Canadian-Armenian Citizenship Judge Aris Babikian has made great contributions to the Canadian government’s recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide and has helped raise the reputation of Armenia and Armenians in Canada. The road that he has taken serves as the best example of “a triumphant struggle” for identity and naturalization-something that every Diaspora Armenian comes into conflict with on a daily basis.

First, who is Aris Babikian?

Aris Babikian: My mother was indigenously from Lebanon, and my father is Syrian. I was born in Qamishli, but due to my father’s job, we had to move from one country to the next and live in different cities, including Qamishli, Aleppo, Damascus, Beirut, etc.

After living in Lebanon until 1976, I moved to Greece and lived there for two years. Later, I moved to Canada where I have been living for 38 years now.

After settling in Canada, I became a scout leader, a football coach and was a member of the Homenetmen Toronto team. I also started getting involved in the solution to the Armenian Cause, but when I started having too much on my hands, I could no longer do my best in all areas. I had to stop being the scout leader and coaching. I focused only on the political field.

Hayern Aysor: Mr. Babikian, Canada is one of the countries where the Armenian Genocide has been recognized at various levels. It’s clear that this doesn’t happen just like that. Nobody talks about the efforts of the Armenian community and the Armenian National Committee. Could you tell us about those efforts with your example?

A. B.: I actually haven’t been involved in the efforts. I have been mainly focused in other areas, including government, parliament, education and the media. I have also worked with ethnic groups and multicultural organizations.

I was doing this until 1989. Before the Spitak Earthquake and the Artsakh movement, the Armenian National Committee of Canada was focused on recognition of the Armenian Genocide at the political level.

Various attempts have been made for the Canadian parliament’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide.  The first was in 1980, but it was a failed attempt. We tried again two or three years later, but the Armenian community went against the resolution because the government of the time wanted to combine the recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the terrorist acts that were taking place at the time in one resolution. The Armenian community rejected that approach. We clearly told our deputies that if they continued to work like this, we would be forced to stop, and that’s exactly what happened. According to the laws of the parliament, we failed to adopt the resolution.

More and more attempts were made until 1999 when we and the Quebec Liberal Party managed to dedicate an entire parliamentary session to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide for the first time ever. The debate lasted 6-7 hours. The resolution was devoted to the Canadian parliament’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide. There was a lot of opposition from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It wasn’t from the minister, but the officials. At the time, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs was a German man by the name of Paul Heinbecker, who had gotten married to a Turkish woman and had served as Canada’s Ambassador to Turkey. He was a pro-Turkish official and was doing everything he could to stop the debate.

After long debates, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs accepted the resolution that we had drawn up. It only replaced the word “genocide” with the word “tragedy”.

We had long conversations with our friendly deputies. If we hadn’t accepted the change of the word, the resolution wouldn’t pass. The resolution recalled the year 1915, the Armenian Tragedy, etc. Our friendly deputies advised us not to go against the adoption of that resolution. They said this would be the first step and that later we would work on using the term “genocide”. And that’s exactly what happened.

After that attempt, in 2002, we started working with a new approach. Until then, we had been focusing on the Parliament. After consultations, we decided to move in different directions so that we could surprise the Turkish lobby and embassy.

We decided to submit a resolution on Armenian Genocide recognition to the Senate. After long negotiations that lasted nearly 6 months, the Senate of Canada finally recognized the Armenian Genocide in 2002.

After that, it became easier to put the resolution up for a discussion in Parliament, and we managed to do that in 2004.

After the 2006 federal elections, the Conservative Party formed a minority, the leader of which is current Prime Minister Steven Harper. Jason Kenney, who is Canada’s current Minister of Defense, is a very good friend of the Armenian community. When the government had just been formed in 2006, Jason was an advisor to the Prime Minister. We approached him and asked to find out if the government could recognize the Armenian Genocide.

After long talks, Jason Kenney said the Prime Minister was ready. During a June 19 press conference, the Prime Minister of Canada officially recognized the Armenian Genocide as a state policy, and the official announcement followed shortly after.

Since 2006, every April 24^th, Canada’s Prime Minister has promulgated a special proclamation, declaring April 24^th as a Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.

As far as the efforts at the state level are concerned, the Parliaments of Canada’s three major states (Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia) have also passed resolutions on Armenian Genocide recognition. Today, these three states represent about 75-80% of Canada’s population.

In addition, there are several Canadian organizations that have recognized the Armenian Genocide.

Hayern Aysor: Mr. Babikian, the Armenian Genocide has been recognized in Canada over the past 20-22 years, but Canada has been associated with the Armenian Genocide for a longer period of time.

A. B.: You’re right. In 1921-22, the queen’s representative led an organization in Canada that organized a fundraiser to help the survivors of the Armenian Genocide and raised nearly $300,000 dollars. Canada’s Globe And Mail newspaper, which is currently one of the world’s top ten newspapers, led the campaign and urged Canadians to participate in the fundraiser.

