Author: Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta
Publication: The Hindustan
Times
Date: April 22, 2005
URL: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5983_1331970,004300140003.htm
On April 24th, the living Armenians
will gather to pay their respects to the million plus Armenians who were
killed during WWI. Who cares about a century old genocide event other than
the afflicted party, eh? Nobody much, I am afraid. Nobody cared about the
genocide in Bangladesh 30 years ago with those genocidal maniacs now freely
enjoying their lives, visiting the west and even having political power.
Heck, nobody really cares about a genocide, which is going on as we speak,
in Darfur. Each and every person who raises their voice about Palestine
and Iraq and who talks about freedom and democracy in the Middle East while
ignoring Darfur, they are all culpable hypocrites and mealy mouthed. It
is easier to talk about the Americans and ignore the Sudanese, isn't it?
However, we are getting away from the Armenians.
Genocide throws a very long shadow
over human history. People remember genocide and massacres way after the
proponents and opponents have died and turned to dust. Further crimes are
committed because of that memory and frequently these memories transmogrify
into tribal, racial, or national memory and live on and on. It is indeed
very simple to say that to stop this from happening, no genocide should
be done from now on, but as we have seen, it is easier said than done.
The only time that genocide is forgotten is when the genocide is total
and complete. For example, the Carthaginians were completely defeated,
their fields sown with salt and the entire population sold into slavery.
It does not arouse any major passions any more now, does it? There is nobody
left to raise the issue.
In addition, time unfortunately
does not heal these wounds either. Genocides and massacres carried out
in the mists of antiquity are still remembered. The Assyrian invasion and
massacres of the Israelites and the so-called Aryan Invasion of India thousands
of years ago have passed into national history and still, in many ways,
drive the national character in various ways. If we fast-forward to the
last century, April has been noted for massacres and genocides, which cast
a long shadow, even if we discard all the major and minor wars. Deir Yassin
in Palestine, Jalianwalla Bagh in India, Columbine School in the USA, Tiananmen
Square in China, the Holocaust, Rwanda, Katyn Forest Massacre in Poland,
Gardelegen Massacre in Germany are just some of the massacres that come
to mind.
Each and every one of these massacres
still affects the world. Deir Yassin is remembered by the Palestinians,
the Jalianwalla Bagh massacre by the Indians and Pakistani's, Columbine
by so many parents who keep on facing the issue of guns in school children's
hands, Tiananmen Square by hundreds of millions of Chinese, the Holocaust
and Rwanda by the entire world, Katyn by the Poles, Gardelegen by the Jews
and other nations whose citizens were burnt alive.
It is difficult not to feel sorry
for the Armenians and at the same time, feel quite amazed at their persistence,
tenacity and courage. For a nation, which is reputed to have descended
from Noah and be the first nation to embrace Christianity, God has unfortunately
taken His eye off these benighted people.
Armenian people had their own kingdom
and were ruled by Armenians until 66 BC, when it was then taken over by
the Roman Empire. Since then Romans, Persians, Byzantines, Arabs, Mongols,
Turks and Russians ruled. For a short while in the beginning of the 20th
century, it again became independent. That was not for long, as the Russian
Bear again gathered poor old Armenia into its paws until 1991, when it
became independent again.
So what happened to the Armenians?
There is no dispute that very large numbers of Armenians died in the second
decade of the 20th century (to be precise between 1915 and 1917). The range
of casualties ranges from 0.2 to 1.8 million Armenians. Turkish Armenians,
who were mostly Armenian Orthodox or Roman Catholic, clustered mostly around
the eastern side of what is current Turkey. Please do remember that Turkey
was facing civil war, rebellion, as well as being caught up in the greater
tragedy of WWI at that time. Turkey went into the World War on the side
of the Germans and in return Imperial Russia started poking its nose into
the eastern side to raise Armenian nationalism. On the other hand, because
of Turkish Sultan Abdul Hameed's policies, many western cosmopolitan Turkish
Armenians threw their lot in with the Young Turks, who overthrew the Sultan.
Nevertheless, the Young Turks were thoroughly upset with the Armenians
in the east and decided to relocate them forcibly to Iraq (then Mesopotamia)
and Syria. This forced migration is what lead to the killing of the Armenians.
The Turkish authorities set up about
25 concentration camps, some of which were death camps. There are reports
of gassing chambers, poisoning or simple starvation techniques being applied
to the inmates. The Turkish government created specific organisations to
execute the genocidal policies. Prisoners were selected on a homicidal
basis and populated these organisations. In its defence, the Turkish government
set up court-marital proceedings to try most of the senior members of the
organisations later. Unfortunately, most of these trials were in absentia,
since after 1918, most of the perpetrators had flown the coop. So what
happened to the remainder of the Armenians after this genocide? Well, as
their ancestral homes and farms had been razed, a lot of them emigrated.
