The Largest Minority

The Daily Show – The Armenian Genocide Meets Revisionism

By Manila Ryce
Published Friday, October 12th, 2007, 6:12 am
Filed under: Human Rights, Videos: Political, World: Asia, Genocide, War, Videos, Society/Culture, World Issues, US Politics

Stewart correctly recognizes the motive behind the denial of the Armenian Genocide by recent US presidents. Here’s a hint: it has nothing to do with history. Senior Armeniologist Aasif Mandvi joins Stewart to describe the deals other countries also have with the United States in order to downplay their most embarrassing atrocities. It’s also mentioned that Congress has never apologized for slavery or the long string of murderous campaigns in the Americas which were undoubtedly the most massive act of genocide ever to occur in history.

download fileAfter it was clear that WMD’s were not going to be found in Iraq, the administration fell back on the rationale that Saddam had to be overthrown because he was a bad man who gassed his own people as their main argument. The fact that he had committed mass killings of around a couple thousand Kurds in the late 80’s with chemical weapons he obtained from Western sources, including George H.W. Bush, was now the selling point for the war. The administration freely omitted that last bit of information.

With this in mind, lets remember the first genocide of the 20th Century, when around 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed by Ottoman Turkey from 1915 to 1917. While 22 other countries have acknowledged these events to be genocide, the US has still not officially recognized it as such for purely political reasons.

We’ve already killed up to an estimated one million people in Iraq (which is a kind of genocide in its own right), yet the Neocon logic for specifically being against the recognition of the Armenian Genocide is that in order to prevent more atrocities in Iraq, like those which occurred to the Kurds, we need to stay there by denying a greater atrocity which occurred to the Armenians. So in order to maintain this misguided occupation, we must continue to back Turkey on their immoral denial of reality. Hey, they’ve supported us in our own denial of reality for this long, it’s the least we can do. What a tangled web we weave. It’s disgusting that our government would condemned Iran for a non-existent genocide, but will not recognize the Armenian Genocide.

13 Responses to “The Daily Show – The Armenian Genocide Meets Revisionism”

Let’s not forget Hiroshima and Nagasaki

mark h
10/12/07 at 10:15 am
@mark h
Indeed. There are tons of forgotten or publicly undiscussed atrocities we’re responsible for. I recommend a “People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn for anyone interested in learning more.

Manila Ryce
10/12/07 at 1:09 pm
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10/12/07 at 4:06 pm
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10/12/07 at 11:58 pm
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Be A Super Dad
10/14/07 at 3:22 pm
Frankly, the Turkish response to our Congress officially, (finally) recognizing the Armenian Holocaust, (100 years later) is pretty ridiculous. I mean, I do get why our administration wants to appease Turkey, what with us using their airspace and all, but come on!

Someone mentioned the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki earlier. Imagine if, (and I know the Japanese already have a day of memorial for this event, but for the sake of argument, let’s try to stick to the hypothetical); imagine if Japan announced that the day of the Atomic Bombing would be recognized as a national holiday in memorial of the tragic event, and then the USA responding with, “HOW DARE YOU?!”

Yeah, you’re right. We actually do that, don’t we…
…

PapaFigue
10/14/07 at 11:05 pm
@PapaFigue
You’re correct in your analogy. What also gets me is reading other so-called liberals lambasting Congress for pissing off Turkey during this time because we need their support to continue our occupation in Iraq. Um, don’t we want that occupation to end? Who really cares if this is a bad time to go against Turkey for their military support? If this puts another stick in the spokes then all the better. Bill Maher was similarly distressed in the most recent episode of Real Time about the timing of this amendment. What he and most people don’t realize is that Armenians have been petitioning for this for decades. This isn’t something that happened overnight. I also feel we have a moral obligation to hold our allies more accountable for their atrocities than our enemies. We have more leverage over Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Israel than we do with places like Iran. We can do more good by critiquing Israeli human rights violations than Iranian violations. Why not use our influence to make a positive change with these nations rather than make war with those we don’t talk to? We have the most counterintuitive foreign policy I could ever imagine.

Manila Ryce
10/14/07 at 11:47 pm
@PapaFigue
Your analogy is incorrect. It is like Russian Government passing a resolution condemning the US for slavery, for systematically eliminating the Native Americans, for bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki. You will be saying “HOW DARE YOU?!” to the Russians, won’t you?

