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By Jagdish N. Singh
The Jewish Press

I admire Pope Francis. He is not just spiritual or religious. He is courageous too and does not believe in refraining from calling a spade a spade. The Pope has now referred to the 20th century mass killings of Armenians as the first genocide of the 20th century. During a mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica the other day to commemorate the 100th anniversary of those heinous killings, the Pope said, “In the past century our human family has lived through three massive and unprecedented tragedies. The first…struck your own Armenian people.”  

Branding the tragedy as a “senseless slaughter,” the Pope preached, “It is necessary, and indeed a duty, to honor their memory, for whenever memory fades, it means that evil allows wounds to fester. Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it.” Pope Francis also recalled other mass killings of the 20th century – in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and Bosnia.

Significantly, in his message to mark Holocaust Memorial Day (January 27) in 2011 then Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams too had spoken of the need to remember the atrocities committed against the Jewish people in the Holocaust and even in Britain’s own history. He had stressed the need to remember also the other victims of genocide. Williams was quoted as saying that the works of poets such as Holocaust survivor Paul Celan and Etty Hillesum served to remind the world of the “loss of humanity that remains in our midst to this day…Although other poets have spoken for those killed in Armenia, Cambodia and Darfur, many stories from these and other genocidal events remain untold. Testimony, poetry and autobiography allow us to attend to the distinct stories of individuals rather than trying to comprehend the statistics of different genocides of recent history.”

Pertinently, Archbishop Williams noted that events in medieval Britain, such as the blood libel case against Jews following the mysterious death of William of Norwich in the 12th century or King Edward’s expulsion of all Jews from England were “almost completely lost to public awareness”. He warned, “If the stories are not told over and again, we lose the memory of those who suffered and we risk losing something that protects our humanity.”

It is heartening to learn that more than 20 nations, including Russia, France and Germany, have now come recognize the Armenian genocide. At a ceremony in Armenia, Russian President Vladmin Putin reportedly referred to “mass” killings and used the word “genocide.” Putin said, “There cannot be any justification for mass murder of people. Today we mourn together with the Armenian people.” French President Francois Hollande said, “We will never forget the tragedies your people have endured. Important words have already been said in Turkey, but others are still expected so that shared grief can become shared destiny.” German President Joachim Gauck condemned the 1915 killings as genocide and acknowledged that Germany bore partial blame for the bloodletting.

I wonder why American President Barack Obama and some other leaders in the democratic world still shy away from branding the Armenian killings as genocide. In 2006 then Senator Obama had said, “The Armenian genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence.” It is time the American President retained his courage of conviction, spoke the truth in the case and acted in the great American spirit that stands against all kinds of injustice the world over.

Moreover, there is no confusion as to the nature of the Armenian killings. The 1948 UN Geneva Convention clearly defines genocide as “systematic destruction, in whole or part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” President Obama could invoke this definition very well . Over 1.5 million Armenians were estimated to have perished under the Ottoman Empire during World War I. (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/timestopics/topics_armeniangenocide.html ) . This crime cannot be overlooked .

I would add the civil society and liberal progressive forces in Turkey should also assert and prevail over their government in Ankara to accept the historical fact related to the Armenian genocide and move forward. They must be heroic and condemn any crimes against humanity. They have a tough battle ahead. Unfortunately, their government in Ankara is not taking the Vatican statement on the Armenian genocide in the right spirit. It has so far insisted that the event was not a genocide and continued branding the deaths of the Christian Armenians in the previous century merely as part of the partisan fighting.

Ankara has been furious ever since Pope Francis described the killings as “the first genocide.” Recently, it has summoned the Vatican ambassador in Ankara over the remarks and recalled its own envoy to the Holy See. Ankara has also been critical of the statements made by some Western leaders. It has even recalled its ambassador to Austria in protest over Austrian lawmakers’ condemnation of mass killings as “genocide.”

Pertinently, the behavior of the Turkish regime is hardly surprising. Ankara has of late increasingly been straying away backward from the path of its legendary founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The influence of reactionary forces is growing in the country. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hardly believes in women’s right to equality . In a speech at Turkey’s Women and Democracy Association last year, he said, “You cannot put women and men on an equal footing … it’s against nature. They were created differently. .. You can’t get a woman to work in every job that a man does, like they did in communist regimes in the past… You can’t put a pickaxe and a shovel in their hand and get them to work. “Earlier, Erdogan has expressed his staunch opposition to abortion and declared that women should have at least three children. This amounts to an infringement on women’s basic rights to make choices about their bodies and families.. ( http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/11/women-blast-erdogan-over-hate-crime-20141126104444682533.html )

A Middle East researcher says that since the rise of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) under Erdoğan in 2002 religion has ceased to be strictly in the private domain. It has come to intervene in the fields of education, marriage and even one’s diet, dress and other activities. After the abolition of the Caliphate and the Ministry of Sharia and Charitable Foundations (Office of the Sheikh al-Islam) in 1924, Diyanet was established only to provide religious services to the public. Today Diyanet’s share in the government’s budget is 5.4 billion Liras ($2.3 billion). It has its own TV channel, radio station, satellite, cable and internet broadcasts, Facebook, Twitter account, and YouTube to spread its version of Islam. Diyanet officials operate a hotline service which issues decrees (fatwas) related to one’s diet, dress and several other activities.

Head of Diyanet Mehmet Görmez is for making a religious marriage officially equivalent to civil marriages; in 1926 it was banned after it was viewed as promoting polygamy. Recently Diyanet has declared acts like feeding a dog at home and abortions for women as haram (sin) and wearing an earring for men as mekruh (nearly haram). Diyanet has approved measures to allow courses in religion to be held in public schools and universities. Diyanet has launched “Quran Kindergartens,” where children 4 to 6 years old are taught to read in Arabic and learn the fundamentals of its version of Islam.

The researcher says Görmez wants that the Hagia Sophia ( Eastern Orthodox cathedral, the seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, turned into an Ottoman Mosque in 1453, transformed into a museum in the 1930s and declared a UNESCO heritage site in 1985) be declared a mosque. Görmez also wants “the liberation of Al-Aqsa Mosque from the invasion of the occupiers,” for “Jerusalem belongs to Muslims.”

Will the progressive forces in Turkey checkmate the growing influence of this kind of conservatism and see to it that truth about the Armenian genocide prevails in their land?