Alwaght-Once again the Western powers deal with
humane issues in a double standard manner according to their own benefits. This
time their duality was displayed through the Armenian Genocide issue.
In 1915, during the World War 1, leaders of the
Turkish government set in motion a plan to expel and massacre Armenians living
in the Ottoman Empire. By the early 1920s, when the massacres and deportations
finally ended, some 1.5 million of Turkey’s Armenians were dead, with many more
forcibly removed from the country. Today, most historians call this event a
genocide–a premeditated and systematic campaign to exterminate an entire
people. However, the Turkish government does not acknowledge the enormity or
scope of these events, and refuses to admit that their ancestors committed a
genocide. Despite pressure from Armenians and social justice advocates
throughout the world, it is still illegal in "Democratic" Turkey to
talk about what happened to Armenians during this era.
The Turkish government objects to use the term
“genocide”, arguing that many people of various ethnicities were killed in
the chaotic war. It remains a major point of contention between Turkey
and Armenia.
US president Barack Obama has apparently
come down on the side of Turkey on this matter. Despite a 2008 campaign promise
to “recognize the Armenian genocide,” the White House is being extremely
careful about the language it employs when broaching the anniversary.
Barack Obama described the World War I massacre
of Armenians as "terrible carnage", but avoided the term genocide, as
tempers flared ahead of the 100th anniversary of the bloodshed.
"The Armenian people of the Ottoman Empire
were deported, massacred, and marched to their deaths. Their culture and
heritage in their ancient homeland were erased," Obama said in a carefully
worded statement.
He also said, "Amid horrific violence that
saw suffering on all sides, one and a half million Armenians perished."
But still the White House has avoided calling
the incident a genocide, though last month US lawmakers introduced a resolution
urging Obama to recognize the killings as such.
The abstinence from referring to the killings as genocidal is an
obvious deference to Ankara, one of the US’s most strategically valuable allies
in the Middle East.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) from
its side ruled on December 17 that denial of the 1915 mass killings of
Armenians as genocide falls under freedom of expression.
This brings up a hot question to the ECHR,
which is, "Is the denial of the Jewish Holocaust or being skeptical about
the numbers mentioned in the fact sheets also considered freedom of
expression?"
The Armenian genocide issue resembles a vivid
example of the double standards at the West, where any speech against the
so-called Jewish Holocaust or skepticism towards the reality of it is
considered ant-Semitic speech and violation of "Human Rights",
whereas when it comes to the Armenian genocide public denial of it is under
freedom of expression.
