The Washington Post Perpetuates a Destructive Myth

The Washington Post Perpetuates a Destructive Myth By Khatchig Mouradian

Jewcy.com Nov. 2, 2007

The Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.106) has attracted enormous media attention since it was passed by the House International Affairs Committee on October 10. However, the content of many of the articles, columns and stories make one thing clear: Writers across the United States were ill-prepared to tackle the issue of the Armenian genocide, simply because they knew very little about it.

One case in point is Richard Cohen's article in the Washington Post, titled "Turkey's War on the Truth" (Oct. 16, 2007). Cohen makes arguments based on false premises. After conceding--with condescension--that what happened to the Armenians in 1915 was "plenty bad," he concludes that it falls short of genocide "because not all Armenians...were...affected." Clearly, if we follow his train of thought, Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur and several other cases should not be labeled as "genocide."

Cohen's standards are clearly different from those of the UN Convention defining genocide, but Cohen doesn't just introduce his own novel definition of genocide, he also creates his own facts. He suggests that jurist Raphael Lemkin, the author of the Genocide Convention, coined the term "genocide" based solely on "what the Nazis were doing to the Jews." This is blatantly wrong. Although this factual error was pointed out by many--including myself--to the editors of the Washington Post, no correction was issued and, to this day, no letter to the editor on this issue has appeared in the paper.

To set the record straight, the horrors of the Armenian genocide--and not only the Holocaust--played a central role in Lemkin's lifelong pursuit to find a name for the ultimate crime against humanity--the cleansing of a group--and to incorporate into international law the prevention of this crime and the punishment of its perpetrators.

The destruction of the Armenians came to Lemkin's attention when, in 1920, Soghomon Tehlirian--an Armenian whose entire family was killed during the genocide--assassinated Talaat Pasha, the mastermind behind the Armenian genocide, in Berlin. Lemkin read about Tehlirian's trial and, during a discussion with his professor at the University of Lvov, asked, "It is a crime for Tehlirian to kill a man, but it is not a crime for his oppressor to kill more than a million men?" His professor argued that states are sovereign and they can do what they want to their citizens. "Consider the case of a farmer who owns a flock of chickens. He kills them and this is his business. If you interfere, you are trespassing," his professor argued. Lemkin was proud of Tehlirian for defending "the moral order of mankind," but wanted international law--and not individuals--to punish the perpetrators.

Lemkin, a Polish Jew who lost 49 relatives in the Holocaust, coined the term "genocide" in 1944 based on the planned extermination of the Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in 1915 and the Jews by the Nazis during World War II. He worked tirelessly to have the United Nations pass a law on the prevention and punishment of that crime. Finally, on Dec. 9, 1948, the UN General Assembly ratified the Genocide Convention.

In a CBS program first broadcast in 1949, Lemkin said, "I became interested in genocide because it happened to the Armenians... So, you see, as a lawyer, I thought that a crime should not be punished by the victims, but should be punished by a court, by a national law."

In an article in the Hairenik Weekly (later the Armenian Weekly) published on Jan. 1, 1959, he confirmed that the suffering of the Armenians had paved the way to the ratification of the Genocide Convention:

"The sufferings of the Armenian men, women, and children thrown into the Euphrates River or massacred on the way to [the north Syrian desert of] Der-el-Zor have prepared the way for the adoption for the Genocide Convention by the United Nations. ... This is the reason why the Armenians of the entire world were specifically interested in the Genocide Convention. They filled the galleries of the drafting committee at the third General Assembly of the United Nations in Paris when the Genocide Convention was discussed."

At the end of this article, Lemkin asserted, "One million Armenians died, but a law against the murder of peoples was written with the ink of their blood and the spirit of their sufferings."

There are numerous similar references in Lemkin's private papers as well as in the press. In an age where information is readily accessible, columnists and editors have little excuse to make grave factual mistakes. When they do, they ought to correct themselves promptly--unless, of course, their aim is to perpetuate those mistakes.

Want to read more about the origins of the concept of genocide? Check out either of the following books:

Steven L. Jacobs, "Raphael Lemkin and the Armenian Genocide," in Richard Hovannisian's Looking Backward, Moving Forward (Transaction Publishers, 2003), pp. 125-135.

Samantha Power, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, (Basic Books, 2002).

About Khatchig Mouradian Khatchig Mouradian is editor of the Armenian Weekly. From 2000 to 2007 he was an editor of the Lebanese-Armenian Aztag Daily. His writing has been translated into more than 10 languages, and he has translated such works as Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist" (Hamazkayin, 2004). He also contributes to a number of U.S. and European publications.

Mouradian has presented papers on genocide and the media at conferences such as the 5th Workshop on Armenian-Turkish Scholarship, held at NYU in 2006.