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Armenians have not forgotten

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  • Armenians have not forgotten

    Pressconnects.com
    April 24, 2004


    Guest Viewpoint: Armenians have not forgotten
    BY HAROUT KERJILIAN

    "If our children forget this much evil
    Let the whole world condemn the Armenian people."

    -- Avidis Aharonian

    It has been 89 years since the first genocide of the 20th century took
    place. The Ottoman Turks and the Young Turks took it upon themselves
    to resolve the Armenian question by massacres, deportations and mass
    killings of 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children, including my
    grandparents, aunts and uncles.

    My parents were survivors of this genocide. Arab Bedouins and
    Christian missionaries took them in as orphans.

    These crimes by humanity against humanity are recorded in archives of
    governments around the world and the news media. To this day the
    Turkish government denies that the genocide and atrocities took
    place. It spends millions of our tax dollars in an attempt to rewrite
    its history, by establishing Turkish Studies programs in
    U.S. universities under the guise of cultural and educational
    cooperation.

    These programs are nothing more than propaganda tools to try to change
    history and discredit the victims and survivors of this horrendous
    period.

    Hitler used this genocide as a "text book" for the Holocaust. He said,
    "After all, who remembers the Armenians?" (This quote appears on the
    wall of the American Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.)

    Every year on April 24, Armenians around the globe commemorate and
    remember the victims of this genocide and wonder why the world,
    including the U.S. government, has kept quiet for so long.

    The U.S. government refuses to acknowledge this genocide under the
    guise of national interest and being an ally with Turkey. Last year
    Congress was ready to pass House Resolution 193 to recognize the
    genocide but it was taken off the agenda under pressure from the White
    House and State Department.

    President George W. Bush promised during his campaign that if he were
    elected he would support this resolutions and work on getting it
    passed. This day we call on the president to keep his word, and call
    on Congress to pass the resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide
    of 1915.

    Unless we acknowledge the past and learn from it, history will repeat
    itself. We have seen this happening in the Holocaust and in other
    ethnic cleansings in places around the world.

    This day, April 24, 2004, we not only remember and commemorate the
    victims of this genocide, but we celebrate the survival of the
    Armenian people and their accomplishments.

    "Go ahead, destroy this race.
    Let us say that it is again 1915;
    There is war in the world.
    Destroy Armenia.
    See if you can do it.
    Send them from their homes into
    the desert.
    Let them have neither bread nor
    water.
    Burn their houses and their
    churches.
    See if they will not live again.
    See if they will not laugh again.
    See if you can stop them from
    mocking the big ideas of the
    world. "
    -- William Saroyan

    Today, the Armenian community invites all people to a commemoration
    service at the memorial park on Conklin Ave. in Binghamton, near the
    South Washington Street Bridge. The service begins at 11 a.m.

    Kerjilian is a Binghamton resident.

    http://www.pressconnects.com/saturday/opinion/stories/op042404s84324.shtml

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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