M L
10/17/07 at 11:28 am
@M L
Why would anyone say “HOW DARE YOU?!” to a historical fact? No, I doubt many people in America, other than a handful of conservative dinosaurs, would have a problem with Russia pointing out the obvious.

Manila Ryce
10/17/07 at 2:10 pm
Why is genocide important? well, duh… why is there International Law that requires the world to recognize the fact of genocide? Because tyranny is not okay, because mass murder should not go unreocgnized forever?

Turkey’s supremacist regime would rather sweep its jihad under the rug because it still engages in oppressive policies to its minorities. It’s ALWAYS time to recognize genocide. There is no statute of limitations on murder or mass murder. Unless we’re too cowardly to face up to civilization and its responsibilities.

J. Stern
10/17/07 at 8:11 pm
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The Daily Show – The Armenian Genocide Meets Revisionism - The Largest Minority Video
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The Daily Show – The Armenian Genocide Meets Revisionism - The Largest Minority « Dandelion Salad
02/9/08 at 7:07 pm
@Manila Ryce:

Who would say “how dare you”?

The better question is, why would Russia spend its time doing the work of historians. The even better question is why IS America doing just that. It’s clear — plain politics. The politics — the BAD politics — at work is not appeasing Turkey when Turkey is right about the non-genocidal nature of the Armenian deaths and the ridiculous of the Armenians pointing fingers and making Holocaust comparisons when they slaughtered Turks wholesale after rebelling, instigating the Anatolian violence, and joining the enemy. The bad politics — i.e. the actions based in hatred and cynical vote seeking as well as genuine delusion — is the fact that Obama bothers saying a thing about the the Anatolian front of WW1 in which the Armenian buffoonery decided to participate on Russia’s side.

Hold Turkey accountable? (First of all, the whole thing is BS. The Armenians have more blood on their hands — including their own blood! — then the Turks do, and it was no genocide. But setting that aside…)

For something the Ottoman Empire did? Shall we hold Mexico accountable for something the US did? Shall the US be held accountable for slavery? Are we going to pay reparations? Do you want to? Maybe we should hold Europe responsible for the Crusades? And the Saracens (whoever they are — just like the Ottoman Empire, no one goes by that name anymore) for the Muslim occupation of Spain?

What does accountable mean? You want them to give Armenians something?

For something a different nation did?!?!?! 100 years ago?!?!?

@PapaFigue

You’re WRONG in your analogy. The US bombed Japan. If Japan made it a day of remembrance or whatever, that would be akin to Armenia making it a day of remembrance. This is the US doing Armenia’s remembering for it. Why? For votes. There is your cynical politics. The truth is, even intelligent Armenian lobbyists know that this genocide accusation is more of a last ditch effort and a continuation of the PR propaganda that the Armenians aimed to create at the time of their VIOLENT MURDEROUS REBELLION AGAINST THEIR NATION.

Basically, by doing something like this, the US is setting a precedent wherein it takes the time to pass legislation or at least waste time on noting every nasty thing that has ever happened in history. ‘Cause this was no genocide, just a run of the mill war/starvation/population displacement. It was a big one, but no different in kind than a thousand other such occurrences.

These nasty things, by the way, will have to include the (actual) genocide of the Circassians by the Armenians (and Russians), the genocide of the Turks by the Greeks, by the Bulgars, the (perhaps genuine — unlike the definitely-not-genocide plight of the WW1 Anatolian Armenians — genocide [but in any case tragic killing]), the genocide of the Japanese in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the genocide of the myriad native Americans by the English, Americans, Dutch, French, Spanish, etc., the genocide of the myriad groups of African groups by the English, Dutch, French, Spanish, etc., the genocide of the Jews by the Spanish and Germans, the genocide of the Aborigines by the British and Australians, and on and on and on.

And since this Turk on Armenian non-genocidal violence sets the precedent, we’ll have to recognize every single violent act we come across. We’ll have to recognize the faux genocide of the Vietnamese by us, the faux genocide of the Iraqis by us, the faux genocide of the Germans by us, the faux genocide of the Mexicans by us, the faux genocide of the French by us, the faux genocide of the British by us, etc.

