100 years have passed since the beginning of genocide of 3.5 million Armenians, Greeks, Assyrian Christians, Yazidis, and others conducted by the Ottoman Empire starting on April 24, 1915. Terms such as "The Great Crime" or "The Great Catastrophe" and Medz Yeghern (Մեծ Եղեռն) in Armenian are used to describe it. Since many Armenians who weren't killed ended up being exiled to Syria, this event takes added significance as ISIS destroyed the Armenian Genocide Memorial Church in Deir ez-Zor, Syria, on September 24, 2014.
There are a few action items that I ask anyone who reads this to participate in.
(1) Please sign this Change.org petition asking President Obama and Congress to recognize the Genocide.
President Obama won't recognize this genocide despite promising to do so as a presidential candidate in 2008. World leaders including Pope Francis in 2015 have called for recognition. Past world leaders such as President Reagan have called for recognition.
"Like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the genocide of the Cambodians which followed it — and like too many other such persecutions of too many other peoples — the lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten." President Reagan
Other American Presidents from Grover Cleveland to the present have also commented on the Armenian Genocide and the Hamidian massacres of 1894-1896.
I signed the petition and left this comment.
I am signing in honoring of friends of Armenian and Greek descent. I am also signing in remembrance of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, and Roma killed at the Jasenovac Concentration Camp in WWII. http://www.jasenovac.org/
(2) Attend the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in Times Square at 1560 Broadway on Sunday, April 26, from 2 pm to 4:30 pm.
Join
thousands of Armenians in commemorating the 100th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide at the crossroads of the world in Times Square, New
York, on Sunday, April 26, 2015 from 2 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
While a century has passed, the Armenian Diaspora continues its unyielding efforts to remember, to honor and to educate the world about this catastrophic event in Armenian history that took place in 1915 and claimed the lives of almost 2 million Armenians -- a piece of history that goes unrecognized to this day by the Turkish government.
Let us come together in solidarity alongside noted U.S. politicians to show the world we will continue to remember and to honor the victims of the Armenian Genocide while advancing in our fight for global recognition.
The annual Armenian Genocide Commemoration in Times Square is sponsored by the Knights of Vartan and Daughters of Vartan, a national fraternal organization, and co-sponsored by the Armenian General Benevolent Union, Armenian Assembly of America, Armenian National Committee of America, Armenian Democratic Liberal Party, and the Armenian Council of America; participating organizations include the Diocese of the Armenian Church, Prelacy of the Armenian Church, Armenian Missionary Association of America, Armenian Missionary Association, Armenian Evangelical Union, Armenian Catholic Eparchy, and several national Armenian youth organizations.
While a century has passed, the Armenian Diaspora continues its unyielding efforts to remember, to honor and to educate the world about this catastrophic event in Armenian history that took place in 1915 and claimed the lives of almost 2 million Armenians -- a piece of history that goes unrecognized to this day by the Turkish government.
Let us come together in solidarity alongside noted U.S. politicians to show the world we will continue to remember and to honor the victims of the Armenian Genocide while advancing in our fight for global recognition.
The annual Armenian Genocide Commemoration in Times Square is sponsored by the Knights of Vartan and Daughters of Vartan, a national fraternal organization, and co-sponsored by the Armenian General Benevolent Union, Armenian Assembly of America, Armenian National Committee of America, Armenian Democratic Liberal Party, and the Armenian Council of America; participating organizations include the Diocese of the Armenian Church, Prelacy of the Armenian Church, Armenian Missionary Association of America, Armenian Missionary Association, Armenian Evangelical Union, Armenian Catholic Eparchy, and several national Armenian youth organizations.
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(3) For additional background information, please find these reference links.
The Armenian Genocide Museum - Institute
Armenian National Institute
Map of the 1915 Armenian Genocide in the Turkish Empire
http://greekcurrent.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Women's and children's links courtesy of Sanja Popovich.
http://armenianweekly.com/
http://womennewsnetwork.net/
http://thegreatcrime.weebly.com/
Washington Post Op-Ed by Chris Bohjalian "Be as brave as Kim Kardashian and the pope, Mr. President: Call the Armenian Genocide a ‘genocide.’" April 14, 2015. Mr. Bohjalian is the author of 18 books, including his novel of the Armenian Genocide, The Sandcastle Girls. (Kim Kardashian, her husband Kanye West, and their daughter North recently visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, Armenia. Ms. Kardashian is of Armenian descent.)
New Yorker article "A Century of Silence A family survives the Armenian genocide and its long aftermath" by Raffi Khatchadourian. January 5, 2015, issue.
The Young Turks’ Crime against Humanity:The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire by Taner Akçam
Professor Akçam was very courageous as he used 600 secret Ottoman documents in writing the book. He was jailed as a college student in Turkey and currently lives outside the country. I have added this book to my collection of works on genocide. Professor Akçam's courage is comparable to Croatian Priest Father Viktor Novak in publishing "Magnem Crimen" ("The Great Crime") in 1948 about Croatian clericalism from the late 19th century through WWII. Immediately after the book was published, the Vatican Curia placed this book on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (English: List of Prohibited Books) and pronounced anathema against the author.It is often said that pictures say a thousand words. This picture of soldiers finding skulls is very graphic and causes much anguish. Photo from the ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM INSTITUTES via AFP/Getty Images published in the Boston Globe.
Never Forget!
Tomislav S. Djurdjevich
April 24, 2015
New York, NY USA
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