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It's high time Americans recognized Armenian genocide 100 years ago:
Christian van Gorder
13:58, 14 February, 2015
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 14, ARMENPRESS: A. Christian van Gorder, an
associate professor of religion at Baylor University, an ordained
pastor with the American Baptist Churches and served as associate
pastor in Burton, Michigan, and interim pastor in Conneaut,
Pennsylvania, wrote an article in the website WacoTrib.com, appealing
to the American society and the authorities to call to responsibility
the Turkish State, which denies the mass killings of the Armenians in
1915. Reminding of the electoral promise of the US President Barack
Obama, the author condemned the American Government for not
recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Armenpress presents the full
article as follows:
"Adolf Hitler, before launching the Holocaust against Europe's Jews,
asked, "After all, who today speaks of the Armenians?" One hundred
years ago this year, more than 1.5 million Armenian Christians were
massacred by agents of the Turkish government.
Men of all ages were shot, crucified, stabbed; women and girls of all
ages -- often in front of their husbands and families -- were raped
before being killed. Even children were tortured and murdered in every
barbaric way imaginable. People were set on fire and forced to eat
their own body parts. Tens of thousands of Armenians were sent to the
desert to starve.
Armenian Christians today are at the forefront in speaking up for
their Syrian and Iraqi sisters and brothers suffering at the hands of
terrorists who murder in God's name. Their Christian compassion
springs from the searing memories of their own horrific experiences.
They know what can happen when Christians are abandoned and forgotten
while surrounded by neighbors who hate them simply because of their
faith. We are so blessed with many precious freedoms here in America.
People of all faiths in America need also to offer more vigorous
support for the persecuted Christians. We cannot blindly look the
other way while our dear sisters and brothers are suffering.
Armenians formed the first Christian-led kingdom on earth. Yet their
contributions to the world's artistic and intellectual riches across
three millennia have been largely forgotten. Today's Turkish
government has sought to erase Armenians from the pages of their
history, yet these ghosts and legacies will not quietly vanish. Why do
we tolerate our government's tepid unwillingness to confront these
bigoted genocide denialists?
Before becoming president, Sen. Obama publicly pledged that, if
elected, he would recognize as fact the 1915 killing of 1.5 million
Armenian Christians as an act of genocide. President Obama has yet to
keep this promise. The Turkish government, to this day, has denied
that a genocide took place. Now is the time for the United States to
join dozens of other nations (France, Canada, etc.) who have
acknowledged the Armenian genocide. It is the morally right thing to
do.
The facts of history should not become political footballs to be
rationalized away by those who deny these killings as a byproduct of
war among rivals when, in fact, it was a war of extermination. Why
does our nation prevaricate in the face of Turkish denials of these
hellish atrocities? Because Turkey is a major American military ally
who hosts a huge air force base in Turkey.
None of us can solve all of the nightmarish problems of the world, but
each of us can make some concrete contribution for change. All of us
can pray and speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.
Write, call or email your representatives as well as Obama. Support
organizations are helping persecuted believers worldwide -- and
especially the plights of Christians, Yazidis and the Baha'i -- who are
suffering and dying for their faiths in Syria, Iraq and other
Muslim-majority nations. Remember the genocide of 1.5 million Armenian
Christians and insist that those who deny the grim facts of their
genocidal history are held to account. Do something. As Theodore
Roosevelt challenged, "Do what you can where you are with what you
have."
http://armenpress.am/eng/news/794091/it%E2%80%99s-high-time-americans-recognized-armenian-genocide-100-years-ago-christian-van-gorder.html
From: Baghdasarian
Christian van Gorder
13:58, 14 February, 2015
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 14, ARMENPRESS: A. Christian van Gorder, an
associate professor of religion at Baylor University, an ordained
pastor with the American Baptist Churches and served as associate
pastor in Burton, Michigan, and interim pastor in Conneaut,
Pennsylvania, wrote an article in the website WacoTrib.com, appealing
to the American society and the authorities to call to responsibility
the Turkish State, which denies the mass killings of the Armenians in
1915. Reminding of the electoral promise of the US President Barack
Obama, the author condemned the American Government for not
recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Armenpress presents the full
article as follows:
"Adolf Hitler, before launching the Holocaust against Europe's Jews,
asked, "After all, who today speaks of the Armenians?" One hundred
years ago this year, more than 1.5 million Armenian Christians were
massacred by agents of the Turkish government.
Men of all ages were shot, crucified, stabbed; women and girls of all
ages -- often in front of their husbands and families -- were raped
before being killed. Even children were tortured and murdered in every
barbaric way imaginable. People were set on fire and forced to eat
their own body parts. Tens of thousands of Armenians were sent to the
desert to starve.
Armenian Christians today are at the forefront in speaking up for
their Syrian and Iraqi sisters and brothers suffering at the hands of
terrorists who murder in God's name. Their Christian compassion
springs from the searing memories of their own horrific experiences.
They know what can happen when Christians are abandoned and forgotten
while surrounded by neighbors who hate them simply because of their
faith. We are so blessed with many precious freedoms here in America.
People of all faiths in America need also to offer more vigorous
support for the persecuted Christians. We cannot blindly look the
other way while our dear sisters and brothers are suffering.
Armenians formed the first Christian-led kingdom on earth. Yet their
contributions to the world's artistic and intellectual riches across
three millennia have been largely forgotten. Today's Turkish
government has sought to erase Armenians from the pages of their
history, yet these ghosts and legacies will not quietly vanish. Why do
we tolerate our government's tepid unwillingness to confront these
bigoted genocide denialists?
Before becoming president, Sen. Obama publicly pledged that, if
elected, he would recognize as fact the 1915 killing of 1.5 million
Armenian Christians as an act of genocide. President Obama has yet to
keep this promise. The Turkish government, to this day, has denied
that a genocide took place. Now is the time for the United States to
join dozens of other nations (France, Canada, etc.) who have
acknowledged the Armenian genocide. It is the morally right thing to
do.
The facts of history should not become political footballs to be
rationalized away by those who deny these killings as a byproduct of
war among rivals when, in fact, it was a war of extermination. Why
does our nation prevaricate in the face of Turkish denials of these
hellish atrocities? Because Turkey is a major American military ally
who hosts a huge air force base in Turkey.
None of us can solve all of the nightmarish problems of the world, but
each of us can make some concrete contribution for change. All of us
can pray and speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.
Write, call or email your representatives as well as Obama. Support
organizations are helping persecuted believers worldwide -- and
especially the plights of Christians, Yazidis and the Baha'i -- who are
suffering and dying for their faiths in Syria, Iraq and other
Muslim-majority nations. Remember the genocide of 1.5 million Armenian
Christians and insist that those who deny the grim facts of their
genocidal history are held to account. Do something. As Theodore
Roosevelt challenged, "Do what you can where you are with what you
have."
http://armenpress.am/eng/news/794091/it%E2%80%99s-high-time-americans-recognized-armenian-genocide-100-years-ago-christian-van-gorder.html
From: Baghdasarian