April 24, 2021, was the 106th anniversary of the massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire. On this same day, President Joe Biden became the first US President to officially recognize this mass killing of Armenians during World War I as genocide.
Why is this statement and recognition by Joe Biden so important? At least four previous Presidents had indicated that they intended to recognize the Armenian Genocide. All four capitulated to pressures from within their own party, administration, opposition politicians, and/or Turkey who has always voiced strong opposition to the recognition of this event.
Samantha Power is a Pulitzer Prize winner for her book, A Problem from Hell; America and the Age of Genocide. She is considered an expert on genocide. Power spent four years as the UN Ambassador in the Obama Administration. Prior to that assignment, she served on the National Security Council, again in the Obama Administration. In her memoir, The Education of an Idealist (which is excellent) she describes her frustration with Obama on this issue. Given her expertise on the subject of genocide, she was tasked with getting the Obama administration and specifically the President ready to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Obama had indicated during his campaign his intent to formally announce this important recognition. Every year Obama, despite the preparation and encouragement from Power, surrendered to pressure from Turkey not to make this statement. He consistently indicated as an excuse that the US government was in the midst of important negotiations with Turkey (for 8 years?). Obama essentially acknowledged his own cowardice by commending Joe Biden for making this announcement and acknowledging it should have been done sooner. To me, it seems easy to say that after you have missed your opportunity to take action (remember, I am a fan of Obama).
President Biden had the conviction and the integrity to follow through on his campaign promise and make this announcement about the Armenian Genocide.
There is an argument to be made that in the grand scheme of things this formal announcement will make very little difference in the world (more on this later). But I would argue that as an indicator of how Biden sees himself as President it provides great insight. Bill Maher describes Joe Biden as being successful because he is 78. He knows what he wants to do and doesn't care anymore what people think of him. Joe Biden has been in government for over 40 years and has been Vice-President. During the campaign, there was a school of thought that believed if Biden hadn't accomplished what he wanted to do by now, he would never get it done (I sometimes agreed with this thought). However, as it turns out, in his first 100 days Biden is being described as the most transformational president since FDR or LBJ. During one of the Democratic primary debates, Elizabeth Warren had a great line while criticizing Jay Inslee the Governor of Washington. Inslee was arguing that some ideas would never get done - they were too big. Warren stated (I am paraphrasing), what is the use of running for President if you don't want to get big ideas done. This is Joe Biden's mantra. He wants to get big things done.
I think the fact that Biden was willing to follow through on the Armenian Genocide announcement is an indicator that he will not be pushed off the puck by the pressure of others. He has taken the US from a dangerous joke in regards to COVID-19 to a world leader. He has restored integrity into the US Presidency in less than 100 days. The legislation he passed to transition the country and the economy from COVID-19 to the future was earth-shattering (in a positive way). His proposal for spending on infrastructure is transformational not just because of the monetary size of the bill but because he dares to understand the true definition of infrastructure. Who thought a 78-year-old would understand that infrastructure is not just bridges and roads, but also access to quality child care, high-speed internet, and quality health care. He has taken a global leadership role in the environment and has ensured stability and normalcy in US foreign relations.
Before I finish, I don't want to skip over the importance of the announcement on the Armenian Genocide. You may know that the word genocide was first coined by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944 in his book, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. It consists of the Greek prefix genos, meaning race or tribe, and the Latin suffix cide, meaning killing. Lemkin developed the term partly in response to the Nazi policies of systematic murder of Jewish people during the Holocaust. It was also in response to previous instances in history of targeted actions aimed at the destruction of particular groups of people. This included the mass killing of Armenians. Lemkin led the campaign to have genocide recognized and established as an international crime. Genocide was first recognized as a crime under international law in 1946 by the United Nations General Assembly. It was codified as an independent crime in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The legal definition of Genocide is quite specific. It requires both intent and actions. It is sometimes used interchangeably with the term, Crimes against Humanity. It shouldn't be. Both are terrible but Genocide is different. There was even debate on whether Biden could apply the term genocide to a horrific event that took place prior to the term being established. I will leave that for others to debate. I am glad Biden made the announcement and admire him for following through on his promise. If you want to read more on why this announcement is important, this article explains the reasons much better than I can - https://www.american.edu/sis/news/20210426-5-reasons-why-bidens-recognition-of-the-armenian-genocide-is-significant.cfm.
Given my interest and support of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (I am involved in a campaign by Amnesty Canada to support the cause), I have to remind everyone that the MMIWG 2019 report labelled Canada's behaviour as genocide with respect to Indigenous women. It is important to keep this in mind in case we want to believe that genocide only happens in far-off places like Rwanda, Serbia and China.
I was not overly optimistic when Joe Biden ran for president. I certainly did not think he would ever be considered transformational. My main concern was that he beat Trump so that the nightmare of the previous four years would be over. I am now more optimistic. I hope we can look back at Joe Biden's time as President, whether that is 4 or 8 years, and largely agree that he was the right person, at the right time, and that he made a difference.
As always let me know what you think at thethirdperiod.ca@gmail.com
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