No Matter How Loudly And Continuously We Scream For Justice, The Entire World Can’t Hear! Choghig Kazandjian Hanissian

“Genocide is not war! It is more dangerous than war!” Raphael Lemkin

The word Genocide, which is a combination of the Greek γένος (genos, “race, people”) and the Latin -caedo (“act of killing”) was invented by Raphael Lemkin in 1944.

When asked what made him come up with the term, he replied: “I became interested in genocide, because it happened so many times. It happened to the Armenians and after the Armenians, Hitler took action.”

According to him Genocide is: “a coordinated strategy to destroy a group of people, a process that could be accomplished through total annihilation as well as strategies that eliminate key elements of the group’s basic existence, including language, culture, and economic infrastructure.”

Since September 27, Azerbaijan with the military help of Turkey has started an aggression against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. They are bombing non-stop using cluster weapons forbidden to be used near civilians, destroying homes and killing innocent civilians (mainly women, children, and the elderly). They are bombing churches with people praying inside, cultural centers, hospitals including maternity and children’s hospitals. They are entering Armenian villages and beheading the helpless villagers. They are ambushing ambulances, killing the doctors and the wounded patients. They are skinning the Armenian soldiers alive, brutalizing then beheading the prisoners of war. These are all war crimes and crimes against humanity and they will need to be held accountable. They are doing all this not by any kind of accident but intentionally while the world is silently watching. The destruction is everywhere in major cities of Nagorno-Karabakh and thousands have become homeless.

As if this is not enough, the Azerbaijani army (among them special forces from the Turkish army and Islamist jihadists financed and transferred to the region by Turkey) has fired white phosphorous munitions over the forests of Karabakh, thus igniting fires and burning over 1815 hectares of forests. The use of such weapons is prohibited near civilians but apparently no one cares! The world has turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to our screams. Our pleas to stop Turkish and Azeri aggression and genocide are ignored by the entire world. And our screams for justice have been silenced once again.

In 1946, the first session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution that “affirmed” that genocide was a crime under international law. And later on in 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) which defined the crime of genocide for the first time.

Seventy plus years later, on June 17 2020, the United Nations General Assembly elected Turkish diplomat Volkan Bozkir as President of its seventy-fifth session. He is the first Turk to hold this position. Bozkir is not only a nationalist Turk and a genocide denier, but has also been awarded the 100th Anniversary Medal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Is it a wonder then that the UN has kept silent for so long? Doesn’t this tell us that Turkey has been planning this genocide for so long now? From infiltrating the UN, to lobbying for biased anti-Armenian media buildup in the US, interviews on TV like CNN’s Amanpour had with Mr. Zohrab Mnatsakanyan (Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia), press releases and articles such as the ones published in the New York Times by corrupt British journalist Carlotta Gal (Turkey Bureau Chief) – just check out her family information on her Wikipedia page! Turkey has planned this from the start and now with the help of its Azeri and jihadist puppets is executing its plan of the annihilation of the Armenian people. And the world is still indifferent.

Elie Wiesel wrote:

“Indifference is the sign of sickness, a sickness of the soul more contagious than any other.”

In Canada, CBC Radio aired a segment on October 6 2020 under the title “The Armenia and Azerbaijan conflict explained” with host Alan Neal and guest Ozay Mehmet, senior fellow of modern Turkish studies and professor emeritus at Carleton University.

When asked “What do we know about Canada’s decision to suspend the export of drones to Turkey?” his reply was:

“That’s really a bit of a surprise to me. Canada is overreacting and acting in haste, not all the facts are in place, it is not proven for sure… Turkey has its own technology capability plus there is also Israeli technology involved. I don’t know the facts but I am really very surprised that a government has acted so quickly. I can understand the pressure that they’ve been put under by the Armenian Canadian associations but I would have thought that Canada should maintain a more even-handed position in this conflict as in other conflicts. I’m quite surprised by what our Ministry of Foreign Affairs has done. … I fear that Canadian foreign affairs… may be influenced by Canadian diaspora Armenian organisations. … Canada and Turkey are both NATO allies… For Canada to do this really raises some eyebrows and some questions…”

It is unfortunate that Alan Neal kept silent. How can a CBC radio talk show host stay silent on such a matter when his government’s credibility is at stake? Canada suspended permits one week after Global Affairs started an investigation into the allegations and Alan Neal didn’t have the guts to mention this on air. Neal actually had multiple opportunities during the “interview” to question the discrepancies and holes in Mehmet’s narrative, but it seems he wasn’t capable, competent, or knowledgeable enough to do so. For instance, Mehmet worried about the involvement of “other actors” like Russia as a “third party” while freely admitting that “Turkey which is another major regional power is involved on the side of Azerbaijan” already as a third party!

