More on the Rohingya

This is preview of part of my news post for next week:


One of the many major problems with Turkey at the moment, is its refusal to admit to the Armenian genocide (actually one of several genocides committed by the Ottoman Empire that Turkey came out of) – which extends as far as violently  refusing to allow use of that phrase. Such a denial of a key event is a negation of those people – it causes mental harm (in contravention of Item (b) of Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide), is part of the denial stage (of the 8 stages of genocide) in the case of Turkey and the Armenians (and others), and fits into – in my view – part of the dehumanisation stage of the genocide process – as does the removal of citizenship that formerly existed. (I’m personally familiar with such processes because of the abuse that I and other members of the LGBT communities have undergone – and still do. Misgendering is a particularly vicious example.) I’m therefore quite concerned that the report of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State agrees to not use the term Rohingya – at the request of the now thoroughly discredited State Counsellor.
The report does pick up on quite a few other issues (the disempowerment of women, poverty, etc), however, and, in “diplomaticese”, reasonably strongly urges actions on key issues for the Rohingya such as statelessness.
The report was delivered in August, but it is evident, from a Press Conference last week, that discussions on it have been proceeding – away from the too often pre-judgemental glare of publicity, although that will require activists to be prepared to react quickly to anything which may be announced. It is promising that some positive steps appear to have been taken in response to the interim report, but those have probably been overwhelmed by recent events.