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Chowk, CA
Dec 26 2007
Sins of Our Fathers
Mahvish Zehra December 26, 2007
The more Turkey denies the 1915 genocide of Armenians, the less the
world believes it
Watching movies can be an educational experience. I have come across
many interesting facts about history, different places, and life in
general from watching movies. And wittingly or otherwise, they have
left lasting impressions. Take the Jewish Holocaust for example; I
don't think any person exposedto the media is ignorant of it. Every
person reading this will have knowledge about the Holocaust, and be
naturally against all the factors that brought it about.
For me, movies like 'Life is Beautiful' with the adorable Roberto
Benigni, and the ways he tries to conceal from his young son the
horrors of the concentration camp they are in, form a part of my
impressions of the Holocaust. The destitution of the Jewish people
captured by Adrien Brody in 'The Pianist', and the ruthless and
coldly calculated extermination of the Jews shown in many other
movies, form the major body of Holocaust knowledge that people are
exposed to. While the Jewish people rightly deserve the sympathy of
the whole world, why may I ask, the same sympathy is not afforded to
other peoples similarly persecuted?
About two years ago, I stumbled upon a very interesting movie that I
have not been able to forget. It was about another holocaust, one
that happened around 1915, of a people I had not heard much about
before: the Armenians. The film is titled 'Ararat', after Mount
Ararat where biblically, Noah's ark came to rest after the flood. The
Armenians call it 'Our Ararat' and see it as a symbol of their
history and resistance. It is located in eastern Turkey and since
1920, some claim, it has been officially closed to the Armenians
across the border from visiting it.
Armenians trace their history back to at least 2000 BC. They are one
of the oldest Christian nations in the world, and the first nation to
have adopted Christianity as a state religion in 301 AD. Only about
one-fifth of Armenians live in present day Armenia, the rest
scattered about the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East. Members of
rock band, System of a Down, and singer Cher, are some famous
Armenians.
Preceding the genocide of 1915, the Turks and Armenians lived in
relative peace with each other. No doubt, the Armenians lived as
second-class citizens in the Ottoman lands due to their Christian
status. As the Ottoman Empire's power was deteriorating,
revolutionary and nationalistic sentiments grew among its peoples.
The Armenians, as a major Christian majority, desired independence as
other Christian nations had received. They also clearly remembered
the widespread killings they had been subjected to in the 1890's and
in 1909, when they had demanded more rights and security from the
Ottoman government. The Turks viewed the Armenians as getting in the
way of their nationalistic aspirations, and under the pretext of
'disloyalty', planned out the genocide of 1915.
Ararat shows very graphically the treatment meted out to the
Armenians at the hands of the Turks, which resulted in the mass
murder of 1.5 million Armenians. The Director, well-respected
Canadian, Atom Egoyan, seems less concerned about winning awards or
being a success at the Box Office then about making a lasting
impression on his viewers. Scenes showing an Armenian woman being
raped by a Turk while her toddler daughter clings to her ankle, or
adolescent girls being burned alive, seem to scream out against the
silence around the genocide. A silence being borne by Armenian
descendants such as Egoyan, for more than 90 years.
Walking away from the film, one is not left untouched. It reminds one
of the Jewish Holocaust in many ways. The cold and calculated
extermination of the Armenians, and the brutal methods that were used
in the process, bring to mind the Jewish concentration camps and gas
chambers. Researchers have unearthed that Armenians were killed with
hammers and axes to save ammunition. There were mass drownings and
live burnings. Internationally renowned expert on the Armenian
genocide, Professor Vahakn Dadrian, has produced a document written
by General Mehmet Vehip Pasha, commander of the Turkish Third Army,
who visited an Armenian village and found all the houses packed with
burned human skeletons. General Pasha wrote in the document, "in all
the history of Islam, it is not possible to find any parallel to such
savagery."
It is not the point, of remembering and rehashing past events, to
make a show and drama out of misery. Or to carry out performing
rituals of our fathers we fail to understand anymore; it is to learn
lessons. To make a vow to ourselves not to let anything remotely
close to that event happen again. If we, people of today, have any
reason at all to claim to be better than those of yesterday, it is
because we have before us their mistakes and faults to learn from.
