04/26/ 04/26/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democry now!

>> why are our children scared to death of people that are supposed to protect and serve him? amy: the family of jacob blake held a sit-in outside the kenosha police headquarters in wisconsin to protest the return to work of the officer who shot jacob blake seven times in the back in front of his three young children, leaving him partially paralyzed. the blake family is calling for the officer to be fired. we will speak to jacob blake, sr. then we look at how state republican lawmakers across the nation are pushing bills to criminalize protests. >> since the killing of george floyd last summer, over 90 bills have been introduced in 35 states. plain ansimple, these bills are a threat to our constitutional rights. amy: many of the bills give immunity to drivers who hi demonstrators with their cars.

we will speak to the mother of heather hayer, who died when a white supremacist rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters in charlottesville in 2017. president biden makes history by recognizing the mass killing armenians in 1915 as genocide. we will speak with the pulitzer prize winning armenian-american poet peter balakian. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. india remains the global epicenter for covid-19, reporting a record number of cases for the fifth straight day today with nearly 353,000 new infections. another 2800 deaths were also reported, pushing the total

death toll to over 195,000 -- though, the true number is expected to be much higher. hospitals are overwhelmed with oxygen and other supplies running out, forcing health workers to turn away patients. >> i came here to get my grandfather treated. he is suffering from covid-19. they are not letting us in. the guard is saying there is no doctor available here. that there is no doctor near the emergency ward, then where will we go? amy: prime minister narendra modi came under renewed fire this weekend after news that twitter agreed to a request by his government to block critical tweets about his response to the pandemic. meanwhile, several countries, including the u.s., have offered to help india battle its devastating surge. the u.s. that it would send equipment and possibly oxygen supplies, some, including the

dean of the brown university school of public health, are calling for the biden administration to send the u.s. excess vaccine supply to india. the tens of millions of astrazeneca vaccines it has in storage. in iraq, a fire at a baghdad hospital treating covid patients killed at least 82 people saturday, most of them patients. the blaze s sparked by an expling oxygen cylinder. the hospital had no smoke detectors, sparkler sister or , fire hoses. this is a family member of one of the victims. >> shouldn't there be supervising authority? this is neglect. hospital birds and there are no firefighting trucks immediately available on? in thailand, officials have amy: shuttered museums, libraries, gyms, parks, and other public venues in bangkok after reporting new records in covid cases and deaths.

japan has declared its third state of emergency just three months ahead of the tokyo summer olympics. new restrictions on bars and restaurants were announced for tokyo and other major cities but officials are resisting a full lockdown. morocco has condemned spain for treating brahim ghali, the leader of the polisario front, for covid-19. the polisario movement is fighting to establish an independent state in western sahara, which was colonized by spain in the 19th century and annexed by morocco in 1975. in other international news, the european union says it will let vaccinated u.s. tourists visit the region this summer after over one year of barring all non-essential travel. here in the united states, many states resumed administering johnson & johnson's coronavirus vaccine over the weekend after the centers for disease control and the food and drug administration ended an 11 day pause on its use. researchers probed its link to an extremely rare blood-clotting condition.

this is janet woodcock, acting fda commissioner. >> together both agencies have full confidence this vaccines known and potential benefits outweigh its potential risks and individuals 18 and older. amy: federal officials said patients, particularly women under the age of 50, should be given a warning about the vaccine. over one third of u.s. adults are now fully vaccinated, with over 50% partially vaccinated, but the rate of vaccination has slowed down over the past weeks. some states are turning down o reducing new vaccine shipments as supply has started to outpace demand. there is now a growing number of people who are not taking the second vaccine. in north carolina, the family of andrew brown, jr. -- who was shot dead last week by police officers serving an arrest warrant -- may finally see the bodycam footage of their loved one's killing today. at least seven sheriff's deputies in elizabeth city have

