Painful Dates
Dr. Michel E. Abs
The Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC)
Next week, we in the Levant will commemorate two painful occasions, though they differ in historical context and magnitude.
The first occasion, which falls on the 22nd of April, marks the day of the abduction of the Archbishops of Aleppo, Archbishop Boulos Yazigi and Archbishop Gregorios Youhanna Ibrahim. They were captured in the Mansoura area, west of Aleppo, while returning from the Turkish border. Nothing has been known about them since that day, and they have been missing for eleven years.
The second occasion, which falls on the 24th of April, is the beginning of the massacres against the Armenian people. These took place in the northeast of Antioch, Cilicia, as well as in the rest of Anatolia, where the Armenian presence in those regions was almost completely eliminated. These massacres occurred eleven decades ago.
In both cases, the saying circulating in the literature of political and social sciences applies: “Killing a man in a forest is an unforgivable crime, but killing a peaceful people is a matter of consideration?”
Despite the difference in magnitude between the two crimes, in both cases, it is true to say: two persons were “killed” in a forest, whose fate is still unknown, and a people who were peaceful were slaughtered, and some of humanity still ignores who is the perpetrator.
Despite the differences between the two crimes, we can easily identify similarities that are not hidden to the discerning analyst. Both crimes took place in the same region, which is considered the cradle of Eastern Christianity, knowing that the word Anatolia derives from a Greek root and means East.
Both crimes took place during bloody ethnic sectarian wars, in which local and international elements overlapped with all their machinations and plots. That is, during what is colloquially called “the overthrowing of states”.
Both crimes were committed in front of the hearing and sight of the world, a world that ignored what is happening, as is happening in Gaza today, and turned into a false witness who does not dare to speak the truth, because he lost the sense of shame, which caused humanity to suffer, and because he is incapable of accountability.
Both crimes sued innocent lives, which implies clear legal and financial consequences, not forgetting what has to do with honor, which is supposed to nurture relations between the people of modern human society, the society of human rights and its international charter.
The difference between the two crimes is that the first occurred in an moment of inattention; therefore, those with good will, if they existed, could not do anything to prevent it, because they knew it happened too late. While the second lasted for decades during which it was possible, for people of good will, if they also existed, to intervene to stop it, and not mourn in the press a people exterminated cold bloodedly, and with various tools of lethality that ranged from slaughter to starvation.
Denial of crimes is a characteristic of the post-crime stage, where many evade their responsibilities, except for those who uphold the values and feelings of honor and human dignity. Isn’t this what happened in Artsakh, where the blood of the martyrs has not yet dried on the soil yest? Artsakh is the second chapter of the Armenian Genocide, and the position of the international community was as shameful as when the massacres of the first chapter occurred.
We do not mean here to underestimate the honor of those who cared and stood in solidarity with the victims and their families, but we ask what prevents humanity from standing as one person and bringing these open files to their just conclusions?
In both crimes, the Middle East Council of Churches had the appropriate stands which are embodied in multiple activities.
First, a statement is to be issued by the Middle East Council of Churches on Monday, the 22nd of April 2024, on the abducting and vanishing of the Archbishops of Aleppo, Archbishop Gregorios Youhanna Ibrahim and Archbishop Boulos Yazigi. The MECC named this day “the Ecumenical Day of the Abducted and Forcibly Absented” after a comprehensive symposium it held last year on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of their abduction. In this symposium a group of intellectuals and experts in the Middle East participated.
The second is a lecture on the Armenian massacres, to be delivered by the Secretary General on Monday, the 22nd of April 2024, at the Armenian Catholic Patriarchate in Beirut. It will start with a word on the missing bishops. In this lecture, the Secretary General presents a new approach to the massacres of the Armenian people, who are an essential part of the Middle Eastern fabric in general, and the Lebanese in particular. This lecture is the first of a series of lectures on the massacres that affected our peoples in the region. It will be followed by a lecture on Sayfo, i.e. the massacres of the Syriacs, then a lecture on famine in Lebanon, called Kafno, then a lecture on the massacres of Anatolian Romaions. To this series could be added a lecture on Artsakh, a second on Mosul, and a third on Gaza.
Third, a seminar is to be held by the MECC on Thursday, April 25, 2024, on the topic of “Wars kidnapping, disappearance and ways of reparation”, in which two experts from Palestine and Iraq will deliver speeches. This seminar is the twenty-fourth in a series of human dignity seminars held by the MECC on the last Thursday of each month, for nearly two years.
Fourth, several information, audio and audio-visual programs on the topics of extermination and disappearance shall take place.
The lecturer gave the lecture series the title “keeping memory alive”, and he aims at contributing to remind the victims and the whole world, of the pain experienced by certain peoples, at certain times in history, so that this reminder serves as a lesson for humanity, in order not to fall into repetition.
If we do not keep memory alive, do not learn, and make humanity learn lessons from the painful events of the past, to avoid their recurrence in the future, we will have committed an act of betrayal against our history and against the fallen victims who aimed to keep the flame of faith and belonging lit.
May the Lord give us the strength to be righteous to them!