They say the similarities of the Armenian genocide with the Jewish
Holocaust are not coincidental. There were many Germans present in
the Ottoman lands who were witness to the mass killings and
deportations, and thus carried back accounts to the rest of the
world. Hitler thus had full knowledge of the genocide, and used it to
learn from while planning out his own. For example, while ordering
the mass extermination of the Polish, before the invasion of Poland,
he is known to have said: "Who, after all, speaks today of the
annihilation of the Armenians?"
The Turkish government denies any genocide took place, and claims
that the Armenian killings took place during a time of political
turmoil and fighting during World War One. To call the mass killings
'genocide' or even to speak of them in Turkey could leave you facing
charges, as Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk discovered. In 2005, during an
interview with a Swiss newspaper, Pamuk said: "A million Armenians
and 30,000 Kurds were killed in this country and I'm the only one who
dares to talk about it". These remarks left him facing 3 years in
prison for 'public denigration of Turkish identity'.
Recently, Turkey finds itself embroiled in the Armenian genocide
issue, as the U.S House of Committee approved a resolution, calling
the 1915 Armenian massacres genocide. Turkey viewed the resolution as
an insult and threatened the U.S that "great harm" would be done to
their bilateral ties. Turkey is a very important U.S ally in the Iraq
War, providing key logistical support to U.S troops in Iraq. Support
for the resolution has since faltered as the U.S is more concerned
about keeping good relations with Turkey, than taking the risk of
passing a resolution that only recognizes the genocide, and nothing
more.
The point of accepting responsibility for past sins, I repeat, is not
to make a show out of misery. It is to learn lessons and better
ourselves, so that those mistakes may never be repeated: of causing
such misery, or letting it happen while we stand idly by. As Turkey
plans an offensive into Northern Iraq against Kurds, who have been
struggling for independence for years, it may seem poised to repeat
the sins it denies so vehemently. The worst kind of sin is the one we
refuse to acknowledge as a sin at all.
http://www.chowk.com/articles/13225
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Dec 26 2007
Sins of Our Fathers
Mahvish Zehra December 26, 2007
The more Turkey denies the 1915 genocide of Armenians, the less the
world believes it
Watching movies can be an educational experience. I have come across
many interesting facts about history, different places, and life in
general from watching movies. And wittingly or otherwise, they have
left lasting impressions. Take the Jewish Holocaust for example; I
don't think any person exposedto the media is ignorant of it. Every
person reading this will have knowledge about the Holocaust, and be
naturally against all the factors that brought it about.
For me, movies like 'Life is Beautiful' with the adorable Roberto
Benigni, and the ways he tries to conceal from his young son the
horrors of the concentration camp they are in, form a part of my
impressions of the Holocaust. The destitution of the Jewish people
captured by Adrien Brody in 'The Pianist', and the ruthless and
coldly calculated extermination of the Jews shown in many other
movies, form the major body of Holocaust knowledge that people are
exposed to. While the Jewish people rightly deserve the sympathy of
the whole world, why may I ask, the same sympathy is not afforded to
other peoples similarly persecuted?
About two years ago, I stumbled upon a very interesting movie that I
have not been able to forget. It was about another holocaust, one
that happened around 1915, of a people I had not heard much about
before: the Armenians. The film is titled 'Ararat', after Mount
Ararat where biblically, Noah's ark came to rest after the flood. The
Armenians call it 'Our Ararat' and see it as a symbol of their
history and resistance. It is located in eastern Turkey and since
1920, some claim, it has been officially closed to the Armenians
across the border from visiting it.
Armenians trace their history back to at least 2000 BC. They are one
of the oldest Christian nations in the world, and the first nation to
have adopted Christianity as a state religion in 301 AD. Only about
one-fifth of Armenians live in present day Armenia, the rest
scattered about the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East. Members of
rock band, System of a Down, and singer Cher, are some famous
Armenians.
Preceding the genocide of 1915, the Turks and Armenians lived in
relative peace with each other. No doubt, the Armenians lived as
second-class citizens in the Ottoman lands due to their Christian
status. As the Ottoman Empire's power was deteriorating,
revolutionary and nationalistic sentiments grew among its peoples.
