In Theory: Will the Pope’s statement on the genocide help?
This month, Pope Francis called the deaths of 1.5 Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in 1915 “the first genocide of the 20th century.”
His acknowledgment — also made by Pope John Paul II in 2001 — was met with praise from Armenians and Armenian Americans, including in Glendale, the Glendale News-Press reports.
Pope Francis’ remark, however, was criticized by the government of Turkey, which continues to claim the killings did not amount to genocide.
Glendale Mayor Zareh Sinanyan said he’s hopeful that the pope’s words will help gain more recognition of the genocide throughout the world.
“Unfortunately, we Armenians have been in a position for the last 100 years in even getting simply acknowledged of a historical fact,” Sinanyan told the News-Press. “It takes a lot of energy and resources, which is very sad. Humanity doesn’t seem to be ready to embrace, to do the right thing for the right reasons.”
Q: What do you think of Pope Francis’ remarks? Do you feel a religious leader’s acknowledgment of these atrocities will effect political change?
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One never knows what the response or outcome will be if a leader speaks out, as Pope Francis did. But I am so glad that he did. I am reminded that some religious thinker said one time that we believers aren’t required to be successful, only faithful — and I personally believe Pope Francis was being faithful in calling attention to the Armenian Genocide.
What is baffling to me is the unwillingness of the Turkish government to admit that it played a part in the Armenian Genocide. Germany has admitted what it did in World War II, and I think the Japanese have sort of admitted what their government did in the same war. Our own government has agreed that its sending Japanese Americans to concentration camps was wrong, and some Americans (including my late mother) have acknowledged the awful thing this country did to Native Americans. So why can’t Turkey admit just a little responsibility in the taking of Armenian lands and the killing of Armenian people?
Also, it would be nice if the current American administration could lean on Turkey a little bit — but I also realize that Turkey was our ally against the Soviet Union in the days of the Cold War, and it still is our ally in the struggle with ISIS or ISIL. Some might argue that the Turks aren’t a very good ally, and they might be right! But we live in an imperfect world with allies who don’t always agree with us, but allies they are, and I understand the delicate diplomatic dance that sometimes must be performed.
Still, good for Pope Francis! In my opinion, he used his position of authority in a good way, and I would hope that other leaders would do the same and speak the truth.
The Rev. Skip Lindeman
La Cañada Congregational Church
La Cañada Flintridge
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I am thrilled that a global leader has finally demonstrated some real courage on this important issue. Pope Francis said what had to be said: What the Turks did to the Armenians in 1915 was genocide.
I am baffled that so many prominent religious and political figures fail to acknowledge this plain and simple fact — and I am mortified that President Barack Obama, the leader of the free world, is refusing to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Of course, there are political consequences to speaking the truth; I recognize that we need to consider the inevitable wrath of the Turkish government when acknowledging the Armenian Genocide. But the cost of not speaking out is far greater.
The novelist George Santayana famously said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Adolf Hitler, when he began his murderous march across Europe, was famously quoted as remarking, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” When confronted by such atrocities, we remain silent at our peril. A hundred years after the Armenian Genocide and 70 years after the Holocaust, we are still witnessing genocidal massacres and acts of barbaric slaughter across the globe.
If we ever hope to have a peaceful future and a world where our children can grow old in relative tranquillity, then we have a moral obligation to confront evil and root it out at the source. The first step in this process is to openly acknowledge both the crimes of today and those of yesterday. We must condemn every form and manifestation of this evil, whether it’s the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust or today’s fanatical terror movements such as Al Qaeda, ISIS, Hezbollah and Hamas. If we do not clearly label and challenge these acts — if we play games of moral equivalency or political expediency — then we do a grave disservice to humanity. Not only are we failing ourselves, we are failing our own children and condemning future generations to atrocities, endless cycles of violence and brutality.
Rabbi Simcha Backman
Chabad Jewish Center
Glendale
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I agree that world leaders should speak out about the Armenian Genocide, especially this 100th anniversary. It was the first major genocide of the 20th century but, alas, not the last. In fact, when Hitler thought of his extermination of the Jews, and there were doubts among the Nazi leadership about it being successful, he is reported to have said, “No one remembers the Armenians” and unfortunately, he was correct.
