The Failure to Commemorate the Genocide

110 years have passed since the Armenian Genocide, which began with hundreds of Armenian intellectuals being detained in Istanbul on April 24, 1915, and sent on a death march. This year again, we cannot properly commemorate the hundreds of thousands of people who were killed in 1915 and afterward, uprooted from their homes and lands in Anatolia where they had lived for thousands of years, left stateless, and forced to change their religion.

Not only can we not commemorate them, but current developments have also been instrumentalized to perpetuate the denial that has continued for 110 years.

Here, I am pointing to Armenia. Prime Minister Pashinyan is working to continue the normalization process with Turkey. The Armenian government, living under the threat of Azerbaijan starting a new war at any moment and seeking "normalization" with its two neighbors, has recently developed a policy that does not "count the Genocide among its foreign policy priorities." Pashinyan most recently used the following expressions in an interview with a group of Turkish journalists in March this year: "Our official position is that the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide is not among our foreign policy priorities today. In our reality, it is not possible to deny this or give up on it, because this is an undeniable reality for all of us. However, the issue is not about this."

Pashinyan explained what the issue was about as follows: "Where and how should we focus on serving Armenia's state interests, where and how should we emphasize and rely on the facts we know, including historical facts?"
Similar statements had come from the Armenian government before during the normalization process. These statements were immediately interpreted by circles that adopt Turkey's official policy on this issue as: "Since Armenia has also stopped calling it Genocide..."

But that's not the case. Armenia is clearly only talking about not making this a priority in foreign policy. On the other hand, it should be noted that this stance has created a backlash in Armenia. Pashinyan is also being accused by opposition circles in his own country of adopting a "denialist attitude." In fact, in recent days, opposition parties attempted to submit a motion to the Armenian Parliament criminalizing genocide denial.

When it comes to Turkey, this certainly comes as a relief for the government and those who maintain the 110-year-old official position. We don't yet know what US President Trump will say, but he will probably make a statement that won't upset Erdogan.

So, should "confrontation" efforts be shelved because of this situation? Certainly not. Let's repeat what we've always said. Hundreds of thousands of people in these lands were subjected to indescribable suffering under the pretext of war conditions. Armenians were uprooted from their countries where they had lived for thousands of years through mass killings and  forced deportations.

Confronting this should be a priority for all those who defend human rights. However, apart from the Human Rights Association and the DurDe (Say Stop)  Initiative Against Racism and Discrimination, there are almost no segments who care about this confrontation effort.

The commemorations held by the DurDe Initiative every April 24 were not permitted initially due to the pandemic. The pandemic is over, but all the applications filed for commemoration events in recent years have received a "rejection" response from the Istanbul Governorship. It seems that will be the case this year as well. In other words, we are far away from the commemorations held in Taksim Square in 2013 and later.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, Palestinians have been subjected to a massacre and deportation that can only be described as genocide for months. Naturally, this behavior of the Israeli state is causing great outrage around the world (except for the pro-Israel governments) . 

This is also the case in Turkey. The government declares "deportation is unacceptable" at every opportunity. The CHP also wanted to march from Tünel to Taksim last week, but it was prevented by the police. CHP's slogan was: "No to genocide, massacre, and deportation in Gaza." President Erdogan has also said in recent months regarding Israel's plans to expel Palestinians from Gaza, "It is not possible to accept this deportation. This would be a complete atrocity." This is of course true.

It's also known that Turkey prefers to use the mitigating term "deportation" for 1915 as an official policy.

Deportation is certainly unacceptable. We don't intend to compare sufferings and massacres. However, we inevitably have to ask this question: if deportation is unacceptable, isn't it necessary to confront all kinds of deportation, massacre, and genocide carried out by the state in these lands? 110 years have passed. When will we face it?