been put on leave and calls are mounting for the sheriff to step down. andrew brown's son spoke during a press conference with civil rights leaders saturday. >> i never expected this to happen so close to home. he left a close and type family, with each other every day, talking to each other every day. we, my brothers and my sisters, we are what drove him as a person. we made them better. and now i got to live every day, my newborn, without ever getting a chance to meet him at all? and that is going to hurt me every day. i just want justice. amy: meanwhile, in kenosha, wisconsin, protesters gathered over the weekend following news that police officer rusten sheskey would return to work. sheskey, who is white, fired seven shots at point-blank range into the back of 29-year-old african-american father jacob blake last august in front of

three of his children. we'll have more on this after headlines with jacob blake, sr. in maryland, officials say they will review all cases of police-involved deaths that were handled by ex-chief medical examiner dr. david fowler, who testified in derek chauvin's murder case. fowler said the murder of george floyd was not a homicide despite the overwhelming evidence. he has been sued by the family of 19-year-old anton black, a black teen who died in 2018 after he was electrocuted with a taser and pinned down by three white police officers. in virginia, a black man was hospitalized after he was shot by a sheriff's deputy who responded to a 911 call. less than an hour earlier, the same sheriff's deputy drove thae after brown's car broke down. isaiah brown was unarmed and was holding a cordless phone in his hand when the officer fired seven shots at him. brown's family said he was on

the phone with 911 when the police shot him. president biden has made history -- president biden became the first president to recognize the early 20th century massacre of armenians by ottoman turks as a genocide. biden made the comment saturday in a proclamation marking armenian remembrance day. on april 24, 1915, the ottoman empire began a systematic premeditated campaign targeting the armenian people -- an unarmed christian minority living under turkish rule. more than a armenians were million exterminated and another million fled into permanent exile. turkey decried biden's decision and summoned the u.s. ambassador in ankara in protest. we'll have avn nrmeniae the pentagon says it has begun the first stages of its withdrawal from afghanistan and will gradually turn over control of u.s. military bases to afghan forces. sunday's announcement by army general scott miller came as the

taliban reiterated its call for all foreign forces to leave afghanistan by may 1 -- the peace talks in 2020. earlier this month, president biden rolled back the u.s. withdrawal to september 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. the u.n. released an urgent call for action after a shipwreck off the coast of libya claimed an estimated 130 lives this week. it was the largest tragedy in the central mediterranean since the art of t year. 2021 has seen at least twice as many deaths along the dangerous migration route as the same period last ye. the u.n. is calling on nations to strengthen search and rescue operations in the mediterranean, to stop returning refugees to dangerous countries, and to allow for safe disembarkation procedures. israel's military bombed parts

-- launched airstrikes on the besieged gaza strip saturday, targeting what it said were underground tunnels and rocket launchers. the airstrikes followed a barrage of rockets fired from gaza into southern israel. the violence followed israel's decision to close jerusalem's damascus gate of palestinians during the holy month of ramadan. on sunday, thousands of palestinians celebrated, israeli authorities reopened the gate, days of clashes between capping palestinians and israeli police. on thursday, hundreds of ultra-nationalist israelis marched through central jerusalem chanting "death to arabs." this is a palestinian resident osama barham. >> the violations during ramadan and terrorizing the worshipers and threatening to burn groups that belong to far-right israelis, the residents of jerusalem had to react and aim to defend themselves and not an aim to attack.

amy: indonesia's military has located the wreckage of an indonesian navy submarine, with all 53 crew members aboard presumed dead. the submarine broke into three pieces and settled at the bottom of the bali strait at a depth of 850 meters. an indonesian admiral said the navy lost contact with the 44-year-old submarine wednesday ahead of a planned torpedo drill and that the vessel likely suffered an explosion. back in the united states and the louisiana. -- back in the united states in louisiana, state senator troy carter won the special election to fill the seat left open by cedric richmond when he joined the biden administration earlier this year. troy carter, a centrist democrat, beat out state senator karen carter peterson, who was backed by progressives and received an endorsement by new york congressmember alexandria ocasio-cortez. once carter is sworn in, democrats will widen their margin slightly with 219 house members versus 212 republicans. in entertainment news, a scaled-down oscars ceremony was held in los angeles sunday evening with some historic wins.

