On March 26, I attended a class given by Ahmad Amara entitled “The Middle East: Early 20th Century to the Present,” [presented] through the North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement. After the instructor reviewed the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the Young Turks, one of the students asked about the Armenian genocide. Mr. Amara replied that the Armenians had rebelled.
Although many people have heard something about the Armenian genocide, few people know that the most common argument used to deny this atrocity is the myth of an Armenian nationalist rebellion.
We are fortunate in this country that most people have had some education in the history of the Holocaust. If an instructor pointed to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and said that the Nazis killed the Jews because of a nationalist rebellion, that instructor would immediately be recognized as a Holocaust denier.
In Mr. Amara’s class, the students accepted his explanation without question. For me, it was a horrifying moment.
Perhaps it is time to increase awareness and education of the Armenian genocide within our community so that this moment will never again be repeated.
— Naomi Friedman
Asheville
Instructor Ahmad A. Amara replies: “[The] mass murder of Armenians is generally referred to as genocide. My point was that the Turks massacred Armenians [on] a large scale. … [I think] the writer is confused over my explanation [of] the government of Turkey’s policy on massacre denial. It was not a personal view. The government … continues to indict and try in the courts Turkish citizens who affirm the massacre’s taking place. That was the point in the discussion. … I grew up with friends who were descendants of the massacre—refugees who flocked into the neighboring Arab countries [of] Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. They found welcome and prospered.”
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