Why the Armenian Genocide matters

These proceedings, enacted by the then embryonic Turkish state, provide a detailed, and irrefutable documentation of the Armenian genocide. Direct testimony from high ranking soldiers show a considered, planned, and executed, top-down campaign of genocidal killing against the Armenians, with the word "exterminate" repeated throughout the personal statements.

There is considerable speculation as to why the modern Turkish state is so committed to revising its own self-acknowledged history.

Whilst there is reason to believe that concern over possible legal ramifications following an acceptance of the 'genocide' label might be a driving force here, it is much more likely to be simply a matter of nationalistic pride – as explained recently by Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, "it is out of the question for there to be a stain, a shadow called 'genocide', on Turkey".

Following a long and concerted effort to silence domestic criticism, this sentiment has successfully permeated through Turkish society, with ninety-one percent of Turks polled now believing that the killing of Armenians did not constitute genocide.

However, neither the motivation nor the domestic policy of the Turkish state should be of primary concern. What ought to be worrying is just how successful Turkey has been in convincing the international community to support its historical revision. Currently only 26 countries have officially recognised the Armenian genocide; the abstaining nations include China, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and inexplicably, Israel.

Turkey, a rising economic power (now within the world's 20 largest economies), and a strategically important country (considering its place as the gateway to the Arab world), has consistently managed to leverage its diplomatic value. Accordingly, avoiding the term 'genocide' has become the price of admission for achieving a constructive international relationship with Turkey.

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama spoke freely on this issue, and in 2008 gave the commitment "as president I will recognize the Armenian Genocide". Yet once in Office, President Obama has been conspicuously evasive, happy to speak about the Armenian 'massacres', 'deportations', and 'death marches', yet never 'genocide'. Pushed to explain this failure to keep his own election promise, an administration spokesman cautiously explained that diplomatic pressure had changed the President's mind, "we believe that the approach we have taken in previous years remains the right one -- both for acknowledging the past, and for our ability to work with regional partners to save lives in the present."

This might all seem like an argument over symbolism. After all, the Genocide Convention (1948) cannot be applied retroactively to the Armenian context, nor would it be appropriate. However, morality can be applied retroactively, and indeed it must be if social progress is to be expected, or even desired.

Our response to the crimes of past impacts whether, and with what prevalence, those same crimes are committed tomorrow. It is hard to overestimate the encouragement that the immunity-deals given to Augusto Pinochet and General Marcos provided for other tyrannical leaders; or that international impotency in the face of Israeli land-grabs offered for Russian policy in Georgia and Ukraine; or indeed how Turkey's successful expunging of the Armenian genocide has provided Japan with the confidence to revisit its own admissions of wartime guilt.

In May 1918, Theodore Roosevelt wrote to Woodrow Wilson, "We should go to war…. because the Armenian massacre was the greatest crime of the war, and failure to act against Turkey is to condone it". Yet as important as this moral imperative was at the time, the Turkish state was so successful at silencing international discussion of the issue, that it gave Hitler reason to believe that the horrors he was intending to exact upon Poland would be quickly forgotten. Discussing the impact of his impending invasion, Hitler calmed the concerns of his inner-circle by noting, "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians".

The Armenian genocide has set a dangerous international standard: that is, the worst human rights violations, the most significant breaches of our collective conscience, and the most unimaginable crimes can all be forgotten if only the perpetrators are committed to expunging them from history.

Following from this, it should not surprise anyone that the modern Turkish state exists in permanent violation of international law due to its occupation of Cyprus, and the treatment its Kurdish population (actions that have only avoided the 'genocide' label due to the guerrilla resistance of the Kurdish people).

As long as the Armenian genocide remains forgotten, and as long as justice is allowed to be contingent upon the cooperation and goodwill of the perpetrators, we must accept that we are creating an international culture of impunity: an environment where human rights and moral responsibility can be taken à la carte, and an environment that rather than protecting against genocide, actually cultivates it.