Yesterday’s Collective Traumatization And Today’s Unresolved Conflict

On behalf of the International Confederation of Pontian Hellenes ‘The Destruction of an Ancient Civilisation: the Genocide of the Greeks of the Ottoman Empire”

At the House of Lords, London, 24 May 21071

by Pamela Steiner, Ed.D. Senior Fellow, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University

Hello, everyone. Thank you to the Pontian Hellenes for inviting me to speak. I’m especially

pleased and honored to be here because I am a lifelong anglophile and philhellene.

The perspective I’ll offer is that of the impact of collective trauma and traumatization on the

Balkan peoples and on some of the peoples of the former Ottoman and Russian empires. I’m a

practicing psychologist and a facilitator of conflict resolution work. I try to understand the

psychology of mass murder and genocide, an effort that is sometimes, but should not be,

confused with excusing or absolving those responsible. My work aims at prevention,

accountability, and development of sustainable, productive relationships both between enemies

and between former enemies.

My talk is in three parts. First, I’ll briefly explain my terms. In part two, I change gears. I’ll offer

an account of the collective traumatization that occurred during the First World War involving

the Pontic Greeks, Armenians, and others of the Ottoman Empire. At that historical moment, the

1 The event was scheduled to take place in the Cholmondeley Room and Terrace in the House of Lords. But on May 23 a large terrorist attack killed and injured many people in Manchester, England. The Palace of Westminster closed down for some days afterwards. The Pontian Hellene event was held nearby in Church House, Westminster Abbey Precincts.

1

situations of the Pontic Greeks and Armenians were in good part similar. Then the story moves

to the Muslim Azerbaijanis, also known as Azeris, and to the Armenians of the Russian Empire

in Transcaucasia.

Transcaucasia, today known as the South Caucasus, is adjacent to and to the east of the former

Ottoman Empire. It contains the neighboring states of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Part two also

includes a snapshot of the current situation in the Balkans, located to the west of the former

Ottoman Empire. In my brief conclusion, I’ll suggest a way to address collective traumatization.

A forewarning. To make my argument, I present a lot of information! I trust your intuitive minds

to take it in.

First, my terms. I distinguish collective trauma from collective traumatization. Collective trauma

is an event or events caused by human beings or by natural forces. I will speak only about

objectively observable, perceptible, concrete, humanly caused physical events such as genocide,

war, ethnic cleansing, anarchy, 9/11, Manchester.

Collective trauma causes collective traumatization. Collective traumatization is the intangible

psychological experience of trauma, the impact of traumatic events on a people’s collective

mind. I’m not saying that the existence of a collective mind is any more literal than the existence

of our own minds that each of us, individually, possesses. But the minds of each of us, also, as

members of groups with group identities, partakes in collective minds, the minds of our identity

groups. These are groups composed of individuals of the same gender, race, religion, occupation,

nationality, and many other categories.

2

Collective traumatization is evident in a collective mind when it exhibits mixes of persistent fear,

anxiety, mistrust, horror, humiliation, rage, hatred, hurt, pain, aggression, grief, depression,

vengefulness. These feelings are often hidden, inchoate, unexpressed, denied, unconscious.

One effect of collective traumatization in collective minds is to misperceive or distort reality. In

a protracted conflict, for example, one or both parties often distort reality when they believe all

blame lies with the other side and that it is the sole victim.

The distortions of reality on the one hand and the power of the difficult feelings on the other also

determine that the collective mind manifests limited emotional range, limited imagination, and

limited meaning-making and the great likelihood of destructive action.

When collective traumatic events continue over time, a people, which is already traumatized, is

retraumatized. When collective traumatization is not healed, at least to some extent, it gives rise

to intergenerational or transmitted collective traumatization.

 

Changing gears but using the terms just discussed, here’s my story of destructive inter-connected

encounters lasting over a hundred years in the larger Near East region. The Pontian Greeks figure

only at the beginning. I tell this story because it illustrates dramatically how collective trauma is

linked to transmitted collective traumatization and retraumatization, in this case, by repetitive

mass murder and violence. The maps handed out will be useful now.

My story begins in the 1890s with the Ottoman persecution and massacres of Armenians while

the genocides of the Christian minorities, Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians of the Ottoman

Empire occurred primarily during the First World War. Throughout this period in adjacent

3

Transcaucasia, ruled by the Christian Russian Empire, both Armenians and Muslims were

mistreated, but not as lethally as were the Christian peoples of the Ottoman Empire. From 1905-

1907, the Russian Empire had already successfully manipulated Russian Armenians and

Muslims into fighting a bitter, mindless, and extremely destructive, civil war.

Towards the end of the First World War the Russian revolutions of 1917 had occurred and led to

violence and anarchy in Transcaucasia. The Ottomans then invaded Transcaucasia, carrying their

genocidal aims with them. This was the same historical moment, the same army, and close to the

same place — Pontus in northeastern Turkey —in which one of the comprehensive genocidal

events against the Pontic Greeks took place. The Ottoman army’s entry into Transcaucasia added

to that region’s existing anarchy, violence, and enmity, especially between that the Armenian and

Muslim peoples.

