“Victims of genocide die twice: first in the killing
fields and then in the texts of denialists who insist that “nothing happened”
or that what happened was something “different,” Colin Tatz, Professor of
Politics and International Relations at Australian National University, writes
in an article published by The Conversation.
The article runs as follows:
On the eve of two centennial anniversaries in 2015 — the
Gallipoli landings, and the start of the genocide of long-settled Armenians,
Assyrians and Hellenes in Ottoman Turkey – the Turkish denial of events of the
latter continues to evoke serious political debate in Australia.
The South Australian and New South Wales state
parliaments have officially recognized the genocide of these three minorities.
After the NSW parliament’s vote recognizing the Assyrians and Pontian Greeks as
genocide victims (the genocide of Armenians was recognized earlier), the
Turkish foreign affairs ministry announced that parliamentarians will not get
visas to attend the centenary commemorations at Anzac Cove.
Led by NSW premier Barry O’Farrell, the response to this
announcement has been one of outrage at the politicisation of Anzac memory.
For all Turkey’s threats that officially recognizing the
genocide would destroy the Australian–Turkish friendship, elaborate plans to
mark the Anzac centenary continue, with Turkey set to reap rich financial
rewards from battlefield tourism.
At this stage, the Australian federal government does not
officially recognize the genocide, but may well do so after Gallipoli 2015.
‘Demographic’ change
The Ottoman Empire (and, later, the Republic of Turkey) implemented
a plan of unprecedented forced demographic change from 1914 to 1924. It sought
the physical elimination of the long-settled non-Muslim populations as the only
way of securing their territorial, cultural, religious and linguistic
integrity.
The Turkish imperial parliament adopted the Tehcir Law in
May 1915. It squarely blamed the Armenians, Assyrians and Hellenes for their
own destruction: those living near the war zones had hindered the movements of
– and logistical support for – the Ottoman armed forces. It said they had
collaborated with the enemy, attacked the Ottoman troops and innocent Muslim
civilians, and so on.
The international community acknowledged the events at
the time. In the words of British Secretary of the Admiralty Winston Churchill,
this “administrative holocaust” prompted immediate international reaction.
Relief committees arose worldwide. AJoint Allied Declaration in May 1915
stated:
In view of these new crimes of Turkey against humanity
and civilization, the Allied governments announce publicly…that they will hold
personally responsible…all members of the Ottoman government and those of their
agents who are implicated in such massacres.
In a decade, between two and three million Armenian,
Assyrian and Hellene men, women and children were murdered, while another two
million became destitute refugees. Tens of thousands of female teenagers and
children were abducted and forcibly assimilated. The Christian minorities of
Anatolia were virtually wiped out.
Denialism in Turkey
Since president Kemal Ataturk came to office in 1923, the
official Turkish position has been constant: there was no plan to destroy the
long-settled Christian populations of Anatolia. Those who died were “merely”
and “only” victims of international war, civil war, famine and disease.
Article 301 of the current Turkish Constitution – though
no longer enforced – makes it a criminal offence to discuss the genocides as
“denigrating Turkishness”. Among those prosecuted was Nobel Laureate Orhan
Pamuk.
The battle for the memory of the destruction of
non-Muslim minorities rages on, with the denialists now very much on the
defensive, inside and outside Turkey.
International responses: France
France’s parliament not only recognised the genocide, but
under former president Nicolas Sarkozy, denial of the Jewish and Armenian
genocides was criminalised. Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
attacked the statute as a “discriminatory, racist” bill, and a:
…grave, unacceptable and historic mistake…which
denigrates Turkish history.
That bill was declared unconstitutional in February 2012,
though current French president Francois Hollande asserts he will re-introduce
the legislation.
When France officially recognized the genocide in 1998,
Turkish sanctions were threatened. In 2012, France retained its position yet
bilateral trade with Turkey was worth US$13.5 billion.
The Australian context
With Turkey using the 2015 Gallipoli event to threaten
Australia not to further recognize the genocide, the relevance and sensitivity
of the issue even today is clearly on display.
Recently, controversial history professor Justin McCarthy
was invited by the Australian Turkish Advisory Alliance (Stand Up Against
Armenian Lies) to give lectures in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra on “What
Happened During 1915–1923? The Armenian Question”.
MelbourneUniversity’s Faculty of Arts and the
NSWArtGallerycancelled the events scheduled there when apprised of the tenor of
the lectures. McCarthy is known for arguing that there is:
…no evidence, no proof that the Turks wanted to act in
this way. What is said is based on emotion in this case and a desire to prove
there is genocide instead of first looking at the facts.
McCarthy did address a very small “invitation-only”
gathering in a federal parliament committee room, organised by Labor MP Laurie
Ferguson. Two MPs and one senator attended.
These genocides are recognised by 22 nation states, 60
regional governments and a dozen world bodies. It’s time for the Australian
government to do the same.
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