In the autumn of 2019, amid impeachment proceedings and the circus that accompanied it, both houses of Congress managed to overwhelmingly pass, over stringent opposition from the Trump White House, resolutions that recognized the Armenian Genocide as a genocide.
Because genocide denial by the president is a bipartisan tradition dating at least as far back as Bush 41, I honestly did not expect recognition to come from either house of Congress, much less both of them, so quickly as it did last year. I strongly suspect that recognition came so quickly because a number of the more cynical members of Congress--of both parties--saw it as a way to punish the government of Turkey rather than to express solidarity with ethnic Armenians, and that isn't how I want recognition to go into the future. Which means, I think, that I have some obligation to talk with y'all about what I do want it to look like.
I know that already 2020 is laying down the gauntlet, with Australia on fire literally and Iran and Iraq on fire figuratively, but I hope there is still space in our collective consciousness to talk about genocide recognition and all that it entails, for it is not only ethnic Armenians in this proverbial boat--as I write, populations like the Rohingya in Myanmar and the Uighurs in China are facing down genocide by the governments of those respective countries. Recognition of what happened to my family and my ancestors is incomplete if the end result is *only* recognition. Recognition must be one component of an active attitude of genocide prevention, which includes education, justice, restitution, and more.
So, what comes next for those of us who have advocated for decades for Armenian Genocide recognition? How do we build on the good that was done in 2019 for a new year and a new decade of justice on behalf of victims and survivors of genocide? Here are a few steps that should by no means be seen as exhaustive or all-inclusive:
-Education. Now that the label of "genocide" bears the imprimatur of the federal government, there is less than no excuse for public schools nationwide to include the Armenian Genocide in its high school world history curricula. Not only would this have the obvious benefit of teaching students about a topic that is widely misunderstood and under-understood, but I believe it would have the benefit of augmenting the education we do about the Holocaust. Genocides exist on a timeline of commonalities, and Germany's complicity in the Armenian Genocide gave it a blueprint of sorts for certain aspects of the Holocaust. Including the Armenian Genocide in our history classes would strengthen our understanding of the Holocaust at a vital moment in time when relatively few Holocaust survivors remain alive, and when violent antisemitism is having a major moment in the United States and elsewhere. I mentioned years ago to a gathering of colleagues when presenting a short paper on genocide and ethnic identity that many of us do not receive this education, and what is happening today in our world seems pretty powerful proof that we should.
-Social media. Despite federal government recognition, genocide denial abounds on the internet. In my purely anecdotal experience, it spiked massively on social media platforms like Twitter during the debates and votes over Armenian Genocide recognition. And governmental recognition does not wipe out genocide denial, because genocide denial is fundamentally rooted in hatred, not merely ignorance. Ensuring that such hatred is immediately batted down and shown that it has no place in the public square of our discourse remains an absolutely vital component to contemporary education about genocide. This is where non-Armenians are especially important--while I may be perceived as irrevocably biased as the descendant of genocide survivors, a non-Armenian typically will not be so perceived. Finally, social media has been, in my experience, a vital tool for raising awareness of educational and reparative efforts for genocide survivors and their descendants, which brings me to my next suggestion:
-Reparation. This is something I prayed about extensively as I wrote On Earth as it is in Heaven, because the topic of reparations as a dually economic and spiritual practice takes up an entire chapter in it. I came to understand that while I don't think I personally could accept financial reparations for the genocide for an array of reasons, I had no right of any sort to make that decision for anyone else, either within the Armenian diaspora or those of other genocide-induced diasporas. And while it may terrify to consider the implication of reparations, it should not, because precedents have already been set: from World War II alone, Germany made some financial restitution to the families of Holocaust victims, and the United States made some financial restitution to the surviving Japanese-Americans who were interred in camps. You can (and probably should) argue that those reparations were inadequate, but they were made in acknowledgement of those historic wrongs--and in recognition of the fundamental humanity of the persons who were harmed and killed--and the world did not end and the sky did not fall. This may be one of the biggest points I can make about reparations beyond their necessity--that making reparations means your world will end only if your world is built on genocide or race supremacy. And if that is your world, well, then it is high past time for it to topple and fall.
-Solidarity. The recognition I sought and got for the Armenian Genocide is something that I should want for all genocides--including the genocide of indigenous peoples of the Americas. This is an incredibly important point that cannot be glossed over: the line of reasoning for why Armenian Genocide recognition matters overlaps so much with the line of reasoning for why indigenous genocide recognition matters, *plus* the economic consequences of the genocide of indigenous tribes that are ongoing to this day--and which, as an Armenian-American, I tend not to personally experience. But as a descendant of genocide survivors, what I am well-placed and well-equipped to say is that recognition of the traumas inherited by later generations is real and demands recognition and justice. I can offer testimony that corroborates dimensions of other peoples' journeys for justice where they overlap, and empathy and solidarity where their journey deviates from mine. This must also extend to the campaign for reparations to black Americans for chattel slavery and Jim Crow, which may be acknowledged as having happened, but is otherwise minimized or dismissed when talking about its impact on people today. This puts me in the dual position of being owed reparations for a genocide, but also owing reparations for another genocide and chattel slavery. That my ancestors are genocide survivors does not change the fundamental reality that I have unearned status and privilege in the United States precisely because of the extermination of indigenous peoples and the systemic enslavement of black peoples. On the contrary, I am able to say that as someone morally owed reparations for a genocide that I should be willing to offer reparations for another, and I think that matters, because justice for me ought to mean strengthening the case for justice for other peoples, or it is not true justice.
I cannot emphasize that last point enough. If these efforts at genocide recognition stop only at recognition, or only at ethnic Armenians, that to me cannot be mistaken for justice, for it is not just that I should enjoy recognition while other peoples who have survived genocide do not. I personally think this is what leaders like Rep. Ilhan Omar got tragically and fundamentally wrong in voting to functionally deny the Armenian Genocide by saying that all genocides matter and we shouldn't signal one out for recognition. By recognizing one, you build a case for recognizing more. You're not, or at least shouldn't be, building a case for genocide exceptionalism that says recognizing one means not recognizing others. If I do not see Armenian Genocide recognition deployed as one building block of many for, say, recognition of the genocide of indigenous peoples of the Americas, then our success has been partial at best, and our failure tangible.
I have no illusions that all, or any, of this will happen overnight. The votes for Armenian Genocide recognition may have been taken quickly and in relatively rapid succession, but decades of advocacy and painful failures preceded them, and as the proliferation of genocide denial during the process indicated, recognition is no panacea or cure-all. In the face of genocide denial--against my ancestors, against the ancestors of other peoples, and against humanity, I will pray for the strength to do and say what is right, what is true, and what is just.
That is my resolve and resolution going into 2020. With God's help, may I keep it.