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LACK OF GENOCIDE RECOGNITION IS A DISGRACE - GLENDALE NEWS PRESS
18:28 ~U 29.04.13
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, says an editorial by the Glendale
News Press.
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.
Armenian News - Tert.am
18:28 ~U 29.04.13
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, says an editorial by the Glendale
News Press.
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.
Armenian News - Tert.am