By Harut Sassounian, Publısher, The Calıfornıa Courier
Yair Auron blasts Reuven Rivlin for Armenian Genocide.Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin generated a major
controversy after his January 28 speech at the UN General Assembly in New York. As Speaker and member of the Knesset (Parliament), Revlin
had led the struggle for many years to have Israel recognize the Armenian
Genocide. But, after becoming President, like Pres. Obama, Revlin has been
reluctant to reconfirm his principled position on this issue. Last month, Pres. Rivlin delivered a powerful speech at
the UN General Assembly’s annual International Day of Commemoration in Memory
of the Victims of the Holocaust. Regrettably, Israel’s President made two
serious errors. He called the Armenian Genocide a massacre and, to balance
those comments, referred to the Azeri deaths in Khojalu during the (Karabagh)
Artsakh war.
Here is an excerpt from Rivlin’s UN remarks:
“In 1915, when members of the Armenian nation were being
massacred, Avshalom Feinberg, a leading member of Nili, the Jewish underground
which cooperated with the Allies during the First World War, wrote the
following, and I quote, ‘My teeth have been ground down with worry, whose turn
is next? When I walked on the blessed and holy ground on my way up to
Jerusalem, I asked myself if we are living in our modern era, in 1915, or in
the days of Titus or Nebuchadnezzar? Did I, a Jew, forget that I am a Jew? I
also asked myself if I have the right to weep over the tragedy of my people only,
and whether the Prophet Jeremiah did not shed tears of blood for Armenians as
well?’ Avshalom Feinberg wrote that exactly 100 years ago — 100 years of
hesitation and denial! But in the Land of Israel of that time, in the Jerusalem
where I was born, no one denied the massacre that had taken place. The
residents of Jerusalem, my parents and members of my family, saw the Armenian
refugees arriving by the thousands — starving, piteous survivors of calamity.
In Jerusalem they found shelter and their descendants continue to live there to
this day.”
Distinguished scholar Yair Auron, Professor at Open
University of Israel, was irate at his President’s choice of words, despite his
personal friendship with him. Auron is a long-time advocate of Armenian
Genocide recognition by Israel and author of several books on this subject. He
is currently teaching at the American University of Armenia.
On January 31, while I was delivering a lecture on the
Armenian Genocide at the newly opened Komitas Museum in Yerevan, Prof. Auron
approached me and asked if he could address the audience. After obtaining my
consent, he read a personal statement, titled: “Apology to my Armenian
brothers”:
“The President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, made a
remarkable speech with very touching sentences, identifying honestly and
profoundly with the suffering of the Armenian people. But, intentionally, he
did not use the term Armenian Genocide, neither in Hebrew nor in English.”
Prof. Auron went on to disclose that Pres. Rivlin had told him personally that
“he had not changed his opinion, but that he cannot declare it [genocide] as
President of Israel. This, I can understand. But, in the last minute before the
speech, somebody, probably from the Foreign Ministry of Israel, maybe even the
Foreign Minister of Israel, Avigdor Lieberman, told him to include this
terrible sentence: ‘Is our struggle, the struggle of this Assembly, against
genocide, effective enough? Was it effective enough then in Bosnia? Was it
effective in preventing the killing in Khojalu?’”
Prof. Auron continued his criticism:
“Mr. President, you used the name of Khojalu in the
context of genocide. You know well the difference between genocide and
massacre. … Who proposed to you, Mr. President, who asked that you make this
terrible error? You do not use the term genocide regarding the Armenian
Genocide itself. Using the term genocide, in the context of one village in
Nagorno-Karabagh, as if it was genocide, is unacceptable…. You do not dare to
use the term genocide regarding the Armenian Genocide, and you define the
massacre of this village, that I am sure you did not know its name just a few
minutes before [your speech], as genocide. It is sacrilegious, and by it, you
betray the legacy of the Holocaust and its victims.”
The righteous professor concluded his heartfelt remarks
by pledging:
“Let me, my Armenian brothers, apologize in my name and
on behalf of many Israeli Jews. We are with you. We will not stop our struggle
till Israel recognizes the Armenian Genocide.”
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