chloe zhao became the first asian woman -- and only second woman ever to win the academy award for best director -- for the film "nomadland." the film also won best picture. yuh-jung youn became the first korean to win an acting oscar for her role in "minari." daniel kaluuya won best supporting actor for his portrayal of black panther party chairman fred hampton in shaka king's "judas and the black messiah." travon free and martin desmond roe won besthort film for "two distant strangers," which folls a blacman reling his killinby a pole officeover anover. thco-direcrs wore xedos with t names oblack viims of pole violen emblazod their ling. trav free ga an emotnal spee as he accepted his award. >> the polis will kill -- police will kill three people and tomorrow the police will kill thre people inhe day after that the police will kill three people because on average, the

police in america every day killed three people -- which amounts to about 1000 people year. and those people are disproportionately black people. james baldwin once said, the most despicable thing a person can be is indifferent to other people's pain. i just ask that you please not be in different. please, don't be different to our pain. amy: in the pioneering free-form radio host and counterculture icon bob fass has died at the age of 87. for more than five decades, bob hosted the program radio unnameable in new york, which first aireon pacifa station wbai in 1963. his program played host to a number of legendary musicians, including carli simon, odetta, phil ochs, joni mitchell, and bob dylan.

>> this is bob fass. remember, i told you about 10 minutes ago we were going to have someone come up that was naturally temple? -- shirley temple? >> i apologize. >> you want me to introduce you? this is bob dylan. i can't say who it is? all right. amy: that was bob bass and bob dylan. to see our interview with bob bass talking about that conversation, live radio and so much more, go to democracynow.org. and those are some of the headlines this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. relatives and supporters of jacob blake staged a sit-in outside the kenosha police headquarters in wisconsin on sunday to protest the department's decision to allow

police officer rusten sheskey to return to work. last august, sheskey, who is white, fired seven shots at point-blank range into the back of jacob blake as the 29-year-old african american father leaned into his car. inside were three of blake's sons, aged three, five, and eight. jacob blake miraculously survived but was left partially paralyzed. the shooting of blake sparked days of protests in kenosha. sheskey had been on administrative leave, but he recently srted worki a desk job for the department. at least three protesters were arrested sunday, including jacob blake's uncle, justin blake, for blocking the doors to the police station. demonstrators were calling for officer sheskey to be fired and for the release of more information into the department's internal investigation that cleared the officer. this all comes five months after

the district attorney in kenosha announced no charges would be filed against sheskey. in march, jacob blake filed a lawsuit against the officer claiming his actions were excessive and unnecessary. we are joined now by jacob blake sr., the father of jacob blake. he was in kenosha but now back in chicago. thank you so much for being with us. talk about what happened yesterday and also, how is jacob? how is your son? jacob, can you hear us? we're going to go to music break. he seems to be having trouble hearing me, and then we will come back. again, we're talking about the protest outside the kenosha police station around the return of the officer sheskey to work. back in a minute. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "the tyranny of either/or" by evan greer. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. relatives and supporters of jacob blake staged a sit-in outside the kenosha police headquarters in wisconsin on sunday to protest the department's decision to allow police officer rusten sheskey to return to work. rusten sheskey is the white police officer who shot jacob blake at point-blank range seven times while he was reaching into his car where his three little children were. we turn now to jacob blake, sr. you were there last night. thank you so much for joining us. can you talk about when you learned that sheskey had

returned to work? as we said before, he was cleared of any wrongdoing -- also something you what re-investigated. >> wfound out i would say 11 days ago that he went back to work and we plan on the 12th day to stage a rally at that te, we all decided thate would have to go step beyond the rally to get enough attention, that there has been so many injustices carried through this investigation -- amy, thank you for having me amy: so your brother, jacob's uncle, was arrted, justin blake? >> right. justin -- forget the referce name, and there was a young lady. they were arrested. amy: you talk about how you

learn this? is it true that -- well, let me go to a statement earlier this month. kenosha's police chief said in the statement -- on "officer sheskey acted within the law and was consistent with training. was found to have been acting within policy and will not be subjected to discipline. although this incident has been reviewed at multiple levels, i know that some will not be pleased with the outcome. however, given the facts, the only lawful and appropriate decision was made." that is what the kenosha police that. sheskey was returned to work in the midst of the chauvin trial. how did you learn he is back in what are your demands right now? >> we leard he was back, just like everydy else did. we did not know. and then we found out from our law team found out. our demand is for him to be fired.

