We Commemorate the Victims of Genocide and Say No to Denial
24 April 2024
On 24 April 1915, 109 years ago, 220 Armenians from İstanbul, including some of the most prolific representatives of the Ottoman society’s artistic, literary, intellectual, and cultural world of the time, were taken into custody.
First, they were taken to the Mehterhane, which was used as the central prison, where the Museum of Turkish Islamic Art is located today, and the next day they were taken to Sarayburnu, put on a ship waiting for them there and taken to Haydarpaşa train station. From there they were sent on their way to central Anatolia. One group was taken to Ayaş and another group to Çankırı. Of the 70 people taken to Ayaş, 58 were killed, and of the 150 taken to Çankırı, 81 were killed.
Such atrocity was not limited to this. With the mediation of the rulers of the period, the İttihat ve Terakki Partisi (Committee of Union and Progress Party) and its hitman organization Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa (Special Organization), and with the participation of the local population, the Armenian presence in Anatolia, from İzmit to Eskisehir, from Kayseri to Sivas, from Erzurum to Van, was put to an end, along with its entire historical, cultural, economic and social fabric.
Armenians not only were killed but also their property, possessions, memories, and history were confiscated.
A civilization was wiped out from its thousands of years old homeland with all its traces.
In this process, the Assyrians, one of the oldest peoples of Northern Mesopotamia, and the Pontic and Asia Minor Greeks were also subjected to genocide.
The Turkish state has rendered the world’s most successful and longest-lasting genocide denial a reality, institutionalized it and spread it to the widest base. The denial has been so successful that today Armenians are forced to prove their existence for thousands of years, let alone that they were subjected to genocide in their own country.
While Armenians in Turkey have to live in this climate of denial, together with the carriers and spokespersons of denial in all spheres of life, Armenians around the world have to endure the constant hurting of the memories of their family elders far from their ancestral lands.
The Turkish state not only denies genocide, but also punishes those who want to discuss the 1915 genocide. Especially since 2018, there have been continuous investigations and lawsuits against statements made about the genocide. Although these investigations have generally resulted in non-prosecution and the lawsuits have resulted in acquittals, we see that this policy has recently changed.
In a court case finalized last month, the defendants were sentenced under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code for commemorating the genocide. Eren Keskin and Güllistan Yarkın, members of the Human Rights Association’s Commission against Racism and Discrimination, are on trial under the same article. The authorities now intend to punish the Commission Against Racism and Discrimination’s 2021 statement on genocide. We believe that this is against the international conventions that Turkey has signed.
Denial of genocide is the perpetuation of genocide. End the denial. Acknowledge the crime with all its legal consequences. Only then will the unburied dead, flowing down rivers, piled up in valleys, thrown off cliffs, drowned in the seas, be buried as they deserve, with dignity. Their souls will rest in peace. Justice will be served.
Thus, once again, without tiring of it, we say: RECOGNIZE! APOLOGIZE! COMPENSATE!
Human Rights Association
Commission against Racism and Discrimination