N. Lygeros
Translation: Paola Vagioni
The victims of genocide have the tendency to consider it as
unique. It must be said that the pain and horror are such that do not permit a
strategic analysis of the mechanisms that take place in order to achieve the
extermination of a nation. However, even if we believe that genocides follow
one another but do not resemble each other, there are common points. And
besides, it is these common points that satisfy the criteria of the United
Nations, which allow us to qualify these crimes against humanity as genocide.
Going even further in this sense, we can promote deeper mental schemata. In reality,
despite our knowledge regarding the measure of its systematization, we do not
analyze the measure of its effectiveness. Yet it is undoubtedly the most
important point for the committer of genocide. And it is this point that binds
it to history since it is bound to the notion of experience. The people that
have underwent a genocide, trapped in their suffering, face great difficulties
in decontextualizing their genocide in order to observe and study the
guidelines of the barbaric conduct of the committers because even in barbarity,
there is method. It is among others, one of the characteristics of the notion
of genocide. Yet it is the effectiveness that is the core of the method. The
thorough examination of the genocide of the Armenians, the Assyrian-Chaldean,
the Pontians, the Ukranians and the Jews, demonstrates that their systematic
character becomes increasingly effective. The genocide of the Armenians itself
is composed of several phases - Hamidian, Neo-Turkish and Kemalist - and each
one is more effective than the previous one. By always relying on the risk of a
revolt capable of undermining the state structures, the committers of genocide
endeavor, according to them, to fight against evil at the root. For them, it is
not only about eliminating but truly eradicating. At this level, how can we not
mention the massive use of German military methodology on behalf of the Turks
in order to reach their objective. The pretext for the creation of armed groups
slowly becomes a strategic stratagem. Initially the pretext allows the
activation of a state reaction. Only the asymmetrical character of the later,
causes reactions from the international community even if it is not powerful
enough to stop the genocidal process. So the committer of genocide, in this case
Turkey, activates the massive displacements technique that exploits climate
conditions for increasing the internal frictions described by Clausewitz, in
the framework of troop movements on the logistics level. These internal
frictions, in this divergent framework, cause considerable losses without being
directly held accountable for them. It is in this way that the notion of
discretion appears, which will be exploited to the utmost in the “white”
massacre against the Pontians. The Stalinist regime, which closely followed the
evolution of the Treaty of Sèvres, Lausanne and Kars, knew how to increase the
performance of this technique for eliminating the Ukrainian people. It created
from scratch the risk of the creation of armed groups, put into effect massive
displacements, separated the population into categories in order to create
internal frictions, politicized the purification in order to avoid racial
critiques and prohibited every mentioning of this genocide thanks to the
infiltration, the anthropophagy and the state machine. This genocide brought
out the interest to incorporate the negation of the genocide in the
extermination phase. This lesson was extremely useful to the Nazi regime, which
from the beginning put into effect a true network of massive destruction to
bring, according to its own terms, a final solution to the Jewish issue. This
time the genocide was not only effective via the scientific character of
logistics but moreover it was discrete up to the point that it wasn’t
discovered but several years after. In this framework the Nazi regime did not
have to deny the committed genocide since it had done everything it could to
erase every trace of its existence gradually, during its realization. We see
through this strategic analysis of genocides that the committers of genocide
learn the techniques of their predecessors in order to improve their
effectiveness and their discretion. The aim of this is for not having to go
through the consequences of their acts. This proves the necessity for the strategic
approach of genocides in order to understand the historical implementation of
their systematic destruction mechanism. The strategy of the committers of
genocide uses the experience of the previous ones. While the righteous and the
victims who confine themselves to fighting uniquely in the framework of defense
of human rights, do not incorporate these elements. So their fight is uneven.
We have to strive therefore to find the common points of genocides in order to
fight effectively against the executioners, in order to establish a true
jurisprudence, which will increase the strength of our legal weapons. For it is
as true warriors of peace, that we must address the fight against genocides if
we really want to help humanity in not suffering these crimes. For the
committers of genocide, strategy is a luxury that facilitates things. For the
victims and the righteous, it is a necessity. And this corresponds to the
nature of strategy, which represents the only way the weak have for defending
themselves against the strong. The lack of comprehension of this reality is a
suicide that humanity has nothing to do with. Humanity aids every
nation-victim. Only this is not enough. Every nation-victim must also help it
to help. Such is the mental schema that the strategic analysis of genocides
teaches us.