Psychology of Guilt in International Relations

In one of my previous articles, I tried to examine guilt on a personal and somewhat national basis.

I realized that there was a topic that I had not touched upon in that article. I wonder what the psychology of guilt is like on an international scale, for example, are there countries that feel guilty in international relations? I think it would be useful to touch upon this issue as well.

Yes, human history is actually a history of wars. In ancient times, historiographers often made notes in history that the victorious countries were right. This is understandable, but that's why it's not possible today to know exactly what really happened back then. Nevertheless, since the beginning of written history and especially since the globalization movements as a result of technology, we now have more access to information that allows us to make better judgments. In addition, today it is easier to access the archives of states that have been in contact throughout history. Many countries have opened their historical archives to historians doing research. Although everyone interprets history in their own way, at least it is now possible to read comparative history.

Today, since there are written sources that detail some of the great massacres in history from various perspectives, it is possible to examine these documents more objectively and understand a little bit of what happened at the time.

I won't go into the details and reasons, but for example the massacre of Indians in America by white people, there is enough information available today. It's not so easy to see what happened from the Indians' point of view, because I'm not sure what kind of written information is left. White people destroyed everything. Most of us have seen cowboy movies in our time. In the movies the Indians are shown as wild tribes, but the reality is that today the Indians are almost extinct. In other words, it is actually possible to read history with the current situation.

The Spanish destruction of the Inca civilization in South America was also a savagery. Although we can understand a little bit of the Inca civilization from the old ruins, the result is that this civilization was also brutally destroyed.

Is it a small atrocity that black people who moved from Africa to America were enslaved? Even though the conditions of the time accepted slavery as normal, I think we can all feel the brutality even now. And the torture inflicted on those slaves.

For those above a certain age, Kunta Kinte was portrayed by John Amos in the 1977 TV series Roots.

When I was little, we used to sit and watch it together as a family, and we felt sorry for what happened to those human beings. Kunta Kinte is a Gambian slave character in the novel "Roots: The Saga of an American Family" written by Alex Haley, an American writer who lived between 1750-1822. The series is inspired by this novel.

There was another series, Izaura the Slave, I think, which shows in great detail what a disgrace slavery was at the time.

What about Hitler's Germany's slaughter of Jews and gypsies?

France's massacres in Algeria?

The Japanese massacres in China?

America's atomic bombs on Japan?

What happened in Yugoslavia just yesterday?

What happened in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq? What happened in Yemen? What is being done in Libya and Syria?

The suffering in the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war today?

These are large-scale or international atrocities or wars that I can think of right now. There are many more massacres that I cannot count.

There is what Israel is doing in Palestine.

What the Armenians did in Karabakh.

What happened to the Turkish Cypriots.

Even the expansion of Soviet Russia into the territory of today's Russia for imperial purposes can be considered in the category of suffering.

Yes, Russia is also an imperial state. It spread its own culture all over the lands it ruled. Although today it is called a federal state, in fact it may have been an empire. The only difference between today's state and the empires of the past is that a live frog cannot jump out of a slowly burning cauldron. The peoples within it are slowly undergoing cultural erosion. All the wealth of the vast territory is in the hands of a select few. In fact, the peoples living there do not get a sufficient share of the income and live a poor life.

Even what Europe did in Africa through colonialism is a shameful memory in today's world. Africa is a huge continent, even if it does not look that big on the world map due to mapping technology. All the wealth of the continent is still being exploited by imperial states. 

Are China's current expansionist policies any less dangerous? How much do we know about the oppression of its own people?

Is the exploitation scheme established by all western civilizations in oil geographies, which continues today, really something that can be accepted?

In short, the world order operates on the basis of the law of the jungle. The strong are in the right.

But what I want to draw attention to in this article is not about the rulers of the countries that committed these atrocities then or now, but about how people themselves feel when they know that these atrocities were once committed by their own countries.

How much responsibility does a Spaniard feel for the massacre of the Inca civilization by the Spanish?

How much shame does an American feel for the massacre of the Indians?

Only the Germans. If you remind a German of Hitler, you will get a serious reaction; in fact, no one in Germany today uses the name Adolf. But Hitler didn't commit those atrocities on his own, he had the German people behind him, and today's German people feel the shame of those days, that's why they react so much when he is brought up today. In fact, the only Germans I know are ashamed of what once happened.

Today, because of Hitler, even the almond mustache has been erased from the fashion world of humanity, never to be used again. It was once fashionable, even my late father had an almond mustache in his pictures. It is no longer possible.

Excluding Germany, in which state do you think the people living in today are ashamed of what their state once did? I don't think so.

There have been some sufferings in our history as well, which I cannot not mention in this article. The deportation of Armenians in the late Ottoman Empire. However, as much as I regret what happened back then, the days of war, the dreams of the Armenians of "Greater Armenia", which they have not given up even today, and their cooperation with the occupation forces to realize these dreams on the lands of the weakened Ottoman Empire of the day. Since all these were the main reasons for this deportation, I think the issue should be evaluated within the conditions of those days. Therefore, I do not think that this issue is a black stain on our history, as it is fomented by many states. I wish the suffering had not happened, but the suffering was not one-sided. So I will stop at this stage for now.

I had many Armenian acquaintances in Russia, we once had a Turkish-speaking roofing master at a construction site. They are very good at sheet metal roofing. I hope that one day the people in Armenia will also accept the mistakes they made in their time and relations will normalize, I hope that one day we can return to the old days of friendship.

Yes, as I said, life goes on and unfortunately the current states are covering up what once happened and instilling a completely different history in their new generations. With the daily worries of today's life, people don't even think about what once happened.

Unfortunately, there is no sense of guilt in societies. No country wants to remember the past. That is why international relations are based only on interests.

Today the world is boiling again. I hope it is not pregnant with new suffering.

For now, the power struggle continues in the form of cold war or trade wars.

But the war between Russia and Ukraine is like a burning match thrown by the imperial powers between dry branches. You know, a dry branch catches fire quickly.

That is why we need to be very careful especially in these days. We need to be discreet and calm. Because of our geopolitical position, we are at risk of being in the middle of the fire at any moment and I am very afraid that those in charge will throw this beautiful country into the fire for the sake of seats.

I hope that common sense will prevail and it will not be as I fear.

Love and regards to everyone from Moscow