OIC to adopt ‘memorial day' for massacres against Muslims

On Friday, representatives of OIC youth organizations came together at İstanbul's Grand Cevahir Hotel for a meeting organized by the Islamic Conference Youth Forum for Dialogue and Cooperation (ICYF-DC) to discuss programs to create awareness of Muslim grievances over the past within the younger generation and foster solidarity among OIC members.

"OIC countries are being confronted by different Islamophobic groups that have developed a plethora of myths of so-called historic violence Muslim countries [perpetrated] against others. That is a conscious strategy to create an image of Muslim peoples as ruthless and Islam as a culture of violence. On the other hand, the world community -- even its most educated strata -- doesn't have any idea about the genocidal campaigns Muslim peoples have been subjected to throughout the 20th century," ICYF-DC Secretary-General Elshad Iskandarov said at the conference.

April 9 was among the proposals for the observance, a date that marks the anniversary of the massacre of Palestinian villagers in Deir Yassin near Jerusalem by Israeli forces in 1948. If chosen as the memorial day for 20th century killings of Muslims, April 9 will also mark other tragedies, such as the Van massacre of Turks by Armenians on May 22, 1916; the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia and Herzegovina perpetrated by Serbs on July 8, 1995; the Sétif and Guelma massacre of May 8, 1945 of Algerians by French forces; and the Khojaly massacre of Azerbaijanis by Armenians on Feb. 26, 1993.

Tamer Gazioğlu, the representative of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC), proposed adding the Muratağa-Sandallar killings of Turkish Cypriots at the hands of Greeks in 1974 to the provisional list.

Azerbaijani delegate Yaşar Hüseynli proposed adding the March 31, 1918 killings that occurred when Armenians took advantage of the chaotic situation in Russia and killed 50,000 Azerbaijanis as "Azerbaijani Genocide Day."

Expressing grievances without enticing war

Palestinian Ambassador Nabil Marouf, who took the floor at yesterday's meeting, asserted that the heart of all massacres against his people lay in Israeli aggression against Palestinians. "Yesterday Israel celebrated its 60th year. Every year, they will remind us of how they have violated our rights," Marouf said and expressed that May 15 should be chosen as the date for commemorating Muslim martyrs.

Ahmed Ismail Mohamed Rashid, representing Jordan, said making May 15 the memorial day would be tantamount to recognizing and legitimizing Israel's official existence.

In response to Marouf's proposal, Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri, director-general of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), described April 9 as "a symbol, a token of our history." The date has been engraved as the beginning of the "Nakbar," or the catastrophe, in the minds of so many Palestinians, he added: "Let's keep it that way. … Let them celebrate their May 15, let us keep Deir Yassin because it is so [deeply] engraved in our memory."

He also said the West sometimes criticized efforts to commemorate past grievances as encouraging conflict. "We are only being faithful to our past and our martyrs. We are not [inciting] violence. We are just reminding people of what happened in the past," he said, adding that all OIC-related organizations were working to establish bridges between Muslim countries and the West by supporting intercultural and dialogue programs.