The following letter to the editor, by HAF Director of Public Policy Taniel Koushakjian, was submitted to CNN, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and Miami Herald, in response to recent coverage of the situation in Kashmir in these publications.
Pakistan’s Khan Takes a Page Out of the Holocaust Denial Playbook
When Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan callously tweets about an “impending genocide” in Kashmir, he insults the memories and families of millions of people who perished in the Holocaust and other real genocides of the last century. What many people don’t realize is that insecure fear-mongering of a false threat as a way to justify future violence is a tactic long used by Holocaust perpetrators and their apologists. As a descendant of Armenian Genocide survivors, I and others who share a common history of persecution have a unique sense in identifying such statements taken right out of the Holocaust denial playbook. They are usually followed by victim blaming coupled with sly statements like “Muslims don’t commit genocide” as Khan’s counterpart in Turkey says. The fact is the same forces under Khan’s control facilitated the ethnic cleansing of over 300,000 Hindus from Kashmir Valley in 1989-1990. By crying wolf of what may (unlikely) happen, he covers up his state’s own violent history. Sound familiar?
