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ARMENIAN GENOCIDE COMMEMORATION, AWARENESS A CROSS-GENERATIONAL AFFAIR
Los Angeles Daily News
April 2 2015
By Adam Poulisse, Los Angeles Daily News
Yevnigue Salibian has the mental and physical scars to prove what
the country of Turkey won't acknowledge.
The 100-year-old resident of Ararat Home, a Mission Hills nursing
facility for Southern California Armenians, stayed in the Turkish
city of Aintab with her family until 1921, after six years of seeing
thousands of Armenians being forced out or killed at the end of the
Ottoman empire. The Salibians were allowed to stay because the family
was on good terms with the local mayor, but neighborhood children
were hustled out, right by their home, screaming for food and water,
Salibian recalled.
Finally the Salibians too had to leave in 1921 after the Turkish-Franco
War ended because the French were no longer going to be around to
help protect Armenians. While fleeing she was in a horse carriage
wreck that left the young girl badly bruised and killed another woman.
Today marks the 99th anniversary of the start of the Armenian Genocide,
and the Republic of Turkey still hasn't acknowledged it.
"Let them come and see the scar on my knee," Salibian said, with a
caregiver translating. "That's my reminder every day."
On Wednesday, Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan released
a statement in nine languages expressing the "shared pain" felt in
Turkey. It was seen as an unprecedented statement of condolences,
but most Armenian groups said it didn't go nearly far enough.
"It is indisputable that the last years of the Ottoman empire
were a difficult period, full of suffering for Turkish, Kurdish,
Arab, Armenian and millions of other Ottoman citizens, regardless
of their religion or ethnic origin," Erdogan statement reads. "Any
conscientious, fair and humanistic approach to these issues requires an
understanding of all the sufferings endured in this period, without
discriminating as to religion or ethnicity."
Few Armenians see that episode of history as a time of shared suffering
with the Turks. The Armenian National Committee of America said his
words were just another form of genocide denial.
"Mr. Erdogan's statement ... is a patently transparent attempt
to mute international condemnation and calls for justice for the
centrally planned and systematically executed campaign of murder and
deportation," the group said.
This year, Armenian youngsters born generations later are keeping the
spirit of their ancestors alive and maintaining the fight for Turkey
to acknowledge the tragedy with vigils, protests, memorials and art
today and Friday.
http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20140423/armenian-genocide-commemoration-awareness-a-cross-generational-affair
Los Angeles Daily News
April 2 2015
By Adam Poulisse, Los Angeles Daily News
Yevnigue Salibian has the mental and physical scars to prove what
the country of Turkey won't acknowledge.
The 100-year-old resident of Ararat Home, a Mission Hills nursing
facility for Southern California Armenians, stayed in the Turkish
city of Aintab with her family until 1921, after six years of seeing
thousands of Armenians being forced out or killed at the end of the
Ottoman empire. The Salibians were allowed to stay because the family
was on good terms with the local mayor, but neighborhood children
were hustled out, right by their home, screaming for food and water,
Salibian recalled.
Finally the Salibians too had to leave in 1921 after the Turkish-Franco
War ended because the French were no longer going to be around to
help protect Armenians. While fleeing she was in a horse carriage
wreck that left the young girl badly bruised and killed another woman.
Today marks the 99th anniversary of the start of the Armenian Genocide,
and the Republic of Turkey still hasn't acknowledged it.
"Let them come and see the scar on my knee," Salibian said, with a
caregiver translating. "That's my reminder every day."
On Wednesday, Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan released
a statement in nine languages expressing the "shared pain" felt in
Turkey. It was seen as an unprecedented statement of condolences,
but most Armenian groups said it didn't go nearly far enough.
"It is indisputable that the last years of the Ottoman empire
were a difficult period, full of suffering for Turkish, Kurdish,
Arab, Armenian and millions of other Ottoman citizens, regardless
of their religion or ethnic origin," Erdogan statement reads. "Any
conscientious, fair and humanistic approach to these issues requires an
understanding of all the sufferings endured in this period, without
discriminating as to religion or ethnicity."
Few Armenians see that episode of history as a time of shared suffering
with the Turks. The Armenian National Committee of America said his
words were just another form of genocide denial.
"Mr. Erdogan's statement ... is a patently transparent attempt
to mute international condemnation and calls for justice for the
centrally planned and systematically executed campaign of murder and
deportation," the group said.
This year, Armenian youngsters born generations later are keeping the
spirit of their ancestors alive and maintaining the fight for Turkey
to acknowledge the tragedy with vigils, protests, memorials and art
today and Friday.
http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20140423/armenian-genocide-commemoration-awareness-a-cross-generational-affair