In Memory of the Armenian Genocide of 1915: A Kurdish Perspective

On April 24, 2009, the annual Armenian Genocide commemoration took place at the Georgia State Capitol. Over 100 Armenian Americans and anti-genocide activists were in attendance for the commemoration, which coincided with the issuing of proclamations by Georgia’s Governor and Atlanta’s Mayor honoring the victims of the Armenian Genocide. Featured speakers and guests at the event included Mrs. Carolyn Young—speaking on behalf of her husband, civil rights leader and former US Ambassador to the UN, Andrew Young—as well as Emory University Professor, Dr. Julieta Stepanyan-Abgaryan and ANC Georgia Chairman Sarkis Agasarkisian.

On hand were also members of the Kurdish American community of Atlanta. The following is a transcript of remarks offered at the commemoration event by Ara Alan, Secretary General of the Kurdish Youth Club and Director of the Kurdish Cultural Center in Atlanta, GA.

We are gathered today on April 24th to commemorate the souls lost during the Armenian Genocide. We are gathered to deliver the cries of help from those who were silenced in 1915 by the Ottoman Turks. I would like to take a moment to remember all the victims of genocide across the 20^th century; a century that has been darkened with their blood and silenced by our disregard.

Ottoman Turks led the way into the twentieth century by committing the first act of genocide. Their example was followed by many more, such as the Holocaust in Germany, Pol Pot in Cambodia, Rwanda, Kosovo and the notorious Anfal campaign by Saddam Hussein in Iraqi-Kurdistan.

I come and stand with our friends, the Armenians, because I understand your cause. I understand what it means to have genocide committed against you.  I look to you with inspiration and pride. I wonder will our next generation be as courageous as you are. Like your grandparents, the crime of genocide has been committed against us, as well.

In Iraq, in the name of purification of a country, thousands of Kurds were taken from their villages and murdered in the deserts south of the country. This operation of genocide was name Anfal.  Chemical weapons were used in this operation by Saddam Hussein.  He used such illegal weapons to help scare and kill innocent villagers. They were used as a tool to round up the people.

Using strategic military planning, the Iraqi Army would attack a region in Kurdistan from three or more fronts. They would leave only one opening for the people to escape. Doing so, the Army would force the residents of the many villages in that region to congregate in one location. From there the villagers would be rounded up, shipped to concentration camps and systematically killed.

The Anfal genocide started in 1988 but it is without an end. The gassing during Anfal has acted as a mutagen and caused the DNA of its victims to change.  According to the Health Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the ratio of patients with cancer in the gassed populations is 5:1 when compared to non-gassed populations.

Many of the little girls exposed to the gassing in 1988 today give birth to children with down-syndrome or still-birth and they have very high rates of miscarriage; some have even become completely infertile. Incidents of breast cancer are much higher today in Kurdistan and cases of breast cancer are much more aggressive than in other countries, with a higher likelihood of death.

As result of the gassing many Kurds are dying today. Many are paralyzed, handicapped, blinded or bedbound. Many babies from the new generation are born with genetic diseases that result in their death or a life that is dependent on medical care, which is almost non-existent where they are born. In this way, the Kurdish genocide continues today into post-Saddam Iraq.

Dr. Gregory Stanton, President of Genocide Watch, has categorized genocide into eight stages. He has done so to help the international community use these stages as indicators and a warning sign of upcoming genocides. Strangely enough all genocides follow these eight stages.

They all start with classification of the target group, followed by symbolization, then dehumanization, organization, polarization of the society, preparation, actual extermination in the seventh stage—and then denial in the eighth.

It might come to you as a surprise; why would denial be part of genocide? According to Genocide Watch, denial is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres.

The perpetrators of genocide dig up the mass graves, burn the bodies, try to cover-up the evidence and intimidate the witnesses.  They deny that they committed any crimes, and often blame what happened on the victims.  In short, denial is a sign of justification of genocide and accepting it is a method of governance.

Turkey’s 94 years of denial policy should come as an alarm to the international community. The denial of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 was followed by the Dermis massacre in 1937. In a similar fashion to the Armenian Genocide, and with the exact same justification, 78,000 Kurds were massacred in that city in Turkey. The denial policy once again allowed Turkey to destroy over 4000 Kurdish villages in the 1990s.

Just like the Ottoman Turks greeted the twentieth century with stains of genocide, our twenty-first century already has a stain: Darfur.  Darfur stands tall, as a symbol of our failure to learn from previous genocides and our tolerance for genocide denial.

Genocides do not occur because one race of humanity is superior to the other. They don’t occur because one nation has the right to eradicate another or that one religious view or political ideology is superior above those different from it.

Genocide occurs when one group appoints themselves as superior and the world turns a blind eye. Genocide occurs because we let it. Our silence is the fuel that genocide perpetrators use to burn the bodies and hide the evidence.

Let us not be silent… let us speak and condemn… let us bring those that deny to acceptance.