No sanctuary from terror

Press, 18 March 1985, Page 18

No sanctuary from terror

Seventy years ago, when Russian armies were poised to invade Turkey, and when the attention of the world was focused elsewhere on armies locked in combat in Belgium, France, Serbia, and Poland, about 1.5 million Armenian subjects were massacred by the Turks. The details of this mass slaughter still have the power to shock; but so do the savageries of the Japanese against the Chinese, of the Germans against the Jews, of the Russians against other Russians, and — in more recent times — of the Ugandans and the Kampucheans against their own people. What distinguishes the Armenian tragedy is that a small number of Armenians are determined on violent revenge. The taking of hostages at the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa last week, and the killing of a Canadian security guard, were the responsibility of gunmen describing themselves as members of the Armenian Revolutionary Army. This group also has claimed responsibility for attacks on Turkish diplomats and diplomatic posts around the world. Innocent bystanders do not always escape the violence aimed at others. The gunmen and their fellow terrorists want to avenge the 1915 massacre and also force Turkey to return the Armenian lands to Armenian rule. A sizeable population of Armenians still live along Turkey’s border with the Soviet Union in the Caucasus Mountains.

Although generations of Armenians separate the gunmen from the massacre, the feeling is still strong among them and many other Armenians that the Turks ought to be made to pay and pay again. There is no statute of limitations on hatred and the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Turks who were alive at the time of the 1915 massacre are being held accountable for the deeds of their forebears. The death and violence inflicted on innocent parties cannot assume even this tenuous excuse for the acts of terror. The fact that Canada had no part whatsoever in the 1915 massacre was no guarantee of protection for its citizens. Canada seems to have been chosen because the Turkish Embassy in Ottawa had a low level of security. The gunmen apparently thought that this gave them a better chance of achieving their aim of making a political point and generating headlines. The same logic of terrorism makes New Zealand a potential target too, although not, perhaps, from Armenian terrorists, if only because there is no Turkish Embassy here. What happened in Ottawa should be a salutary reminder for New Zealand that innocence — or isolation from the centre of the dispute — is no defence against terrorism. Violence is the instrument of first resort for terrorists, and they are indiscriminate in their use of it.