Irish failure to recognise Armenian genocide creates awkward moment for Martin in Yerevan

A large wreath is resting against one pillar, set down by French president Emmanuel Macron a few days ago.

A summit of nearly 50 European leaders in Yerevan was staged five minutes walk away, in a futuristic looking event centre built during the later years of Soviet rule in the south Caucasus country.

Micheál Martin wasn’t able to take the short stroll to the genocide memorial after the summit wrapped up. Ireland has not formally recognised the Armenian genocide, so Martin would have created an awkward situation on the diplomatic front had he stopped to pay his respects in an official capacity.

More than a million Armenians living under Ottoman rule were estimated to have been killed by the Turk-led regime, in a campaign of ethnic persecution that began during the first World War.

Paranoid the Armenian minority posed a threat to the stability of the empire, Ottoman authorities set about forcibly clearing the Christian communities from large swathes of the empire’s territory in 1915.

The plan was preceded by early defeats for the Ottoman army in the war, which were blamed on the Armenian minority.

A massive deportation campaign forced the Armenian population on long marches to the Syrian desert. Food and water was scarce and huge numbers died. Brutal violence, abuse and killings were also common. Those who survived were imprisoned in concentration camps where many more starved to death.

The Armenian state has said the plan was a clear attempt to wipe out the population and constituted a genocide.

Turkey has always pushed back against classing the deportation and mass deaths as genocide, saying, rather, the “mandatory transfer” was a chaotic, wartime act of an empire on the verge of collapse and not a premeditated plan to exterminate the Armenian population.

“What happened in 1915, it is classic genocide,” said Hrachia Tashchian, acting director of the Armenian genocide memorial museum and institute.

More than half of the states in the European Union recognise the Armenian genocide. In total 31 countries or parliaments have done so worldwide.

“I believe that countries that have not recognised yet the genocide, they did it for political reasons,” Tashchian said.

The persecution of the Armenians “completely corresponds” to the criteria set out in the United Nations’ genocide convention of 1948. “Intentional destruction, intentional elimination,” he said.

There is a tradition that visiting dignitaries plant a fir tree on the grounds of the Yerevan memorial, known as Tsitsernakaberd.

You can gauge how long it took different countries to mark the genocide by the height of the fir tree beside each plaque marking the visit. Trees planted by Russian and French politicians decades ago are huge now.

That’s not surprising. Armenia has historically been deeply wedded to Moscow and there is a huge Armenian diaspora in France, the largest in western Europe. Newer trees planted in recent years are only a metre high.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has resisted formally classing what happened to the Armenians as a genocide.

Then-minister for foreign affairs Simon Coveney told the Dáil in 2019 that the Republic would not be joining others who had done so.

There was “no international consensus” on the subject. “Ireland follows the practice of recognising genocide only where this has been established by a judgment of an international court, or where there is international consensus on the matter,” he said.in new window

However, that position is at odds with the Government’s response to Israel’s actions in Gaza, where it has publicly called out the bombardment and starvation of Palestinians as genocidal.

Responding to questions in the Dáil last May, Martin said Israel was “committing genocide in Gaza right now. Let us call a spade a spade.”

South Africa, joined by Ireland and others, has taken a case to the International Court of Justice, though the UN court has yet to rule on whether Israel breached the genocide convention.

The Department of Foreign Affairs did not respond to questions about the differing standards used when considering Armenia’s claims of genocide.

Ireland of course accepts the Holocaust of Europe’s Jews by the Nazis as a genocide.

Tashchian, who was previously a diplomat and adviser to the prime minister Nikol Pashinyan, said the Armenian debate was caught up in geopolitical calculations.

Turkey is a powerful player internationally and a key regional partner for many western governments.

“Turkey wants to move this issue to the political field … There is no question was it genocide, there is no question for us,” Tashchian said. Turkey had “written their own history” playing down what happened to the Armenians, he said.

The president of the Belgian parliament is due soon and so Tashchian needs to source a small fir tree for a planting ceremony in the memorial garden. “No Irish tree there yet; I hope there will be soon in the foreseeable future,” he said.