Armenian News – NEWS.am presents the shortened version of the article by Dana Walrath, published in the American magazine Foreign Policy:
"Armenian Americans identify with, and are committed to, the American ideal that peace and justice are intertwined, that brave crossings go into their making. On April 24, 2015, Armenians everywhere marked a very different sort of crossing: the passage of one hundred years since the genocide in which Ottoman Turks systematically killed 1.5 million of their people. While the genocide was taking place, the international community registered its outrage in real time.
Scholars recognize that genocide takes place in a series of stages, of which extermination is only one; the last stage is denial. Genocide does not end until denial ends. This year Armenians are not just commemorating a genocide that took place 100 years ago; they are asking to end the denial that keeps this genocide alive.
The persistence of denial by a vibrant culture such as Turkey’s speaks to the destructive, coercive power of shame. But let’s not forget that there is also such a thing as healthy shame. Honest reflection on the past can bring people who were once friendly neighbors back together again.
Can you imagine if we in the United States did not own our history of slavery? Can you imagine our children’s history books overlooking American Indians’ presence in North America before Europeans arrived? While historical breaches of human rights in our country are far from healed, at least our history books, in large measure, own up to them. Americans know something of the healing power of justified shame to reestablish productive connections between cultures, to reopen physically closed borders. By forsaking such opportunities, denial of the Armenian genocide poses a moral question that is asked again and again in issues ranging from the question of reparations for slavery in the United States to the atrocities of ISIS in Syria and Iraq: Is it ever appropriate to put political exigencies or financial interests ahead of historical accuracy?
Deep down, we Americans are a nation of immigrants. We know the power of brave crossings. We know that history is more than a bygone, that our interdependence with other nations must rest on more than short-term strategic interests. Genocide recognition is much more than a courtesy to Armenian-Americans. It will align our foreign policy unequivocally with justice and put an end to the impression that we will be bullied into accepting a politically expedient version of history. For America, crossing over to peace has always meant striving for justice. It is time for the government of the United States to recognize the Armenian Genocide unequivocally."
