the armenian genocide_ a solemn anniversary _ the economist

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Apr 24th 2015 | DIYARBAKIR | Europe

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The Armenian genocide

In Turkey's East, Armenians, Kurds and Turks hold a ceremony together

AMID the ruins of an ancient Armenian church in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, in

eastern Turkey, a small crowd gathered on April 24th to mark the centenary of the mass

killings of Armenians committed by Ottoman forces in 1915. Armenians who had travelled

from far-flung corners of the globe sang hymns. Others wept. Gultan Kisanak, the city's

co-mayor, and other local politicians made solemn speeches. “Never again will we allow

such bloodletting on our soil, never again,” Ms Kisanak vowed.

“Diyarbakir was at the epicentre of the genocide, so much blood was shed here,” said

Elyse Semerdjian, an Armenian-American academic. That Armenians could mourn the

dead together with Kurds and Turks was remarkable, she added. For years such a joint

commemoration was made impossible by Turkey's refusal to acknowledge the genocide.

But a combination of international pressure, co-operation from Turkish civil society

groups and the growing strength in recent years of the legal Kurdish political movement

(which does acknowledge the genocide) opened up a window for the ceremony to take

place, said Ara Sarafian, director of the London-based Gomidas Institute, which has

extensively documented the killings.

Yet politics still contaminated the rites. The Armenian

Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul refused to send a priest to

lead prayers in Surp Giragos, a recently restored Armenian

church in Diyarbakir. The patriarchate also denied

permission to ring the church's bells a hundred times to mark

the occasion, as was done at other Armenian churches

worldwide. Community leaders speculated that Patriarch

Aram Atesyan was cowed by Turkey’s Islamist government.

Days earlier the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, claimed that the Ottoman

Armenians had provoked their own fate. “Let them dance and play to their own tune,” he

said of the commemoration events being held around the world.

Mr Erdogan struck a more conciliatory note in a letter of condolence that was read aloud

at the Istanbul patriarchate—the first time a Turkish head of state had marked the

anniversary. “We know about the sad events that the Armenian society went through in

the past. I genuinely share your sorrow,” Mr Erdogan wrote. Volkan Bozkir, Turkey’s

minister for European Union affairs, took part in the Istanbul ceremony.

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This week Austria and Germany joined a host of other nations in calling the Armenian

tragedy a genocide. Turkey responded by recalling its ambassador from Austria.

Because Germany is Turkey's biggest trading partner, the envoy there will probably stay

put.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s ploy to draw international leaders away from a centennial ceremony

in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, by inviting them to commemorate the Ottoman victory

over the Allies in Gallipoli yielded mixed results. While Prince Charles plumped for

Gallipoli, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and France’s Francois Hollande joined the Armenians in

Yerevan. Russia mourns “one of the most terrible tragedies in the history of mankind,” Mr

Putin told the gathering. It must have therefore come as a relief to Mr Erdogan that

President Barack Obama once again refrained from using the “G-word” in his annual

message to the Armenians.

During his first presidential campaign in 2008 Mr Obama had promised to recognise the

genocide if elected. “President Obama’s surrender to Turkey represents a national

disgrace,” said Ken Hachikian, the chairman of the Armenian National Committee of

America, a lobby group. In Diyarbakir, however, the extraordinary spectacle of

Armenians, Kurds, and Turks marking the anniversary together pushed aside such

political resentment. “Five years ago, I would have never imagined being able to be here

on this day,” said Mr Sarafian.

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