we are demanding an understanding of wre his weapon was tt was firedt my side. the weapon is gone. so we're calling for the departnt of justice to come in as an outside entity to investigate what is going on in kenosha. amy: have you spoken with anyone in the biden administration? clearly, the attorney general merrick garland, he is investigating a number of police departments now, reconsidering consent decrees, re-imposing them, particularly, looking at the minneapolis police department after the murder of geor floyd. >> if you dinot know, amy, i was sick after president biden's

inaugural -- i was hospitalized for some eight weeks. i did not get a chance to follow up, but w're definitely goin to follow upith the biden administration and we will be speaking witthem later on this week. amy: i am very sorry to hear you were sick. how is your son? how is jacob right now and where easy? >> as of yesterday, amy, he is in great spirits. we talk all the time, text all the time. i went to see him at the desk after i got out of the hospital on my birthday. he is fighter. a fighter. he inot going to give up. he is continuing to blifted up , so he is in much better

spirits than he was. stl paralyzed from the waist down. amy: then of course, there is kyle rittenhouse most of after the shooting of your son by the police officer of the black lives matter protest kyle rittenhouse murdered two people in the streets and was allowed -- >> and maimed another and was allowed to walk off and go home. they gave him water. i don't get it. i don't get it at all. amy: and now news of officers, because of elite, distended officers are raising money for his lega sport. >> ricky schroeder followed up the money. his hatred that they now?

that is the thumbs up thing now i guess. they hate people because they look like i look? i am so perpxed, amy. it is like there are three or ur different americas. there is definitely two different justices. the people that were arrested th my brother yesterday were white. amy: the latest is from "the new york times," police lieutenant of virginia fired after he contributed $25 to defense fund and praised kyle rittenhouse. the lieutenant william kelley, member of the norfolk police department, for nearly 19 years, was relieved of his duties last tuesday by city officials. i wanted to then ask you very quickly before we go, jacob

blake come about what is happening in your home state of north carolina. protests erupting demanding justice for andrew brown, jr., a black man shot dead by elizabeth city police officers serving an arrest warrant wednesday morning. eyewitnesses described an unlawful, unjustified killing by multiple officers who opened fire as brown tried to flee in a vehicle. this is brown's neighbor and longtime friend. >> cut my neighbor across the street. killed. a baby comes running in my room with fear in his face. how do i keep them safe if the people who are supposed to suffer and protect and keep a safe are the ones taking them out? amy: a family lawyer said brown was unarmed and demanded the release of police body-camera footage. apparently, today, the family will be viewing bodycam footage after enormous protest. >> well, you know, our

counterparts flee all the time but they make it to jail. when a black and seems to flee or not the attention, iis murder. you are dead. i don't understand that either. amy: finally, your responsto the verdict in the derek chauvin order trial? derek chauvin, convicted of rdering george floyd. >> well, had that youngady not been there with the camerahe whole time, none of this -- you understand, none of this would have happened. it would have just been hears. but you saw what happened. jury saw what happened and came to the correct conclusion. and that is a step in the right direction. a small step.

