Genocide denial
From Robert Melson
Sir: Norman Stone's review of Peter Balakian's book, The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide (Books, 24 April), is a diatribe against the author and a concerted denial of the tragic experience of the Armenian people.
The fact is that from 1915 to 1923 more than a million Armenians were killed as Turkey tried to establish a homogeneous population by expelling its major Christian minority from Anatolia. This was the first major genocide of the 20th century,
setting precedents for other international crimes to come. Meanwhile, because the United States was still not at war in 1915, and it had full diplomatic relations with the Ottoman empire, the deportation, starvation and massacre of the Armenians were witnessed, documented and reported by scores of American consuls, missionaries and the ambassador, Henry Morgenthau.
To its credit, the American public reacted with outrage, setting a precedent for a human rights movement not seen in that country since the abolition of slavery. This story is brilliantly discussed in Professor Balakian's book and outrageously disparaged by Professor Stone's sarcastic review.
One is tempted to argue that Professor Stone's review is clumsy and uninformed. It is all that, but it is something more: his review is part of a continuing attempt by the Turkish state and its academic mercenaries to deny the historicity of the Armenian genocide. It may be understandable that Turks, given the terrible history attending the founding of their republic, would want to deny the Armenian geno
cide. However, it is incomprehensible that some academics, who should know better, are willing to sully their professional reputations in that endeavour.
Denial is the final stage of genocide, because it seeks to demonise the victims even as it rehabilitates the perpetrators.
Robert Melson
President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars and Professor of Political Science, Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana, USA Norman Stone replies:
Professor Melson does not rebut any of the criticisms I made of Balakian's handling of sources, nor does he defend any of the howlers I identified (I have more up my sleeve). I therefore have no factual case to answer, just bluster. For the record, Professor Heath Lowry of Princeton examined the original text of Morgenthau's memoirs and found that it had been tampered with. The fact is, we could do with a decent book on the Armenian tragedy but of course it would have to be written by someone who knew about the subject.
Norman Stone
Istanbul. Turkey
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