] Moslems will protect you.
That however is just lesson 1.
Here is lesson 2; They will start killing lotsa Sunni Turks in Turkey when they get around to it, claiming that the victims are insufficiently primitive, as they are. They already have a strong foothold in Syria, thanks to Turkey, and will start wandering north.
Many Turkish IEDs coming.
Maybe Iraqi Kurdistan can expand to stabilize things. Pshmerga can do the job, too.
Just as ISI cannot control the Pak Taliban, Turk MIT cannot control the blowback from Sunni ambitions and supremism. Turkey will start sending these idiots into misadventures in the Caucasus, but ISIS is like polio – it will infect Azerbaijan ‘friends’ more rapidly than it will kill Armenians, who finished off a few hundred Chechens, who turn out to be lousy at combat. The Armenians, you see, are ready, having fought off Moslem infection quite nicely.
Let’s start an office pool as to when the large scale bombings in Ankara and Istanbul will begin. Turks will fume, and your third rate Army will be humiliated by Arabs in pick up trucks underwritten by Riyadh. Truth be known, Riyadh also thinks you are insufficiently primitive.
Moslems beheading Moslems. All thanks to Abdul Hamid and Talaat, Turkish men who dared to dream big.
100 years from now, you will see the comfort in Christianity.
Mr. Adams also seems unaware that “communist Russia” didn’t exist until late 1917 or that in 1914 the dreaded Tashnags told their on-again, off-again allies the Committee of Union and Progress not to enter a war that could only bring total disaster to the Ottoman Empire.
As a the son of a survivor of the Armenian Genocide it pains me that the United States has never officially recognized the events and mass killings of the Armenians in Turkey during World War I as Genocide. Because it is not in the best interests of the United States? Best interests Vs Genocide? I’ve seen how every Presidential candidate makes the promise of Genocide recognition but then reneges on that promise. The actions of President Clinton to stop the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the Congress were reprehensible. Hillary Clinton as ex Secretary of State now says that the actions of Turkey against the Armenians as “debateable” among historians? What planet is she on? This is a complete reversal of her remarks that were made during her bid to be the Democratic Party’s Presidential candidate. She is also quoted as saying that actions of the Swedish Parliament to recognize Armenian Genocide “were not helpful” Likewise for President Obama who also promised recognition of the Armenian Genocide but now looks the other way for whatever reason. Put G. W. Bush in the mix as well. That’s the nature of politics as they say. Wink wink. To paraphrase Joseph Gobels, “repeat a lie long enough then it will be accepted as the truth”.
The next Presidential candidate that campaigns for Armenian American votes should not be given a pass based on a mere promise. No more empty promises, please! The candidate must present a realistic and detailed plan for recognizing the Armenian Genocide.
The next President must put the Turkish government on notice and lead an effort to close all the US military bases in Turkey. NATO should terminate the Turkish participation in NATO. In addition, the next US President should also threaten to impose economic sanctions to bring the Turks inline. Turkey can also forget about EU membership. We have imposed economic sanctions on other countries. But least we forget there are prominent US figures that have invested in the Azeri oil industry with their special access to the POTUS.
Yes, we Armenians have a difficult uphill battle against almost impossible odds but that is the way it has always been for all great causes throughout world history as it has always been for us Armenians. My father instilled in his children the Armenian work ethic that you must never give up.
I am not really sure what will the recognition and acceptance of genocide by Turkey, U.S. or any other nation will accomplish for us. Will it return our lands back? Will the US, France and UK, force The Turks to pay reparations, just like they did for the Jews? Unless those latter issues are accomplished, just mere recognition and acceptance are only sympathy words to make us feel good and keep us quiet. No one or nation will give us our lands and rights back, we have to take it back in the same way they were taken from us. Time and again, throughout our 5000+ years of history, we have been duped by the other’s promises of alliance just to serve their own interests. It is past time that we start realizing that our national salvation and interests depend only on us; not the US, not the UK, not France, not the West.