April 24 is the date traditionally used to commemorate the Armenian genocide, as it was that day in 1915 that Ottoman officials arrested over 200 Armenians in Constantinople, jump-starting a cascade of atrocities that resulted in countless deaths. However, it wasn’t until last night that I was able to check out the exhibit, “The Armenian Genocide 95 Years Later: A Remembrance,” at the University of Rhode Island. Curated by URI’s Gallery Z director, Berge Ara Zobian, in collaboration with URI’s Urban Arts and Culture Program, the exhibit includes commissioned art, historical artifacts, and documentary videos chronicling the horrors of the genocide.
The controversy surrounding official governmental recognition of the Armenian genocide is well-known. Only 20 countries have recognized the massacres as genocide. 44 of 50 American states have officially dubbed the event genocide, though the U.S. government has yet to take this leap. The artists, in statements hung next to their artwork (also published on the exhibit’s website) convey the deeply personal and emotional nature of the genocide recognition issue. One artist writes:
The Armenian Genocide is a fact. Turkey will not accept responsibility for their crimes and my government will not sign it into law. Turks raped and murdered my family. Most people are unaware that this genocide occurred. This reality blinds me with anger and taints every aspect of my life.
Another writes:
Early on, I was aware of my father’s painful silence and smoldering anger, and of my mother’s nightmares, but I entered my adult years blocking these memories.
Years later, I began researching old books and found countless photos testifying to the Genocide. I read books of authors writing about the genocide. The re-occurring theme was and is that the Turkish Government continues to deny the first genocide of the 20th century. Our government has avoided recognition because of threats from Turkey. Israel does not recognize the Armenian Genocide. This is unthinkable!
When the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved an Armenian Genocide resolution last month, the Turkish president called the vote “an injustice to history” and Turkey recalled its ambassador to Washington. Today, a Turkish strategist offered a prediction about Israel and Ukraine:
“Neither Israel nor Ukraine will ever recognize the so-called ‘Armenian genocide’. These countries understand the implications of such actions, therefore, I do not think that the authorities of these countries are interested in worsening ties with Turkey”, head of the Turkish Strategic Research Center Cem Oguz said.
Though Hilary Clinton had pressed the House Foreign Affairs Committee not to vote on the resolution, last week a group of Senators penned a letter calling on the Obama administration to recognize the genocide, writing:
In his memoirs, Henry Morgenthau, the American Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire between 1913 and 1916, wrote: “When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact.” And even as it was just beginning, the New York Times reported the mass killing of Armenians as “systematic,” “authorized,” and “organized by the government.”
Tragically, Adolf Hitler even used the Ottoman Empire’s action against the Armenians to justify the extermination of the Jews, saying in 1939, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
In what may seem like a paradox, many (including the Obama administration) claim that genocide recognition will disrupt the Turkish-Armenian reconciliation process. Turkey and Armenia signed a Swiss-brokered accord last October to normalize relations. However, neither country’s parliament has ratified the agreement. After Turkey’s reaction to the U.S. house vote and another vote in Sweden, Armenia put the reconciliation process on hold, a move the United States supported.
In the realm of global politics, though, such a thing is far from unusual. As I’ve written about before, the UN Hariri tribunal could cause friction between Lebanon and Syria if Syria is implicated, and East Timor hasn’t pursued war crimes trials against Indonesia for the same reason.
In the book, Sorry States, Jennifer Lind examines how national apologies can disrupt reconciliation processes. She argues that apologies are most effective when issued not in conjunction with reconciliation processes, but rather after reconciliation processes, using Adenauer’s apology to France as a model of success. Domestic backlash, she argues, will frequently scuttle premature apologies.
However, perhaps additional fears motivate Turkey’s resistance. Many of the Rhode Island artists’ statements include broader appeals for justice. One artist writes:
My heart cry’s [sic] for the human race that we have allowed this to remain without restitution.
And another, using logic similar to the Senate letter, writes:
Whenever a massacre or a genocide has occurred, no matter in what frame work in time, or race or nation, the sacrifice of the human soul has to be honored, not to repeat it again, and justice rendered. As it is said by Daniel Webster, (1845): “Justice is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together.”
Recognitions of the genocide will bolster political support for such appeals, which I presume Turkey fears could encompass threats to its territorial integrity. The exhibit included a variation of the below poster:
In the picture, Woodrow Wilson points to a portion of Turkey, claiming that it rightfully belongs to the Armenians. Either way, Turkey denies that the massacres were systematic and disputes the Armenians’ casualty figures, thus arguing that the atrocities did not amount to genocide. The subject is yet another example of how notions of morality collide with international power dynamics to produce traumatic results that trickle down for generations.
Tonight is the last night of the exhibit so this could not be a more last minute endorsement, but I recommend it for any Rhode Island readers who may be interested. You can find more information about the exhibit on their website.
