Why is the Turkish genocide of Armenians so little talked about?

[calitennis127]

I was listening to a lecture earlier today that discussed the Armenian genocide, which reminded me of a segment I heard on NPR about it a few years back. I also re-read a portion of a book that mentioned the Armenian genocide.

Looking into it now, apparently the Turkish government is still in denial about the genocide. But at least the Turks just killed the Armenians and didn't enslave them - that would have been far worse.

Here is an NPR article on the genocide:

"The issue rose in prominence in 2005, when Turkey's Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk said in an interview, "One million Armenians were killed here and nobody but me dares to talk about it."

Pamuk was then charged with insulting Turkishness and faced possible jail time before the charges were dropped by the court."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15180113

 

[brokenshoelace]

It's still discussed within the Armenian community. I don't know if you're aware of this, but there's a relatively significant Armenian community in Lebanon (country where I originally come from) and the genocide is a recurring topic. Worldwide, it's a different issue. The Turkish government does not acknowledge the genocide ever happened and that's mainly the issue Armenians have with Turkey, even today.

 

[Riotbeard]

Honestly not sure. One reason why the holocaust is such a big issue here, is we have a large population of refugees, or at this point, their descendents (even though we rejected a lot of Jewish refugees at the time). Also their are a lot of significant political issues today that relate to the holocaust (Israel).

The other thing that might be relevant is that most people in the West do not want to piss off one of the few relatively western and secular Muslim countries.

That being said, it is sad more is not known about it.

 

[calitennis127]

It's still discussed within the Armenian community. I don't know if you're aware of this, but there's a relatively significant Armenian community in Lebanon (country where I originally come from)

I actually did know that, but only because Nalbandian is an Armenian name and they always talked about how his family moved from Lebanon to Argentina when he was very young. I have met one Armenian family and their last name also ended in -ian.

 

[brokenshoelace]

It's still discussed within the Armenian community. I don't know if you're aware of this, but there's a relatively significant Armenian community in Lebanon (country where I originally come from)

I actually did know that, but only because Nalbandian is an Armenian name and they always talked about how his family moved from Lebanon to Argentina when he was very young. I have met one Armenian family and their last name also ended in -ian.

Most (all?) Armenian families end in "ian." At least the ones living in Lebanon.