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‘If we forget the genocide done to us, we are compelled to live it again.’ Aliya Izzetbegovic once told his people who were the descendants of victims of the Srebrenica Genocide which happened in 1995. This inhumane genocide, concealed behind the Bosnian War, led to the deaths of about 8.000 people. The government of Bosnia-Herzegovina built a mausoleum as a symbol for the victims of the Srebrenica Massacre which bitterly violated the basic human rights. The public of Bosnia-Herzegovina commemorates the victims of this genocide every 11 July with anger and grief. Currently, these types of decimations still occur; however, even though many institutions and organizations declare that they attach importance to human rights, contrary to their statements, they stay silent about slaughtered families. It should be known that genocides concealed behind wars violate human rights in several ways.
First, genocide is a threat targeting society’s right to live. The right to live is a substantive right of humans; thus, every homicide that attempts against someone’s life with the intent to exterminate a specific religious, ethnic, or national group serves genocide. The purpose of effacing targeted people is completely contrary to human rights. Most of the genocides do not discriminate based on age or gender as we can see in Gaza Strip recently. This leads to huge impacts of the massacre which have reached to the point of no return. Especially, the young population of the targeted society face greater risks to survive, which underlies the plans of their families; therefore, the genocide becomes also a great dash to the future of that community.
Second, a genocide is a threat to target society’s right to liberty. Forcing people to live in concentration camps, as Nazi Germany did in 1940’s, is a breach of the right to liberty. The concentration camps established by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime were designed as part of the Jewish genocide called ‘’The Final Solution’’. The main purpose of these camps is to collect people of specific ethnic, religious and other targeted groups and to use them for forced labor torturing them and ultimately killing them. The most known concentration camps are Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka and Belzec, which are mainly in Poland. These mostly concrete, razor-wired buildings were the nightmare of certain people because of the brutality of the officers who were in charge of concentration camps. The nightmare of these people could turn into a dream of respect for the right to liberty with the understanding that every human is valuable.
Third, genocide is a threat which targets society’s housing rights. The Gaza War is the biggest example of this violation. The people of Palestine are forced to move from their country because of the Israeli army’s violating actions to establish the Great Israel. This humanitarian plight is a panhuman incident, but especially European countries do not debate this incident in their jurisdictions. Taking sides in incidents affecting all of humanity is as important a crime as the violation of housing rights. This indifferent attitude of European countries, which describe themselves as civilized, is evidence that they have never learned from their past mistakes.
To put it briefly, the genocide concealed behind war is threatening to rights of life, liberty and housing. The diversity of human religions or races is an enhancive element of the world. We must understand that being silent about the genocide is not different from becoming a killer who serves genocide, and we must act according to this idea.
Samet Taksim
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* This photograph is created by Bing.
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