A generation before the Holocaust, there was the Armenian genocide. Never heard of it? You’re not alone.
According to a display at the Armenian Museum in Watertown, MA, Hitler, discussing his plans to annihilate Poles and Jews, soothed his inner circle’s concerns with this: “Who still talks nowadays about the extermination of the Armenians?” He counted on the collective amnesia for people to miss the early warning signs as he proceeded with his own deadly plans.
But we, the Armenian people throughout the diaspora, remember even to today.
This past weekend, April 25th, marked the 105th anniversary of the beginning of the genocide of Christian Armenians by the Turkish empire. Armenians and Armenian churches around the world came together to commemorate the day. Armenian Apostolic Churches conducted The Order of Intecessory Prayers of the Holy Martyrs of the Armenian Genocide of 1915.
As I pointed out in my last post, the targeting of Christian Armenians in the Turkish Empire began long before 1915. It all was cruel and deadly. It all intended to extinguish the light of the Armenian people throughout the Turkish Empire. But the numbers or Armenians killed, maimed, tortured and sexually assaulted during the genocide years far exceeded those that came before or after.
Even today, Turkey denies the genocide and all of the murderous history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Even today, there are targeted actions to support that denial throughout the Armenian diaspora.
WE MUST NEVER FORGET.
Gu des-nu-veenk no-ren
I’LL SEE YOU AGAIN!
JUST WRITE IT! 