JVLV: UNLIKE OBAMA, PUTIN CALLS THE ARMENIAN TRAGEDY “GENOCIDE,” By Jiri & Leni Friedman Valenta, 4/25/15

April 25, 2015

April 24 had two meanings for us; the hundredth anniversary of the Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Turks, but also the 90^th birthday of my Jewish mother who lived through the Holocaust.  Unable to marry, she carried this mischling [mixed race Jew] in her womb from July 1944 (a few days after D-day) to April 9, 1945. And only because I had a Christian father, did she survive.  The Nazis catalogued degrees of Jewish blood and killed the full blooded Jews first.

Searching for my wife, Leni’s Jewish ancestor’s, the large Lubarsky family, in the Odessa and Kiev archives, we found a single name.  Only those who emigrated to America escaped the Nazis.

Sadly, the suffering reaches down through the generations as the children of survivors remain deeply affected by the torment of their parents and grandparents.  Thus, in 2009, when we visited the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex in Yerevan, we were deeply moved to learn the history of a million and a half Christian people who, primarily perished in a 1915 Turkish genocide.  Considering that Germany has apologized for the holocaust, we cannot but agree with those who disparage Turkey for refusing to call the mass killings of the Armenians by the “g” word-- “genocide.” 

Unfortunately, that seems not to be a sentiment felt in the White House.  There are now two MIA´s to Obama´s discredit; the first in Paris where he refused to march against Islamic terrorism and anti-Semitism; the second in Yerevan where he failed to participate in the commemoration of the Islamic Ottoman´s genocide against the Christian Armenians, even though 43 American states have recognized the genocide as such by legislation or proclamation.  Sadly, our president is reluctant to utter the word genocide. Nor can he bring himself to call the present Muslim killers “Islamic terrorists.”  Imagine FDR and Churchill speaking about atrocities and not identifying the brutal killers as Nazis.   

Meanwhile the reluctance of Turkey, a NATO Country, to use the “g” word is really embodied in Turkey´s president, Tayip Erdogan.  He even organized a commemoration of the April 25^th 1915 Battle of Gallipoli, to steal thunder from the Armenians.   But what is there to commemorate?  The senseless slaughter of ten thousand soldiers of the British Empire by the Ottomans?   Or young Winston Churchill’s terrific blunder that haunted him all his life? Fortunately, as we found out on two trips to Turkey, a lot of Turks disagree with their president. 

Unlike Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin was present in Yerevan at the Armenian Genocide Memorial, along with French president Hollande. Not only was he present; he used the “g” word. Of course, democratic Armenia is an old military and religious ally of Russia; a tiny, yet important geopolitical piece at Russia’s periphery in the Caucasus, and one of the few former Soviet republics to join Putin´s Customs Union.  But Turkey is a large and important energy partner and energy transfer state, where, as in, Iran the Russians plan to build a nuclear power plant. Moreover, Putin is a personal friend of Erdogan. 

Turkey´s response was swift – the Russian president was denounced in Ankara.   Mr. Putin, no matter what his transgressions in the Ukraine, has the courage of his post-KGB, Christian convictions.  He’s not afraid to antagonize Turkey for a cause in which he believes. A supporter of rapprochement between Eastern and Western Christians, the Christian autocrat has repeatedly backed the Pope´s call to oppose the emerging genocide of Middle East Christians.  He seems more aware than our president, that after the 20^th century Armenian genocide and Jewish holocaust, the 21^st century killing of Middle East Christians by Islamic fascists  is, in the Pope´s words,  “becoming a new genocide,”  one  “created by general and collective indifference.”     

Like the Nazis, who took photos of their victims decades earlier, the Islamic cutthroats take pleasure in making sophisticated videos of their butchery, while recruiting hundreds of Muslims around the world.  Unfortunately, the Western public is even becoming somewhat desensitized by the ever growing number of ISIS and Al Qaeda atrocities – crucifixions, beheadings,  rapes, mass murders nd enslavement of women reported by eager, news-hungry commentators.

Before the onslaught on Poland and kick-off of the holocaust in 1939 Poland, Hitler pointed out, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”  In the 21^st century, we have had not only new genocides, but the rise of new fanatics who believe they are the master religion.  Commenting on the Paris massacres, my mother, who still hides her Jewishness, and my uncle, a camp survivor, think the “Nazis” are coming back.  Former Texas governor-turned presidential candidate Rick Perry seems to agree.  He is calling for the U.S.  To “stand up to anti-Semitism in Europe,” where remaining Jews are again persecuted, but also notes that  Christians are being killed in the Middle East.  

Consequently, to answer the Russian International Affairs Council´s [RIAC´s] Director General, Andrey Kortunov´s profound question, “Shall the West give up on Putin?” our answer is a qualified “no.”   Putin’s daring acknowledgement of Muslim Turkey´s genocide of the Armenians is an important signal to the West.  It comes on the heels of his other comments that he wants to find some sort of rapprochement with us.  Of course, we must test his sincerity. As we suggested twice in the Kyiv Post, the ragged Ukrainian army should be supplied with our defensive arms.  However, as we also posited in The National Interest, we should persistently try to negotiate with Putin a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine crisis.

If he is prepared to resume genuine negotiations going beyond the ambiguous Minsk agreements, not only will the sanctions be lifted, but he could eventually become our strategic partner in establishing a bulwark against the metastasizing threat of ISIS and Al Qaeda. 

If our own president now shows real leadership in this area, it would be the best assurance of preventing what is increasingly becoming a new genocide, this time of Christians in the Middle East.

Our essay, “The Jewish Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide, “ was published in English, Russian, Armenian and Hebrew in cooperation with Professor Stepan Grigoryan´s Analytical Centre on Globalization and Regional Cooperation [ACGRC], Yerevan, Armenia.  Dr. and Mrs. Valenta are Trustees of ACGRC, and also serve on the board of America´s Society for Orphaned Armenian Relief [SOAR].    

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