HyeOctane

During a Capitol Hill reception for the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) and Genocide Intervention Network’s (GI-Net) anti-genocide advocacy campaign this past week, Mark Hanis, Founder and Executive Director of GI-Net, highlighted the importance of recognizing the Armenian Genocide as it relates to stopping current and future genocides.

He pointed out that denial of the Armenian Genocide sends the wrong message to the perpetrators of the current genocide in Darfur by convincing them that mass murder can be committed with impunity. This is made even more evident by the cordial relations Sudan and Turkey are steadily building–to the point that they even seem to be swapping their denialist discourse.

Indeed, both countries have repeatedly expressed their admiration for one another, with Turkey’s President stating, “Although we are from from each other geographically, our people are not far to each other,” and Sudan’s ambassador to Turkey recently quoted as saying that Turkey “is a model for Sudan” in the Middle East.

This adds further proof that reaffirmation of the Armenian Genocide is not a historical issue but, rather, a very current and modern one.

As long as Turkey does not own up to the crimes it has committed (and is aided in this process by officials in the US), it will continue to serve as a model for governments such as that of Khartoum who seek to slaughter entire groups of people without facing any consequences.