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Remembering The Catastrophic Events Of The Armenian Genocide; Annive

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  • Remembering The Catastrophic Events Of The Armenian Genocide; Annive

    REMEMBERING THE CATASTROPHIC EVENTS OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE; ANNIVERSARY IS APRIL 24
    By Olivia Kurajian Birmingham

    Naples Daily News
    http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/apr/23/no-headline---olivia_essay/
    April 23 2012

    Although I am only in high school, I have traveled all around the
    world and have lived in Colorado, Michigan and Florida.

    This summer, I am participating as a People to People Ambassador
    Program alumna, and I will be traveling to France, Austria, Switzerland
    and Italy.

    People to People, founded by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, promotes
    "peace through understanding."

    My love for travel and experience didn't start with People to
    People though. My thirst for knowledge originated with my paternal
    grandparents, Victoria and George Kurajian, now of Naples.

    My grandfather is my idol. He has told me stories of his childhood and
    his life as a professor at the University of Michigan. My quest for
    understanding other cultures and an in-depth knowledge of myself and my
    surroundings only begins with the stories I have heard from my family.

    Being of Armenian descent, I appreciate the struggles that Armenians
    have faced throughout the longevity of their existence as a people.

    I co-taught an elective in one of the honors programs at my high
    school on the gruesome topic of the Armenian genocide with my favorite
    teacher, Dawn Whitehead. I also received an honorable mention for the
    paper on the genocide that I crafted for the annual Armenian Genocide
    Essay Competition in Michigan.

    The Armenian genocide was not a random act. Bitter hatred paired with
    the lack of understanding of a people rich in culture and history
    led to the attempt to annihilate the Armenians. This mission of
    destruction was pursued by the Young Turkish government, influenced
    by the Hamidian massacres of the late 1880s, an attempt to exterminate
    the Armenians 20 years earlier.

    The Young Turks were in turmoil. Not only did the Ottoman Empire
    start and continue to crumble, but the government realized that the
    intellectual body of their state was held by Armenians. Who was to
    blame for the problems that the empire was facing? The Armenians,
    they said.

    April 24, 1915, marked the start of an unimaginable tragedy.

    Approximately 800 Armenian intellectuals, writers and leaders residing
    in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) were arrested by Turkish
    officers. Many of them were murdered.

    In addition, around 5,000 of the poorest of Armenians in Constantinople
    were butchered in the streets in front of their loved ones.

    Armenians continued to be murdered and slaughtered by members of
    the Young Turkish government until 1923. Hidden behind the first
    world war, the devastation continued. The war covered up the deaths
    of the Armenian people, but there was only so much the Young Turkish
    government could conceal before news leaked out. Several international
    governmental officials, including Henry Morgenthau Sr., U.S.

    ambassador to Turkey, recognized the atrocities taking place in the
    falling Ottoman Empire.

    Djemal, Enver and Talaat were the three heads of the mission to
    annihilate the Armenians. They succeeded in killing 1.5 million
    of them.

    They were found guilty of the crimes.

    Shouldn't the United States be found guilty too? Historians have
    recognized the truth for decades, and almost 100 years later, many
    states within the U.S. provide their recognition, but the federal
    government will not.

    The Turkish government continues to hold the United States hostage in
    many respects of acknowledging the massacres. Strategic military bases
    to fight the war in the Middle East hold the United States captive
    from admitting the truth - the truth that is waiting to be told.

    How long must the Armenians wait to be noticed and to be offered help?

    They watch as their churches dating back to the fourth century are
    demolished, along with some of their hope.

    Remember the horrifying acts perpetrated by the Young Turkish
    government and remember the lack of aid to fellow humans.

    As the years advance, the displayed bitter hatred seems less and less
    important. History is something that defines who we are, what we came
    from. To twist it, manipulate it and destroy evidence of it is doing
    an injustice to all of humanity.




    From: A. Papazian
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