It Was 94 Years Ago Today

April 24th is the 94th Anniversary of The Armenian Genocide. On this day we honor those who perished in the first genocide of the 20th century. The numbers are so huge and the events so long ago that it is increasingly hard to put a face to such suffering -that is why hearing the testimony of 96 year old survivor Alice Shnorhokian is all the more powerful and important. Although Alice was only three years old when the genocide occurred she still speaks to us on behalf of over a million people lost.

The Armenian National Committee of America has recently launched a campaign The Fierce Urgency of Now, and it is aptly named. Genocide is still raging in Darfur, and crimes against humanity are taking place in other parts of the world. Today the Armenian story has a special impact, for several reasons.

Turkey and some of her allies, including the United States, have not recognized the atrocities against the Armenian population of Turkey in 1915 as genocide. If we take the time to look at the documentary evidence and read the history there is no doubt that there was a systematic, racially and politically motivated campaign to eliminate a minority population in Turkey. Yet even nine decades later this is still a potent political issue and one that the US has religiously evaded as we value our strategic geographical relationship with Turkey.

In January 2008 Senator Obama spoke openly of the Armenian genocide and he made an election promise to formally recognize this as genocide. Yet when he spoke to the Turkish parliament earlier this month, he danced around the issue:

"I know there's strong views in this chamber about the terrible events of 1915. And while there's been a good deal of commentary about my views, it's really about how the Turkish and Armenian people deal with the past."

The Armenian National Committee feels, not surprisingly, that President Obama missed an opportunity there. There may be reason to think that he has a discreet plan to change the years of deadlock and denial. Let's hope so, for it is vital to the security and future of all of us that genocide is called when it occurs and denial is not allowed to re-write history. If this can happen with the Armenian genocide now that so few survivors are still alive, it might then only be a matter of time until Holocaust denial is allowed to flourish and followed by denial of the Cambodian, Bosnian and Rwandan genocides.

We must honor the dead, and fight for a future free of genocide and crimes against humanity. The fierce urgency of now means today.

Today why not hear Alice Shnorhokian's story and those of other genocide survivors? They deserve to be heard. Genocide Prevention Month is nearly over, but genocide is not yet over or eradicated.

Comments

[Steven Anderson]

I am sorry but I think that this cute fluffy pillow style of apologizing for every genocide that happened generations ago only irritates and creates more hatred by the existing generation. Turks of today having to apologize for something that their great grandparents did or did not do? This is supposed to heal something? America apologized to the Japanese not long ago because we put them in camps during the war. This is supposed to make someone feel better? Germany apologizes to someone a couple of times a year. They should finally hold one event with a general apology to everyone they ever might have hurt so they don't have to keep doing this over and over. Are we going to apologize to the Japanese for nukes we dropped or the purposeful killing of 100's of thousands of innocent German civilians during bombing raids we did on their cities only in order to shorten the war? We could but I and many others don't feel my country has to apologize for anything that happened beyond my generation. If you want to apologize then do it a few years after the case when it has a value to someone. Whats next, Russians should start apologizing for what Soviets did? For example, in my opinion we should apologize to the Iraqi people for the 500,000+ people we helped kill on the day after we leave and not in 50 or a 100 years when for the people it mattered are long gone.

[oxi]

"the purposeful killing of 100's of thousands of innocent German civilians during bombing raids we did on their cities only in order to shorten the war?"

Hence the creation of the Geneva Conventions and Human Rights from the ashes of WWII!

Better thank the Russians for winning the war in Europe, the defeat of the Germans in 1942 turned the tide of the war, not Normandy!

[basenji]

Obama went back on his promise and negated himself 24 hours after he made the following statement:

""Obama: Holocaust’s lesson is not to be silent

April 23, 2009

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- The lesson of the Holocaust is never to be silent in the face of inhumanity, President Obama said.

"How do we ensure that 'Never Again' isn't an empty slogan, or merely an aspiration, but also a call to action?" the president asked while speaking Thursday in the Capitol Rotunda at a commemoration organized by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. "I believe we start by doing what we are doing today -- by bearing witness, by fighting the silence that is evil's greatest co-conspir­ator."
.

"The hope of a chosen people who have overcome oppression since the days of Exodus; of the nation of Israel rising from the destruction of the Holocaust; of the strong and enduring bonds between our nations," Obama said."

http://jta.org/news/article/2009/04/23/1004610/obama-holocausts-lesson-is-not-to-stand-by

[BadgerinNJ]

Thank you Jane. That's all I can say. My heart is too broken by my beloved president's silence.

[oxi]

Where is the moral fiber in the U.S. if the president cannot simply call it like it is, genocide?

Again as I have stated before the U.S. does not care about human rights issues like this. The U.S. only cares about her war machine and her empire and how to feed this growing monster!

Sadly Armenia cannot feed this evil machine but Turkey can with bases to bomb Iraq with, weapons sales, oil pipelines and business dealings!

Ottoman Empire? The ones that enslaved the Serbs and Greeks for almost 500 years! What good did the Ottoman Empire bring to the world?

[Usama]

Talk about exaggarations. That's why folks ignore these types of discourses when all the world's problems are heaped on past generations who can no longer defend their actions.