Armenians remembered last Friday the 100th anniversary of the genocide which was perpetuated against their people during the last days of the Ottoman Empire.

It was remembered at a majestic memorial in the Armenian capital Yerevan. It was also remembered in many other locations throughout the world where the resistance to forgetting was pronounced through prayers, candle light ceremonies and concerts by world musicians in which their  heritage was reflected. And isn’t music the closest thing to prayer since it communicates from soul to soul.

This genocide took place in 1915, and since then, generation after generation are fighting to keep the memory of 1.5 million victims of this tragedy alive using all available methods of communication. They have not forgotten, and neither have they allowed the world to forget what happened. A divided world which is deep in pain of its people and nations is bound to forget what is not personal to it and to the present. How much more it is difficult when it comes to a mute world that has forgotten what has happened 100 years ago.

What do the Armenian people who are on their land want today? Armenians who are searching for their usurped identity and are spread throughout the world?

What they want is what they have been asking for decades: the admission by the descendents of those that carried the massacre of the crime of their ancestors and to publicly apologize about it. If this takes place, this would have a number of meanings. It will quench the thirst of the children and grandchildren of the victims for justice. Since the chance of turning the direct perpetuators of the crimes to court is impossible, after the passing of one hundred years, the very least they want is the admission of it. But the heirs refuse. The stubbornness of the descendent is a reflection of this haughtiness and is reflected in the statements by their current president. Tayyeb Erdogan answer to the demands of the Armenian people and the world was by saying “let the rest of the world that has caused injustice to other people apologize as well!

Part of this argument is correct. The Ottoman Empire is not that only power whose hegemony and annihilation of the people under its power ended up with genocide at  various times in history. Major countries are still till this day refusing to take responsibility for the crimes of its wars such as the French in Algiers, the US in Vietnam and then Iraq, and we shouldn’t forget the crimes of the Zionists in Palestine which continue till this moment. But Erdogan’s claim is based on a bet that the official history of his country is the only evidence available. In this he is wagering on the well known tradition that is based on the sustainability of the written history of the victors what is called “the law of recoding history”. History has a narrative of the victor. But we all know that the narrative of the victors needs credibility and is often seen in a great deal of suspicion.

The defeated this time, are refusing to accept this injustice and they are presenting the world their version of history. Even with a delay, this is a unique case in history where more than one version of the same incident is present. This difference challenges this unjust victor and shatters this blind law. It registers its unexpired license for a people who refuse to be obliterated and have learned how to resist in diaspora. This might be the first time that we experience the rewriting of history on the basis of the version of the weak. We are all following the court case where the plaintiff  has not given up despite the passage of an entire century of waiting at the doors of a courts whose doors are half shut in their faces. Closed, opened, delayed, the court changes its status based on its ‘judges’ and those in charge of “the international rule of law” and the right time to sign a “deal” between countries!

Without Turkey revisiting its history and documents in a transparent and public way and admitting what really happened one hundred years ago, the demands of the victims will stay on its head for another one hundred years.  Its arrogance will not wash away one and a half million human being (pregnant women, children, men and aged people) whose blood has smeared the pages of history. Nor has Turkey succeed by its denial and refusal to make a single apologize so as to allow these tormented souls to have a final rest after the one hundred year journey of death.

In thinking of these souls we can understand why the music is rising higher every time that the Armenians remember their people’s genocide. Music speaks to the soul as if they have not vanished. Where is the hiding place of a state that is being hounded by the music of the souls. And how long will it run away from the word of truth and the duty of the conscious. When will it finally withdraw its defeated narrative from the awakened memory?

لقراءة المقال بالعربية الرجاء

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Elias Farkouh is a writer and a novelist. He received numerous awards for his many novels and short stories