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The Burbank Leader, CA
April 26 2013
News-Press Editorial: Lack of genocide recognition is a disgrace
April 26, 2013 | 4:28 p.m.
On a Saturday night some 98 years ago this week, more than 200
Armenian intellectuals and community leaders living in Constantinople,
today's Istanbul, were rounded up by the government. The political
party in power, the "Young Turks," did not want their kind in the
country, breathing the same air, using the same resources, making
lives for themselves and their families. They were imprisoned and most
were later executed.
Were it not for the prominence of the victims of that April 24, 1915
event, there might have been even further delay in word spreading
across the globe that a systematic elimination of Armenians was
underway. Historians estimate that about 1.5 million people were
either slaughtered outright or banished to a Syrian desert, where they
starved to death. Women and children suffered unimaginable horrors at
the hands of their tormentors. The terror continued into the 1920s.
Armenians living today - as well as those who stand
shoulder-to-shoulder with them, decrying human-rights atrocities -
mark that spring date with solemn commemorations and vocal protests.
Some 20 countries have heard their cries and formally recognized the
events of those years as genocide. Uruguay led the way back in 1965.
More recently, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Russia and
several others joined the chorus. A majority of our states have also
recognized the atrocities.
But the federal government of the United States has not yet been able
to summon enough courage to formally speak the truth of the Armenian
genocide, apparently out of fear it will jeopardize relations with the
Turkish government. Our president, Barack Obama, skirted the use of
the word "genocide" yet again in his annual statement on the occasion
of the anniversary, despite a 2008 promise to "recognize the Armenian
Genocide."
Our country must use its mighty voice to pressure Turkey to
acknowledge the genocide, provide some restitution to families whose
predecessors lost all of their belongings during that period, and make
a formal apology to the Armenian people. Any action short of that
belies all that we stand for and is nothing short of a disgrace.
http://www.burbankleader.com/the818now/tn-gnp-editorial-0428-lack-of-genocide-recognition-is-a-disgrace,0,3024569.story
From: Baghdasarian
April 26 2013
News-Press Editorial: Lack of genocide recognition is a disgrace
April 26, 2013 | 4:28 p.m.
On a Saturday night some 98 years ago this week, more than 200
Armenian intellectuals and community leaders living in Constantinople,
today's Istanbul, were rounded up by the government. The political
party in power, the "Young Turks," did not want their kind in the
country, breathing the same air, using the same resources, making
lives for themselves and their families. They were imprisoned and most
were later executed.
Were it not for the prominence of the victims of that April 24, 1915
event, there might have been even further delay in word spreading
across the globe that a systematic elimination of Armenians was
underway. Historians estimate that about 1.5 million people were
either slaughtered outright or banished to a Syrian desert, where they
starved to death. Women and children suffered unimaginable horrors at
the hands of their tormentors. The terror continued into the 1920s.
Armenians living today - as well as those who stand
shoulder-to-shoulder with them, decrying human-rights atrocities -
mark that spring date with solemn commemorations and vocal protests.
Some 20 countries have heard their cries and formally recognized the
events of those years as genocide. Uruguay led the way back in 1965.
More recently, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Russia and
several others joined the chorus. A majority of our states have also
recognized the atrocities.
But the federal government of the United States has not yet been able
to summon enough courage to formally speak the truth of the Armenian
genocide, apparently out of fear it will jeopardize relations with the
Turkish government. Our president, Barack Obama, skirted the use of
the word "genocide" yet again in his annual statement on the occasion
of the anniversary, despite a 2008 promise to "recognize the Armenian
Genocide."
Our country must use its mighty voice to pressure Turkey to
acknowledge the genocide, provide some restitution to families whose
predecessors lost all of their belongings during that period, and make
a formal apology to the Armenian people. Any action short of that
belies all that we stand for and is nothing short of a disgrace.
http://www.burbankleader.com/the818now/tn-gnp-editorial-0428-lack-of-genocide-recognition-is-a-disgrace,0,3024569.story
From: Baghdasarian