Politics and Reality.

Germany was very late in officially recognising the Armenian Genocide. At the beginning of 2001 the Central Committee of Armenians in Germany formally appealed to the Bundestag to recognise the Genocide. This appeal was rejected by a combination of Social Democrats, Christian Democrats and other minority parties. Only the Linke supported this appeal.

The Government admitted that they had been influenced by the Turkish Governments request not to debate the subject of Genocide in Parliament.

The German Government justified its decision by stressing that Turkey and Armenia had established a Committee for Reconciliation to reach an agreement to the Genocide question.

It was clear that Germany did not want to damage the satisfactory relationship with Turkey.

2005, the oppositional CDU /CSU surprisingly raised a question in the Bundestag in remembrance of the victims of the Armenian genocide. The then SPD and Green governing parties ere thereby put in a difficult position. They could not simply ignore the raising of this question by such an important party as the political and moral damage for the two governing parties would have been too severe.

The resolution formulated by the CDU led to a debate in the Bundestag concerning the Armenian Genocide just a few days before the 24^th of April. Members of parliament from all factions condemned the crimes of the then ruling Young Turk Government and demanded from the present Turkish Government a confrontation with their historical past. After the debate is was agreed that a resolution should be formulated and agreed upon by all factions.

This resolution was titled. „ In Memory of the Expelled and Massacred 

Armenians of 1915 – Germany must contribute to the reconciliation of Turkey and Armenia”,

and was presented to Parliament in June 2005

The crimes committed were not clearly defined as Genocide in the resolution. The Bundestag condemned the “Young Turk government of the Ottoman Empire, whose actions almost led to the complete annihilation of the Armenians in Anatolia.” and criticised openly the “infamous role of the German Empire, which despite the array of information sources pointing to an organised and systematic expulsion and annihilation of Armenians, did not once attempt to prevent this cruelty.”  

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In the resolution the German Theology Professor Dr Johannes Lepsius was expressly mentioned as he had with “vigour and efficiently fought for the survival of the Armenian people”

 Lepsius had already taken interest in the fate of the Armenians during the Armenian massacres between 1892 -1894 and had since this date contributed richly in informing the German public of the persecution of the Armenians and of Christians in the Ottoman Empire. In the middle of the war he published a detailed work titled “A Report of the Condition of Armenians in Turkey”.

After the war, Lepsius published his book “Germany and Armenia 1914-1918: a Collection of Diplomatic Correspondence” Until a few years ago this was the most important source of historical German material regarding the Armenian genocide.

After the opening of the German Archives relating to this period more and more details of the Genocide became known. These details confirmed and made clear the extent to which Germany was partly to blame for the tragic and criminal events.

As the debate took place in Berlin in April 2005, the Speaker for the Greens admitted that “we not only knew, but also carry some of the blame. I would like to on behalf of my faction, and I believe for all in this Parliament, today 90 years after these terrible events, offer my apologises to the Armenian people for our complicity.”

The speaker for the SPD supported the demands of his Green colleague and insisted that an apology to the Armenian people must be part of the resolution. Two months later as the common resolution was accepted by Parliament there was no mention of the German apology to the Armenian people and no outcry to its absence. 

Two years have passed since this Resolution went through the German Parliament and in the meantime has been long forgotten. Nothing more has been undertaken, since that emotional outburst of guilt in April 2005, to promote the discussion around the Armenian Genocide and its recognition.

The Resolution of June 2005 was merely a German attempt to fulfil its moral duty to the Armenian people, but nothing more. Only one of the demands contained in the Resolution of June 2005 was implemented. In honour of Johannes Lepsius, a new tourist was created in Potsdam a small city outside Berlin, whereby his home was designated as a Memorial to his Life and Works. It will be opened this December to mark his 150^th Birthday. As an ally of the Armenian people, Lepsius contributed to the Armenian cause as much as any German was in the position to and more than any other German of the time.

But only slowly is the truth behind Germanys historical role in  the Ottoman drama coming to light, as the most sensitive documents had only been evaluated by a very select few.

Also Lepsius´s political aspirations, as a friend of Armenia, are coming under scrutiny which should provoke thought within the German political scene. Especially as the man who fought for the rights of Armenians and for whom a memorial is being erected in Potsdam held many undemocratic positions. He was a supporter of the German expansionist policy and an admirer of the German Emperor. Although he was certainly against the annihilation of the Armenians by the Young Turk regime, he was not opposed to their expulsion. What the German Government protested about was the manner and the murder of the deportees. Nevertheless, the diplomats were aware that the Turkish regime had no interest in allowing the Armenians to resettle in Mesopotamia: the Young Turks wanted to annihilate them.

The Links Party raised a question in the Bundestag which warned against making a memorial of Lepsius´s home in Potsdam. To honour someone in Germany who held strong nationalistic, anti-Semitic and was a dedicated supporter of Emperor Wilhelm II is a dangerous act.

The hopes raised by the Resolution of June 2005, that such a Memorial would serve in the “sense of furthering the relationship between Armenians and Turks” is now hardly realistic.

The attempt by the Christian Democrats and Church circles in Germany to resurrect Johannes Lepsius as exemplary for German humanistic thought will not succeed. Lepsius was certainly not an enemy of the Armenians but he was also not the model of the “Good German” which the authorities wish to portray him as.

A memorial to the victims of the Armenian Genocide is the proper thing to do, but to have it in the home of a German who admired the German Kaiser and his expansionist policies and moreover did not oppose the expulsion of the Armenians is surely the wrong place.

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vartan  - not forgotton...   |28-07-2008 15:39 Germanys role in the Armenian Genoside is a fact. dirrectly or indirectly germany funded this genoside. I strongly believe it was masterminded by german officials in order to complete their railroad to bagdad project. Reply

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