On the other hand, Steven Chase, Parliamentary reporter at The Globe and Mail, raised the following concern directly to Prime Minister Trudeau:

“The Armenian Prime Minister took to Twitter and Facebook, essentially ahead of the government, raising the fact that he found, they found Turkish-made drones with Canadian airstrike gear which we had sold to Turkey, not to Azerbaijan, but they are being used by Azerbaijanis. …

The Globe and Mail sent a photographer to Armenian military compound, took pictures of it, we’ve had it verified by arms researchers… It is indeed Canadian gear being used by the Azerbaijanis… Gear that was restricted and sold only to Turkey.”

That same journalist Steven Chase published another article in The Globe and Mail on October 22 titled “Ottawa mum in why it let military sales to Turkey slip through embargo” in which he wrote:“A senior Canadian bureaucrat testifying before MPs Thursday declined to answer questions regarding whether the Prime Minister’s office or the Foreign Affairs Minister’s office influenced a decision to allow the export of airstrike-targeting gear to Turkey this May… [and failed] to explain why Ottawa granted export permits in May to allow imaging and targeting equipment to be shipped to Turkey despite a broad arms embargo against sending military goods to that country. Canada enacted the embargo a year ago. …

The Canadian government is required under domestic law and under the international Arms Trade Treaty to prevent, detect and stop the diversion of military goods to users other than intended customers. It’s also compelled to stop exports of such restricted goods that are shown to be used to harm civilians.”

Does Mehmet need more proof? The facts speak for themselves. Two different Canadian news media, two different takes on the same subject, one biased and based on the opinions of a Turkish nationalist professor teaching at a university in Ottawa, the other based on journalistic facts.

On October 29, British MP Tim Loughton was on Good Morning Britain to discuss “this incredibly important topic” about recent developments between Armenia and Azerbaijan. He said that in September:“Azerbaijan invaded Nagorno-Karabakh. A country of 10 million people invading a country of 150000, but with Turkish support. … Turkey is a NATO member which has been invading another country, invading sovereign territory which is Armenia as well. … We need to get heavy on Turkey as well. … Turkey is in danger of becoming something of a rogue state. … Armenians are caught in the middle of this… It’s absolutely devastating. This is a war, in the middle of a Covid crisis as well, that absolutely they don’t need out there. We just need them to stop…

On October 29, British MP Tim Loughton was on Good Morning Britain to discuss “this incredibly important topic” about recent developments between Armenia and Azerbaijan. He said that in September: “Azerbaijan invaded Nagorno-Karabakh. A country of 10 million people invading a country of 150000, but with Turkish support. … Turkey is a NATO member which has been invading another country, invading sovereign territory which is Armenia as well. … We need to get heavy on Turkey as well. … Turkey is in danger of becoming something of a rogue state. … Armenians are caught in the middle of this… It’s absolutely devastating. This is a war, in the middle of a Covid crisis as well, that absolutely they don’t need out there. We just need them to stop… Turkey needs to be held to account for its role in all of this as well!”

Turkey needs to be held accountable! Azerbaijan needs to be held accountable! But who is listening? It seems like our screams, the screams of the Armenian people, are so quiet that the entire world, including the media and journalists, can’t hear them! No matter how loudly and continuously we scream for justice.

The late Robert Fisk wrote:

“It’s a journalist’s job to be a witness to history. We’re not there to worry about ourselves. We’re there to try and get as near as we can, in an imperfect world, to the truth and get the truth out. And I think, in the end, that is the best definition of journalism I have heard; to challenge authority – all authority – especially so when governments and politicians take us to war, when they have decided that they will kill and others will die.”

Rest in peace Robert Fisk. You spent your entire life defending the Armenian Genocide and advocating for its international recognition. The world lost a great journalist, a believer and pursuer of truth, and a specimen of the highest degree for journalistic integrity. You will be missed and so will your articles, especially the ones on the current situation in Karabakh and the region that will forever remain unwritten.