there are so many steps we have to take because it has bee68 murders since the court case started. amy: jacob blake, thank you so much for being with us. jacob blake, sr. is the father of jacoblake, jr., who was shot seven times by a police officer in kenosha, wisconsin. all health to you and your son. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. we turn now to look at a slew of loss pending in republican-led legislatures that criminalize protests. according to the international center for nonprofit law, 81 anti-protest bills introduced in 34 states so far this year. three bills aimed at limiting protests have already been signed into law, more are expected soon. arkansas and kansas have passed measures that target protesters who seek to disrupt oil

pipelines. and last monday, florida's republican governor ron desantis signed a controversial measure law widely revied as respons to the black lives matter movement. under the new law, which wt into effect immediately, a public gathering of three or more people can be classified as a riot. anyone who willingly paicipates in such gathering can be charged wh a thirdegree felony. the law also raises the charge for protesters who destroy historic structures, including flags and memorials and confederate statues, to a felony. it grants civil immunity to drivers who run their cars into crowds of protesters, even if the driver kills someone. during the signing ceremony for the new law, governor desantis noted it will also require cities to receive approval from the state before they cut their police budgets. >> prevents against local

governments defunding law enforcement. we will be able to stop it at the state level. if you look at some of these places that have done this, they have already seen crime go up, even just diverting some of the funding to this. so it is an insane theory. it is not going to be allowed to ever carry the day in the state florida. and this bill gives us the tools to make sure that do not happen. amy: this comes as a study by "the washington post" found the overwhelming majority of black lives matter protests were peaceful, with more than 96% involving no property damage or police injuries. "the post" also reported that police officers or counter-protesters often instigated violence. meanwhile, many anti-protest bills pending in other states have the exact same language as the florida plan. some of the laws were drafted with support from the conservative american legislative exchange council, or alec, including so-called critical infrastructure bills

aimed at criminalizing protests against the fossil fuel industry. for more, we go to washington, d.c., to speak with nick robinson, senior legal advisor at the international center for not-for-profit law, which has been tracking these anti-protest laws. they found with his latest examples 17 states have now enacted at least 30 anti-protest bills and executive orders. welcome to democracy now! republican legislators are calling them anti-riot laws. explain how extreme they are starting with florida, which is already being sued, ron desantis, the governor being sued. >> thank you for having me. as you say, these are really extreme loss. what they do is expand the definition of rioting. good is incredibly broad. in florida, a new bill, but it's a to a protest and a handful of

people kick over a trashcan. just by being part of that crown, you can be arrested and prosecuted for rioting and face a felony. under the law, no one has to commit any violence at all. if there's just a danger to property, the people can be arrested for rioting. this is a really super subjective standard that can be used to target protesters. amy: so let's go through, for example, in florida, what each of the parts of the law are. everything from saying that protesters can't get bail, they have to stay overnight, charged with felonies? and we are seeing this in florida as well as all over the country. this is astounding. 81 laws in the last few months been put forward across the country that drivers who hit

protesters with their cars, run them over, all not be found liable. >> it is chilling. we see this in state after state after state, these bills being introduced and being passed. as you mentioned, florida, oklahoma and about to be passed in iowa. for example in florida on this rioting provision, if you're with 26 or more people or obstructing traffic, it becomes a felony and aggravated punishable by 15 years in jail. that is chilling. people are already concerned about being able to go out and protest now under this law because this is a life altering charge if you get this against you. five years in jail if you to face ammonium -- a monument.

super serious charge under the florida bill. it also says, as you pointed out, that even if you intentionally hit a protester, if you can show -- claim that protester was engaging in a riot, then you get civil immunity from a civil suit. as i said, the problem with the florida bill, like so many antiriot acts across the country, they are brought as they can capture peaceful protest activity. we are seeing this trend across the country, including these driver immunity bills. we have seen at least 15 bills introduced that would create new immunity for drivers who hit protesters with their cars. one in florida that just got passed in oklahoma, a bill in iowa about to be passed. amy: in iowa? >> yes. amy: and what will be happening there? >> there is a bill that if you

