In "On the Quai in Smyrna" (in full below), Ernest Hemingway wrote about one event in the Armenian Genocide: the 1922 fire + massacre of Greeks and Armenians in Smyrna (now Izmir). It's painfully brilliant, one of Hem's best.
But here's the thing:
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But here's the thing:
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Smyrna happened bec. Western powers broke commitments they made (in the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres) to support Greece, Armenia, and Kurdistan. genocide-museum.am/eng/30.09.2017….
In the later Treaty of Lausanne, Greeks, Kurds + Armenians lost lands they had been promised just 3 years earlier.
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In the later Treaty of Lausanne, Greeks, Kurds + Armenians lost lands they had been promised just 3 years earlier.
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So yes, modern Turkey was born in part from a genocide it (damnably) still refuses to admit. But the genocide Congress recognized today happened because the major powers LET it happen. We made promises to defend Greeks, Armenians, + Kurds, then broke those promises.
Familiar?
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Familiar?
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And today the U.S. is letting it happen again in Northern Syria – and to one of the same damn groups involved a century ago.
tl;dr: Calling out Turkey for the Armenian genocide is sheer hypocrisy if we don't also prevent a new Kurdish genocide from happening today.
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tl;dr: Calling out Turkey for the Armenian genocide is sheer hypocrisy if we don't also prevent a new Kurdish genocide from happening today.
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