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Politics of Genocides

Kamangir | October 10, 2007 | Category Human Rights, Iran, Islamic Republic, US

morgen53.jpgIn contemporary Persian, the term “politics” means “the art of survival through the best use of the situation”. This is probably a result of the long periods through which the Iranians have had to use their minds to survive against external and internal hazards. But there is more to this.

As I have mentioned earlier, I am reading the book “Taliban” by Ahmed Rashid. I am still in the early chapters of the book, but I find it fascinating how Iran has been supplying a group in the Afghanistan turmoil with arms and money. This, I would call interference and I guess it is “okey” for a country to “intervene” in the neighboring countries. Or at least that’s what every country does. What is the irony here is that Iranians are well-known for their eternal complaints against the US government for its indisputable role in the coup which toppled down the democratically-elected prime minister of Iran, Mosaddeq. The question is, is it okey for Iran to meddle in Afghanistan, and now in Iraq and Lebanon and elsewhere, but US should be blamed for its “pursuit of its interests in Iran”?

holocaust2.jpgI guess it’s the big aspect of politics which causes this irony; politicians are the least interested in such fancy terms as “morality” and “truth”. What they are concerned with is survival.

Take the example of the Holocaust. Clearly, there are many people who deny it. Some of these people are idiots like Ahamdinejad who deny it for a “greater goal”, but there are still some historians who have “legitimate” reasons for questioning aspects of the Holocaust. Does that mean that I, as a non-Jew, should dispute the Holocaust? The answer is no. Because this is such a sensitive issue for the Jews, and because they have a good argument for it, and because I have personally witnessed antisemitism, I respect the Holocaust. But how about other people’s sufferings?

I am not an Armenian and all my information about this faith is through a friend and, well, wikipedia. Similar to the Jewish case, I respect Armenians’ claim about Turkey’s genocide of Armenians. That is because, first of all, Armenians have collected a good deal of documents to justify their claim, some of which is in Persian and I have personally gone through them. Secondly, the Turkish government is right now denying the existence of a fraction of its citizens, namely Kurds.

Going back to the politics, House works towards passing a bill on the Armenian Genocide, Turkey does not like it, thus “the [American] president describes the events of 1915 as ‘one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century,’ but believes that the determination of whether or not the events constitute a genocide should be a matter for historical inquiry, not legislation.” Well, with all due respect, I call this political maneuver at the cost of offending a nation who has suffered a horrid genocide. The fact that some of the children of the Jewish Holocaust survivors might follow American politicians is then just hypocrisy, to my understanding.

p.s. This is from The Boston Globe,

Particularly deplorable has been the longtime reluctance of some leading Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, to call the first genocide of the 20th century by its proper name. When Andrew Tarsy, the New England director of the ADL, came out last week in support of a congressional resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide, he was promptly fired by the national organization. Shaken by the uproar that followed, the ADL finally backed down. The murder of a million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks in 1915, it acknowledged yesterday, was “indeed tantamount to genocide.”…

I would be dishonest to not mention that in a recent poll among Israelis,

…the absolute majority (82,5%) agree with the opinion that the Israeli people, who survived the Holocaust have no right to deny tragedies of other nations. At that 72,4% think that Israel should recognize the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey in 1915 as genocide….

p.s. 2 I wrote this piece today very early in the morning but because of a comment which accused me of racism I took it off. I sent an apology to the commenter and received this “…I completely misread your post. I went to quote it and realised I had missed the point entirely…”. So, here is the post again. Thanks also to Roman for his question.

Reader's Comments

  1. Roman Kalik | October 10th, 2007 at 4:30 am

    Um, surely you meant the children and grandchildren of Jewish Holocaust survivors. And how exactly are they acting in a hypocritical manner? I didn’t understand how the article that you linked to shows them as such.

    Please elabourate.

  2. Deleted | October 10th, 2007 at 5:05 am

    Deleted at the intention of the commenter.

  3. Kamangir (Archer) - کمانگیر » Blog Archive » Politics and Fuzzy Clustering | October 10th, 2007 at 12:27 pm

    [...] Comments ali on Holy Child AbuseKay on Bored of Enthusiasm?Deleted on Politics of GenocidesRoman Kalik on Politics of GenocidesKamangir (Archer) - کمانگیر » Blog Archive » [...]