There’s another interesting story. At the time, Canada wasn’t an independent country. It was under the dominance of England. After WWI, among other Western countries, England also received funding from the Ottoman government to repair the damages that it had suffered during the war. Some of the money was sent to Canada so that it could be allocated to the Armenians who had moved to Canada following the Armenian Genocide. In those days, Armenians received nearly $30,000 dollars from the British government, which was indirectly from the Ottoman government.

There’s another case of Canada’s participation. In 1922, the Canadians traveled to the Middle East and visited the camps where Armenian orphans were staying. They brought about 140 Armenian orphans between the ages of 8 and 10. They purchased a farm in southern Ontario and helped them settle there. They started taking care of them and providing them with education. Those children were referred to as Georgetown children since the farm was close to the city of Georgetown.

There are documents verifying all this and stating that Canada has been associated with the Armenian Genocide for a long time. The country has played an active role since the very first days.

Over time, the Canadian-Armenian community has made quite a lot of contributions in different areas, including culture, society, economy, education, science and more. Some of those Armenians are Yusuf Karsh, who is a proclaimed photographer in Canada and abroad, as well as Professor Seferian, who used to be economic adviser to one of Canada’s Prime Ministers Pierre Trudo.

Nowadays, we can name Atom Egoyan, Arsineh Khanjian, Isabel Bairakdarian, Hrand Ailanak and others. There are other Armenians who have played an active role and have been able to create a positive attitude towards the Armenians in Canada with their actions and daily lives.

This is the brief history of Canada’s association with the Armenian Genocide.

Hayern Aysor: What steps need to be taken in the future?

A. B.: Currently, the same government that recognized the Armenian Genocide as a state policy has submitted to the Parliament a resolution on the Armenian Genocide. The purpose of the resolution is to declare the month of April as the month for commemoration, condemnation and prevention of genocide. Why April? It’s because in Canada there are three dates to commemorate genocides, including April 7^th (Day of Remembrance of the Rwandan genocide), April 19^th (Day of Commemoration of the Jewish Holocaust) and April 24^th (Day of Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide). Alongside these commemorations is the commemoration of the Ukrainian Holodomor, which is commemorated in the last week of November. These four crimes will be commemorated in April. We expect the adoption of this resolution in early June.

Although all the steps for recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide have been taken through the parliament and government, the Turkish and Azerbaijani lobbies and embassies work constantly. They take advantage of any opportunity to make sure recognition is reconsidered not only at the political level, but also educational.

In 2008, the educational district of Toronto, which is the largest district of public schools in Canada, passed a resolution according to which 11^th grade students learn about the Armenian Genocide in school. During lessons, the students learn about the Jewish, Rwandan and Armenian genocides. The Turks and Azerbaijanis were trying to lead the passage of this resolution to failure as well. I must say that the Turkish and Azerbaijani organizations have a lot of funding. In addition to embassies, they have community organizations that provide Canada’s specialized companies that carry out lobbying under the veil of PR.

This is the overall atmosphere and the issues in relation to the Armenian Genocide in Canada. We Armenians always have to be alert. The last attempt was in the Canadian Senate a couple of months ago when the Turks and Azerbaijanis led a campaign, demanding that Canada reconsider recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

True, there has been recognition, but we have to be alert. We have to work with the Canadian government to lay strong foundations for Canada-Armenia relations and cooperation.

Canada and Armenia have the desire for and a positive approach to cooperation. We have to plan everything and specify the areas in which Canada can be of help to Armenia.

I believe the Armenian community has a lot of work to do in this regard. I’m certain that it can play an active role in this after the events commemorating the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

Of course, one of the other issues is the involvement of youth not only within the community, but in the political life of the country as well. Unfortunately, Armenian youth aren’t involved in Canada’s politics. There are very few young Armenians holding office. There are two young Armenians who are advisers to ministers. There are others who are members of different state organizations. However, we need to work harder. Our youth can do more. That’s why we need to encourage them.

Of course, we have economic, cultural, religious and other interests and programs, but our participation in Canada’s public and political life is justified by three issues, including recognition of the Armenian Genocide, Armenia-Canada relations and Armenian youth’s active involvement in Canada’s politics.

Hayern Aysor: Mr. Babikian, you are currently Canada’s Citizenship Judge. How were you able to become the country’s citizenship judge? What kind of road did you take?

A. B.: The appointment was actually interesting. I had never thought about this at all. Jason Kenney is a longtime friend of mine. I have known him since 1990 and have worked with him and his political party which, as I mentioned, played an active role in the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

In 2005, it was decided to open an Armenian National Committee Office in Ottawa because it was important to have a presence in Canada’s capital. Despite the fact that we had active communities in Montreal, Toronto, British Columbia and other cities that work seriously in the field of politics, that wasn’t enough because when those people move to the capital, we lose contact with not only them, but their advisers who play an important role when it comes to making political decisions. We had to establish relations with those people.

We faced other difficulties. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Canada was quite anti-Armenian, and the key role-player was Paul Heinbecker, who had been able to train diplomats with anti-Armenian approaches.

