The possible recognition of the Armenian Genocide by US President Joe Biden is a step to right a historic wrong, Emily Schrader, the CEO of Social Lite Creative and a research fellow at the Tel Aviv Institute, said in an article published at the Jerusalem Post.
The writer says Israel and many other countries still refuse to recognize the Armenian Genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire in 1915.
“In the case of Israel, the government has refused to recognize the Armenian Genocide, due to the volatile yet strategic political relationship with Turkey. For decades, Turkey has blackmailed and threatened nations if they even considered recognizing the Armenian Genocide”, Emily Schrader says, noting that if in the past Israel had a dependence on Turkey as one of the only Muslim states with which it had cooperation and diplomatic relations, through the decades, Turkey has become increasingly hostile to Israel with the dictatorial and Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“Today, Israel is less dependent than ever on Turkey, especially with emerging relations with Arab states. Yet instead of recognizing the Armenian Genocide and unequivocally standing on the right side of history, the Israeli government has sold out the Armenian people even today, by selling weapons to Azerbaijan while it bombs Armenian cities”, the writer says.
The author notes “the Armenian Genocide was not simply a horrific event that occurred. It was arguably the most horrific orchestrated genocide the world had ever seen (at the time), and not in the context of a war, but because the Armenians were Christian”. Emily Schrader considered absolutely unconscionable that the community of nations has continued to allow Turkey to use its geopolitical position to bully other nations into denying or refusing to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
“For decades, Turkey has actively censored those who recognize the genocide in Turkey itself, and has even destroyed evidence. Previously, it even imprisoned academics who dared to call the Armenian Genocide a genocide.
Whereas in Germany, the world demanded accountability and, even today, Holocaust denial is illegal, Turkey made it illegal not to deny the Armenian Genocide, and the entire world is complicit in allowing it to do so.
If even a few of the world’s superpowers had recognized the Armenian Genocide from day one, we would be living in a different reality today, where smaller nations wouldn’t be afraid to acknowledge the obvious historical fact to the detriment of a people that was almost eliminated.
The Biden administration recognizing the Armenian Genocide would not only send a morally necessary message to the people of Armenia on behalf of the United States, it also would send a message to the world. The time for recognition is now”, Emily Schrader wrote.