After the war Transcaucasia was taken over by the USSR. For the next nearly 70 years, the

Transcaucasian Armenians lived in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia and Transcaucasian

Azeris in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan. Each contained a large minority of the

other’s people.

Within Azerbaijan was the territory of Karabakh. Transcaucasian Armenians made up 75% of

Karabakh’s population, Azeri Muslims 25 %. Over these seven decades all these populations

lived under the traumatic threat or often the deadly actuality of persecution by the USSR.

In 1988, as the USSR was breaking up, the Karabakh Parliament petitioned Moscow to separate

from Soviet Azerbaijan and join Soviet Armenia, against the wishes of its Azeri population.

Azerbaijan reacted negatively. The Soviets refused. Karabakh had to remain part of Azerbaijan.

Repressed traumatization, in the form of violence, had begun erupting. When the actual breakup

4

of the USSR came, it created some open space. Repressed reaction to long past and recent

traumatization entered that space in the form of another bitter, far more destructive war between

Armenians and Azeris over Karabakh. A 1994 ceasefire finally stopped the fighting. But, ever

since, Azerbaijan has recurrently broken the ceasefire and Armenians have responded

proportionately. Today, however, the situation may be more fluid and escalatory than that. Is it

volatile? Yes.

This series of violent encounters spanning over one hundred years is heavily revenge-driven. It

had rendered and renders the peoples of Armenia, Karabakh, and Azerbaijan traumatized. Their

traumatization contributes to disabling them from resolving their relationships. That is, both

peoples seem unable to use or develop capacities of mind to figure out how to avoid repetitive

destruction and make their lives productive. They are nurturing a perfect storm of more violence

—and traumatization.

Russia has the muscle to prevent further conflict between Armenians and Azeris. But Russia acts

to keep both peoples under its orbit. It arms both. Turkey, too, could contribute to preventing

further conflict. However, in 2008 Turkey and Armenia had agreed on, but not signed, a

document, called The Protocols, to normalize their relations. But it was not signed because, on

Turkey’s part, Azerbaijan objected, calling on its special relationship with its “Turkish brothers.”

If Turkey signed The Protocols, it would be a slap to Azerbaijan. Why? Azerbaijan’s enemy is

Armenia because of the Karabakh conflict. Turkey’s enemy is also Armenia because Armenians

dispute Turkey’s denial of the Armenian genocide. Thus, collusion by other countries with

Turkey’s consistent denial of the Armenian Genocide may thus lend support to continuation of

5

these connected, long-lasting conflicts between the Azeri and Armenian peoples of the South

Caucasus.

Now my snapshot of today’s Balkans. A month ago in a reputable American newspaper, a well-

informed policy analyst summarized the current relationship between Russia and seven Balkan

countries excluding Greece, with regard to NATO, interference in elections, and control of the

media and social media. He concludes: "Putin cynically pursues Russia’s self-interest …. To

[him], the Balkans represent a vulnerable underbelly of the West, ripe for meddling.”2 Russia

will likely continue its un-benign interference, including encouragement of inter-state conflict.

Russia’s weaker, fraternal twin in the Near East is Turkey. If we narrow our Balkan focus to

current Greek-Turkish relations, Cyprus might be a good place to look. Cypriot Greeks and

Turks in the island’s peace movement have campaigned for years to end division and

militarization of the island. Just in February substantial progress was made on many issues, long

under negotiation. But, then, Turkey’s President Erdogan, stirring up division, threatened

maximalist demands for security. Mistrust between the two Cypriot peoples soon reappeared.

At the official level in Turkey for as long as Erdogan keeps his grip, support for laying a basis

for resolving conflict, starting with truth about the past, such as recognition of the Greek

genocide, will take second place to keeping the official, malignant Turkish narrative in place.

To conclude, I offer two recommendations for action. The first is the important step of

Parliament’s recognition of the Greek genocide if it were held to in spite of predictable pushback

and threats from Erdogan. Recognition requires that the truth be told publicly. This is what

2 David L. Phillips, “Russia Risks a New Cold War in the Balkans,” The Huffington Post, 4/25/17.

6

recognition is. Such a move on the high ground, which some states in this world must take,

would certainly strengthen those many Turks deeply wanting their democracy restored and

remove some clout and credibility from denialists. Public acknowledgement of truth begins the

process of replacement of malignant, divisive, win/lose narratives.

However, much more than recognition is needed for resolution, not only to prevent repetitive

violence, but to achieve stable, productive co-existence. If collective traumatization distorts

perception of reality and impedes development of judgment and imaginative policies, other

initiatives are needed. My second recommendation would be for the UK to develop and sponsor

a new kind of process for empowerment, a joint governmental/civil society initiative for the

Pontic Greeks to address, collectively, among themselves, their losses and grief, and the

limitations of choice imposed on the collective mind by collective traumatization and collective

transmitted traumatization.3

Empowerment cannot occur without healing.

Quite a lot of healing can occur without recognition by the perpetrator.

Healing is needed even with recognition.

*

3 On further thought, it might be more empowering for the Pontian Helene community to initiate and conduct such a healing process entirely themselves.

7

The three maps below accompany the talk, “Yesterday’s Collective Traumatization and Today’s Unresolved Conflict,” by Pamela Steiner.

The owner or creator of the two maps to follow was not shown where Google produced them.

8

9