A Ballet on Genocidal Intent
We have already seen Vrej Kassouny's personification of the Turkish denial of the Armenian Genocide. This time The Denial is in the plural and caught with a smoking gun metaphorically speaking:
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| Vrej Kassouny, April 22, 2015: "No It Was Not a Genocide "- Ban Ki-Moon's "Historical" Declaration. - please click the photo for the full detailing. |
A ballet on genocidal intent.
Acrobatics on words not least on the part of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Evading all talk of intention, the Secretary General has spoken of "tragic events", which is as generic a characterization as characterizations go. Kassouny consequently equals words with deeds indeed the words are deeds, linking Ban Ki-Moon directly to what took place in 1915. Even his suit reflects the spluttering.
In 1917 the Interior Minister of the Ottoman Empire Mustafa Arif admitted that his predecessors had "carried out the law on deportation to exterminate the Armenians". Documentation thus exists on the Turkish side acknowledging what had taken place, as quoted recently by Amal Clooney and Geoffrey Robertson, while representing Armenia at the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights) in Strasbourg.
The term genocide had not yet been invented, but genocide is defined by the intent, not the method with which it is carried out, as Geoffrey Robertson made manifest. The destruction was not so much of property, which explains the lack of visual evidence, but lies in the fact that the Armenians knew they were not coming back. They knew they were targeted, being declared unfit to live.
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| Vrej Kassouny, January 19, 2015: I won't stop being Hrant... While the Secretary General is all excuses, Hrant Dink is confrontational manifesting his right to exist and to speak - drawn upon a photo on the demonstrations following his murder |
The specific case in the ECHR just as the marking of the anniversary of the genocide is not directed against the freedom of expression. As the legal team representing the Armenians underlined, it is not in the Armenians own interest to criminalize speech too widely, or they too might be caught in the net "as the family of Hrant Dink knows only too well". He was murdered when insisting on this right to speak up, including the right to say: Genocide.
The cartoon shown is courtesy of Vrej Kassouny and must not be reproduced without his permission. His art can be seen here.
