Submitted by Phantom, Mar 5, 2008 17:45

Dear Mr. Barkan, I would like to address your points in the same order as you presented them, which is the usual order in which they are always presented.

1. I think most Jews would disagree with you that it is unfair to the memory of their ancestors to acknowledge the murder of another nation. After all, the Jewish people have contributed immensely to resurrecting the memory of this massive crime against humanity from the dark depths of historical memory. Of course, the Armenian people have never forgotten, but if it were not for the work of the Jewish people, then it is very likely that the world would have forgotten the Armenian Genocide. You may recall names, such as Morgenthau, who first chronicled the extermination and tried to get the U.S. to stop it, Werfel, who wrote a best-selling novel about it, and Lemkin who was inspired by the Armenian Genocide to invent the word Genocide to describe what happened to the Armenian people and to make such acts a crime. Let's also not forget the dozens of Jewish scholars who have written about or spoken out to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, such as Robert Melson, Yair Auron, Israel Charney, Yehuda Bauer, Deborah Lipstadt, Elie Weisel, Yossi Sarid, Yossi Belin, just to name a few. And I don't think most Jewish people appreciate that you invoke their name as a reason to deny another Genocide. I'm sure Mr. Levy would agree.

2. You mention that Armenians had an army, killed Turks, and demanded territory. All Ottoman Armenian males of fighting age were conscripted into the Ottoman army in 1914. The Armenians you mention were Russian Armenians fighting for their country, Russia. Just like British Jews fought for England against Hitler, and French Jews fought for France against Hitler, and Russian Jews fought for Russia against Hitler and American Jews fought for America against Hitler. As for the killings, most were in response to massacres first made against Armenians who had been persecuted by Turks and massacred repeatedly from the 1890s.

3. The Nuremberg trials did not adjudicate the issue of whether or not the Nazis committed a Genocide. They were trials against the individual Nazis for crimes against humanity. Only one government has ever been convicted of Genocide by an international tribunal and that was Serbia in the 1990s. Thus, according to your logic, the Holocaust was not a Genocide since no trial ever judged it as such. There were no trials in Malta whatsoever. The prisoners of Malta were simply exchanged for British captives held by the Turks, and the whole thing was swept under the rug by the British.

4. Turks have never opened their archives to independent historians. They are only open to historians who are sympathetic to Turkish Genocide Denial. Moreover, the Turks have had 90 years in which to sanitize those archives. Given their belligerent Denial, there is no doubt whatsoever that those archives have been cleansed of as much incriminating evidence as possible. That notwithstanding, Taner Akcam, a Turkish scholar who has examined those archives, has just published a new book in Turkey that cites documents from those archives that eliminate any doubt as to the intent of the Young Turks when they "deported" the entire Armenian population of Turkey.

5. It is a crime in Turkey to say there was an Armenian Genocide, and many people, including Hrant Dink, were convicted of that crime. Their prison sentences were suspended, but they were forced to pay a monetary fine, endure embarrassing criminal trials, and then stigmatized as traitors to their country. Hrant Dink, who was assassinated by a 17 year old Turk, is a prime example of what happens in Turkey when you are judged to be a traitor for discussing the Armenian Genocide. Nobody in France or Switzerland or any other country in the world for ever saying that there was an Armenian Genocide. It is a crime in those countries, but the punishment has always been monetary fines, like in Turkey.

In conclusion, your argument for denying the Armenian Genocide boils down to this: There was no Genocide because the Armenians deserved it. That is not a valid excuse or defense to such a crime. In fact, there is no known defense for the crime of Genocide. Genocide Deniers need to learn and understand that.

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