Noble People and Genocide

Did you know that noble people do not commit genocide? This is the logic behind the latest attempts of the apologists of the Turkish state, which has been needless to say founded on the corpses of countless innnocent victims of genocide and mass murder, to absolve the inheritor of the Ottoman Empire of any and every crime ascribing the impossibility to commit such crimes to silly mythologizing and impervious national identity. What makes the crime of crimes so abominable and evil so “banal”, to quote Hannah Arendt, is not to be found in an act wrought by a group of known criminals, who find their reward and their refuge in crimes petty or large, but the fact that a genocide can be commited by a noble people for supposedly noble aims. The same has been true of Turkey, as it was true later in Germany, Cambodia, Yugoslavia and as times roll unfortunately elsewhere. All this to direct you to a round up of the conference dedicated to the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire that was held at the Istanbul University.
Here are some “gems” from the conference

Mehmet Saray who presented in an emotional tone a paper entitled “Armenians and the Ottoman conception of the state” said the following at the end of his paper: “The Turkish nation is the most noble nation of the world; friends, it is not possible for such a nation to commit genocide.” Saray also stated that the Armenians and Greeks were used by the Britain, France and Russia as ‘tools.’

And more:

Erol Kurkcuoglu who stated while giving his paper that “the Armenian problem is an artificial (non-existent) issue created by the Russians and Western powers” referred to the Russian historian Velichkov in stating that Armenians always had masters. He narrated that these “master”s’were respectively Romans, Byzantines, Iranian, British, French and Germans. He concluded his talk by stating that “Armenians have always changed their masters in history and have sold them (the masters).”

And more still:

Yusuf Hallaçoğlu argued in his talk entitled “population loss due to deportation and migrations” that the number of casualties due to sickness, travel, hunger was 227 500 and that this could be compared to those in England who died from the flu.

While I do believe in a dialogue of minds, with approaches as these it is senseless, nay it is a sin to reason and rationality to hold a dialogue with the Hallaçoğlus of the world, who have wilfully blinded their eyes to the truth of things, whe look but do not see, as the great prophet from the Roman Palestine had once timelessly remarked.

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