In April, 1915, the Turkish government initiated the genocide of 1.5 million Christian Armenians, including my grandmother’s parents and three of her four sisters. Armenians who renounced Christianity and embraced Islam were spared. Following Churchill’s failed breach of the Dardanelles, Christian Armenian men of military age were ordered to surrender their weapons, then executed. Women, children and the elderly were marched into the desert to starve or be slaughtered, sometimes by psychopaths released from prisons and mental hospitals for that purpose. Torture was common. Some teenage girls were crucified; Hollywood made a movie about this in 1919.
Except for some in the Near East and a few American politicians on the payroll of the Turkish government, the facts are rarely disputed. A consensus of historians, Christian, Jewish and Muslim, writing 100 years ago and today, is that this was the first genocide of the 20th century. See, for example, from 100 years ago, Arnold Toynbee, “Armenian Atrocities, The Murder of a Nation,” and Henry Morgenthau, “Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story;” and from today, Peter Balakian, “The Burning Tigris” and “Armenian Golgotha;” and Taner Akcam, “A Shameful Act.”
When the term “genocide” was coined, the genocide of 1915 was offered as the exemplar. In defiance of their government’s World War I ally (“unclaimed” Armenian, Greek and Jewish property was used to buy armaments), two Germans smuggled photographs out of Turkey and they can be seen at www. armenian-genocide.org. When someone expressed misgivings about the planned genocide of European Jews, Hitler replied, “Who now speaks of the Armenians?”
Former congressmen, now lobbying on behalf of Ankara, such as conservative Republican Richard Armey and liberal Democrat Richard Gephardt, claim that we need Turkey and should not offend by referring to the 1915 genocide, lest it jeopardize our “war on terror.” The Turks have warned of cooler relations and President Obama has avoided using the “g” word since his inauguration. But Europeans have insisted that Turkey acknowledge the 1915 genocide as a precondition to joining the European Union. Although previously threatened by Turkey, their moral stance has cost them nothing.
With American taxpayers sending tens of billions in military aid to Turkey and Azerbaijan, which openly threatens invasion, they must content themselves with knocking down stone crosses in medieval cemeteries. The ultimate prize would be the cathedral at Etchmiadzin, seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the oldest Christian denomination. But Armenia has good friends in Europe and the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, one of the largest with over 140 members. They plan to bring the Armenian Genocide Resolution forward despite attacks from the punditocracy.
Numerous American commentators, from national columnists like Cal Thomas to local ones like Fred Hill, have asked why we should risk amicable relations with Turkey over something that happened in 1915. Here’s why:
Right now, hundreds of thousands of young Americans are risking their lives and limbs in predominantly Muslim countries. Their enemies are young Muslims, who believe what they’ve been taught by people like professor Bernard Lewis of Princeton, who insisted that all bloodshed between Muslims and Christians was initiated by Christians, beginning with the Crusades. For this argument, Lewis was charged with a hate crime in France, where genocide denial is rightly considered to be part of the process of genocide: its final stage.
Although being greeted by cadres of young virgins may be a heavenly lure for young Muslim men urged to blow up a few Americans, the defense of the faith is a clear motivation. By allowing Turkey to deny that the genocide of 1915 ever happened, we permit the canard that while Islam is a religion of “peace,” Christians are “crusaders,” who depend upon force of arms to make converts. Tolerating these lies jeopardizes young Christians who go to Muslim countries for honorable reasons.
The United States was founded in the 18th century by idealists who professed the truth, not by a cabal of crafty schemers calculating how to manipulate foreign governments. While some current leaders may be inclined to dismiss history because they fancy themselves masters of “realpolitik,” still, we don’t need a Turkey to have an America. If we are to pull ourselves out of our present diplomatic and military difficulties, perhaps it is time to give virtue — to paraphrase the Beatles — “a chance.”
Michael Shamamian, a Bangor resident, is the author of a novel, “The Headsman,” and a member of the Armenian Assembly of America.