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ARMENIAN PATRIARCH CALLS ON ISRAEL TO RECOGNIZE GENOCIDE
By GREER FAY CASHMAN
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=311535
04/30/2013 04:52
Nourhan Manougian reasons that if the United States has recognized
the massacre, than Israel should as well.
Armenian Patriarch Nourhan Manougian Photo: Courtesy Armenian Church
Armenian Patriarch Nourhan Manougian wrote ~V in a missive read on
Sunday at a conference in Jerusalem ~V that he cannot understand
Israel~Rs ongoing refusal to recognize the Turkish massacre of 1.5
million Armenians as genocide.
Manougian reasons is that if the United States has recognized the
massacre ~V which took place over several years and began more than
a century ago ~V than Israel should as well.
Related:
'Recalling Armenian genocide not attack on Turks'
Manougian~Rs message was read at the Hebrew University, where Prof.
Michael Stone, the founder of the Armenian Studies program at the
university~Rs Institute of Asian and African Studies, annually conducts
a symposium and commemoration of the Armenian genocide.
In his message to Israeli Armenians and Jews at the event, Manougian
wrote, ~SFor 98 years, so many efforts have been invested in getting
the Turks to admit that they committed genocide and the Turks continue
to deny.~T Each year, the message continued, people repeat ~Snever
again,~T and each year human rights organizations repeat the same
report about human rights abuses, genocide, hunger and torture.
Manougian cited Rwanda and Darfur as examples of genocide that occurred
in recent history, ~Sbut who remembers them today?~T he asked.
At the start of his message, Manougian quoted Napoleon Bonaparte as
saying, ~SThe world suffers not because of the violence of bad people
but because of the silence of good people.~T
Similarly, in a leaflet distributed by the Combat Genocide Association,
Holocaust survivor and acclaimed author Elie Wiesel is quoted as
saying: ~SThe opposite of love is not hate, but rather indifference.
The opposite of life is not death but rather indifference toward life
and death. The opposite of peace is nothing other than apathy towards
the ugliness of war and the beauty of peace.~T
Tsolag Momjian, the honorary Armenian consul in Jerusalem, whose
grandparents and uncles were slaughtered by the Turks, took exception
to a remark made last week by Deputy Minister for Liaison with the
Knesset Ofir Akunis, in which he said that the State of Israel has
never denied the massacre, but that the decision to label it a genocide
should be made through open debate.
Former MK Yair Tzaban, who was the keynote speaker at the Hebrew
University event, was praised by Stone and Momjian as being the first
lawmaker and government minister to take up the Armenian cause.
Tzaban noted that Yossi Sarid and Haim Oron, two of his former Knesset
colleagues who were also ministers, had also brought the Armenian
genocide to public attention in both the Knesset and the classroom.
He also praised broadcaster Yaacov Ahimeir for his efforts, begun in
1994, to ensure that something related to the Armenian genocide was
broadcast each year on Channel 1.
Tzaban recalled that when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had been
deputy foreign minister, he said that there are some things beyond
politics and diplomacy, and the Armenian genocide is one of them.
Neither politics nor diplomacy ~Sshould prevent us from identifying
with the victims,~T Netanyahu said at the time.
Unfortunately, as prime minister, he has not seen fit to recognize
the Armenian genocide, said Tzaban.
~SIf America can recognize April 24, why can~Rt we?~T he asked. Like
the Armenians, Tzaban was outraged by what Akunis had said.
~SIsrael is so sensitive to all forms of Holocaust denial,
racism, and neo-Nazism, but can~Rt bring herself to acknowledge the
Armenian genocide because it might harm her political and diplomatic
interests.~T
Tzaban bemoaned how quickly Israel had forgotten, in his opinion,
how many Jews begged for help and were turned away because it was
not in the national interest to help them.
Stone underscored that genocide meant not only killing a people or a
substantial part of a nation, but also killing a culture, a language,
music and folk customs.
By GREER FAY CASHMAN
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=311535
04/30/2013 04:52
Nourhan Manougian reasons that if the United States has recognized
the massacre, than Israel should as well.
Armenian Patriarch Nourhan Manougian Photo: Courtesy Armenian Church
Armenian Patriarch Nourhan Manougian wrote ~V in a missive read on
Sunday at a conference in Jerusalem ~V that he cannot understand
Israel~Rs ongoing refusal to recognize the Turkish massacre of 1.5
million Armenians as genocide.
Manougian reasons is that if the United States has recognized the
massacre ~V which took place over several years and began more than
a century ago ~V than Israel should as well.
Related:
'Recalling Armenian genocide not attack on Turks'
Manougian~Rs message was read at the Hebrew University, where Prof.
Michael Stone, the founder of the Armenian Studies program at the
university~Rs Institute of Asian and African Studies, annually conducts
a symposium and commemoration of the Armenian genocide.
In his message to Israeli Armenians and Jews at the event, Manougian
wrote, ~SFor 98 years, so many efforts have been invested in getting
the Turks to admit that they committed genocide and the Turks continue
to deny.~T Each year, the message continued, people repeat ~Snever
again,~T and each year human rights organizations repeat the same
report about human rights abuses, genocide, hunger and torture.
Manougian cited Rwanda and Darfur as examples of genocide that occurred
in recent history, ~Sbut who remembers them today?~T he asked.
At the start of his message, Manougian quoted Napoleon Bonaparte as
saying, ~SThe world suffers not because of the violence of bad people
but because of the silence of good people.~T
Similarly, in a leaflet distributed by the Combat Genocide Association,
Holocaust survivor and acclaimed author Elie Wiesel is quoted as
saying: ~SThe opposite of love is not hate, but rather indifference.
The opposite of life is not death but rather indifference toward life
and death. The opposite of peace is nothing other than apathy towards
the ugliness of war and the beauty of peace.~T
Tsolag Momjian, the honorary Armenian consul in Jerusalem, whose
grandparents and uncles were slaughtered by the Turks, took exception
to a remark made last week by Deputy Minister for Liaison with the
Knesset Ofir Akunis, in which he said that the State of Israel has
never denied the massacre, but that the decision to label it a genocide
should be made through open debate.
Former MK Yair Tzaban, who was the keynote speaker at the Hebrew
University event, was praised by Stone and Momjian as being the first
lawmaker and government minister to take up the Armenian cause.
Tzaban noted that Yossi Sarid and Haim Oron, two of his former Knesset
colleagues who were also ministers, had also brought the Armenian
genocide to public attention in both the Knesset and the classroom.
He also praised broadcaster Yaacov Ahimeir for his efforts, begun in
1994, to ensure that something related to the Armenian genocide was
broadcast each year on Channel 1.
Tzaban recalled that when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had been
deputy foreign minister, he said that there are some things beyond
politics and diplomacy, and the Armenian genocide is one of them.
Neither politics nor diplomacy ~Sshould prevent us from identifying
with the victims,~T Netanyahu said at the time.
Unfortunately, as prime minister, he has not seen fit to recognize
the Armenian genocide, said Tzaban.
~SIf America can recognize April 24, why can~Rt we?~T he asked. Like
the Armenians, Tzaban was outraged by what Akunis had said.
~SIsrael is so sensitive to all forms of Holocaust denial,
racism, and neo-Nazism, but can~Rt bring herself to acknowledge the
Armenian genocide because it might harm her political and diplomatic
interests.~T
Tzaban bemoaned how quickly Israel had forgotten, in his opinion,
how many Jews begged for help and were turned away because it was
not in the national interest to help them.
Stone underscored that genocide meant not only killing a people or a
substantial part of a nation, but also killing a culture, a language,
music and folk customs.