The Armenians, as a major Christian majority, desired independence as
other Christian nations had received. They also clearly remembered
the widespread killings they had been subjected to in the 1890's and
in 1909, when they had demanded more rights and security from the
Ottoman government. The Turks viewed the Armenians as getting in the
way of their nationalistic aspirations, and under the pretext of
'disloyalty', planned out the genocide of 1915.
Ararat shows very graphically the treatment meted out to the
Armenians at the hands of the Turks, which resulted in the mass
murder of 1.5 million Armenians. The Director, well-respected
Canadian, Atom Egoyan, seems less concerned about winning awards or
being a success at the Box Office then about making a lasting
impression on his viewers. Scenes showing an Armenian woman being
raped by a Turk while her toddler daughter clings to her ankle, or
adolescent girls being burned alive, seem to scream out against the
silence around the genocide. A silence being borne by Armenian
descendants such as Egoyan, for more than 90 years.
Walking away from the film, one is not left untouched. It reminds one
of the Jewish Holocaust in many ways. The cold and calculated
extermination of the Armenians, and the brutal methods that were used
in the process, bring to mind the Jewish concentration camps and gas
chambers. Researchers have unearthed that Armenians were killed with
hammers and axes to save ammunition. There were mass drownings and
live burnings. Internationally renowned expert on the Armenian
genocide, Professor Vahakn Dadrian, has produced a document written
by General Mehmet Vehip Pasha, commander of the Turkish Third Army,
who visited an Armenian village and found all the houses packed with
burned human skeletons. General Pasha wrote in the document, "in all
the history of Islam, it is not possible to find any parallel to such
savagery."
It is not the point, of remembering and rehashing past events, to
make a show and drama out of misery. Or to carry out performing
rituals of our fathers we fail to understand anymore; it is to learn
lessons. To make a vow to ourselves not to let anything remotely
close to that event happen again. If we, people of today, have any
reason at all to claim to be better than those of yesterday, it is
because we have before us their mistakes and faults to learn from.
They say the similarities of the Armenian genocide with the Jewish
Holocaust are not coincidental. There were many Germans present in
the Ottoman lands who were witness to the mass killings and
deportations, and thus carried back accounts to the rest of the
world. Hitler thus had full knowledge of the genocide, and used it to
learn from while planning out his own. For example, while ordering
the mass extermination of the Polish, before the invasion of Poland,
he is known to have said: "Who, after all, speaks today of the
annihilation of the Armenians?"
The Turkish government denies any genocide took place, and claims
that the Armenian killings took place during a time of political
turmoil and fighting during World War One. To call the mass killings
'genocide' or even to speak of them in Turkey could leave you facing
charges, as Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk discovered. In 2005, during an
interview with a Swiss newspaper, Pamuk said: "A million Armenians
and 30,000 Kurds were killed in this country and I'm the only one who
dares to talk about it". These remarks left him facing 3 years in
prison for 'public denigration of Turkish identity'.
Recently, Turkey finds itself embroiled in the Armenian genocide
issue, as the U.S House of Committee approved a resolution, calling
the 1915 Armenian massacres genocide. Turkey viewed the resolution as
an insult and threatened the U.S that "great harm" would be done to
their bilateral ties. Turkey is a very important U.S ally in the Iraq
War, providing key logistical support to U.S troops in Iraq. Support
for the resolution has since faltered as the U.S is more concerned
about keeping good relations with Turkey, than taking the risk of
passing a resolution that only recognizes the genocide, and nothing
more.
The point of accepting responsibility for past sins, I repeat, is not
to make a show out of misery. It is to learn lessons and better
ourselves, so that those mistakes may never be repeated: of causing
such misery, or letting it happen while we stand idly by. As Turkey
plans an offensive into Northern Iraq against Kurds, who have been
struggling for independence for years, it may seem poised to repeat
the sins it denies so vehemently. The worst kind of sin is the one we
refuse to acknowledge as a sin at all.
http://www.chowk.com/articles/13225
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress