Genocidophilia combined with corridor phobia
When essence is more important than word

ANALYTICS  03 November 2022 - 15:33

It has long been observed that Armenian society places far too much emphasis on words, ignoring the essence. The form is often more important than content for Armenians.

Here is a simple example. The Armenian tragedy of World War I and the parallel tragedy of the Turkish people, despite the scale of human sacrifices that the civil war brought to the two peoples, is not and will never be genocide in the legal sense of the word. The decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on the claim "Dogu Perincek v. Switzerland" clearly stated that genocide is a crime, the fact of which is extremely difficult to establish due to its very narrow criteria. At the same time, there are several convincing arguments why the narrative about the "Armenian genocide" is not a fact, but a private opinion, to which any person has the right. You can say the phrase "Armenian genocide" at least 500 million times, and publish a billion articles and a trillion monographs. It will not become a genocide. Tragedy, yes; murders, sometimes even mass, but, nevertheless, not one-sided - also yes; massacres - for God's sake, please! But not genocide! In order for the loss of Armenian lives in those years to be qualified as a genocidal act, strict legal criteria must be met, the most important of which is the verdict of the international tribunal. Which is not and will not be.

That is why the Holocaust of Jews and Sinti Gypsies, and the extermination of Bosnian Muslims and Rwandan Tutsis, against which there are decisions of the highest international judicial bodies, from Nuremberg to The Hague, are recognised as acts of genocide.

And that's it! The Armenian tragedy is anything but genocide. Well, they clung to this word and won't let go. "We want genocide and that's it!" If you call it a massacre, they will be offended. If you call it "metz yeghern" in Armenian, they will still be sad. If you say "genocide", they will dance with joy, as if this word will calm the souls of those who lost their lives in those years - both Armenians and Turks, Kurds, Circassians, Laz and many other peoples who inhabited Eastern Anatolia.

Well, we'll call the cat a "dog", he won't bark instead of meowing from this. This is not genocide, say the phrase "Armenian genocide" caresses someone's ears at least a hundred times a day. It feels like this word somehow calms their nervous system, and causes some inner satisfaction...

Even the ECHR determined in its verdict that what happened in 1915 was not genocide, but a private opinion. But it will be easier for Armenians to live, and in some places, it will be more fun if you tell them that this is genocide. Well, they like that word. Right, some kind of genocidophilia.

But there is something they don't like at all. The word "corridor", for example. President Ilham Aliyev will say the phrase "Zangazur corridor", immediately the tantrums begin. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Maria Zakharova said the day before yesterday [November 1] that in Russia this road is called a "route", they immediately calmed down.

Well, okay, the route is the route. You call it a route, and we call it a corridor. But what does it change when the essence is more important than the word?

And if you want, we won't call it anything at all. From the word "absolutely". When it comes to this word, we will skip... it. And blink with a left eye. Do you want to?

Caliber.Az