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Hilltop View: When will killing finally end?

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  • Hilltop View: When will killing finally end?

    West Salem Coulee News
    May 17 2009


    HILLTOP VIEW: When will killing finally end?


    By ZACH LEVONIAN

    On April 15, 1909, a college professor, more than a dozen church
    leaders and a number of others were locked into a church in Osmaniye,
    Turkey. The church was lit aflame, and all inside perished when the
    roof collapsed. Within the next few hours, sixty additional Christian
    Armenians were hunted down and killed. That day, 93 people were
    killed.

    The college professor was my great-great-grandfather, Sarkis Hoja
    Levonian, who died in the church beneath the oppressive weight of
    burning timber.

    The killings in Osmaniye were matched in other towns and villages
    throughout Turkey, and six years later the extermination of those
    Armenians living in Ottoman Turkey began in earnest. From 1915 to
    1923, the Armenian Genocide took the lives of up to 1.5 million
    people.

    The Armenian Genocide was a horrific event, yet details and facts
    regarding its perpetration are not widely known. This is not
    surprising; the Turkish government refuses to accept the killings that
    occurred as genocide, and says the number of people who died was no
    greater than 500,000.

    However, nations around the world, as well as 43 U.S. states, have
    found the vicious massacres of the time to be nothing short of
    intentional genocide. Wisconsin passed its own piece of legislation '
    April 24 is officially recognized as `Wisconsin Day of Remembrance for
    the Armenian Genocide of 1915 to 1923.' More simply, consider it
    Armenian Memorial Day.

    The events of the Armenian genocide were gruesome, and the
    organization and methods utilized were similar to those employed by
    Nazi Germany 20 years later. Armenians were deported to concentration
    camps or marched into to the desert, where rape, beatings, disease,
    starvation and hard labor would take their toll.

    Those who escaped scattered to nations around the globe, and today
    many descendents of those killed in the Armenian Genocide live in
    America, as my family does.

    Genocide is a dark word, one largely unreal to Americans and teenagers
    today. Imagine this: 30 La Crosse-sized cities of people gone, forced
    into camps and then killed.

    During the Holocaust, imagine 120 La Crosse-sized cities of people
    gassed in small, airtight chambers. It is difficult to imagine
    genocides taking place and even harder to acknowledge they are not
    just a thing of the past.

    Right now in Darfur, genocide continues. Before he was deposed, Saddam
    Hussein massacred the Kurdish people of northern Iraq. In Sri Lanka,
    the government has been accused of genocide for massacres of the Tamil
    people.

    Genocide is happening now, and it will probably happen in the
    future. Humans need to do everything in our power to stop
    genocide. The first step of prevention is awareness of genocides that
    have happened and are happening. Take a moment to research a place
    like Darfur: find it on a map, try to understand the situation there,
    and consider lending a helping hand to a relief group.

    We can't take away the pain of those lost in genocide, but we can at
    least ensure no such event will ever happen unnoticed and
    uncondemned. On Armenian Memorial Day, remember those 1.5 million
    people lost in the Armenian Genocide, and also reflect on those around
    the world who are facing genocide.

    Zach Levonian is a junior at Onalaska High School.

    http://www.couleenews.com/articles/2009/0 5/17/opinion/03hilltop.txt
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