did a protester with your car and it is during an unpermitted protest in the street, you are immune from civil liability. just to take a step back to understand, there is a real serious problem of protesters and a lives matter protests this past summer and up to today being hit by cars. i know you already mentioned at the top of the hour the tragedy in charlottesville when i neo-nazi purposefully ran his car into a crowd of protesters. we have seen dozens of instances like this around the country. protesters being hit by cars. often intentionally. instead of taking sts to protect protesters, which is what needs to andight now we are saying the state legislature introduced bills that would instead protect drivers. this is asking for violence. y: i want to bring in to the conversation right now susan

bro, whose daughter heather heyer was tragically killed in 2017 when a white supremacist plowed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters at unite the right rally in charlottesville, the one where all those white supremacists marched changing "you will not replace us" "jews will not replace us." susan bro is joining us from virginia. welcome back to [captioning made possible by democracy now!] democracy now! this agreed to have you with us, and partially under these circumstances. talk about renting immunity to drivers. sometimes just civil and other times civil and criminal immunity to drivers who plow into crowds or runver protesters -- well, presumably,

like her daughter heather. can you respond to this, susan? >> declaring open season will stop it is a hunting license, basically. as i have set on other shows, what is next, baseball bats? guns? what kind of weapons of mass destruction are they willing to allow? this is blatantly a violation of first amendment rights of people to protest. i would go so far to say people who get jailed for protesting peacefully, especially, political prisoners. if you have people facing felony charges, mandatory overnight without bail, held until trial, and then looking at five to 15 years for protesting? that sounds almost like political prisoners, really.

amy: can you take us back to 2017, 2 this time of the protest when your daughter had a decided to go out? she did not often go outside and get involved with protests, but this time she did. can you talk about why she did? and then what happened to her? i hate to take you through this, but it is so important. >> i go through it every single day. amy: it is so important now that it is being raised all over the country to defend the motorists who do this. in this case, the killer was charged with murder, the white supremacist to plowed into the crowd. but tell us what happened, why heather decided to go outside. >> she had seen footage of the tiki torch march the night before. her friends were there. they had livestream did.

she sighed and said, "i have to go stand in support." she was a lover, not a fighter. she was not interested in being involved in any of the violence were face-to-face clashes. she and a great many other people run opposite side of the downtown pedestrian mall and stayed away from t violenc and were actually returning to the downtown mall because the rally had been disbanded. people had left. she had stopped in the parking lot and tried to engage one of the young women in a conversation on the way back in the young woman just kept saying "no comment." they were relaxed. they were chanting. they were singing. it was a jubilant mood from the videos i have seen. and he sat at the top of the hill with no one around him.

he obviously had a weight to get back -- had a way to get back out of there even know the way forward had been barricaded on one side because hegly exited once he attacked the crowd. 35 people were injured. yeah. i originally said under the new laws this would not have applied, but after hearing for the definition, i don't know. maybe would have tried to apply this law to him. amy: you have that famous photograph of the moment of impact with the protesters, some ofhem hurled into the air. >> heather's friends were hurled into the air. the young gentleman whose shoe was seen angling from the front bumper of the car was heather's friend's.

marcus martin. he was to people behind her. he reached and moved marissa out of the way. he cried over and over that he could not get to heather. i just said, marcus, you can't help that. i have a photograph of the split second before he hits heather. i have seen footage of him hitting heather, but my brain will not absorb it even now. to say that is not criminal, that that is not an offense -- since when do we allow the public to become judge, jury, and executioner? that is what this amounts to. let's go hunt protesters. amy: susan, what do you think is driving this? >> politics. amy: let me bring nick robinson

back into this conversation. the fact so many dozens of bills are being introduced, number in many states -- we are talking about these motorists, we're also talking about police officers. there have been about 100 motorists running over protesters in the last months, but if you can talk about in several cases, police having used their cars as weapons against protesters, like in detroit in june, an officer driving his police suv through crowd sending people flying. two new york officers did likewise at a black lives matter protest in may 2020. >> we have also seen police circulating on social media pictures of drivers hitting protesters, seemingly encouraging drivers to run into