For these reasons, we decided to open an Armenian National Committee Office in the capital city. It was decided that I would be the director of the office, and I moved from Toronto to Ottawa. About four years later, Jason Kenney was appointed Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. During those days, he had to appoint judges and nominated me, saying that he had known me for many years and knew that I was not only devoted to the Armenian community, but also instilled confidence with the achievements that I had made in the country’s public and political life. After considering it for a while, I decided to accept the offer and was appointed in 2009.

Turkish and Azerbaijani embassies, communities and lobbying organizations fought against my appointment for six months, writing articles, holding protests and sending letters to the Prime Minister. Their main concern was that I had been involved with the Armenian Cause for 28 years, and they saw a danger. They even declared me as anti-Turkish. Fortunately, Jason Kenney was firm in his decision.

When I was appointed judge, I certainly had to stop working for other organizations and could no longer be a member of various organizations. As a judge, you have to be fair and neutral. I also stopped carrying out activities for the Armenian Cause.

Hayern Aysor: Armenians in the Diaspora face a great danger of assimilation. You serve as the best example of a person who has preserved his identity and has managed to achieve success in Canada’s public and political life. How is that possible? Is it a matter of desire, or opportunities?

A. B.: Canada is a country that very easily provides one with the opportunity to preserve his national identity and become involved in the country’s public, political and economic life. Canada is one of the countries that doesn’t discriminate against a person’s religion and national belonging.

I think it mainly depends on the person. If you have a name that stands out from the rest, follow a different religion or have a different skin color, there is nothing that can stand in your way to become successful in the profession that you have chosen. I don’t have any problem with preserving my identity and remembering my history and being an active member in the country’s public and political life at the same time.

Alongside my job as a judge, I also give lectures about Canadian values and naturalization at various centers and educational institutions from time to time. I always stress that the youth can have and maintain all this and that there shouldn’t be any reason to go against each other and fail.

I say the same to Armenian youth and encourage them to be active in politics. They should be proud to be Armenian and Canadian at the same time.

Hayern Aysor: Mr. Babikian, the topic and pivot of discussions these days is the Armenian Genocide. What impact did it have on your family?

A. B.: The Armenian Genocide had a direct and indirect impact on me and my family. It was indirect because my grandfather is a survivor of the Armenian Genocide. He was five years old and was saved by a miracle. He lost six brothers and sisters, and his younger sister was killed in front of his own eyes. His mother had managed to escape and settle in Qamishli where my grandfather started a family and became a successful businessman. Our whole family felt the horrors of the Genocide.

It also had a direct impact, and that is Turkey’s policy of denial. Although we haven’t directly experienced the Armenian Genocide and haven’t testified the massacres of our family and relatives, Turkey’s policy of denial calls into question our history, the history of our families and our past. It’s hard to cope with that. If anyone tells you that you haven’t suffered any losses, your history is a lie and your family wasn’t massacred, you feel indirectly impacted as a third of fourth generation Armenian. This is what made me and became a reason for me to focus on politics, as well as on recognition, condemnation and commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.

Hayern Aysor: Mr. Babikian, I am aware that you had visited Artsakh in the 1990s and have very interesting memories. I would like for us to end the interview with those memories.

A. B. In 1991, I visited the homeland for the first time and stayed in Armenia for a month and a half. The main purpose of my visit was to participate in the first presidential elections. We wanted the Canadian media to provide coverage of the event. I was with Canadian journalists who conducted various interviews with several people, presidential candidates and leaders of political parties. At the time, Caroline Cox was in Armenia and was going to travel to Artsakh. I was asked to join her. I agreed, and when my fellow Canadian correspondents found out that I was going, they also wanted to come.

The three days in Artsakh were quite interesting. Those were very difficult times. The city was in a blockade and was constantly being bombed. There was no food, water or electricity. We had a chance to visit hospitals and the military positions. We also visited Shosh village, which is in the lower part of Shushi.

The thing that impressed me and Caroline Cox was the wedding in Artsakh. One night, we were invited to a reception. When we entered the hall, we saw that we were invited to a wedding. Despite all the difficulties, the people of Artsakh had decided that they were going to live and survive.

When we entered the hall, there was so much food on the table that the tablecloth couldn’t be seen. Caroline Cox was amazed at how these people had managed to organize such a splendid event in a war and blockade. When we asked about the event, we were told that all the people of Stepanakert had helped organize the event because they had wanted to let the world know that nothing can bring the people of Artsakh down to their knees. When I told Caroline all that, she wanted to say something, but she cried and couldn’t hold back her tears.

That visit was quite historic and interesting. As a Diaspora Armenian, I visited Artsakh for the first time and saw the courageous people of Artsakh and saw that they had a powerful spirit.

After that, I visited Artsakh another five or six times. I have witnessed how the country has developed and has become a country that has all the values of a state. I take pride in the achievements of the people of Artsakh. They’re the achievements of not only the people of Artsakh, but the achievements of all Armenians as well. After 600 years of losing and being slaves, we Armenians had finally managed to achieve victory due to the people of Artsakh and, of course, Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora. I see how people generously support the people of Artsakh.

Interview by Lusine Abrahamyan