Gratitude Monday: Recognition of genocide

Six years ago, on the centenary of the beginning of the Turkish campaign to eradicate the Armenian people, I wrote about it. April, 1915, was a momentous month for inhumanity: the opening of unrestricted submarine warfare by the Germans, inauguration of using chemical weapons (by the Germans, although the Brits already had a stockpile of gas, so they weren’t far behind) and the first genocide-as-policy in the Twentieth Century.

Welcome to civilization, eh?

For a century, Armenians have pushed for Turkey to just recognize that they did what they did. But they’ve refused.

“Oh, yeah, some Armenians, uh, had these pre-existing conditions, so they died during the relocation-that-totally-was-not-a-death-march.”

“Also, look, some of them might have stepped in front of our soldiers while they were firing their weapons. Stuff happens.”

“Atatürk was the greatest leader of the Twentieth Century. Until Erdogan.”

“We did nothing wrong.”

Yeah—observers from their own allies (Austrians and Germans) were appalled at the scale of death, and reports flew out to the other side, too. But, you know, stuff happens, and Armenians didn’t have much of interest to big powers, so it was largely buried. Alongside 1.5 million bodies.

Ronald Reagan included the Armenian destruction in the term “genocide” when he spoke at the dedication of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. But no president since then has dared mention the event because Turkey is strategically located geopolitically. (In Turkey, you can’t utter “Armenians” and “genocide” together without risking prison. That’s how terrified they are of the truth.)

Well, on Saturday, President Biden spoke out against both the crime and the authoritarianism that’s been covering it up for a century—and was loud and clear. (Yeah, this is in part because we’re not as in love with Turkey as we used to be, and because Erdogan has just been taking the piss for the last four years.) I am so grateful for this sea change; just acknowledging publicly that events that happened, happened. I’m grateful for the Armenians, and for the United States, because it signals that we at least know where the moral high ground is.

I am hopeful.