Letter
to the editor
Armenian genocide a reality
In
his April 29 letter to the editor, Karahan
Mete denied the occur-rence of the Armenian
genocide by quoting a U.S. Navy Admiral’s
credible views. I am neither Turkish nor
Armenian, but I feel it is necessary to
point out the morally repugnant nature of
Mete’s denial. To my Turkish friends whose
brains have been programmed to never doubt
their government and deny any criticism
of it without even looking, I have three
responses:
First, there are people, including some
crazy French philosophers, who deny the
Holocaust; they have thousands of articles
too. Similarly, there are people, including
many Turks, who are too afraid to recognize
that some of their grandparents had carried
out the first mass genocide of the 20th
century. This act of denial in itself is
morally repugnant; to deny what 1.5 million
went through in 1915 is to deny these people
their humanity.
Second, whether you think the Armenian Genocide
occurred or not, denying it now would only
increase the tensions, hatred and violence
that is going on between Turks and Armenians
around the world.
The reason these hate crimes occurred against
the Turkish diplomats (and I’m not condoning
such behavior on both sides) is because
many Turks can look an Armenian in the eye
and have the guts to say, “my granddaddy
didn’t kill your granddaddy.” Instead of
denying, we should empathize with the Armenians,
develop relations and start the healing
process.
Finally, recognizing the genocide does not
mean that we are discriminating or inciting
hate against Turks. I am cool with both
Armenians and Turks, but I think it is necessary
for the public to start recognizing the
atrocities that go on around the world that
people seem to forget about.
—
Usama Kahf,
finance, senior
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