Many went to the newly formed Republic of Armenia, but with the Russian
Bear breathing down their necks, a very large number emigrated to the west,
forming one of the smaller but very vocal diaspora groups in the world.
Since the genocide, Armenians have
tried their best to raise the issue and for obvious reasons, the Turks
have reacted furiously against it. One example is the famous book, 'The
Forty Days of Musa Dagh', by Franz Werfel written in 1933. Werfel also
wrote prophetically about the pitfalls of Nazi anti-semitism and thus got
his output banned by the Nazi's. The fictional story was based on a large
dollop of fact, when Armenians in the village of Musa Dagh held out for
40 days against the genocidal attacks of the Ottoman forces. Finally the
villagers escaped by clambering on two passing French navy ships. Musa
Dagh became a symbol of resistance to many Jewish ghettos in WWII, facing
the same kind of genocidal attempts by the Germans.
During the cold war, again the attempts
by the Armenians to get the genocide recognised widely were thwarted by
the fact that Turkey was a NATO ally. Notwithstanding this, many countries
such as Argentina, Armenia, Canada, France, Italy, Greece, Russia, Slovakia,
Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay, and Vatican City acknowledged that this genocide
has actually happened. In 1975, an Armenian terrorist group (Armenian Secret
Army for the Liberation of Armenia) was formed. It went about knocking
off Turkish civilians and diplomats in an attempt to force Turkey to recognise
its actions against the Armenians. Furthermore it demanded restitutions
and compensation and ceding territory in the Turkish northeast region for
an Armenian autonomous state, which would eventually merge with the then
Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. This terrorist group eventually died
out in the middle 1980's after the leaders were assassinated or died.
Now that the cold war is over and
there is an international consensus to see genocides with a fresh eye,
the Armenian Genocide has again raised its profile. The Armenian genocide's
repercussions are still rumbling on in the Caucasian region - a very strange
and gritty civil-cum-external war mixed with isolated enclaves, drug running,
oil politics, historical grievances, great power pressures and mixtures,
you name it. Since 1988, Armenia has been locked in low-level conflicts
with the majority Turkish ethnic origin Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh,
an Azerbaijan enclave that is primarily populated by Armenians. One can
thank Josef Stalin for this absurdity. After the USSR collapsed, the conflict
escalated and currently, the situation is that Armenia is in control over
swathes of Azerbaijan as well as control over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.
A huge number of Armenians and Azerbaijanis
were dislocated and displaced. This Nagorno-Karabakh enclave is a de facto
independent state, joined to Armenia with a chicken neck corridor (like
the Siliguri corridor) and is for all practical purposes, a part of the
Armenian state. A cease-fire was established in 1994 and the conflict has
been frozen despite many attempts to resolve the issue on a bilateral as
well as international basis. Be that as it may, both Azerbaijan and Armenia
have economically suffered and are counted in the ranks of the poorest
nations. Russia, of course, is present in this area with military bases,
political interference, and ham-fisted attempts to control its erstwhile
satellites.
Because of the fallout of the Armenian
genocide, Turkey has sealed its borders; while on the other side, the Azerbaijan
boundary is sealed as well due to conflict. This unfortunately leaves Georgia
in the north and Iran in the south, neither country being at the height
of democratic or economic prowess. Turkish determination to sideline Armenia
is evident from the fact that Caspian Sea oil is now going to be routed
way north through Azerbaijan to Georgia and down to the Turkish port of
Ceylan. Intermittently, there are calls in Turkey to open the land border
and acknowledge the genocide, but the reaction is furious to say the least.
One can only hope that Turkey's eventual accession to the EU will help
in reducing tensions and that this blot on Turkey's history is addressed.
It is a salutary lesson to all countries, which have genocide in their
history. Whether or not genocide has been established, if the incidents
pass into myth or history with a sense of injustice, the crime will keep
on trickling and weeping pus for a very long time. Anatole France said
back in 1916, "Armenia is dying, but it will survive. The little blood
that it still has left is precious blood that will give birth to a heroic
generation. A nation that does not want to die does not die." Does Turkey
and rest of the world really want a nation, which is still burning for
vengeance one hundred years after genocide was committed?
All this to be taken with a grain
of salt!
(The opinion expressed herein are
strictly the author's and do not reflect the positions, official or otherwise,
of any firm or organisation, that the author is associated with at the
present or has been in the past or may be in future. Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta,
currently lives in the City of London and works there in various capacities
in the Banking Sector.)
