Yair Auron: Israeli government practices double-standards on Armenian Genocide issue

April 21, 2010 - 19:42 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - An important international symposium on “Armenia-Turkey: How to Normalize Relations” was held in Paris on April 14. It was organized by the French Bureau of the Armenian Cause and the Armenian National Committee of France.

The participants were Dr. Yair Auron, professor of history at Open University, Israel: Auron has for many years been a staunch supporter of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and a strong critic of its denial by the Israeli government.

Auron also spoke about discussions held in the Israeli Parliament on the Armenian Genocide in 2007, 2008, and 2009. Each time, the Israeli government opposed the issue. He expects a similar rejection later this month when the issue is raised in Knesset once again, Harut Sassounian, The California Courier published reported.

Auron specifically pointed out the double-standard practiced by Israel. “The state of Israel continues to struggle against Holocaust denial on one hand, but participates in the denial of another genocide on the other,” he said. “This most likely will damage the struggle against Holocaust denial in the future. One might view this attitude as a moral failure. We have to remember that moral claims can have influence only if they are consistent. … Everyone would agree that Israel has no right to bargain with the memory of the Holocaust. But, even more, it has no right—by no means, in any circumstance, and much less so than any other country—to bargain with the memory of another victim group. And yet Israel did just that with the Armenian Genocide. Israel is contributing to the process of genocide denial and by doing so, it also betrays the memory and the legacy of the Holocaust.”

The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres and deportations, involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.

The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.

Present-day Turkey denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide, justifying the atrocities as “deportation to secure Armenians”. Only a few Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and scholar Taner Akcam, speak openly about the necessity to recognize this crime against humanity.

The Armenian Genocide was recognized by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, Italy, 45 U.S. states, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Argentina, Belgium, Austria, Wales, Switzerland, Canada, Poland, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, the Vatican, Luxembourg, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Sweden, Venezuela, Slovakia, Syria, Vatican, as well as the European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.

The Holocaust

The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.

The slaughter was systematically conducted in virtually all areas of Nazi-occupied territory in what are now 35 separate European countries. It was at its worst in Central and Eastern Europe, which had more than seven million Jews in 1939. About five million Jews were killed there, including three million in occupied Poland and over one million in the Soviet Union. Hundreds of thousands also died in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Yugoslavia and Greece. The Wannsee Protocol makes clear that the Nazis also intended to carry out their "final solution of the Jewish question" in England and Ireland.