Hye Sharzhoom Armenian Action
By Matthew Maroot
Staff Writer
To many Armenians, the topic of the Armenian Genocide is considered strictly an Armenian issue. This is understandable when one considers that few non-Armenian scholars have sought to further this cause. The research of one non-Armenian scholar, however, has certainly opened some eyes in both Armenian and non-Armenian circles alike. Hilmar Kaiser, a German research scholar and historian from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, addressed a capacity crowd on Thursday, November 19, 1998 as part of the Fall Lecture Series of the Armenian Studies Program, co-sponsored by the Armenian Students Organization, on the campus of California State University, Fresno. Mr. Kaiser is currently working as a Scholar in Residence at the Armenian Research Center at the University of Michigan, Dearborn. He has conducted extensive research throughout Europe and the Middle East including work in the Turkish archives from which he was unjustly banned and thus turned his focus to the study of the Armenian Genocide.
Kaiser was accompanied by community activist Serop Nenejian of the Armenian Genocide Institute of Detroit. In his lecture, Hilmar Kaiser presented a new look at the topic of Genocide. Many Genocide survivors today find it difficult to even speak of the horrific events of 1915-1923. Many also consider it solely a National or Armenian issue. And some choose to leave the topic behind them as they move on with their lives. But according to Kaiser, the Armenian Genocide was a crime against all mankind, a crime against humanity, not just an ethnic conflict between the Turks and the Armenians. In addition, he describes the Genocide as an ongoing process. “The Turkish Government has had an eighty year practice of denial,” Kaiser said. Since there has been no closure to this issue, the continuing Turkish denial of the Genocide is in fact an integral part of the act of Genocide itself.
The Armenian Genocide cannot merely be seen as a series of massacres, rather, it was the attempted extermination of an entire race. As Kaiser described, “With the melting of the winter snow in the April of 1915, the exterminations began, and by the winter of 1915-1916, the job had largely been done.” Thus, in considering the Genocide as an attempted extermination, several new aspects begin to surface. Many Armenians today consider themselves to be part of a larger Diaspora, that is, those Armenians living away from the Armenian homeland. Hilmar Kaiser, however, describes those Armenians living outside Armenia as living in EXILE. At first such a declaration is shocking, when one begins to analyze it, however, the truth shines through. Kaiser describes this as the “eighty-three-year-old lie of the Armenian community.” Those living in EXILE donít have the ability to directly relate to the Armenian homeland, that is they have no point of origin, no place to return to.
Now, some eighty-three years after the Genocide, Kaiser describes what he calls the final phase of the Armenian Genocide, that is, the Turkish attempt to destroy the memory of these crimes by continually denying their very occurrence. However, with constant Armenian pressure, most recently in the objection to the establishment of Turkish chairs at prominent American universities, including the UCLA and the UC Berkeley, the memory of the Genocide stays alive. It is not that Armenians seek to prevent the establishment of Turkish chairs, it is that Armenians object to the nature in which they are created. The creation of Turkish Chairs at American universities thus far have come with many strings attached. Among other things, the holders of these chairs must be friends of the Turkish Government. And as Armenians, it is necessary to prevent the Turkish Government from having an influence on the education of our children.
He concluded his lecture by stating that answering the question of the Armenian Genocide lies in the future. Kaiser sees himself doing the work of a public prosecutor, stating that the most efficient means of gaining recognition for the Genocide lies in taking the battle to international courts and having the case heard as it should be, as a crime of murder, albeit it large-scale murder. The Armenians were the first large-scale victims of violations of human rights, and through the continual denial of such events, other ethnic groups are continuing to suffer today. Today, the Kurdish people are suffering a similar fate at the hands of the Turks. As citizens of a Democratic country, we have rights and obligations to elect officials who will represent our interests. As Hilmar Kaiser so cleverly states, “The Armenian Genocide is the skeleton in Turkeyís closet,” and as Armenians, it is our job to expose that skeleton.