protters or to hit protesters with their car. it is just criminal. we not only see this aa problem, but we see a number of bills being introduced that would strengthen stand your ground law's and apply them anime people can show -- this is part of a larger movement by politicians that are introducing these bills that are trying to paint all protesters as writers, particularly all black lives matter protesters. amy: how do they make the distinction between black lives matter protesters and insurrectionists like the rrorists in washington, d.c.,

beating police officers, for example? how do they make that distinction so they don't hold them accountable? >> i think the assumption here is these are back the blue bills often. there often passed with a whole number of pvisions thatould thing lik stop e defunding local pice depaments. they are seen as suppoing the poce, so eyiew them a beinapplied by the policon a certain type of way. this is iredibly subjective standards out what is "right -- wt is a "riot the concern is if you have police that seem to be having certain ideological -- that they will be applied in one way and a different way against other protesters. amy: i want to give susan the last word. susan bro, what do you say to

the mothers of this country? what do you say to people who want to go out in the streets like heather did as she protested fascism and white supremacy three years ago? >> well, obviously, the protests them were not enough. i guess we need more. we're going have to be strategic. i think there is going have to be a lot of legal work done, but unfortunately, the courts are packed conservatively right now. i don't know how it is going to go. amy: again, our condolences. i want to thank you, susan bro, for joining us today, mother of heather heyer and president and board chair of the heather heyer foundation. her daughter was run over by a white supremacist at the white supremacist march that took place over the beacon at the university of virginia in the streets of charlottesville. and nick robinson international , center for not-for-profit law,

speaking to us from washington, d.c. no one when we come back, president biden acknowledges the armenian genocide. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "i'd like to walk around in your mind" by vashti bunyan. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. you can watch, listen, and read transcripts using our ios and android apps. download them for free. president biden has made history by explicitly describing the 1915 massacre of armenians by ottoman turks as a genocide. biden issued a statement on saturday to mark armenian remembrance day. he wrote -- "over the decades armenian

immigrants have enriched the united states in countless ways, but they have never forgotten the tragic history. we honor their story. we see that pain. we affirm the history. we do this not to cast blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated." he went on to say -- "the american people honor all those armenians who perished in the genocide that began 106 years ago today." on april 24, 1915, the ottoman empire began a systematic premeditated campaign targeting the armenian people, an unarmed christian minority living under turkish rule. more than a million armenians were exterminated through direct killing, starvation, torture, and forced death marches. another million fled into permanent exile. biden is just the second u.s. president after ronald reagan to describe the mass killings as genocide. turkey decried biden's decision

and summoned the u.s. ambassador in ankara in protest. for decades, turkey has lobbied lawmakers in washington to avoid calling the massacres a genocide. this is a spokesperson for turkish president recep tayyip erdogan. >> first of all, it is unfair and we completely reject the statement. it is not supported by historical facts. it has no legal basis. politically speaking, it is in a responsible, constructed statement. -- un-constructed statement. amy: but armenians have welcomed president biden statement. >> we are thankful to joe biden's first year presidency has already acknowledged the genocide, use the correct term, shared our sorrow and made an appeal to the world that such hate crimes, succrimes against

humanity should not be forgotten. amy: we're joined now by peter balakian, professor of humanities in the department of english at colgate university and the author of "the burning tigris: the armenian genocide and america's response." in 2016, professor blake in -- won a pulitzer prize winner in poetry for his book "ozone journal." his article for "the washington post" is titled "to armenians, biden's recognition of the genocide means the world." talk about what it means, professor. >> thank you for having me back. it is good to be with you. it is an important statement for many reasons. the first one needs a little context. the turkish government's campaign, and i will quote the distinguished international legal scholar richard fall, "a

major proacti deliberate government effort to use every possible instrument of persuasion at its disposal to keep the truth about the armenian genocide from general acknowledgment, especially by elites in the united states and western europe." our listeners need to get a sense of how extreme the turkish government's efforts to deny history, then by subsequent act to demonize the victims in order to rehabilitate themselves, how extreme this propaganda campaign has been. and so it has been important for other nations to acknowledge the armenian genocide, often by legislative resolution. i'm happy to say the u.s. government did this come about the senate and the house did this in the fall of 2019, joining 30 other countries in

