In an annual commemoration of the Armenian Genocide that happened 89 years ago, the Armenian Club brought Pulitzer Prize winning author Samantha Power to campus Tuesday to speak on how countries -- especially the United States -- recognize, intervene and prevent genocide.
Regarding US foreign policy towards such events, Powers said that the "patterns are spookily similar across time," and that it has not utilized the tools it has at its disposal that would allow it to deal with genocide in foreign countries.
Another repeated obstacle to intervention and prevention, Power said, include society-wide noninvolvement, with the events in Bosnia being a "notable exception." Power pointed to a lack of presidential leadership on issues of genocide, and said that there was a lack of internal pressure on the US government to deal with these problems. Similarly, she said, there is a lack of domestic pressure to force politicians to act against genocide.
However, she praised Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian General on the United Nations Mission in Rwanda in 1994, calling him an example of someone who "did his best to save what he could." The US and the UN refused to involve themselves in Rwanda on the eve of the genocide, and in spite of Dallaire's efforts, 800,000 people were killed.
Previous instances of genocide, specifically Rwanda, drastically changed how governments reacted in the future, said Power, noting the incidents of intervention in 1995 on behalf of Bosnian Muslims, and in 1999 on behalf of the Kosovars.
Power also discussed the origin of the term "genocide." Raphael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer and intellectual, was deeply affected by accounts of the 1915 Turkish campaign against Armenians. During World War II, over 40 members of his family were killed by the Nazis. Lemkin became obsessed with the idea of developing a legal term for these atrocities, so that they might be recognized, punished, and prevented as an international crime.
States are sometimes hesitant to apply the word "genocide" to violence that is taking place elsewhere in the world because the Geneva Convention and international law compel them to act against this crime, Power said. Power called this a problem of diagnosis, but said that the United States' historic hesitancy to get involved shows that we take the crime seriously.
Power also said that the Armenian case should be used as the standard against which genocide is measured, and not the Holocaust -- the event that most people refer to when they refer to the word. Measuring events of genocide against the Holocaust would cause every case to look less severe, since six million people died in that tragedy.
Audience members appeared to enjoy the speech. Professor Gerald Gill of the History Department praised the comprehensiveness of the lecture. He said that Power gave a "timely and topical" look at the unwillingness of presidential administrations and American interest groups to "mobilize American public opinion in support of humanitarian or military intervention against campaigns of genocide, including the Armenian genocide."
Students who were previously unfamiliar with the Armenian genocide were pleased that Power's address was accessible to all. Graduate student Hira Bhattacharyya said, "she was extremely prolific and it was very easy to get through... She spoke on genocide in general, not just the Armenian case."
Over one million Armenians were killed by the Turkish government from 1915 to 1917. The Armenians were the only major Christian minority in the ailing Ottoman Empire. Today, the United States and Turkey still fail to recognize that genocide occurred. Power recognizes the genocide, which has gained her strong Armenian support.
Power is the author of A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide the winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction. Power worked as a journalist in the former Yugoslavia, where she became interested in the relationship between US foreign policy and genocide. She founded the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where she currently teaches a class and also received her law degree.
Power was introduced by Tufts History Professor Ina Baghdiantz McCabe. Power followed up her speech with a question and answer session, and the event concluded with a prayer led by Reverend Vasken Kouzouian. The speech and ceremony took place in Goddard Chapel, with a reception following in Cabot.
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