That’s the analogy.

So, why aren’t we doing that?

It’s because Armenians vote, and because — from the start — they incited the violence (yes, they started it, and in war, just as among children, that is meaningful) — PR was a prime issue on the mind of the Armenian terrorists who instigated the violence.

Nothing has changed.

Propaganda is still sweeping. They relied on the Turcophobic minds of Westerners to do a large part of their job for them.

And look how well it’s working! Even shows like the Daily Show that are usually adept at calling BS when they see it are taken in… Sad….

Your analogy was wrong. This is not Japan remembering a truly horrific act (while not denying the nasty acts they’ve committed). This is the US caving to Armenian demands and no doubt being deceived by the loads of propaganda and anti-Turkey and anti-Turk rhetoric that is pervasive in the Western world. This is the US calling something a genocide which is not a genocide.

This is the US choosing one (non) genocide among many to recognize for political reasons.

THIS *WAS* POLITICS — NOT THE FAILURE TO USE THE ‘G’ WORD, BUT THE MENTION OF THE DAY AT ALL. THE US DOESN’T SPEND IT’S TIME RECOGNIZING THE ATROCITIES THAT HAVE OCCURRED ON EVERY DAY OF THE CALENDAR.

IT WAS POLITICS TO SPEAK ON THIS AT ALL AT THIS TIME.

And making politics out of a very, very tragic — although not genocidal — portion of our history (AND DISTORTING THAT HISTORY BY MAKING A GROUP WHICH INSTIGATED VIOLENCE IN ADDITION TO SUFFERING IT WHILE IGNORING THE TREMENDOUS LOSSES OF ANOTHER PEOPLE AND — TO ADD INSULT TO INJURY — IMPLICITLY ENDORSING AN ACCUSATORY AND FULLY FALSE RENDERING OF THE HISTORY) is the worse kind of politics.

So, you were right on one thing: the politics at play here is disgraceful. You just had no idea where the bad politics was at work.

Watch the video by a real historian. Read the New York Times book review written by Andrew Mango reviewing of that piece of garbage “The Burning Tigris” by that fool and liar Balakian.

They dishonor their ancestors by lying about what happened to them… I grieve for the Armenians and the Turks who died then, but the Armenians of today who persist in these lies are a disgrace.

REMEMBER THE CIRCASSIAN GENOCIDE BY THE ARMENIANS.
REMEMBER THE X GENOCIDE BY THE Y’S. (Insert every possible name of a group of people in space X and Y and check against biased history accounts until you’ve extracted every claimed genocide ever. Then replace the word genocide with atrocity, crimes againt humanity, etc., and stop just before you get to snide remarks. Outside of that, the only thing this proves is that the West is still racist enough against Turks to buy into this lie.)

Again, reader Andrew Mango’s review of the Burning Tigris in the New York Times. Google it — you’ll find it. The Armenians lie, lie, lie and Balkian’s garbage is a prime example of what they like to call history.

There’s plenty of great historians who will tell you this Armenian story is BS, yet the Armenians pretend the only dissenting party are Turks and the Turkish government. They are just LYING!

Watch this video by a real Isalmic historian. Do not pay heed to the words of an angry Armenian bent on rehashing the racist propaganda that spawned these ideas in the first place — that’s where all the stuff you’ve seen or read on this so far has come from in all likelihood. Either from one of them, or from someone else intellectually deficient, lazy, or uncaring enough to believe them.

Do anything but fail to think.

THINK! Yes, it was bad, but was it genocide? No, it clearly wasn’t — unless you bend the definition fully out of shape. What have the Armenians done in their history? What about the CIRCASSIAN GENOCIDE COMMITTED BY ARMENIANS? What about what they did to the Turks? Or the Greeks and Bulgars to the Turks?

Who remembers these things? Why don’t they remember them?

Remember the Armenian dead, but don’t believe everything you hear, and remember those people whom they committed genocide against, and those Turks and Kurds whom they massacred without reason before the Turks stepped in to deport them out of desperation.

USE YOUR BRAIN!

Justin
05/2/09 at 7:22 pm

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The Daily Show – The Armenian Genocide Meets Revisionism

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