If the current Turkish government cannot admit personal responsibility, perhaps its leadership has a way with which to acknowledge the destruction of a whole community and still maintain its innocence in the face of world condemnation of this heinous crime. I am certain that the members of Mr. Davuto¿lu’s government were not in power in the Ottoman Empire and probably not even born in 1915. Therefore they could say, “Not us.” The Republic of Turkey was formed in 1920, after the Ottoman Empire had been dissolved and divided up by the League of Nations. The new president, Kamal Ataturk, went so far as to eliminate the Arabic /Turkish script from the public signs and went to the Latin script. All his efforts went to make Turkey a western nation and remove its Ottoman roots. So, it would not be a stretch to say, “they were them and we are us.”
The problem with Pope Francis speaking out against the Turkish government is that some radicals will say it is another example of Christian verses Muslim. In this charged world we need to speak of our horror at any genocide of any people, not through our titled office but as individual descendants of Adam and Eve. All human life is sacred, so it is incumbent upon all of us to pressure the Turkish government to speak up about the genocide. For their souls as well as our own.
Rabbi Mark Sobel
Temple Beth Emet
Burbank
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I understand why Turkey doesn’t want to admit to guilt in a genocide of 1.5 million people. None among the current population were there when it happened, neither do they feel individually responsible. They also don’t want to pay out billions in reparations to Armenian progeny, for a “sin” of their predecessors. Turks are actually indoctrinated to believe that the mass extermination was really a justifiable act of war, and so as ugly as the world knows it to have been, they would simply like everyone to put it behind us and not make such a big deal out of a bygone issue of no current consequence.
However, to deny such a recorded and verifiable modern horror is to do the entire world an injustice. And yet, why do so many of our leaders fear calling a spade a spade? Could it be that drawing attention to a national act of Islamic terrorism might push Turkey into some unimaginable alignment with our current enemies that are nearing its borders? Remember, the atrocities were hardly different than what we currently hear about on the news regarding ISIS or other so-called “radical” Muslim groups, except that the Armenian Genocide wasn’t perpetrated by disparate militias, but by a whole Muslim nation determined to exterminate its Christian citizenry. The action came with all the trappings of terrorism we currently see on TV; head-choppings, drowning children and marching civilians into the desert to die of exposure and starvation. Rapes, pillaging, inhumanity; Allahu Akbar, right? This was not combat, this was genocide.
That event occurred at the beginning of World War I. Come World War II, the Nazis are in power, and the extermination of 11 million people is on; six million of which are Jewish, the other five principally Christian. Should we allow Germany to deny its Holocaust? After all, wouldn’t it be best if people just forget about that one too? No; never forget, lest it repeat. “If you say, ‘But we knew nothing about this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?” (Prov 24:12).
The Rev. Bryan Griem
Community Church of Montrose
Montrose
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Pope Francis has taken a stand that puts his church on the right side of history once again.
My understanding is that the country of Turkey, along with Israel, pretty much stand alone now in officially denying the reality of the Armenian Genocide. To the rest of the world it is an accepted historical fact.
The New York Times reported recently that only 9% of Turks thought the government should label the atrocities a genocide and apologize for them, in a poll by an Istanbul research organization. Turkey has thoroughly miseducated its citizens.
The U.S. depends on Turkey allowing a large U.S. military presence in that country as a base of operations for our armed invasions, occupations and air strikes into the Middle East. Thus President Obama, who of course knows that the Armenian Genocide is real, continues to avoid the word.
I regret to say that I doubt even such a prominent statement as the Pope’s will change the ossified positions of the main actors in this drama, or perhaps I should say farce. Turkish and U.S. official recognition of the world’s first genocide is not coming any time soon.
As a peace activist I know a little something about hopeless causes in which great forces are aligned against you. I cannot say what course of action Armenians and most of the world who supports the truth of 1915 should take, but maybe it is time to disengage from this particular point of the debate and try a new tack.
Roberta Medford
Atheist
Montrose