periXscope
“Who remembers
the Armenians?”

A few days ago the world bowed with respect and sorrow, as real people of every color, faith or nationality commemorated those who perished during the Holocaust - the darkest, perhaps, chapter in human history.

For us, Hellenes, the pain resonates even more because genocide against our people took place at the beginning of the 20th century in Turkey. with the same policies of eradicating anything Hellenic in that country and continuing unabated to this day. The pogrom of September 6-7, 1955 in Constantinople/Istanbul, another Kristallnacht just a few years after the original, caused destruction of unprecedented proportions to a community already severely battered by history. Tens of thousands of people abandoned the city, reducing the number of Greeks from 120,000 in 1950 to about 3,000 today. In the See of the Orthodox Catholic Faith, Roman Catholics outnumber the Orthodox 10 to 1! The "final solution" in this plan is the gradual depopulation of the Greek community, which in turn will lead to closing the Ecumenical Patriarchate, one of the world's, and certainly Turkey's, most ancient institution.

In an equal manner Turkey does whatever she can to prevent countries, especially the US, from recognizing the Armenian Genocide, another tragic period in human history, which opened the way for the Assyrian, the Pontian-Greek and ultimately the Jewish Genocide (Holocaust). (Actually the ultimate was the Rwandan Genocide, in the ‘90’s, in front of international TV cameras!) It is historically proven that German operatives were following very closely the extermination process of the Armenians and, of course, offered advice, while gaining …valuable experience! Hitler himself is quoted as saying, when officers pointed him the possible international repercussions of carrying out the Final Solution, "Who remembers the Armenians?"

It is doubly sad to realize that those who lead the effort in the US not to remember the Armenians are those who rightly claim the tragic legacy of the Holocaust and happen to lead organizations that supposedly are trying not to have crimes like that repeated. It is absolutely disheartening to see how those groups have hijacked the term Holocaust and exploit it for primarily diplomatic gains.

A brilliant piece by Gerald Caplan, (Globe and Mail, January 23, 2009) explores the situation in detail. "Resolutions calling for recognition are regularly pushed by American-Armenians and their many supporters. Jewish groups regularly lead the opposition.” Then, “those who argue that denying the Holocaust is psychologically tantamount to a second holocaust, have taken the lead in pressuring presidents and Congress against recognizing the reality of 1915.”

Caplan ends with the cynical, but realistic, assumption that “some readers work on the naïve assumption that an event is deemed genocidal based on the facts of the case. Silly you. In the real world, you call it genocide if it bolsters your interests. If it doesn't, it's not. It's actually the same story as with preventing genocide."

President Obama pledged before his election to recognize the Armenian Genocide and it remains to be seen if he will keep his word. President Bush had done a similar pledge, but he reneged on it once elected after facing the Turkish/Jewish lobby.

The new president has brought with him an aura of optimism and willingness to go ahead with breakthrough moves. But he can’t do it unless people keep reminding him about this and other issues. American-Armenian groups have already started working in that direction and they mustn’t be alone. As a long time friend of the Jewish people – much before it was in vogue – I expect our Jewish compatriots to rise and yes, take the lead. There are already good signs as countless members of the Anti Defamation League made Abraham H. Foxman, its National Director, to realize that the Jewish people's approval to his tactics when it comes to deny genocides for the sake of politics, cannot be taken for granted. That is the spirit and the way to go. Henry David Thoreau said: "He who accepts evil without protesting it is really cooperating with it." Imagine what he would say for those who willingly and knowingly cooperate, especially if it happens to be descendants of people who experienced that evil in its fullest!

New Yorker Yvette Jarvis, an accomplished basketball player, model, singer and the first African-American ever elected in office – in Athens, Greece, that is - came to the US for the Obama inauguration. An elected Member of the Municipal Council of Athens since October 2002, she also serves as an advisor to the Mayor in matters of Immigration. She’s also worked extensively on issues concerning minorities. I had a talk with her at a reception on the eve of the Obama sworn-in ceremony, the essence of which you can see on page 12. According to Yvette, as she is widely known in Greece, what she mostly expects from the new president is “to restore belief in the American dream. Living in Europe was very difficult for all Americans, no matter where they lived, for the last eight years.” As she travels extensively throughout Europe and the world, she thinks that “people internationally missed the America that is righteous.”

On this point I would add, if I may, that despite the multiple-faceted crisis America is going through today, a very fascinating opportunity to offer leadership on a worldwide scale has emerged, in the face of Barack Obama. When almost every leader in every major western country – with the exception or Russia’s Putin – seems to be “burned”, Obama enjoys an unprecedented popularity. “I’ve been to five or six countries in the last two months and everywhere Barack was in everybody’s lips and in everybody’s prayers,” says Yvette. Should he be up to this extraordinary opportunity, remains to be seen.

As for Yvette, her American dream is defined in the hope that one day she will be back in the US and following Obama’s footsteps she’ll work for a non for profit organization that will allow her to visit “public schools and talk to children about learning how to be real citizens.” Very inspiring, but my suggestion to her was to stay in Greece and become the …Greek Obama! Like in the rest of Europe, they are in need of one badly!

DEMETRIOS RHOMPOTIS
dondemetrio@neomagazine.com

©2009 NEOCORP MEDIA

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