Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day

Tomorrow is Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. It recognizes the day in 1915 that a couple hundred Armenian intellectuals were arrested in Constantinople and subsequently deported to remote concentration camps where most died or were murdered.

 

It was the opening act of a genocide that began with pogroms killing 100,000 Armenians a few years earlier, 17,000 in another. It was to continue at least until late 1916. There was followup murder, suffering and homelessness until the middle of the next decade.

 

It was an intentional act by the Turkish government, this murder of 1,500,000 innocent people. The documents still exist, housed and on display in the Armenian Genocide Museum in Yerevan. There is massive evidence of the genocide, with many photos and much contemporary testimony from distinguished and reliable witnesses. Popes and presidents have attested to the facts.

 

Not OUR presidents, though. Presidents of other countries. Lots of sympathy and promises from us (Obama and Trump, for example, but not just them) but no recognition of the genocide until 2021. Joe Biden finally officially recognized the Armenian Genocide for what it was. I am not a Biden supporter but give credit where it’s due. He promised and he delivered.

 

Genocide deniers are like Holocaust deniers. The truth offends them so much that they rail against it. I’ve seen it happen twice concerning the Armenian Genocide and once regarding the Holocaust. There is never enough proof for them, never enough testimony, never enough photos.

 

I’ve written about the Armenian Genocide before, in 2009, in 2010, and this, later in 2010: 

 

Sadly (and tellingly), I sometimes neglect to write an Armenian Genocide column on April 24.  I wrote one a bit earlier but that's no excuse.  Remember that one?  And the one I wrote last year?  And my brief mention on March 12?  The inevitable has happened, as it is wont to do (Ed Rendell's myopia notwithstanding).  The Turkey-Armenia talks have broken down because, to no one's surprise, the Turks won't discuss their massacre of 1,500,000 Armenians.

 

And so it goes.  All those little kids' skulls and tiny skeletons in the desert?  You can just forget about them.  Or you can try.  

 

There is plenty of shame to go around.