CHOMSKY:

Comments on the article below?

F. Leon

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A glance at the February 8 issue of the "London Review of
Books": The Armenian tragedy and the meaning of genocide

The article is available online at <http://www.lrb.co.uk/>

Mark Mazower, a professor of history at Birkbeck College of the University
of London, reviews the history of the massacre of Armenians by Turks
during World War I and the debate over the use of the term "genocide" to
describe the mass killing. While "genocide" was not a term that was used
before World War II, Mr.  Mazower finds many parallels between the
treatment of the Jews by the Germans and of the Armenians by the Turks.

"In both cases, a murderous policy was shaped in wartime by high officials
of state with far more single-minded objectives than those of the
populations at large. They prevailed thanks to their control of the
machinery of violence, both formal and informal," he writes. Mr. Mazower
notes differences between the two events, but says there is "enough
similarity" for the treatment of the Armenians to qualify as genocide.
Scholars have created the field of genocide studies, Mr. Mazower writes,
and he expresses surprise "at how far an academic dispute" over what
qualifies as genocide "has pushed itself into the public domain." He lists
the variety of reasons Armenians today insist on calling the massacres
genocide and the reasons Turkish leaders resist such a move. Mr. Mazower
doubts that Turkey is ready to face the truth about the Armenians, but he
hopes that one day it will. To do so, he writes, would "be a sign of
vitality and resilience in Turkish society, an indication that Ataturk's
work has been done, and that the country could now move on."