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For Armenian Community, Time Doesn'T Heal A Genocide'S Wounds

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  • For Armenian Community, Time Doesn'T Heal A Genocide'S Wounds

    FOR ARMENIAN COMMUNITY, TIME DOESN'T HEAL A GENOCIDE'S WOUNDS
    Sid Reddy

    Daily Bruin
    http://www.dailybruin.com/articles/2010/4/30 /armenian-community-time-doesnt-heal-all-wounds/
    A pril 30 2010

    On a chilly Tuesday evening, UCLA alumna Soseh Keshishyan stood
    before a group gathered on the steps of Burbank City Hall and sang
    "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "Mer Hayrenik," the national anthem
    of the Republic of Armenia.

    She was followed by performers playing duduks, woodwind instruments
    native to the Caucasus region. Members of the crowd carried painted
    signs declaring, "We Will Never Forget, We Will Never Forgive," and,
    "Shame on Turkey."

    The group congregated in front of city hall to commemorate the
    95th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide with a proclamation and a
    candlelight vigil.

    The Meds Yeghern, or the Great Crime, which is the Armenian term for
    the genocide, began on April 24, 1915. On that day, prominent members
    of the Armenian community were arrested and deported from the city
    of Constantinople, now known as Istanbul.

    According to a University of Michigan website, the genocide began with
    the roundup of Armenians in the Ottoman army by the Young Turk party,
    a military officer movement in the Ottoman Empire. The army officers
    were placed into separate groups and killed. Then community leaders
    and intellectuals were forcefully removed from Constantinople. This
    is considered the start of the genocide. The Ottoman government then
    informed the general Armenian population that they would be relocated
    and marched them into the Syrian desert. There they were starved,
    tortured and killed by their guards.

    The majority of historians and scholars recognize that the forced
    marches and brutal conditions killed between one and one and a half
    million Armenians, according to a BBC article. The government of
    Turkey and some scholars, on the other hand, refuse to classify the
    events as a genocide and claim that the deaths were a part of the
    general civil unrest and upheaval during the war and the last days of
    the Ottoman Empire. They claim that, although these events occurred,
    they were not premeditated in nature, nor did they target the entire
    Christian-Armenian people.

    Whether the genocide occurred is not a historical issue but a
    political one, said Richard Hovannisian, UCLA professor of modern
    Armenian history.

    Over 20 countries and 43 states have passed bills acknowledging
    the genocide, according to the Armenian National Institute website,
    However, the United States has yet to officially label the murders
    as genocide.

    "Unfortunately, as long as we're in Iraq fighting and as long as
    NATO is sitting in Turkey, it is an uphill battle (for the Armenian
    community to have the genocide recognized)," said Armond Aghakhanian,
    a member of the Armenian National Committee Burbank chapter and
    chairman of its genocide committee.

    The border between Armenia and Turkey has remained closed since 1993,
    and attempts to normalize relations between the two nations have
    gone nowhere.

    "Based on politics, I don't think (the talks) will (restart diplomatic
    relations)," said Abraham Barsegyan, president of the Armenian Student
    Association of UCLA.

    "Many people in Armenia would want to open the border for trade with
    Turkey because it would result in more jobs and economic growth,"
    Barsegyan said. However, he added that it should not come at the cost
    of allowing Turkey to deny the genocide took place.

    The acceptance of the events is significant for members of the Armenian
    community because it allows for the education and possible prevention
    of such incidents in the future.

    "One and a half million lives were lost and we don't want them to
    be forgotten," Barsegyan said. "They must be remembered so that this
    never happens again."
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