europe, middle east, and south and north america. the's been a worldwide rejection -- i think i could even call it a kind of ethical outrage -- against turkey's denial is him. president biden has now added an important voice to a world movement. because u.s. is such major power in president biden has become such a short time a really important moral leader, bringing the u.s. back into its moral force as a nation and community of nations, this statement carries a lot of ethical weight and a redress to a very corrupt, what i would call them moral, campaign to deny history and perpetrate a kind of violence against the

survivor comnity. in amy: can you give us the background? i talked a little bit about with the armenian genocide looked like, but explained to us what happened. >> accusing the cover of world war i, n the way theazis used the cover of world war ii, as a screen behind which they could execute a campaign to exterminate, to eliminate a @@targeted minority group, a had minority group that the ruling party in the case of the ottoman empire, unity and progress party, the unionist party, deemed the armenians t be a nority group that was clamorinfor civil rights and equal treatment for christians and jews under ottoman law. this was a big part of the

armenian civil rights project from the 1890's down through the 19 tee. asking for change inside ottoman turkey. this was met with massacre as punitive act, especially in the 1890's and the early years of the 20th century, but when the war broke out, the ruling elite in turkey decided they had an opportunity to eminate the entire armenian population, population between julie people and two point finally people who are living on their indigenous homelands. as for the greeks and the syrians, the two other major christian relations of the ottoman empire, living under indigenous homelands. it is worth noting, other christian nordic populations as syrians and greeks were also wiped out before world war i and its aftermath was over, about 4

million christians disappeared from turkey. so the plan was systematic and it started with the arrest of the armenian cultural and intellectual leaders on the night of april 24 in this symbol, then constantinople -- istanbul, then constantinople. the implementation of military intervention, mobilization of killing squads in order to arrest and deport every armenian family from turkey between 1915 and probably i would say the end of the summer of 1916 went about 1.2 million armenians were killed. moore would be killed in the ensuing years and another million would be exiled. rape, abduction, forced conversion took the lives of

another 200,000 armenian women and children. so this was an important event in the history of modern human rights atrocity. it is significant that adolf hitler said eight days before invading poland in 1939, a day after the annihilation of the armenians. hitler learned something from this event. amy: professor, could you reach your poem "after the survivors are gone"? >> i would be happy to. i suppose the assumption behind a poem like this is historical memory matters for many reasons, personal, ethical, humane, and i hope this poem as a little of that. i tried to imagine -- to see a persimmon tree after th flesh

and nagasaki because my own tree had been hacked, i tried to kiss the lips of armenia. at the table and the altar, we said sub words written ages ago that would settle for just the wine and bread for candles lit and snuffed. let us remember how the law has failed us. let us remember the child naked, waiting to be shot on a bright day with tulips blooming around the ditch. we shall not forget the earth, the artifact, the particular song, the dirt of an idiom -- things that stick in the ear. amy: peter balakian is the pulitzer prize winning poet and professor at colgate university. before we go, we just have about

30 seconds or a minute, can you talk about turkey's success in colonizing american universities, endowing chairs that would then these professors would deny the armenian genocide ? and does this continue through toda >> thereas a movement by the turkish government to do this. we saw it in t 1990's at princeton university with a scholar or alleged scholar who was hired to promote this denial project. i am happy to say so much good scholarship, by so many scholars worldwide, has so eroded and rebuffed turkish denial that today turkish denial is a laughingstock. the turkish government is a laughingstock in the face of the rest of the world. it would be so important for turkey to move forward to stop

the denialism, to let go of this racist hate project against its ethnic minorit cultures, including the kurds today, just are embracing democracy, human rights, and diversity. the fact that turkey has more journalists in jail than any country in the world over the last several decades according to human rights watch and amnesty international tells us something. amy: we have to leave it there. professor, thank you so much for being with us. pulitzer prize winning armenian americanç?ç?ç?ç?o■o■ñ■ç■ç■ç■