An Armenian genocide

April 25, 2007
Budapest Sun
by Kinga Kali

This article says, "The Turkish state denies that its Ottoman predecessor committed genocide, and protests vehemently against countries and individuals who insist otherwise.

Armenians may shiver, in fact, that an alley in Budapest's beautiful Castle District is named after Kemal Atatürk, founder of the modern Turkish state - and if that state is the successor of the Ottoman Empire, then isn't Turkey responsible of the crimes committed by the Young Turk Party, of which Atatürk was once a member?
[...]
Atatürk himself was, in fact, scathing about his people's behavior towards the Armenians. At a military tribunal in January 1919, he said, "Our compatriots committed inhuman crimes, they resorted to every kind of despotism, they organized deportations and massacre, they burnt babies alive sprinkled with petrol, they raped women and girls. They brought such insupportable conditions to people, that no other people had seen before in history.""

Turkey beware, your present denialist behavior is quickly becoming a proof of your past. Stop denying and recognize the genocide and see how love will flow.

The Armenian Genocide of 1915-17 is commemorated around the world on April 24, wherever Armenians are living - and that includes Budapest, where cultural events have accompanied a solemn remembrance of one of the worst massacres of the last century.

After more than 90 years, the Mets Yeghern (The Great Calamity, in Armenian) that killed 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey (as well as many Greeks and Assyrians), it is still a matter of much controversy, officially denied or not recognized by many countries, despite eye-witness accounts, documentary and photographic evidence, the testimony of thousands of survivors and decades of historical research.

Silence often shrouds the issue in Hungary as well and, despite, or perhaps because of, Hungary's 150 years of Ottoman occupation, Hungary still doesn't officially recognize the Armenian genocide.

The Turkish state denies that its Ottoman predecessor committed genocide, and protests vehemently against countries and individuals who insist otherwise.

Armenians may shiver, in fact, that an alley in Budapest's beautiful Castle District is named after Kemal Atatürk, founder of the modern Turkish state - and if that state is the successor of the Ottoman Empire, then isn't Turkey responsible of the crimes committed by the Young Turk Party, of which Atatürk was once a member?

Atatürk himself was, in fact, scathing about his people's behavior towards the Armenians. At a military tribunal in January 1919, he said, "Our compatriots committed inhuman crimes, they resorted to every kind of despotism, they organized deportations and massacre, they burnt babies alive sprinkled with petrol, they raped women and girls. They brought such insupportable conditions to people, that no other people had seen before in history."

Failing to punish

But, as President of Turkey, Atatürk, failed to punish the perpetrators of those crimes, and the barbarous events of 1915-17 fell into a deep, silent and secure whirlpool of oblivion.

Due to this terrifying ethnic cleansing, the Armenian Diaspora is now much bigger than the population of Armenia itself, and Hungary is home to a significant Armenian community.

Armenians first arrived in Hungary in the 13th century, when legend says 300 Armenian families fled Ani, one of Armenia's ancient capitals, the so-called city of the Thousand Towers, to escape the Tatars.

After wandering in Crimea, Poland, and Moldova, in 1672 they arrived in Transylvania, where they were settled by Duke Mihaly Apafi and functioned independently as traders.

They established four towns and initially used their own tongue, before learning the language of the surrounding people: Hungarian, Romanian and German. In the late 18th century, Armenian traders migrated to the Hungarian Plain, and the descendants of these traders are the foundations of the Armenian community in Hungary.

Over time, they assimilated the culture of the Hungarians they lived alongside and, nowadays, Hungarian-Armenians don't speak the language of their ancestors, although they are well aware of their Armenian origins. "We are Hungarians during the week, and Armenians on the weekends, in church," they often say.

The second "layer" of the Armenian community constitutes descendants of those who arrived after the events of 1915 in Turkey. There is often tension with the earlier arrivals, because the "newcomers" refuse to accept those who use Hungarian as their mother-tongue as real Armenians.

Paradoxically, this year's Week of Armenian Culture was organized by the Hungarian-Armenian group, mainly the Transylvanian Armenian Roots Cultural Association and the Metropolitan Armenian Self-Government, which was not directly affected by the events in Turkey.

Paying homage

They paid homage to the Armenian martyrs of the Mets Yeghern by putting flowers at the Armenian Khachkar (a stone cross made by Armenian monks) near the Danube, close to Petôfi tér, and, from April 19-25, several cultural events commemorated the genocide.

These include an exhibition of archive photos, entitled The First Genocide of the Twentieth Century, in Árkád Galéria (Pest, District VIII, Rákóczi út 30.), at the opening of which a book Nikolaj Hovhanniszján: The Armenian Genocide, was presented.

On April 22 at Béla Bartók's Memorial House, there was a concert introducing music from the Armenian Miniatures for Piano album, released during the week. The CD includes a selection of music by Aram Hachaturian, Komitas and Bartók.

These events surely deserve the support of all those who would give a belated reply to Hitler, architect of the Holocaust, who allegedly asked his Nazi aides on August 22, 1939, "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.