  4. armilnov | October 10th, 2007 at 12:27 pm

    The only Muslim country that recognizes Israel’s right to exist is Turkey. That is why Israelis are so scared to insult Turkey by admitting that Genocide actually happened, even though it really did.
    Also, the Genocide of Armenians was the excuse that Hitler used in planning Holocaust - he used to say that since nobody remembered Genocide of Armenians in 1915, so nobody will remember Genocide of Jews in 1940s either.
    Israel is making a huge mistake by not admitting that this filth actually happened.

  5. Roman Kalik | October 10th, 2007 at 1:45 pm

    Turkey is not the only Muslim country to recognize Israel (look in Asia), but it is certainly the only middle-eastern one after the revolution in Iran. It’s an overall crap situation, because we have too many enemies as it is… I’d very much like to see Israel recognize the Armenian Genocide. I’d also like Israel to recognize Tibet’s occupation and hold a public meeting with the Dahlai Lama.

    But I’d also like to remain alive, and we have too many enemies as it is…

  6. Roman Kalik | October 10th, 2007 at 2:01 pm

    Thanks for the changes, by the way. I understand what you mean now. Notice though, that Turkish politicians accuse Jewish organizations of “conspiring against Turkey”, when said organizations aren’t even supporting the Armenian Genocide Bill. Kaman, I don’t want yet another hostile country near my country. The words the Turkish officials use show that the matter can quickly evolve to official outright hatred of Jews for being Jews. Jews have a right to fear that, and the consequences thereof.

    Kamangir: Roman, I do understand what you mean, but at the same time, I am sure those who denied the Holocaust as it was happening had their legitimate fears as well. I am not saying that Israelis should take all the risks and jump into the recognition of the Armenian Holocaust. I am just saying, this is politics, the dirty, even filthy, business of closing our eyes on people’s sufferings.

  7. Roman Kalik | October 10th, 2007 at 3:28 pm

    Yes, politics is a filthy business, but there was no hypocricy or double-standard on the part of the Jewish organizations. You can’t ask them to put their own people at great risk for the sake of honesty. This is a terrible internal conflict for me, Kaman, and I’m sure it is the same for many other Jews. This is not a matter of American politics at all, but of survival.

    Lives are at stake here, and Jewish history is full of blood. Rivers of blood. This isn’t merely politics, no game of pride and gains. Please, don’t ask us to do more than we can. Let others handle this affair, keep us out of the argument and leave us to just deal with what happens… The world isn’t black and white, and sometimes all the choices are bad.

    I personally think that Israel should forget about Turkey and focus on building an alliance with the Kurds. Turkey is changing rapidly, becoming more nationalistic and Islamist by the day. In short, Turkey is becoming dangerous, and something of a danger to Israel in the future, anyway. But that’s just what I think, and I could be wrong, and the risks… are too high.

  8. armilnov | October 10th, 2007 at 5:01 pm

    Roman, I absolutely agree.
    To demand of Israel to insult the only country in Middle East that accepts its right to EXIST (!) for any reason is moronic. Ideally, all of Middle East should accept that Israel has a right to exist, and then Israel will make the record straight by officially recognizing the Genocide. As it is, the fact that all of Israel’s neighbors want to “wipe it off the map” (and kill its citizens) means Israel has to do whatever it has to do to survive, even siding with Turkey.
    I was just making an abstract historico-political point, that is all.

  9. Roman Kalik | October 11th, 2007 at 12:17 am

    To be fair, Armilnov, we have made peace with Egypt and Jordan. To be realistic, we have signed agreements with the King of Jordan and the Dictator of Egypt…

    Jordan is a better example, the monarch is extremely popular and is one of the most intelligent rulers in the Middle-East. But decades of brainwashing and hatred don’t go away so quickly, and Israeli tourists in Jordan have to do their best (by the Jordanian police’s orders) not to look or sound Jewish or Israeli. The same Jordanian police does do its best to safeguard Israeli tourists’ lives.

    Egypt… Egypt is a bad example. Mubarak is hated, the Muslim Brotherhood is growing, and the vast majority of Egyptian citizens hate Israel. With Egypt, the peace is very fragile.

