Turkish government’s denial of the Armenian Genocide is as futile as a man who repeatedly hits his head
against the wall, hoping the wall would give way.
For more than a century, successive Turkish governments have done everything in their power to cover
up the heinous crime of the Armenian Genocide committed by their predecessors. No Turkish leader has
had the courage and honesty to admit the truth. Instead, Turkey has wasted huge sums of money to deny
the undeniable. It has bribed questionable scholars and crooked politicians around the world to distort the
historical facts. Ankara has published hundreds of deceptive books and made several trashy movies to
cover up its crimes. Over several decades, Turkey has spent tens of millions of dollars to hire American
lobbying firms to pressure the U.S. Congress not to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. All of these
efforts failed miserably. The U.S. House of Representatives recognized the Armenian Genocide in 1975,
1984 and 2019. The U.S. Senate unanimously recognized it in 2019. Moreover, two U.S. Presidents
acknowledged it: Pres. Ronald Reagan in a Presidential Proclamation in 1981 and Pres. Joe Biden in his
commemorative statements on April 24, 2021 and 2022. The most authoritative American
acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide took place on May 28, 1951, when the U.S. government
submitted an official report to the World Court, stating that the Armenian Genocide was one of the
“outstanding examples of the crime of genocide.”
Despite all Turkish pressures, threats and bribes, over 30 countries have formally acknowledged the
Armenian Genocide. This is in addition to acknowledgments by the United Nations War Crimes
Commission in 1948, the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of
Minorities in 1985 and the European Parliament repeatedly since 1987.
Most of these acknowledgments took place at a time when the Republic of Armenia did not exist as an
independent state. The Armenian Diaspora, in a David vs. Goliath battle, was able to counter the denials
of the powerful Turkish government, supported by its NATO allies and scores of Islamic states.
All of these denialist efforts are based on the simple misconception that should the Turkish government
acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, it would then be obligated to pay restitution to surviving
Armenians. Regrettably, many Armenians have the same misconception. The fact is that the Turkish
government is liable to pay reparations and return confiscated Armenian properties and territories,
regardless of whether Turkish leaders acknowledge their guilt or not. Political statements by government
leaders are of no value in a court of law. Courts deal with facts and documents. No matter how many
times Turkey denies the genocide, the Republic of Armenia has the right to take its demands for
restitution and return of territories to the International Court of Justice (World Court), where only
governments have such jurisdiction.
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After an entire century of denial, the Turkish government announced last week its latest desperate attempt
to counter the facts of the Armenian Genocide by forming the TEKAR Foundation (Turkish Armenian Issue Research Foundation). This is a coalition of three Turkish groups: Educational Friends Foundation,
Baskent (Capital City) Strategic Research Center, and Center for Countering Fanatic Armenian Lies. The
new Foundation held its inaugural assembly on June 25.
TEKAR plans to republish a Turkish denialist book written by Esat Uras (1882-1957), titled: “The
Armenians in history and the Armenian question.” As a member of the Committee of Union and Progress
(Young Turks), Uras played a key role in planning and executing the Armenian Genocide. His book is
replete with gross misrepresentations.
The Turkish Foundation also stated that it will “print Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's views, thoughts and
statements on Armenians, Armenian activities and Armenian relations.” I hope the Foundation will not
forget to quote from Ataturk’s interview published by the Los Angeles Examiner on August 1, 1926, in
which he said: “These leftovers from the former Young Turk Party, who should have been made to
account for the lives of millions of our Christian subjects, who were ruthlessly driven en masse from their
homes and massacred…. They have hitherto lived on plunder, robbery and bribery.”
The TEKAR Foundation has 23 members on its board of trustees. The chairman of the board is Mehmet
Arif Demirer, a chemical engineer, not a historian! Incomprehensibly, the board is composed of six
military officers, three engineers, two economists, one gastronomist, one student, and several others of
miscellaneous backgrounds. It looks like the real purpose of the TEKAR Foundation is to provide jobs to
Pres. Erdogan's circle of friends. While it is a good thing that these Turks want to study the Armenian
Genocide, their intention is not seeking the truth!
Turkish denialists have never understood that the more they deny the Armenian Genocide and the longer
they talk about it, the more the world becomes aware of the Armenian Genocide. In other words, Turkey
foolishly keeps publicizing the Armenian Genocide to new generations while trying to deny it.
The second thing that the Turkish leaders never understood is that the sooner they acknowledge the
crimes of their predecessors, the sooner they will gain the respect of the international public opinion.
When a Turkish leader eventually acknowledges the truth, he will be praised worldwide and may even be
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. By their denials, Turkish leaders are doing a major disservice to
their own reputations, not to mention the huge sums of money they are wasting at a time when the
Turkish economy is bankrupt!
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
