The Necessity to Confront the Past
The Silent Cry of 1915
By Mahmut Uzun, Tarih ve Toplumar
Keghart
(Translated from Turkish)
April is the heaviest mirror of these lands; those who lack the courage to look, continue their lives without confronting it. 111 years ago, in every corner of the Ottoman Empire, Armenian, Assyrian, Chaldean, Nestorian, and Pontic Greek peoples were subjected to systematic genocide. Death, exile, and plunder were carried out simultaneously across a vast geography stretching from Van to Erzurum, from Bitlis to Diyarbakır, from Istanbul to Adana, from Sivas to Kayseri, from Maraş to Urfa.Approximately 1.5 million Armenians and tens of thousands of Assyrians and Pontic Greeks were massacred; women were considered spoils of war; children were burned; villages, towns, and cities were emptied; and their cultural and economic heritage was destroyed. In this silence, the only question that still needs to be asked is: How courageous are we to remember and acknowledge this pain?
This catastrophe was no accident. The central government of the Committee of Union and Progress, its local collaborators, and some Kurdish groups had planned it in a coordinated manner, and the Special Organization (Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa) and paramilitary gangs had carried it out. Orders were justified with fatwas and religious justifications; conscience, mercy, and humanity were completely disregarded. The guilt rested not only on those who gave the orders, but also on everyone who remained silent, feared, or became complicit for the sake of self-interest. So how do we confront our own consciences today, in the face of the silent traces of the past?
Women were enslaved, children were burned, homes, fields, and shops were looted; churches, monasteries, and educational institutions were destroyed. The attacks targeted not only individuals, but also the collective memory and cultural heritage of societies. Neighbors turned against each other, becoming complicit out of fear and self-interest; some even justified the catastrophe under the guise of faith. Silence deepened the scope of the crime. The question that still needs to be asked today is: Will we remain silent in the face of the destruction of collective memory?
The crimes committed on that day are still denied. State policies, the silence of the media, and the public’s turning a blind eye reinforce this denial. Yet, the crime is clearly documented in official records and witness testimonies. Denial not only obscures the past; it poisons the present and the future. Failure to confront the past creates fertile ground for the repetition of the crime. So how do we combat this denial in our own society?
History still carries the potential to repeat itself for those who do not confront it. Confrontation is not an option, but a moral and historical necessity. Confronting the truth is not about punishing the guilty; it is about restoring justice, truth, and the dignity of humanity. Denying the memories of the past not only distorts historical truth; it also prevents us from passing on a legacy of humanity to future generations. What happened in these lands is not only written on the conscience of the Armenian or Assyrian people, but on the conscience of all humanity. As people of today, will we be able to uphold this conscience?
Today, the mentality that produces hate speech, marginalizes, and legitimizes violence is still alive.This mindset, by refusing to confront the past, not only perpetuates the pain of the past but also obscures collective memory and poisons humanity. Silence is no longer a luxury; the era of denial and ignoring must end. Only by confronting this reality can humanity reconcile with itself and its past; otherwise, it darkens both its conscience and its future. Are we ready to confront this reality?
Every person’s responsibility is clear: to recognize historical facts, demand justice, spread the truth, and not carry the burden of the past into the future. Confrontation means naming forgotten lives, not becoming complicit in the crimes of silent generations, and fulfilling the fundamental obligation of being human. Every denial, every silence, fuels the risk of the crime repeating itself.
Confrontation is the last bastion of conscience; those who abandon this bastion also relinquish the responsibility humanity has placed upon them. So, how determined are we to protect this bastion?
based in London. His essays explore memory, conscience, justice, and the historical wounds of peoples in Turkey, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and the broader Middle East. His writings critically examine nationalism, religious fanaticism, authoritarianism, and social decay, while combining political critique with personal testimony and moral reflection.