  10. Frieda | October 12th, 2007 at 2:11 pm

    As an Armenain, I am happy with Committee’s decision, however, I do question the timing. Not because it will be offending our ally (not a great ally anyway), but why pass the resolution in this week? Armenian Genocide anniversary falls on April 24th. Nothing happened that month where many Armenian communities were expecting. Another interesting point is that Congressman Tom Lantos who has always been anti-Armenian resolution (ironically, the only Holocaust survivor in the congress), all of sudden voted for it. This was a BIG surprise for Armenian groups, what made him switch?

    Something is fishy… someone is irritated by Turks. Keep in mind, most of Turkish lobbyist is done by Israel lobbyist group in Washington D.C.

    This resolution has nothing to do with current Turkish regime or people…It should not be Republican or Democrat issue. It’s the right thing to do and It fits into the idea of American values.

    We can not be credible when we try to stop Genocide happening in Darfur and Rewanda , when we deny and not recognize the 1st Genocide of 20th century. We can not pick and choose the Genocide’s that fits our interests only.

  11. faridpouya | October 13th, 2007 at 6:27 am

    You should take in consideration that what Armenians say about 1915 is not only “Armenians’ claim”. UN and European Parliament and two thirds of USA States recognised that as the first genocide in 20th century.

    Second thing Armenia is not a faith! It is an ethnic group.

    Best

  12. Windingstad | October 13th, 2007 at 6:34 pm

    Regarding Israel, this clearly is a interesting situation.
    I, for one, hate the notion on official “recognizing” of any historical event. I hate making history into policy. It´s so anti-academic.

  13. Windingstad | October 13th, 2007 at 6:35 pm

    ….but not so anti-academic as the grammar in my last post.

  14. ella | October 15th, 2007 at 3:10 am

    Frieda

    It is not that someone is irritated by Turkey, it is that someone is irritated by Bush.
    Most of the supplies to US army in Iraq go through Turkey and I think some democrats wants to throw a monkey wrench into that. There is also question of Kurds. For the last couple of months Turkey has been saying that if the Kurds will not stop helping PKK the turkish army will attack Kurdistan. The word is that they might attack Kurdistan in November. The only relatively safe part of Iraq is, at the moment, Kurdistan and Bush and neo-cons are against the Turkey attacking the Kurds.
    If the vote in the full House will call the massacres of armenians by Turks a genocide, the relation between US and Turkey will go to freezing and conservatives will be in big trouble. As will be the Kurds.

    I am all for the calling genocide a genocide, but at the moment USA like some other countries needs Turkey as a friend.

    btw. I bet that the congressman Tom Lantos is a democrat.

  15. >> Musulmaan-i Mumbaaii... An Indian Muslims View [blog] | October 15th, 2007 at 3:36 am

    Translation of comment #1:

    Um, surely you aren’t insinuating Jews did something wrong. Please go into extremely specific details about your horrid allegations so I may question trivial aspects of it! I simply can’t understand how you could be so anti-semitic. I will now go on to talk about how great the Jewish religion is on a post describing the end of Ramadan.

    LOL

  16. Roman Kalik | October 15th, 2007 at 12:20 pm

    MiM, the original post suffered from lack of clarity. Had I wanted to accuse Kaman of anti-Semitism or the like, I would have, which for some odd reason I did not. If you read further on, you will notice that I have, in fact, understood what Kaman had in mind after reading the new version.

    As for the Ramadan-related post, I merely brought what I thought to be an interesting parallel. The added ridicule of the theocratic regime in Iran was quite intended, as it deserved it in that particular matter. Calculating the actual day of the celebration in advance in no way takes away from the celebration. It adds to it, in fact, as you don’t have the uncertainty of ending Ramadan on the wrong day by mistake.

    Have a nice day, MiM.

  17. Gabriel... | October 17th, 2007 at 9:38 am

    The first genocide of the 20th century, as though it were a contest or that we should only start counting when it’s convenient… the list goes a lot further back than the Armenians. Anyone want to talk about the natives of North and South America who were massacred by gun, starvation, biological warfare and assimilation, or maybe how the first inhabitants of Australia were nearly wiped out and are currently trapped in a surreal welfare-state and treated like drug addicted children? If we can’t even get an apology or recognition on the genocide of those hundreds of cultures and peoples from the European nations who slaughtered them, why should we be expecting Turkey to admit to their atrocity?

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