The Achilles Heal of Elie Wiesel's "Forgiveness" Ploy

Friday April 13, 2007
USA Armenian Life Magazine
Hye Kiank Armenian Weekly
By Appo Jabarian
Executive Publisher/Managing Editor

In an appeal signed by 53 Nobel Prize Winners, the Elie Wiesel Foundation For Humanity on April 9 called for "tolerance, contact and cooperation between Turks and Armenians."

The appeal urged: "We, the undersigned Nobel laureates, issue this appeal directly to the peoples of Turkey and Armenia. Mindful of the sacrifice paid by Hrant Dink, the ethnic Armenian editor of Agos in Turkey, who was assassinated on January 19, 2007, and whose death was mourned by both Turks and Armenians, we believe that the best way to pay tribute to Mr. Dink is through service to his life's work safeguarding freedom of expression and fostering reconciliation between Turks and Armenians."

The appeal also recommends a four-step course of action: 1) Open the Turkish-Armenian border; 2) Generate confidence through civil society cooperation; 3) Improve official contacts; 4) Allow basic freedoms.

There is one sentence in the appeal, however, that totally negates all the others. While the laureates make a number of constructive recommendations for both Turkey and Armenia, they deal the Armenians, the victims of the Armenian Genocide at the hands of Turkey (1915-1923) a fatal injustice. They misguidedly urge that the "Treaties between the two countries (Armenia and Turkey) recognize existing borders."

There are many similarities but also many differences between the Jewish Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide. One of the key differences is that the indigenous Germans destroyed the Jews, and therefore reconciliation did not involve territorial issues. Jewish victims received recognition, received apologies, received pensions, and even reclaimed their insurance benefits and art treasures. In contrast to this, it was the invader and occupier Turk that killed the indigenous Armenians through waves of government instigated pogroms and orgies of rape, murder, and pillaging.

So, how could the noble-minded Nobel Laureates fathom the idea of letting genocidal Turkey get away with the murder of the Armenians and the confiscation of their lands?

By attempting to sanitize the genocidal Turkish state's usurpation of the lands of Western Armenia, the Nobel laureates are rendering a great injustice to the Armenian victims. One may question whether they are acting innocently or whether there are ulterior motives involved. The perpetuation of Western Armenia's occupation by the descendants of those who masterminded and executed the Armenian Genocide is a gross ethical and moral injustice. One may also ask if they are engaged in a new political push-pull to serve Turkey. In any case, this newest political theatre is reminiscent of the infamous Turkish-Armenian Reconciliation Commission (TARC). The now-defunct TARC was a Turkish ploy. It had pursued the aim of convincing the Armenians to let bygones be bygones and to be happy with just insincere words of contrition that they promised to utter sometime in the future. War criminals and those who benefited from their illegal acts should not be let off the hook so wholesale ethnic cleansing must never be accepted as a way of life on planet earth. The perpetrators and their torch-carriers in power must pay a price today. Simple recognition of the Genocide by Turkey is a good step, but it is not enough.

The Turkish press believes that the thoughts I am expressing here belong to the radical fringe of Armenian society. They are absolutely mistaken. The thoughts expressed here are as mainstream as one can get.

Therefore, we thank Mr. Wiesel and his friends, and remind them that their appeal is sending the wrong signals to the rest of the world. Allowing the perpetrator to keep the loot will no doubt encourage more genocides as a way to resolve issues. Like Cannibalism and slavery, Genocide must be removed from our way of life on earth.

But perhaps I am just dreaming that someday soon the cycle of genocides will be cast aside into the ash heap of history.

The fact remain that 92 years after the Armenian Genocide, the unabated cycle of mass murders continue to cause irreparable damage to humanity as a whole. Cambodia, Rwanda, and now Darfur are living proofs that humanity is still stuck in barbarism.

If our society continues to ignore gross human rights violations and ethnic cleansing schemes, than the genocidal wave will one day undoubtedly usher in Omnicide! What will remain of human civilization then?

Our society must not reward murderers. It should punish them by taking away from them the loot that they have misappropriated from the innocent victims.