Xenophobia in leading states – Cultural Genocide of Indians in Canada – COMMENTARY
As societies develop, xenophobia seems to be on the rise in the world. New events are taking place in this direction, the facts are emerging. Xenophobia is the fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners who are different in any way. In most cases, racism is also known as a form of it.
So, xenophobia, one of the most popular words of the last 30 years, is an antonym of integration. It turns out that as integration increases, xenophobia also becomes more popular. These two contradictory events are more pronounced in Western countries. In some cases, people face such discriminations in Russia, China, Iran, and Arab countries.
Europeans occupied the American continent. As a result, more than 15 million locals and Indians underwent genocide. Later, African people were displaced to this place as slaves. Both Indians and Africans, who were victims of human trafficking by Europeans, have changed their beliefs and cultures have been humiliated. A particular missionary system functioned for this purpose. However, assimilation of the local population, being victims of racism and xenophobia, has not bypassed Canada.
Recently, the world press has published articles about the exploitation and sexual abuse of Indian children in boarding schools of Catholic churches in Canada. Indigenous peoples in Canada are still expecting an apology from Pope Francis for the exploitation of children in Catholic boarding schools. He did not take this step. According to the report, about 150,000 three-year-old Indian children were forcibly separated from their homes and families in 1831-1997 and taken to this type of state-funded boarding school. Many of these children have been physically and sexually abused, raped, and malnourished, and some have died due to medical tests. The bodies of many of them have not been returned to their parents. Since 1894, studying in this school has been compulsory for Indians. Children separated from their families were forced to learn English, convert to Christianity, and become carriers of white culture. According to official data, there are boarding schools of 139 Catholic churches in Canada. They are all run by the Catholic Church on behalf of the Canadian government. The remains of more than 200 3-year-old children have been found at a former boarding school in Kamloops, Canada. Since 1978, the school has been under government control. Saa Hiil Sut, a 72-year-old graduate of a boarding school for the Red Catholic Church in Kamloops, spoke of the torture and torture she endured at the school for many years: “The perpetrators are released with impunity. The Vatican has not yet apologized and this shows its indifference to thousands of children’s physical and sexual abuse in those boarding schools. The Pope will not say, “There are 215 children in an unmarked grave at a boarding school in Kamloops.”
Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recalled that the boarding schools were under the control of the church and said that the Vatican was responsible for what had happened and that they should apologize. He also said that the biggest child exploitation in the country’s history took place at the church founded in 2010 and completed in 2015. The prime minister demanded an apology from Pope Francis that year, according to a 4,000-page report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He asked the Pope for this during his visit to the Vatican in 2017 but received no response. The schools were officially closed in 1997. Since 2019, the settlement agreement was in force. This policy against Indians is called “cultural genocide.”
By the way, China has a systematic policy of persecution of Uighur Turks. In 2017, political and ideological training camps for Uyghurs began to operate in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. According to the UN, more than 1 million Uighur Turks are detained in these camps. Beijing claims that only the Chinese language and culture and professional training courses are held there. However, China is reluctant to provide the world community with detailed information about the situation of the Uyghurs there. According to the reports, many famous Uyghur scholars, artists, and professional athletes are supposed to be detained in these camps.
On June 6, Indians, who held a protest in Canada, tore down a statue of Egerton Ryerson, one of the founders of the Catholic boarding school system. Indians, Eskimos, and Aleutians are considered “indigenous”, “indigenous peoples,” “aboriginal peoples in Canada.” According to the 2006 census, there are 732,520 of them in the country.
Xenophobia still continues in Canada. On June 7, a driver hit a Muslim family with a car in London, Ontario, Canada. As a result, four members of the family died. The head of the city police called it an intentional attack: “They were attacked because they are Muslims.” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called for an end to Islamophobia in the country following reports about the deliberate murder of a Muslim family. Islamophobia also prevails in Canada, where indigenous peoples are assimilated. So, there is intolerance among the citizens in this country. It seems ridiculous that a state which is a murder of 3-year-old children of Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts, defends Armenia and Armenians. It is nonsense for the President of this country to talk about a fake Armenian claim.
The coexistence of the Canadian government with French officials, the co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, which protects Armenians and Armenia, does not allow to hide its essence. In this sense, Justin Trudeau‘s apologies for indigenous peoples and his calls against Islamophobia seem artificial. French Islamophobia is unique. It is most evident in the speeches of heads of state. As xenophobia is more prevalent in France, we do not need to give examples of it.
Russia, another OSCE Minsk Group member state, cannot escape xenophobia. “Great Russian chauvinism,” which has been formed in this country for more than a hundred years, continues. On May 28 this year, on the 61st km of the R-255 “Siberia” highway in the Moshkovsky district of Novosibirsk region, the driver of a Toyota car continued to drive, ignoring the request of the traffic police “Stop.” Police began to pursue him. The car stopped in front of a roadside hotel. Several people got out of the car and tried to escape. Police arrested one of the men and took him to a patrol car. Two of the fugitives returned and tried to intervene with the police. One of them videotaped the incident. The other, a 19-year-old Azerbaijani lawyer Vakil Abdullayev, tried to take his mate away from the police. Police Inspector Alexander Gusev shot him in the head. Two days later, Abdullayev died at the hospital. The police were released on bail at the request of the chair of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin. It is not the first discrimination case against Azerbaijanis in Russia. The spread of footage of Orkhan Zeynalov being blindfolded and brought to the room of the Russian Interior Minister on suspicion of killing Yegor Shcherbakov in 2013 was an unprecedented event. “I was beaten, so I gave false testimony. I did not kill anyone. I was not in Moscow on the day of the incident. I was in Kolomna, where I lived,” Orkhan Zeynalov said. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison and was not even deported to the Republic of Azerbaijan. There are many facts of such intolerance against non-Russians in Russia.
In the United States, one of the co-chairs, society also has xenophobia. For example, on May 25, 2020, an African-American, George Floyd, was killed by a white police officer.
It is naive to believe that those who cannot get rid of xenophobia will take a proper position on controversial issues related to Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, they make meaningless statements about the protection of the Armenian cultural heritage in the territory of Azerbaijan. It is also absurd to expect that indigenous peoples will defend the rights of those who are not responsible for the physical and sexual abuse of their 3-year-old children.