If Armenian-American college students felt betrayed in the past day, I would not blame them. So many of them came out to support student resolutions at several universities across the country demanding divestment from the Israeli occupation. And yet, one of the largest American Palestine solidarity organizations in this country just told these students that their grandparents’ stories still need to be verified. If you do not know what I am referring to please read this statement put out by the United States Council of Muslim Organizations.
In this statement, member organizations of the USCMO, including American Muslims for Palestine, make the case that President Obama should not refer to the “events of 1915” as a genocide without further investigation. They call for a more “balanced” approach through academic consensus based on Turkish archives that Turkey refuses to open to establish a “just memory.” The statement also refers to the importance of Turkey as an ally in the fight against ISIS. What is even worst is that it was released on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the genocide.
The fact that this statement came from every major Muslim organization in America is outrageous in itself. The fact that American Muslims for Palestine signed on to this statement is doubly heinous.
How American Muslims for Palestine does not recognize the moral hypocrisy of such a denial is beyond me. Palestinians as a people have spent decades demanding the world recognize our ethnic cleansing from our homeland. For years, it was the stories of our parents and grandparents against the denial of the entirety of Israeli society. Even after the opening of Israeli state archives (that only Israeli academics had access to) confirmed what we have always known to be true, we still fight to have the Nakba and our right to return recognized. On top of all this, AMP must have forgotten that there are Armenian-Palestinians who survived this genocide.
What kind of logical acrobatics did AMP have to undertake to avoid seeing the moral hypocrisy of this statement?
To fully appreciate the self-deceit required for AMP to be a co-signor to this denial of history, one only need replace ‘Turkey’ with ‘Israel,’ ‘Armenians’ with ‘Palestinians’, ‘genocide’ with ‘ethnic-cleansing,’ and ‘ISIS’ with ‘Islamic terrorism.’ These are some of the sentences you would be reading:
‘…characterizing the events of 19(48) as (ethnic cleansing) without proper investigation of these events by independent historians will not only jeopardize the establishment of a just memory pertaining to these events, but will also damage the efforts aimed at achieving reconciliation between (Israelis) and (Palestinians).’
‘As Americans, we are concerned about alienating a key ally, (Israel)’
‘Our government has been closely cooperating with the (Israeli) government on defeating (Islamic terrorism)…’
The writers of this statement could work for the US State Department.
Thankfully, progressive Muslims, Palestinians, and solidarity activists across the country are expressing their outrage:
https://twitter.com/ramahkudaimi/status/589905206072213505
https://twitter.com/lughawiyat/status/589979065249046528
https://twitter.com/Zaytawy/status/589966666634694656
https://twitter.com/UmAlMa7rama/status/589963782857752576
@TheYB92 @ramahkudaimi @CAIRNational @AMPalestine @mas_national @MLFA @icna this language was mimeographed from Israel lobby boilerplate
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) April 19, 2015
AMP responded to this backlash and released a terribly unsatisfying statement stating that it takes “into serious consideration — without denial or alteration — charges of genocide.” Oddly enough, the statement was only released on the private Facebook account of an AMP employee and is not viewable on the AMP website:
AMP has dug itself into too deep a hole to respond to the righteous anger of its constituents with the denial of a denial. It needs to formally recognize without qualification or hesitation the genocide of the Armenian people because it has no right to narrate another people’s history. It is the only chance for this organization to recover from this ethical failure, from which no amount of Turkish money will save them. And frankly, it may already be too late.
Dear SAMI:
The argument I would make from a pro-Palestinan perspective is this:
Large numbers of Armenians came to Palestine as refugees from their homeland and composed a large portion of the pre-Israeli population. Then when the Israelis conquered Palestine and imposed the Nakba, the Israelis deported thousands of Armenians. You can find photos of Armenians in “transit” camps in Haifa awaiting their ethnic cleansing out of Palestine by Israelis.
Next, I would point out that the Israelis impose discriminatory policies on the Armenians in Jerusalem even though there is a historical Armenian quarter. As a result of these harsh policies, the Armenian citizenry there are dwindling.
So the argument you should make to Palestinian organizations is that Armenians have borne the impact of Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestine just like other Palestinians, both in the Nakba and today. In fact, based on the Palestinian Authority’s definition of “Palestinians”, Armenian inhabitants are “Palestinian” too, since the P.A. defines Palestinians as the people living there before the time of the mass Israeli settlement project in the 20th century. The Armenian quarter long predates that. As a result, Palestinian organizations have a duty to respect the hardships imposed on Armenians not only by Israelis but by the Israelis’ ally, Turkey. One of those hardships has been the persecution of the Armenians by Turkey which forced them to move to Palestine in the first place.
Please let me know if you read this.
Regards and Respect.
This indicates a takeover of the UCSMO by the nationalist faction among the Turks. They must have gotten religion suddenly at the last moment as a result of having lost the Zionist lobby. The latter was the force that took care of killing the resolutions about the Armenian genocide, year in year out, on behalf of the former Turkish military dictatorship, Israel’s best ally . Now that the Israeli government, following the murder of Turkish nationals on the Mavi Marmara and various incidents, is calling for Erdogan’s head and getting mixed by proxy in recent coup attempts in Turkey, I imagine that the Turkish nationalists had to find some organism to infiltrate and use for their propaganda. Not so much the sympathizers of the government party; these are the officially Nazi grey wolves, their ally the military sympathizers in the People’s Party, and some extreme racists going under the fake name of Workers’ Party (whose chief was sentenced in Switzerland for genocide denial.) A particularly non-Islamic, nay Islamophobic bunch, by the way.
Genocide.
Until all of us are free, none of us are free.
Muslim support of Turkish government denial is operating on mistaken belief that acknowledgement of Armenian genocide will make them weaker, when, in fact, it will ultimately make all involved stronger.
It’s all about kissing up to Turkey, that’s terrified of eventual claims against it eventhough the Armenians have repeatedly stated that they simply wanted an apology . Last week, Pope Francis called it by its name, a genocide and yesterday, the Maronite Cardinal of Lebanon that’s home to 200,000 Armenians declared that the Turks owed the Armenians an apology; schools and government offices are closed on Friday to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the genocide.. Those Palestinians and other Moslems holding back for the sake of Turkey should be ashamed of themselves.
A M for P has betrayed not just the Armenians, but the Palestinians as well. A more “balanced” approach? Where have I heard that before? Would A M for P like a more “balanced” approach to 1948? To Cast Lead? Protective Edge?