The UCLA International Conference Series in Armenian Studies
commemorated the 90th Anniversary of the Ottoman Turkish genocide
of Armenians in a three-day conference held this weekend.
Richard Hovannisian, UCLA professor emeritus of Armenian history
and organizer of the conference, titled “After Nine Decades
““ The Enduring Legacy of the Armenian Genocide,” opened
up the event by asking the mostly Armenian audience how many years
the genocide should be commemorated.
“For the Armenian Genocide to find its proper place, it
must be integrated into the collective human experience,” he
said.
Armenian scholars from across the country and world converged at
UCLA, from Berry College in Georgia to Columbia University, and
from France to Argentina.
The first day of the event on Friday was held in Pasadena, and
featured speakers from Damascus University in Syria and Erevan, the
Armenian capital. The speakers at the Friday event spoke in
Armenian. The Saturday and Sunday events were held at UCLA in
English.
At the Saturday event at Moore Hall, Henry Theriault from
Worcester State College challenged the common notion that for
genocide to occur, the victim must be dehumanized in the mind of
the perpetrator. He argued that unlike the Nazi killing of Jews
during World War II, the Turkish slaughter of Armenians during
World War I was “unnecessarily brutal” to the point of
inefficiency.
“The levels of violence was from the enjoyment of the
leaders. Killing an ant is not that pleasurable,” Theriault
said. The more human the victim, the greater the enjoyment of the
killer, he said, adding, “The Armenians were recognized as
human.”
The violence that Armenians believe killed 1.5 million of their
people began on April 24, 1915, and continued until 1923.
In 1908, the Ottoman sultan was overthrown by the Young Turks,
the regime that would commit the genocide.
“At some point a critical mass of Young Turks became
ultra-nationalistic. At some point the ultra-nationalists became
genocidal,” Theriault said.
Speaking about U.S. foreign policy during the genocide, Suzanne
Moranian of the Armenian International Women’s Association
said American policy toward Armenians was
“paradoxical.”
The “self-interest that impelled the United States to help
the Armenians is the same as the self-interest that caused them to
abandon Armenians,” Moranian said.
While then-President Wilson pursued a policy of neutrality with
Turkey during WWI, American missionary groups conducted a
substantial relief operation in present-day Syria that was
supported financially by both Congress and private citizens. But
“America’s post-WWI retreat from
internationalism” and Wilson’s attention to his planned
League of Nations decreased American support for the Armenian
cause, Moranian said.
She said that the policy for dealing with Armenians in WWI
formed the blueprint of U.S. foreign policy for the future.
The United States has not officially acknowledged that a
“genocide” took place. In his February visit to UCLA,
U.S. ambassador to Armenia John Evans said that the term genocide,
created in 1943, should not be applied to the events of 1915.
Turkey continues to deny a genocide took place. Recently,
however, Prime Minister Recep Erdogan took a small but symbolic
step to address the issue by announcing that Turkey’s
official archives would be opened to historians.
Examining the philosophical and literary response to genocide,
Michael Papazian of Berry College in Georgia said that many Young
Turks were educated in Germany, and that the Jewish
“Holocaust was perpetrated by (Germany’s) most
philosophically advanced group.”
“Jewish philosophy can be a guide for Armenian
philosophers to come to terms with the genocide,” he said. He
also warned Armenians to “be mindful not to make death and
destruction the central theme in Armenian history, rather than the
Christian ideas of life and rejuvenation.”
Philippe Videlier of the National Center for Scientific Research
in Lyons, France was inundated with many questions after his
lecture on “The Armenian Genocide and French
Society.”
Questions from the largely middle-aged and elderly audience were
about the absence of foreign intervention during the genocide and
recognition of the genocide in countries around the world
today.
Videlier said France did not intervene with the genocide because
they were occupied fighting a war with Germany, even though at the
time the government and intellectuals were aware of the atrocities.
Later, France was pressured by Turkish government lobbyists into
banning the release of a film about the genocide, he said.
While these statements brought scoffs from the audience, the
crowd offered a roaring applause after he noted that “four
years ago the French government recognized the 1915
genocide.”