Illinois Holocaust Museum Hold a Conference on the Centennial of Armenian Genocide

• 02.11.2015, 15:43
•  Near East,  World,  Armenia,  Diaspora

Illinois Holocaust Museum organized a conference dedicated to the 100^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The participants of the conference concluded that each genocide is unique, but in fact all of them are the same. "The magnitude of them could be different, the causes of them could be different, but there tends to be common elements that you see persistently through most of them," said Shant Mardirossian, chairman of the Near East Foundation, chicagotribune.com  reports.

According to him the most common thing of all genocides is massacring of a group of people. He mentioned that the major difference of the Armenian Genocide from others is the controversial refusal of the Turkish government to recognize a horrible page of its history as genocide.  

It is not the first time that the Museum refers to the Armenian Genocide. Almost 2 years ago a discussion on Genocide was organized here, and a month later a three-day conference followed. The mission of the Museum is the following: "Remember the past, transform the future".  

Genocide scholar Peter Balakian considers the denial of Genocide as the last step of genocide. "Constant and aggressive genocide denial means that first they kill the victims, and then they kill their memories," – Balakian quoted the words of the Jewish Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel.

As the Pioneer Press mentions, the participants of the conference were Armenians from different parts of Chicago, who came to support the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

It should be reminded that at the end of January the president of Israel Reuven Rivlin speaking at a UN ceremony marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, referred to the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and mentioned about more than 1 million Armenians killed by Turkey. It should be noted that the Armenian Genocide is not recognized by Israel yet. An Israeli famous historian, Professor at Open University of Israel Yair Auron in his turn condemned the Israeli president for calling the Armenian Genocide massacres and the referring to the events of Khojalu in the context of genocide.

"The President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, made a remarkable speech with very touching sentences, identifying honestly and profoundly with the suffering of the Armenian people. But, intentionally, he did not use the term Armenian Genocide, neither in Hebrew nor in English. He had not changed his opinion, but that he cannot declare it [genocide] as President of Israel. This, I can understand. But, in the last minute before the speech, somebody, probably from the Foreign Ministry of Israel, maybe even the Foreign Minister of Israel, Avigdor Lieberman, told him to include this terrible sentence: ‘Is our struggle, the struggle of this Assembly, against genocide, effective enough? Was it effective enough then in Bosnia? Was it effective in preventing the killing in Khojalu?’ Mr. President, you used the name of Khojalu in the context of genocide. You know well the difference between genocide and massacre. Who proposed to you, Mr. President, who asked that you make this terrible error? You do not use the term genocide regarding the Armenian Genocide itself. It is sacrilegious, and by it, you betray the legacy of the Holocaust and its victims," – wrote Auron. From his name and from the name of all Jews in Israel he apologized.