To Penalize Genocide Denial is to ‘Fall into the Mistake of Political Correctness’: Zizek

Prominent Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek advised Turkey to “apologize for the horrible things happened in 1915” in an ironic way by saying “this was part of us becoming a modern European nation state,” the Hürriyet Daily News reports.

“Why is it wrong for Turkey to apologize but also put the blame on Europe? By apologizing, do not fall into the trap of apologizing to Europe. These were wild times. What were the Western powers doing at the same time in their colonies?” said Žižek in an interview with the Hürriyet yesterday.

He said Turkey could admit that “something horrible happened to Armenians” without isolating itself.

He also said he did not like Europe stigmatizing Turkey as an exception on these issues and the killings of Armenians in 1915 and 1916 were not the same as the Jewish Holocaust of World War II. “It was a little-planned, chaotic operation, rather than an industrial decision to clean out Armenians,” he said.

Žižek also criticized the recent bill adopted by the French Senate penalizing genocide denial (including the Armenian Genocide) for falling into the mistake of political correctness, which only served to reproduce racism.

“The problem with political correctness is that if you legalize things that are already in your habits […] it is counter-productive in the long term. Even with the Holocaust it is problematic in this sense. Some even wanted to regulate the numbers. Five million were killed, but if you said 4,900,000 Jews were killed you would get penalized. For me, this is the big fiasco of political correctness,” said Žižek.