
The Great Crime: How an American Diplomat Resisted the Armenian Genocide - lermontov
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/02/03/the-great-crime/
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hospes
Thanks for sharing this.

Leslie Davis was truly a great diplomat and an incredible human being.

Until Genocides are not widely recognized and stopped. Those who commit them
are not punished, they are going to happen again, as they did during 20th
century. Hitler used Armenian Genocide to convince others that atrocities
committed by Nazis are going to be forgotten. Hitler's quote: "Who, after all,
speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

It is a shame that US did not officially recognize Armenian Genocide yet, even
though most of the civilized world did and most of the US State legislatures
did.

Germany was one of the main allies of Ottoman Empire when Armenian Genocide
occurred and they only recognized Armenian Genocide of 1915 in 2016. 101 years
after it happened.

Edit: Typos.

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avenoir
> It is a shame that US did not officially recognize Armenian Genocide yet,
> even though most of the civilized world did and most of the US State
> legislatures did.

The real shame, in my opinion, is that Israel hasn't recognized the genocide
yet. And I say this as a survivor of Azeri Pogroms of the 1990 and a
descendant of the Armenian Genocide survivor whose entire family was murdered
by Young Turks. It's actually disgusting not shameful and I don't care how
much they try to blame Geopolitics for this.

~~~
compsciphd
[http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-
Diplomacy/Knes...](http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-
Diplomacy/Knesset-committee-recognizes-Armenian-genocide-463081)

It's not like Israel ignores it. But yes, geopolitics plays a role and it is
embarrassing as many in Israel agree.

compare to this in the US

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_resolution_on_Ar...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_resolution_on_Armenian_Genocide)

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ASpring
On this topic, I highly recommend Samantha Power's book "A Problem From Hell:
America and the Age of Genocide" which details the United States inability to
respond promptly to the many cases of genocide over the past century.

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tomjen3
I love how that book blames America for failing to respond to many genocides
committed far away from its borders - what other great power has ever done so,
unless it was for their benefit?

As a non-American, we are fucking lucky that America not only doesn't extord
us for loot (as any other empire would) but actually spends so much energy,
lives and money keeping protecting us. I am personally really happy that Putin
knows there will be consequences if he rolls west.

~~~
jacobolus
Have you read the book? If not I recommend against flippant responses.

It’s a careful detailed history of several genocides, one per chapter.

It’s a harrowing book, and reading each chapter would leave me depressed for a
couple days. I couldn’t read more than about one chapter per month.

~~~
conistonwater
The comment is ambiguous, it's not really clear if it's actually meant to be
flippant or not. If you read it literally, the meaning is directly the
opposite and still makes sense.

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WillyOnWheels
The Azerbaijan president often tweets about 'The fake Armenian genocde' (and
before I get a ton of downvotes again, I use the quotation marks because I
don't agree with his view')

[https://twitter.com/presidentaz/status/507430784710361088](https://twitter.com/presidentaz/status/507430784710361088)

~~~
hospes
Report tweets like that. I hope if enough people do that it can make some
difference.

~~~
WillyOnWheels
I don't think reporting him helps. Denying the Armenian genocide is one of his
main past times, on twitter and off twitter. He is also the world's expert
(and only expert) on the fabled Azerbaijan genocide. I'm not Azerbaijanian or
Armenian, I can't imagine devoting so much of my life to hating another ethnic
group.

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eveningcoffee
I think we are obliged to speak more about this genocide [http://www.armenian-
genocide.org/hitler.html](http://www.armenian-genocide.org/hitler.html)

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throwaway00052
It wouldn't surprise me if this was posted and eagerly upvoted as a historical
example of how we supposedly should behave in defiance of unjust authority in
the age of President Trump.

But the article in question is principally about a genocide of Armenian
Christians perpetrated by Turkish Muslims. Doesn't this episode from not-too-
distant history demonstrate, for example, the danger of mass, unchecked Muslim
immigration to this and every other Western nation, or that diversity,
contrary to what is so often asserted, is not a strength but rather is a
weakness, one that contributed to the downfall of the Ottoman, Hapsburg, and
Russian empires?

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pasquinelli
the existence of ethnic cleansing is an argument for ethnic cleansing? past
atrocities are reason to turn away refugees of current atrocities? sir or
madam, i do believe you've got your brain in backward.

~~~
throwaway00052
The existence of ethnic cleansing is a compelling argument against diversity
being a strength, and past atrocities, especially those afflicting Christians
of European descent, serve to demonstrate why Christians of European descent
should not allow themselves to be displaced and dispossessed through mass
immigration, lest they suffer a fate similar to that of the Armenians.

~~~
pasquinelli
"The existence of ethnic cleansing is a compelling argument against diversity
being a strength"

no, it's a compelling reminder to fight racism, xenophobia, religious
intolerance, and the rest, like the deadly diseases they are. the atrocities
of the past are their result.

